When I heard that Frank Kozik was coming to We Can Create this year, I was there already. I collect Frank’s bunny inspired labbit and dunny toys and he is one of my design heroes. Geek out!
Frank Kozik was the grand finale for We Can Create and I was super stoked that he talked a lot about his toys. He even mentioned that his fans regularly sent him pictures of their toys on wedding cakes and in different scenarios.
Frank Kozik
Graphic artist, San Fransisco
Unlike many of the other speakers, Frank seems to enjoy designing for niche and an underground. With any successful artist, Frank questioned if people were collecting his early gig posters because they liked his work, or because people were collecting their favourite band’s poster – no matter what it looked like. After many years in the music industry Frank called it quits and went to Japan for a while. There, he was inspired by toys and revisited old friends like Hello Kitty. Toys are non-exclusive because of their multiple nature. Unlike artworks, many people can own a piece. The toys were popular and Frank found his niche. He knew that people were collecting his toys because they liked the designs and he was solely responsible for them.
Geek fact: Smokin Labbit was a typo. When the packages came back from the Chinese manufacturer, the name was spelled wrong but it sounded cool so it stuck.
“Show me a kid that doesn’t like toys and you’ve got a future serial killer”.
I’ve always been hesitant to get my art out there. What if the world doesn’t like it? But when Frank said:
“I just sit around and make weird stuff I like. If I like it, there might be enough other people that like it, for it to work”
It really hit home to me. You’ll always find people that don’t get your art. But what about the people out there that are just like you and that will love it?
Bunny Eats Design 