Mike Davis and Kidrobot are releasing the Alphabet! zipper pull series very shortly. For this release were lucky enough to get an interview with the designer himself, Mike Davis. Enjoy!
Can you give our readers some background on yourself. What do you do, where are you from, boxers or briefs?
Hi. My name is Mike Davis. I grew up in Nashville TN, went to college in St. Louis where I studied graphic design and got really into graffiti and DJing. After a few years I moved to Minneapolis where I’ve been working with my fam at Burlesque of North America designing album packaging, concert posters, t-shirts, logos, and the occasional vinyl toy. I rocked boxers from like age 14 up until like a year ago and then switched to those boxer briefs.
Boxer Briefs are the best! So how did you come up with the idea for the alphabet zipper pulls coming out form Kidrobot?
My sister had a baby girl in the summer of 2007. I wanted to give her a really nice gift so I designed her an alphabet poster with each letter formed in the shape of a word starting with that letter - apple for A, burger for B, etc. I printed one just with the black outline and colored it in with crayons. Once I put a photo of it online, I had a lot of people asking me for a copy, so we (Burlesque) decided to do a screenprint run. The response to that has been incredible. I’m blown away that so many people have been so enthusiastic about the poster I thought my niece would get a kick out of. My buddy Chad (the Toy Baron) at Kidrobot saw the poster and approached me with the idea of doing vinyl toys based off of it. How was I gonna say no to that?
You have a lucky sister indeed. How is it working with the company Kidrobot?
I can’t really ask for a better group of people to work for / work with. I’m really happy for all of their success and can’t wait to do another project with them!
You released a design for Dunny Series 3. Do you have another Dunny design in the works?
I did indeed have a Dunny design in series 3. I’ve completed a few other designs and have some other ideas in the cooker, but there are no official plans for another Dunny release at the moment.
You’ll have to let us know when you do. Just for fun, what is your favorite vinyl figure, color, and videogame?
I wish I could come up with one single answer that would work for all three questions, but…
Vinyl figure: Sket’s King Kong Dunny or 123Klan’s Mini Rolito.
Color: Dark brown.
Video game: I’m in a Legend of Zelda mood right now.
Thank you to Mike for the interview! The Alphabet! blind box series will be released April 23rd and cost $4.95 each. Visit Mike’s website to see more of his drool worthy designs.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Nice interview, hun!
Lol I’m in the “Legend of Zelda mood” right now, too.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Thanks! He is a very cool guy!
March 12th, 2009 at 11:18 am
But WHICH Legend of Legend of Zelda?! The world may never know…