After I read about aerosol artist East 3’s limited edition vinyl figure for Kidrobot in the Sunday Advertiser article, I immediate thought, “That’s cool!” Then I wondered, how do you go about designing something like that?

Of course it helps if you partner with the largest producer and retailer of collectible toys, which is what East 3 did.

Having just returned from the New York store’s Grand Opening and toy release party in (see an interview with him in the video below at around 3:56 and photos on the events page at Kidrobot), he filled me in on how it happened.

[vimeo 1006083]

On meeting Kidrobot…

The Kidrobot project came about through networking. A good friend/artist TNES (org. from Hawaii but currently in Las Vegas) gave me the contact. I reached out and had a really good response. This happened last year in May prior to the Rock Steady Crew 30th Anniversary held in NYC every year. I do all of the crews art and designs.

On the process…

The process took about 5-6 months total. I had creative control and the Kidrobot staff was very helpful in working with me to ensure accuracy. The creative process started by me sending Kidrobot several characters that I had created. I told them I was interested in using the spraycan character aka E3 Mugsy. I had alot of creative control (from colorways, sculpting adjustments and box design).

Why Mugsy?

The E3 Mugsy comes from a character based off the artwork I created for the Rock Steady Crew (RSC) 20th Anniversary. I thought it was a good concept being that last years was RSC’s 30th Anniversary. For those of you who dont know, RSC is a legendary Urban Dance/Hip Hop crew (specializing in traditional forms of Hip Hop dance — Breaking, Popping, Locking) that started in the Bronx NYC in 1977 and has been going strong ever since.

An artist his entire life, East 3 lists an impressive resume including commissions from major corporations and serves as head designer for Anomalies clothing. His goal is to create a wider market for creative minded people in Hawai’i after seeing so many talented ones leave the islands and hopes to make people aware that Hip Hop culture is not to be associated with gangs and criminal activity.

Quite an achievement already, don’t you think?

Note: Get your own Mugsy at Split Obsession in Hawai’i Kai or online at Kidrobot.

Tags: aeorosol, anomalies, collectible, east 3, figurine, graffiti, hawaii kai, hip hop, kidrobot, mugsy, rock steady crew, split obsession, streetwear, urban, vinyl toys

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.