Sket One Interview
I had never heard of Sket One prior to buying my first Dunny. And even then, I thought his cutesy designs in Series 2 were suffering from a severe lack of badass. But then the disease started to set it. I fell in love with his “Operation” Munny, and couldn’t stop staring at the custom figures designed to look like food packaging. One afternoon I walked into Kid Robot New York and grabbed a Sket-bot just so I could spend some cash. One turned into three, and now I can’t stop talking about Sket. At this year’s New York Comic Con, Sket One took center stage at a both co-habitated with the creme de la creme of grafitti design. When he wasn’t doodling on sketch pads, he was chatting it up with his legion of fans. Life In A Bungalo hit the big man up with a few questions to find out what makes him tick.
What inspired you to merge vinyl toys with common household objects?
The product customs were done for many reasons. I love pop art objects from my past. I also work for a marketing agency so I am drilled the whole “branding” scheme every day. The message I tried to convey is, first off, cool stuff is designed every day by designers who take their time investigate and study design, design some more. The end result is something as simple as mustard and ketchup get picked up thrown in a basket and used (only later to be thrown out). So think about it: Someone designed that packaged. Maybe a team? Well I noticed it, do you?
I thought making these designer toys into packages we see on a daily basis was a good mash-up, and I plan on doing it more. It also makes a pretty funny statement about the state of designer toys at the moment: There is a lot to choose from now, so many companies and artists are now doing this “designer toy thing” and the market is “¦ like a super market.
As an elder statesman in the vinyl scene, have you seen a movement from collectors buying mass-produced figures to commissioning more custom work?
Wow you make me sound so posh (laughs). Yes, I think people do like customs better than production pieces, they are more personal and really are treated as a work of art a one of a kind.
What inspired you to make the custom NYPD Fatcap for the Paintball show? It seemed to be more of a cool homage, than the usual bash the pigs frame of mind that many NY graffiti kids have.
Well”¦.it was no homage, was more of being Ironic, I though about how many people were going to do graffiti influenced pieces and I figured well if we are going to have that why don’t I flip the script and make it Five Oh. NYPD plays such a vital role in graffiti whether it’s bad or good they are there part of the history.
Do you think the vinyl toy scene has opened toy collectors up to an art scene that they might not have originally known about?
Yes I do. I think people might discover a toy by an artist then start to realize this person is an artist first and foremost so the realize they like their style and start to get into prints and original pieces by that artist. I know people really haven’t heard of me before I started doing toys, so it’s definitely helped me.
