Dear Monica Calvo,
Techmag is glad to interview you. We are looking forward to your kind cooperation, and we value and cherish your comments and suggestions. Please take some time to complete this questionnaire and return it to us. Thank you in advance and your opinion counts!
1. Please introduce yourself to the Chinese readers.
I’m a Spanish illustrator, part and owner of a design studio called Organicfields. I special like children illustration, and I have a huge collection of children tales.
2. Please tell us your story with TOY2R, and your comments on TOY2R’s platform toy QEE.
I decided to look for someone to help me bringing to life some of my illustrations. I started writing everyone and Toy2R were so kind to take interest in my project, and make it also their project. At first I thought of creating some figures for them, but they thought it would be nice to have some of the illustration I had into figures, so there is where we started!
3. Is “artist toy” a proper word to describe the fresh toy wave?
Yes, I think it is a perfect concept to describe it. In Spain this kind of toys are coming very slowly, there is a traditional though that toys are for kids, not for adults to collect them as pieces of art, but that is changing!
4. We known that you’re a famous poster illustrator, why would you think of creating a toy?
I think toys are a wonderful way to give your emotions a different perspective that illustrations. Something you can take with you anywhere, play with them, and rotate them! That is something you can not do with a drawing, it is taking the illustration to a different level.
5. You come from Madrid, so will you be affected by the traditional art style of Spanish when creating your own works?
No, I don’t think so, I think that nowadays, with the internet, we can be easily affected by the art from all the countries. I love the simplicity of some oriental artist, the color of the European artists, and the magic of the last century illustration.
6. Why do you particular interesting in children’s fairy tales? Is that related to your childhood experience?
I’m not interested in fairy tales in particulars, what I like is books illustrated in a different way, not the common drawings, but something special, something that when I open them make me fall in love with the illustrations, and if the story is nice also, that will make the book a jewel for me. I have always, from my childhood, consider that books are the best present I can get.
7. Are there any stories you want to express through in your works and toy? Would you mind sharing with us?
No, I prefer that people have their own experience when looking at my artwork, not all of them have stories behind, so it is wonderful to know that people thinks farther beyond the illustration and think of a story for the characters.
8. As a female designer, what do think about the difference of your style compare to others male designers?
I don’t think that women and men work different. When a client comes with a project, you have to give them what it is best for the product, not thinking if you are a woman or a man. Some male designer think that woman drawings are “cutter” but I don’t think that is my case.
9. What is the indispensable element of your works?
I usually draw the lines with pencil in a paper and the color them in the computer, so I guess that it and the scanner would be indispensable for me.
10. How does your toy narrate its background story?
In the case of Luna and the stellar Cat”, the story was made many years after the illustration. When I draw her I was sure she was the moon that had became a little girl, but it was when Toy2R decided that she was going to be the first figure to come alive when I finished the whole story.
11. Which is the common way for you to draw the sketch, manual or digital?
I few years ago I used to draw everything directly in the computer, but where we started to work with clients, they wanted to see sketches in paper, so I had to improve my hand with the pencil :) Now I always use it.
12. Who is the artist that influences you most?
It would be very unfair to name one or two, I love the art of hundreds of illustrators, and I think they all have some little part of them that influence me.
13. Do you collect toys? And who is your favorite toy artist?
Yes, I have some toys by Nathan Jurevicius and Tim Burton, but I love all the merchandising that Studio Ghibli manufacture. They are my favorites, no doubt.
14. What about your future planning about ugly doll?
I’m not sure what you mean, I don’t have any future plans with Ugly Doll, although I would love it! I adore their little creatures.
15. Have you visited China so far? What come into your mind when you hear the word “China”?
When I hear the word China all my emotions come to the limit. That trip, when it happens, will be definetely the trip of my life.
16. Please give your advice to the growing Chinese toy collectors and designers?
Just to put and the illusion on the toys, this is wonderful world that we have the chance to take part into, and the more illusion we put on them, the better the result will be.
Your early reply will be highly appreciated by TechMag and your fans.
Thank you for taking interest in my work!
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Interview for the Chinesse magazine TECHMAG.
