BU x Shawnimals Q & A
Presenting our latest Q & A with Shawnimals! Q & A is an ongoing series of interviews/questionnaires with select brands, stores and individuals. If you would like to see a particular feature or would like to feature, please contact us!
BU: Who or what does Shawnimals represent?
Shawn: At its core, Shawnimals is the characters and the world that are representations of all my creative parts. Video games, movies, comics, toys, etc. from my past all inform and inspire and become what Shawnimals is today. Shawnimals as a company is myself, my wife Jen and a handful of part-time workers.
BU: What was the main idea behind Shawnimals?
S: An act of selflessness against a very evil being not only tipped the balance of good vs evil in Shawnimaland in favor of good, it also helped create the very first Shawnimal.
BU: Why, when and where did it all begin?
S: As a company, it all began in my apartment in the middle of Illinois. A town called Normal, believe it not. It was after I quite my job as an editor at Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine, when I went back to college to study painting. I met my wife Jen, and I started making stuffed animals from misshapen characters from my sketchbook. That was back in 2001, and then it really wasn't until 2002 that the company formed. It's one of those things where it just made sense to make stuffed things from my drawings, since at the time I was tired of just drawing and painting things.
BU: Will Shawnimals be sticking to what they know or branching out into other areas?
S: We have many seeds planted, so expect lots of branching. Vinyls, of course, but other toys, other merchandise, and other very fun, interactive things that we can't yet speak about.
BU: What else does the future hold for Shawnimals?
S: We hope a lot. The biggest thing is the move from doing everything in-house, to having some of our line manufactured. We're happy that we'll still be producing limited edition lines in-house, but higher production characters (like the pocket ninja and so on) will be made in a factory. We're excited because it will actually allow us to be designers again, instead of manufacturers.
BU: Who is your target audience?
S: It's a pretty wide range these days, but I'd say our core audience is predominantly female late teens / early 20s, but it expands beyond that, too, and often includes males, and, of course, kids. We're unique in that designer toy collectors dig what we do, but also some mainstream folks like our stuff because it's cute, and weird, and plush.
BU: What word or phrase sums Shawnimals up best?
S: Cute enough to be lovable, weird enough to be unique
BU: What has been Shawnimals' biggest achievement?
S: Allowing our business and creative path to evolve naturally. We started a while back, with literally nothing, and slowly but surely grow into what we are. No large sums of capital, no secret trust fund, and no hook ups into the toy industry from mom and pops. Just hard work, learning from mistakes, and trying to stay afloat the whole time. Now with write ups in Entertainment Weekly, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, ELLEgirl, Seventeen.com and many, many others, I feel like we're at a really good point right now. We have a lot more to do, but we're very happy.
BU: Who or what are Shawnimals biggest influences?
S: This is also a tough questions, because some are so obvious and others are somewhere deep in the recesses of our minds. I have a ton of respect for Dehara, Bwana Spoons, Devilrobots, Little Friends of Printmaking and many others. Generally though, it's trying to create a character that has some sort of twist. Like it's not just cute for the sake of being cute. There's some sort of neurosis, or some oddball thing about it. Like it might be cute, but it's got a moustache, or it might be throwing up, or it be ugly, but in that way it's pathetic and you want to take care of it.
BU: and finally... what makes Shawnimals stand out from the crowd?
S:This is tough, too. I mean, as a creative person I want to leave the analysis to the critics and the people who are looking and buying our stuff. I'd like to think it's the odd balance we create between familiarity and weirdness. Like our Ninja. It's simple and direct, but there's something to it that people continue to love. Our Moustachio character. There's a lot of moustache stuff out there, but not like ours... a moustache with a moustache. Ultimately, it's up to people to figure it out though I suppose.
Thanks to Shawn of Shawnimals for his help with the Q & A.
