OUGD601 - Research - KAWS

KAWS by
M. Ramírez-Montagut


Ramírez-Montagut, M. (2010). KAWS. New York: Skira Rizzoli.


Notes:

- Brooklyn based designer Brian Donnelly a.k.a KAWS, has created an astute and prolific body of work
- His vast output includes grafitti writings, street art, graphic, product designs including limited to editions and streetwear fashion, drawings and sculptures
- KAWS has a solid record of collaborations with American and Japanese artists such as Pushead and Hajime Sorayama
 > with US companies including Kiehl's, The Simpsons Movie, Nike, Supreme, BAPE and CDG
- KAWS first aesthetic influenced by skateboarding
- very keen graff artist from a young age
- Earned attention through graphical designs painted on trains, walls and billboards
- Grew up in Manhattan & Brooklyn
- Studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts
- "when I first started painting over billboards I was just doing letter pieces like 'KAWS', the way I would do on a wall"
 > then her started to incorporate it into the advertisment
- In 1995 KAWS collaborated with lcal streetwear label Subware
- STASH, FUTURA and Gerb founded GFS: the first label to incorporate the bold graphic elements of graff into T-shirts etc
- "that is when i did my first T-shirt and it was a painting that I did in college. It was like a statue of liberty with a spray can, and after that we did a second shirt with just my skull and crossbones"
- During his years working at Disney as an illustrator, KAWS developed his signature design of a soft and somewhat inflated skull with crossed bones and crossed-out eyes
- During his 1996-99 poster interventions, KAWS has a preference for GUESS and Calvin Klein imagery
- In 1997, KAWS took his first trip to Japan by trading one of his oil paintings for a flight and somewhere to stay
- Once there, he got in contact with a friend of STASH, Yoppi (Yoshifumi Egawa) who ran the label 'realmadHECTIC'
 > KAWS also met Tomoaki Nagao (Nigo) founder of BAPE and Shinsuke Takizawa, founder of Neighbourhood
- All these designers has the power to influence youth culture

Proper introduction to the Fashion World...

- In 1998 HECTIC opened a new shop which had been painted by KAWS, he also designed the invitation for the opening
- HECTIC offered to produce KAWS's first toy edition, fabricated by Bounty Hunter
 > released in 1999 and featured a skinny legged Mickey Mouse body with the signature KAWS head
- In 1999, KAWS was also invited to show his work at Colette, a concept store in Paris famous for presenting new trends in fashion and culture
- That same year, he did a collection for the brand Undercover created by Jun Takahashi a.k.a Jonio
 > this was his first collaboration with a couture brand
- KAWS provided them with original artwork that they then made into patterns for their new line
- The patterns appeared on children's clothes, sneakers, PJs, T shirts and jackets

- Nigo, had seen his BAPE become the most popular street fashion in Japan
- Well known for high-end, meticulous and luxurious apparel with a strong take on hip-hop aesthetics
- His clothes also feature a Japanese cartoon component and offer a unique, modern and playful lifestyle option to his younger customers.
- For the 2001 Tokyo exhibition, KAWS designed a small BAPE head pillow, and Nigo took an interestin his work from that point on.
- Nigo and KAWS collaborated on three collections in 2005 and 2006 for A Bathing Ape
- This was the first time KAWS had invested in and acknowledged the intersection of the patterns he was creating - from which the garments were made - with the fabric, the finishing details and the relevance of the venue
- His goal for the collaboration was that he wanted to reach out to people "not just on the wall, but when they're sitting on the train or just living with stuff"
- He would go on to reach out in this fashion through numerous apparel products including the Chompers baseball jacket, hoodies and sneakers.

- "Keith Harring for me was a pivotal influence, because he was somebody involved in the art world, that wasn't removed or out of reach. With his 'Pop Shop' he made patches and T-shirts and sold them as well as large-scale paintings and sculptures. I thought that it was great there was somebody doing these two things simultaneously. It almost seems like a natrual thing these days to be an artist and make products"

- "I treat T-shirts like a sketchbook. I mean, they are finished, definitely, but a lot of it is just me losing my mind in my studio, sort of. They are free sketches because sometimes they can take me an hour or a couple of days"

-"My work intertwines seamlessly from a jacket to a skateboard to a canvas... I feel it's all just one big ball"