The Toy King - 2011

The Designer Toy Awards celebrates the creativity, innovation and artistic excellence in the Art Toy market, which after more than a decade has not only become a prominent and legitimate form of artistic and commercial expression, it is one of the leaders in global trendsetting. This award ceremony will celebrate the best of the industry’s artists, designers, customizers and manufacturers, as well as honoring those involved in championing Art Toys throughout the world. The awards will have two components. First, a carefully selected board of professional artists, producers and impresarios will choose a group of nominations from the many designs released over the past year. And secondly, there are an entire group of awards chosen by YOU! Yes thats right, The DTA PUBLIC awards feature special categories that are open to the general public for popular voting. Pete Fowler (born 1969 in Cardiff) is a Welsh artist best known for his artwork for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster creator" inspired by Japanese art, folklore, myths, psychedelia and super nature. He has also done a number of other projects in the UK and Japan, such as television advertisements (Kia Picanto), as well as having art exhibitions all over the world. Fowler works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, animation, and sculpture. Fowler's art is done in a postmodern cartoon style. His work revolves around a central narrative and features a recurring set of characters. The "monsters" Fowler creates all reside on "Monsterism Island". Fowler invents extensive back-stories for his characters; each has its own specific traits and levels of "monsterism". Fowler is most known for his designer toys of his characters, which he himself manufactures with his own company. A CD called The Sounds of Monsterism Island was released in 2005 by Heavenly Records. According to the press release, "The record is a compilation album that works as a soundtrack to the world of Monsterism...The album features psychedelic music from the '60s through to today, much of it unearthed and Cherry Vinyl is comprised of a small team of international dreamers with a huge passion for art, fun and all things awesome. Our roots and resources span the globe: from the beaches of LA, through the sunny Sonoran Desert of Arizona, over to the busy streets of the Big Apple, across the oceans to Europe and landing in the heart of Japan. By combining our existing strengths in artist outreach, sculpting, design, the highly detailed Japanese manufacturing & painting processes,creative and passionate marketing, and close customer contact Lulubell-Toy Bodega and Pretty In Plastic Inc. join forces to form “Cherry Vinyl”, an innovative joint creative entity with a focus on artist designed vinyl in a sofubi medium. We intend to take all the best ingredients that exist in the vinyl world today, add a big scoop of innovation, stir in a ton of whimsy and fun, and what we will hand back to the vinyl community will be decadent creations for them to sink their teeth into, savor, and most of all enjoy! Co-owner of Clutter & Five Points Fest. Artist, collector and lover of shiney things.