Month: July 2025
Box-fresh: Toy Shop Boy is now in stock.
Toy Shop Boy thrives on nostalgia. He mines the bright, optimistic static of consumer culture – old packaging, toy catalogues and forgotten ads.
Keitai flip phones, a solved Rubik’s Cube, that dusty ’02 Nintendo mag: these often discarded artefacts become essential. He describes his art as a “virtual toy shop” built from these pieces.
A personal shift during the pandemic led Toy Shop Boy back to a childhood obsession: toys, and the pure joy they sparked. Today, he researches and revives theseobjects. He still collects relentlessly – pouring over every inch of packaging.
Toy Shop Boy’s work surfs the same wave as upcycled fashion, 90s-inspired music videos and grainy old iPhone pics – an urge to rewind and recover our past selves.
His personal projects, like the old-school animated ad series are awash with sepia-tinged nostalgia, from pink pocket phones to concept motorcycles.
He’s currently adding legendary brands to his collection: from Game Boy-inspired Hash Browns for McDonald’s to sneakerhead unboxings for BAPE.
Now, with The Different Folk, he’s set to take his virtual toy shop global. Or should we say: to infinity and beyond!
Simple, silly and sleepy characters, soaked in music and sound loops – that’s how Juan R Lage describes his world.
Soaked is the right word: his signature soft grain feels like encountering a mirage, emerging from the heat.
Childhood cartoons fuel Juan’s world: from Rocko’s Modern Life to Hello Kitty and the Teletubbies. You can trace this playfulness in his process: hand-drawings which bloom into dizzying rhythms. 90s nostalgia meets late-night TV shows meets heat-hazed highways, in an “exploration of movement’s plasticity.”
Layered with appreciation for Argentine cartoonists like Quino and Caloi, Juan’s work also draws from what he calls the “aesthetics of failure” – from old car washes to bands that never made it. Building on his work for major names like Spotify and K-Pop supergroup Red Velvet, Juan’s first project with us sees his dreamy textures illuminate the world of Kenzo.
Tune into Juan’s work here
Stephan Dybus find the funny in the melancholy.
Stephan blends acrylic painting, plasticine sculpting and digital art to create oddball figures who stumble through hyperreal worlds with a humming clumsiness.
It’s his miniature theatre, staging a sharp blend of black comedy meets slapstick.
After graduating from art university with what he calls “sad little black and white paintings,” Stephan shifted direction, asking himself: why not communicate life’s complexities with humour? He soon began creating layered watercolour illustrations, before turning to Blender to hone his skills in 3D.
By subjecting his characters to the messy, real-world laws of physics, Stephan’s focus on lifelike movement turns a mirror on our own flaws. But the goal isn’t just realism – it’s to “make people chuckle.” No wonder his dream is to build a theme park with his world of characters. Our advice? Strap in for the ride.
Tumble through Stephan’s work here.
The Art of Embracing Error: Creating with Intuition in an Uncertain World
Maxime finds magic in mistakes.
Where the world prizes polish, he leans into the wonky, the wobbly, the wonderfully offbeat. A paint splatter, a glitch, the moment your pen slips — for Maxime, these aren’t accidents. They’re invitations.
Raised in a place where unpredictability is part of everyday life, Maxime has learned to welcome uncertainty like an old friend. His creative practice is less about clean lines, more about trusting the chaos. He doesn’t edit out the mess, he builds from it.
Over time, Maxime has come to see intuition as a kind of compass. One that doesn’t always point north, but always points true. His work pulses with human touch, raw, emotional, unexpected and shaped by improvisation as much as intention.
With The Different Folk, Maxime shares his philosophy with a wider world — a world ready to break the rules, loosen its grip, and see what happens when we let the imperfect lead.