We were lucky enough to snag a spot at the sold out CreativeMorningsshow at this month’s partner, The Art Institute of Chicago in the Modern Wing to learn about the peculiar and fascinating life of Shawn Smith and Shawnimals.
First off, CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series of creative types. The Chicago chapter of this international event is run by Mig Reyes of 37Signals and was attended by 115 small business owners, designers, artists, design agency and startup types. Spoiler Alert: CreativeMornings is also in the process of hosting next month’s meeting at Doejo.
Local character design studio, Shawnimals has been producing designer toys, lifestyle accessories, video games, apparel, etc., with a passion for creating lovable characters for its devoted fan base. Shawnimals founder and create director, Shawn Smith—a friendly bearded fella who describes his job essentially as making ninjas for a living—talked about who Shawnimals is as a company, their aesthetics and how the small design studio runs.
This is what we learned from Shawn Smith from Shawnimals.
They’re an infusion of art and commerce: “We want to make products that are design-conscious and artful,” Shawn said, but they’re also making products that sell to sustain the business, obviously. After the Nintendo DS release of “Ninja Town,” the Shawnimals site went from 500 to 10,000-20,000 unique visitors. They also currently have an iOS/ Android game app called “Ninjatown: Trees of Doom!” and the free “Ninjatown Ninja Builder.”
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