The Goo, The Bad, and The Ugly

As a way of welcoming my beautiful daughter, Caitlin, to the world, I decided to write a story on San Francisco-based apparel company GAMA-GO's latest line of baby clothing, GAMA-GOO. The piece ran in Los Angeles CityBeat on August 30th. Cate arrived on September 5th at 12:44 p.m. (7 pounds, 1 ounce; 19 inches). Hence the two week delay in my posting this article.

For this story, I interviewed two of GAMA-GO's co-founders, including Tim Biskup, the Southern California artist whose characters and designs are featured in both clothing lines. During the interview, Biskup said his original concept for GAMA-GO was to take Japanese imagery and filter it through mid-century modern design. He drew particular inspiration from the intriguing balance of ugliness and beauty inherent in Japanese vinyl toys.

Here's a taste:

[Biskup] was first introduced to Japanese vinyl toys while working at Cartoon Network from 2000 to 2002. "I walked into [Powerpuff Girls creator] Craig McCracken's office on day, and he had these two War of the Gargantuas toys," says Biskup. "They were the ugliest things, and they were just great."

To read the whole article, click here.

Photo courtesy GAMA-GOO.