The Orange Zest: 64 Colors

A few weeks ago I introduced you to a lovable little guy named Marshall who was just unveiled earlier this month at Wondercon 2009. Chicago's Rotofugi and Squibbles Ink are teaming up to bring to life the concept of the design team at 64 Colors. The concept and appearance of Marshall, much like other 64 Colors designs, was so clean, nostalgic, and enjoyable that it was only a matter of time before he was produced.

Following the process over the last few months I became curious as to how long 64 Colors worked on Marshall and what the production process was like. So I reached out to Eric of 64 Colors to find out the details and to see what is next for Marshall.

Orange Alert (OA): Where did the idea for Marshall come from and how long did you work on Marshall before he was produced for sale?
64 Colors (64): Marshall started out as a sketch. We do a lot of character art in our illustrations and are always scribbling away in our sketchbooks. Never leave home without them as a rule. We were messing around one day and sketched a Marshmallow holding a roasting fork with an expired and toasted marshmallow on the end—a little wisp of smoke floating off the top of his noggin. It just happened... strange. We liked how Marshall looked, iconic, vulnerable, a bit edgy what with the nipples, roasting and eating marshmallows. The story is he ate so many marshmallows, he turned into one.

The next thing we decided to do was to have a letter press print made by a company in California called Letter Pressed (owned by Mark Begley). That was in December of 2007. Forward to late January 2008 and now we have 100 letter press prints for sale on our web site. The prints sold quickly... Rotofugi bought some too! Then, things got interesting.

As far as the toy hitting the market, it took a little over a year from the sculpt (by Joe Somers-Squibbles Ink) to releasing “Vintage Marshall” at Wondercon in late February 2009 along with showing 16 of the 19 blind box Marshalls that will release this spring 2009. I would say that's pretty quick from sketch to finished toy... amazing!

OA: How did you get involved with Squibbles INK and Rotofugi? What has the partnership been like so far?
64: We have been fans of Rotofugi since it first opened and have a lot of toys from them so we knew who they were. After Rotofugi bought the print, we asked them how to go about getting a toy made and things evolved from that conversation. Next thing you know, they asked if we would be interested in them producing Marshall. That was an exciting moment!

The partnership has been great! Both Rotofugi and Squibbles are very supportive and thoughtful. We're extremely fortunate to be working with them!

OA: Marshall seems like such a lovable character, what's next? Animation?
64: Marshall is a very friendly, gregarious soul. He is a very simple, clean design in keeping with characters produced in Japan and China. The graphics are very simple on purpose as we like things that are minimal.

As for what's next, we have a complete story line that tells the tale of how Marshall came to be. We are interested in animation and maybe a video game as that seems like a natural progression for Marshall. If you know anyone in animation or games, let them know we're ready to pitch! ;)

OA: What's next for 64 Colors?
64: More Marshall product is in the works. T-shirts and zipper pulls for this summer. A show at Rotofugi's gallery in August. Some custom toy shows coming up. Additional toy characters (Marshall's friends) and product designs are in various stages of development.

For more on Marshall and all other the other creative projects from 64 Colors please visit their website and to order Marshall for your collection visit Rotofugi.