Over ten years ago, Paul Frank began sewing custom wallets as gifts for his friends. He adorned these wallets with a monkey named Julius. Born out of his love of collecting sock monkeys in honor of his grandmother who had loved and collected them, Frank’s Julius became a very popular character.
Frank’s signature style has always been unique and recognizable. In recent years, Paul Frank has been creating new characters and accessories. He also regularly participates in group and solo art shows using his original Naugahyde vinyl to create soft sculptures, which are 3D renderings of his characters.
Quotation from http://parklafun.com/about/
Paul Frank is an American designer. I chose to profile him for my project because he is the epitome of how illustrative design can branch out into different sectors and be hugely successful. He is most well known for 'Julius the Monkey' - based off a sock puppet monkey.
My ideas about color and composition formed at art school. I went to Orange Coast College in Huntington Beach, Calif., and took drawing and sculpting and became good at freehand drawing, drafting, and sewing. I never really set out to be a fashion designer. But I did like to make my own versions of things.Paul Frank experimented with many different mediums of creativity, from sculpture to drawing and fashion design. Because he did not limit himself to one specialty, he was able to marry the things he had learned on his college course into a successful brand and product line.
One time, I wanted orange vinyl stripes on my sneakers. You couldn't find that in stores yet. I could only find it at this boating supply store. So I had a huge quantity on my hands. Instead of using it for little stripes on my shoes I started making wallets, sewing them up in my room at home. I gave a few to friends, and then everyone wanted one.I realized I could start selling this stuff. Ryan said, Why don't you? His dad discouraged us -- that was okay. Ryan went and borrowed money from his stepmom, $5,000. That's all we started with.
Quotation from http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050801/qa.html
With skill and determination, you can start off with a small project and turn it into a business. How Paul Frank came to his success, such as serendipity and filling a perceived design gap, shows that even the smallest of audiences and start-ups can turn big. Through Paul Frank it gives me inspiration to experiment more between different creative fields, as well as to push my own designs and drawings; for example, how would I turn them into product ideas? For the projections of my project, researching into this designer helped immensely.
Quotation from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Frank
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