LookBack@2009 With Denis Debanne of LE LAB Toys
Continuing with our LookBack@2009 serial-feature, TOYSREVIL asked Denis Debanne of LE LAB Toys to list his TOP 9 Memorable happenings/events that transpired in the year of 2009, and the resulting choices truly chronicles an evolutionary path of realizing the dream of making toys, IMHO! Denis-adds: "2009 is definitely a very important year for me... It has been the launch of our company "LE LAB"." ~ CLICK THRU to journey along with Denis...
#1: THE PLAN
First of all, I started the year all excited about what we would do this year. Basically we had everything planned. A Playing Art mini prototype to show and 3 excellent and never seen before designs from talentuous artists… All we needed was money.
[CLICK for more details of PLAYING ART, Marcel & Jessica on TRE]
#2: A PIECE OF PAPER
In April, we registered as a company. It's just a piece of paper but it meant so much to us (Bee, my partner and I), that was the result of a long work… That meant that people trusted us with our project.
#3: MEETING STEPH COP
In June we met Steph Cop, at Le Lab we sincerely love this artist. We consider that he is part of the history of street art, urban fashion and toy design in France. We were really happy to know that he loved our project and that he wanted to work with us on a Playing Art… We're currently working on a book with him.
#4: LELAB-HQ
In September we moved to our office. That was for me the moment I could move all my toys and books I was keeping in boxes. That was also the moment we could finally work together with Bee in the same room after spending too much time on Skype (even if sometime we still chat though being in the same room).
#5: TOYS ARRIVE
There was also the time we received the finished toys in October. We had had lots of samples before and we already knew the shape and the designs... But seeing the toys in their box as the final product really moved me. the designs are very thorough, we managed to get exactly what we wanted. I realized that we had really achieved something big. The first sketches of the Playing Art are from 2006. I had this toy in mind for 3 years and it took us 2 whole years to work on Tizieu's Marcel and Jessica. Yes, receiving these boxes was really something big.
[Launch Event @ AUGUSTE / Blogged]
#6: TOYS LAUNCHED
And finally we were able to launch our toys, to show them to public… We had a big event at AUGUSTE gallery in Paris for that. We asked all the artists who worked with us to come for the evening. So everybody was there, ARO came from Germany, Tizieu from Normandy and Spasm One and LeJam took the metro to join us. There was a lot of nice customs, plenty of people and everybody seemed to enjoy the toys. The artists had fun painting the store windows, we had the opportunity to explain to people what that was all about, why toys fro grown ups and we even found a distributor… A really big night for us and for our lovers who were quite impressed.
[57 x images of Denis in HongKong & China / along with Marcel & Jessica!]
#7: HONG KONG ADVENTURE
We flew to Hong Kong in November to visit the factories. It was amazing to meet the people doing our toys. We went like from a showroom to another showroom. I was like a kid in toy store… I really think I'm done for this job ! ^^
More seriously, I'm amazed by the quality of the job they've realized. It's not always easy to work with so many kilometers between us and them but finally we managed to build a good relationship. There we worked on the fist samples of our Playing Art mini and on the designs of the first series (Tizieu, Spasm one, LeJam, Aro are still here, joined by Baader, CLBN, StenKat, Kate Moross and Tan-Ki)…
#8: MEETING ERIC & KENNY
While in Hong Kong we had the opportunity to meet Eric So and Kenny Wong… I am a big fan of them. I discovered the art toy with their work. Since then they've both reached an incredible level in all forms of art. Having the opportunity to chat with them about their sculptures, paintings, toys… was a great moment. They're really nice people, I hope I will visit them again soon.
#9: FAMILY
The 9th big moment for 2009 was spending the New-Year's eve with my wife and daughter in London... My 4-year old daughter was just so happy to dance at the "POP LIFE" exhibit at the Tate! ^^
[Additional Images via LeLab-Toys' blog]
Happy New year, best wishes to you and your family and long live TRE!
TRE: I first knew of Denis thru his crisp snaps of vinyl toys and collectibles, and have always admired his photography-skills, and toy-collection! And it was great to see him evolve to being a producer of toys, and currently a sponsor of the TOYSREVIL-blog! Thanks for the Support! And Bestest of Wishes to you and your loved ones for 2010, Denis!
[90 x images in slideshow above for Denis' "A Toy's Life" / CLICK for full-screen viewing]
