Step Right Up & Step Right Into The Controlled Chaos World of Jim Koch

TOYSREVIL ARTIST FEATURE:

/// STEP INTO THE CONTROLLED CHAOS WORLD OF JIM KOCH HERE

TOYSREVIL: first, do share with us - Who Is Jim Koch?

JIM KOCH: I am an Artist from the great Northwest, In Washington state. I am 41 yrs old and love BMX, Girls and fast Hot rods. I’am a loose cannon, high strung and out of control. I have been doing commercial design for 20 or so years i guess -since highschool, which was about 1984 i think -eeek!. I do design work fulltime. My current clients/projects are, some Kid Rock/Made in Detroit tour merchandise. I’m doing a few Speed show event posters for this spring/summer. Vanilla Ice wants some new album art and i just finished a cool over-the-ears headphone signature package. With all that on my pIate, i am juggeling a few custom toy designs for my online store and I just finished a cool Mega-TREXI re-birth for PI. OH, and i have a lovely girlfriend i must entertain.

TOYSREVIL: sweet. a man of many talents and abilities! (and ya gots me @ "Mega-Trexi-rebirth" - hhhmmm)... artist or designer? which one comes first? or is it all melded into one concentrated being? i see graphics, packaging, toy design, auto work, fashion listed in your history (you had me at "Vampire Lesbos" LOL)

JIM KOCH: I say both because, half of my day i am painting, being an artist. The other half i am doing business in design and chasing money, doing e-mails and making deals.  


TOYSREVIL: tis a wonder how much you can juggle and attend to in a day, dude ... on being an artist: self-taught or DNA ingrained? do you think art schools help/ed?

JIM KOCH: I am self-taught, i guess. I had always been drawing and painting since i was a lad. I was always getting in to trouble in school for doodling. I attended a jr. art school, which was silly mostly. After High School, I attended the Art Inst. in Seattle around 1987 for two years - no computers then. I had some great teachers with illustration and cartooning and lettering courses, cool stuff.

Computers came to me in ’89 for commercial design mostly. Ad design and text layout. School did help a bit, but i had learned more working in the hell of it all, and getting my fingers dirty. I always keep a sketch book - Rule number one.


TOYSREVIL: what & who are your inspirations and influences? and how do they affect your work? and your creations? have they remained the same? or evolved as time went by?

JIM KOCH: My inspirations and influences? hmmmm - long pause. How about, Robert Williams, he just rocks the ART world. Miq Wilmott, good pal and takes wicked graphic design to another level. Trosley, he’s an old timer cartoonist from the CARtoon magazines from the 70’s. Red Skeleton, paints clowns -and i love ho-bo clowns. They mosty influence me on illustrations skills and tech. But it is a revolving door with my day -to- day influences. It could be the smell of Co-Co Puffs cereal or the newest toy by Crayola, or the brutal sounds of Alaskan Black METAL. Hehehe.

TOYSREVIL: and living out your inspirations = cool. if you could describe your "style", what would it be? and what (do you think / or know) what folks reactions are to it?

JIM KOCH: Controlled Chaos, i guess - hehee.. I like to take things a bit over the top. I have my peers to impress. I need to show people, it takes more than a couple hours to do something fantastic. I like to show energy, layers and detail and that takes time and patients.  - I try ~ hehe.


TOYSREVIL: dude, your "controlled chaos" is popping! the vivd imagery is haunting and takes a life it's own, burrowing into one's inner psyche, a macabre carnival that dwells within everyone muahahaha - IMHO, of coz :) ... and when it comes to toys, do you prefer to design your own, or customize others?

JIM KOCH: I love designing my own toys for sure! I’ve only done a couple and looks to be more in the future. Designing Toys is a very diffucult proccess, but fun & most challenging. You have to do many varied turns of an object that does not exsist. Put it into 3-d. From my imagination to paper, then to the computer. But i love the end result, it’s just awesome. I dig doing cool packaging to go along with the product. Always over the top. 

JIM KOCH: For a toy design to go into production, it truly takes a couple years now. Many people are doing toys and figures, so to find time with a quality factory is real tough. You must dive hard into it for the long haul and do things with a plan. Production, marketing, pre-sales, bla, bla, it all takes time and a huge effort. You need to know in your gut; Is it realistic to produce, will people like it? But always have fun with it.

TOYSREVIL: i would imagine the process of creation is satisfying (which i long to experience dammit LOL) and at the same time the results unpredictable, i reckon (but i wouldn't really know for fact meself :p) ... how do you approach a custom? what is your process?

JIM KOCH: For a custom, I just do it and it evolves into this character and or into something familar people would understand and enjoy. Some times i paint a toy/figure 2 or 3 times fully before it comes to the finished product most people see. It takes time to make it fun and interesting. I dig painting and customizing any toy or object. I am doing a super-sized Geisha Octopus, and a few Teddy Troops for a client right now. The Jamungo Buds and Qee shape’s are coolest. Raymond has been doing great quality blanks with Toy2R, plus he’s a cool dude.


TOYSREVIL: coolio. any fav/preferred mediums? anything you've not tried before but want to (in the near future?)

JIM KOCH: I love painting on Vinyl and wood. Acrylics take well to those surfaces.I’d like to get into fiberglass and carbon fiber, even more metal work. I want to do some BIG stuff.  


[Jim Koch with a 36" Qee for TOYSKILL]
TOYSREVIL: big is the way to go, in the future, IMHO! any particular product/item/thing/toy you are dying to have a go at customizing, but have not had the chance yet?

JIM KOCH: I love the Jamungo stuff. I want a Sqube real bad. OH - and a Huge Bunny QEE.

TOYSREVIL: dude, i wanna see you work on a 70-incher! any customizing/painting music you tune in, when you work? *mood music*

JIM KOCH: METAL & PUNK, anything really. - NO HONKY TONK! 

TOYSREVIL: LOL - and if your life were a soundtrack, what would it be?

JIM KOCH: Something like the Natural Born Killers movie soundtrack -- All out rampage! My studio compilation sounds something like this. Dublin Death Patrol, Def Tones, LED ZEP, Janes Addiction, the Hellacopters, SocialD, a dash of Rancid and a sprinkle with some new hell-bent Ministry!!  

TOYSREVIL: heavy tunnage motivation - rawk on! from the corporate toil to self-made entity, how has the journey been, to be where you are right now?

JIM KOCH: Crazy as F@%$! Hard to handle at times, i think i need an agent, hehe aha - But i’m a mover and a shaker. And i want to take things world wide. Luckly i am self motivated, and i have a supportive family and friends.  

TOYSREVIL: dude, support is one of the more important aspects of this culture that seems underappreciated, IMHO ... besides designing and customizing toys, do you collect toys yourself? and what do you collect? what have you collected that you've chucked away? and what is the secret thing that you collect? ~(That no one knows about LOL).

JIM KOCH: I collect lots of funky stuff. I like vintage advertisiing characters in vinyl, vintage carnival items, i dig old school Rat Fink & Hot rod stuff.  I have weird vintage magazines, clown stuff, skulls, metal lunch boxes, vintage bmx bikes. Stickers and lots of new designer toys. My secret collection would be my many Fez lodge Hats!  ..Heheheh~LOL.


TOYSREVIL: and the truth is revealed! LOL ... with being a part of and being heavily involved in, what do you think of the "scene" in the current toy-culture? a newfound freedom of individual expression? or invisibly bound by the coil of commercialism?

JIM KOCH: Freedom of individual expression. YES!  I love the Designer Toy scene. I really love looking at all the forums and searching new customs and toy drops. I love art bottom line. And I love the Comic Con. I’m having alot of fun with all this hype we all love with toys. Met lots of awesome people, The Good, the Bad and Ugly!


TOYSREVIL: your positivity is refreshing, dude! and quite infectious lol ... what's happening in the realm of toys right now, in the world of Jim Koch? and what should folks/fans be looking out for?

JIM KOCH: Lots happening for 2008. I just launched my spankin’ NEW online store. Check it out! October Toys is kicking butt with my Hanus clown figure - coming soon. I have a solo toy exhibit at RotoFugi, May 3rd. My second Super Rad~GOSHO figure (Orange) should be coming out at the end of March. I got Custom Toys up at FRESHLY DIPPED! i have a dozen or so projects in the can for spring, summer and winter. Lots of cool Vinyl and plastic and even some trick over the ear headphones. I am always doing new t-shirts, stickers, and always sneaking customs onto forums, my site & store. Keep your eyes peeled for some neat product drops.


TOYSREVIL: (i was wondering about Hanus) again, how much you pack in a day, is beyond me! describe a typical day in the life of Jim Koch.

JIM KOCH: All Hell Breaks Loose about 6am to around 6pm, 6 days a week. It’s all business, even when i go to the mall or restroom. 

TOYSREVIL: what type of day is it for you today?

JIM KOCH: Today is a great day, i seem to be breathing fine, eyes work, tunes are blasting! To many e-mails to reply to. I am stoked to do some Hot Rod illustration today, i collect my pens and pencils and off to work!!

TOYSREVIL: cheers for your time and trouble, Jim - and now i'll leave you to your day, and look forward to more goodies coming out of and from ya!