How’d you get into toy design?

I’ve always loved toys and never really stopped buying toys. I started sculpting back when I was 19. I’ve posted some of the old images on my blog, so I can reminisce and embarrass myself at the same time. Anyway, sculpting led me to Otis, which led me to the toy industry. I graduated from the Otis Toy Design program in 2004.

 

 

 

Where have you worked?

I spent 2½ hellish years working a Playmates Toys in Costa Mesa. Granted, it wasn’t all bad, just the majority of it was. Thankfully, I escaped and moved on to bigger and better things.

Why Squids?

While I was an intern at the largest toy company in the world, a mentor of mine would call certain employees “Squids”. He used it as a derogatory term, because these employees loved the cartoons, video games, comics, and movies that their toys were based on. Little did he know, that I was a complete “Squid” myself. When I needed a name for my new company, Squid Kids Ink seemed like a natural fit. 

 

 

Why Geeks?

The company name led to a simple slogan. “For Geeks by Geeks”, simple and was also a natural fit. Good old Wikipedia has a good definition for the word “geek”. This is the portion that really stood out to me. “a peculiar or otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed with one or more things.”I am a “Toy Geek”, just like a Lakers fan is a “Sports Geek”. We’re both obsessed with the things we love.