[David Choe’s Choegal wooden toy is slated for release from Ningyoushi in a few weeks. To help us get a better idea of the process of creating this unique art toy, Denise from Ningyoushi sent over development shots and a write up of the early stages. Enjoy!]
The initial drawing was loosely sketched by David Choe (above), as we both had talked about what we’d like to see in person. It’s based from the original wooden toys he made during earlier Giant Robot art shows.The original dolls by David had popsicle arms and a paper hat. His concept was that the face was a ball shaped and when you spin the face, it would have a different expression. Initially, I asked him to make out of vinyl, but he wanted to keep the wood concept since his toy was initially a wooden toy.
So the second step was to get someone to make the wooden prototype for us, which is our trusty friend, Dave Higgins. He also helped us with the Deathbot Wooden toys prototypes, and was getting better and better at his wood craft. When I showed Higgins the loose drawings, he was able to figure out how to translate this in to wooden pieces and also added what I wanted to add as well, such as mechanical arms for articulation (just like those little wooden model mannequins you see in art stores). Higgins also tackled the bigger issue, which was how to make the face move with a simple spin feature. The round ball (pom pom) would be twisted and it’ll spin the face to reveal different expressions.
After the wooden design was complete, I sent the sample over to David for the master paint sample. Since he doesn’t use illustrator or photoshop on his paintings, it had to be done by hand and REPLICATED by hand at the factory. The one on the right is the factory showing us part by part, the mimicking process and the one on the left is the actual design by David Choe.
