KidRobot.com – Not Just For Kids (or Robots).

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Designer Paul Budnitz designer and creator of Kidrobot is (and I quote) “the world’s premier designer and retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel”. Sure he’s blowing his own trumpet a little louder than most but the guy really does know what he’s doing. Kidrobot.com started selling their strange toys in 2002 and just as wacky line of urban wear in 2006 and have gone from strength to strength ever since.

MOMA even bought a few of his toys in 2007, and almost all the designers who’ve ever worked with him have gone on to fame and fortune in their own right, Budnitz is a magnet for publicity, style, cool kids and kudos. The t-shirt collection has built up quite nicely over the years and seeing as I found myself drooling over the designs there (once again) I thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you.

If you want any of these beware, apart from a few select stores and their own online shop you’ll have trouble tracking these down, besides which just about anything that leaves the KR stable ends up as a collector’s piece (some of his toys sell for up to $20,000 these days), so if you like it I’d nail it a.s.a.p.

Redrum by Frank Kozik, one of the least cute tees at KR, but just as confident in panache and flair, I love the splattered blood, fish guts never looked so appetising. If you’ve not heard of Kozik (where have you been?), he’s been credited with single-handedly reviving the medium of the concert poster. Originally from Spain he’s been praised for some of the coolest posters, album covers and flyers out there. Now based in California, he’s worked for years in the left field of the alternative music scene; designing for artists like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Ice T, George Clinton, Green Day, Beck, The Offspring, He’s cool, I promise you. Check out his incredible prints and look out for his Snorkin’ Labbits at KR. Anyway Redrum is most likely a reference to the classic horror movie ‘The Shining’ so you really can’t go wrong with this shirt!

Slick, slick, slick. So slick I’m slipping off the page. As a designer you know when you’ve got it just right and KR surely has with the Radial Halftone Tee. So Op Art, so Pop Art, so cool. I’ve seen a lot of abstract tees, and a whole heap of halftones but it takes a very big pair of designer cahunas to slap it down at this scale and let it stare at you, right in the face. It’s hitting me right between the eyes and I’m not spinning off in a bad acid flashback, he must be doing something right.

Here’s one more for the road, the Kidrobot Head Tee (Blue) for Women. You can get this in red too, and there’s a torso chunk version for the guys, I love it, very deco, very pre-Disney when toons were always scary and weird without meaning to be. All the essential design elements are there, a nod to Manga, the pie-dish eyes of yesteryear, and even a fin to keep it streamlined. But what’s best is the fact it’s not a piddling little graphic floating in the middle of a sea of blue cotton, KR really understands how much scale can top off a perfect design.

Check out all the tees, sweats, hoodies and of course some mad, mad toys at Kidrobot.com – go on have some fun!

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