Last week the gang and I took a little trip down to Oakland.  In the middle of a questionable neighborhood on Shattuck there lies nonchalantly a wonderland made of cake.  In a corner building artist Scott Hove created Cakeland in the storefront and works out of a studio in the back.


Scott was kind enough to invite a group of us art enthusiasts into his space where we proceeded to ooh and aah over his sugary creations.  Only thing is, none of the cakes are edible!  They are made of synthetic materials that will last practically forever, not unlike the cakes available at Wal-Mart, but Hove's are works of art that have gained no small amount of recognition.


Said pieces were exhibited at La Luz de Jesus gallery in 2010, and written up on BoingBoing as well as in HiFructose Magazine, just to name a few.  I came across some of those photos online last year, though I can't recall where exactly, and was excited to get to see this work in person.  There is a tension between the inviting, sweet and frosted presentation and the canine maws, as embedded in some of the cakes, or other skeletal parts entombed in the installation.  It's a kid of lure-and-trap scenario.


This was also a prime opportunity for LOL placement, and I would like to thank Scott for generously indulging my request to snap some shots for The United States of LOL.  Last but not least, check out this album for some even better photos of the Cakeland expedition.

Somewhat sluggish after the long haul that was the previous day's Johnny Cupcakes outing, and not helped by the drizzly Thursday weather, Jeremyriad and I managed to get ourselves over to the Haight for some line-standing-in prior to Junko Mizuno's new toy release and signing.

We grabbed some decent grub at Asqew, and shuffled into 14th-or-so place behind some notably hip Asian kids who warded off the dog-on-a-rope folks' inquiries with "coffee enemas" as our reason for being there. The evening got more interesting as our excitement continued to build the closer we got to the front of the line and Junko Mizuno's table.


I was admittedly nervous at the prospect of finally meeting Junko, whose work I have been following for years with admiration, and came out early that day to make sure I could get my hands on one of the 25 limited edition prints.  As it turns out, it wasn't a print at all.  Instead, we were gifted a hand-drawn original of about four by four inches in size.  This was only the first of several generous gestures on her part, which continued into the night as she spent a significant amout of time drawing on blank toys for almost every person in line.  Kidrobot staff encouraged the practice, and as an artist I couldn't help but notice how uncomfortable Junko's accommodations seemed for such a long haul.


Not wanting to prolong things too much, I chose to forgo getting a blank and was more than thrilled to get my Junkocat Chococat signed.  Still, I could not resist the photo-opp and gave Junko an LOL which she kindly showed off to the camera (for The United States Of LOL project).  Huge thanks to the Toy Maven for having the presence of mind to take some great pics while I was off in Junkoland.


As for the awesome toy of the night, I have to say that I like it the most of the four currently available Sanrio reinterpretations.  It seems to take more creative license in the way the character is appropriated into the artist's signature style than the others.  Although maybe I am just biased on this one.  Either way, that night was one of the most memorable I have had in San Francisco to date and thinking back to it still fills me with excitement.

On Wednesday, January 12, I attended a lecture with my new bay area posse.  We drove out to CSU East Bay's campus in Hayward for the talk by Johnny Cupcakes, arriving a little late after getting a lost and asking for directions.  Did not see any signs on campus for the event, so it took a bit of investigating before we found the lecture hall.  Consequently, the place was already packed and we made ourselves (un)comfortable on the floor and against the wall.

I personally found the talk informative and insightful, going over a lot of pointers on starting your business in the non-traditional way of Johnny Cupcakes.  Without going into the nitty gritty of the entire lecture, a few key issues emerged from my notes that I will try to summarize.

The point which Johnny Cupcakes stressed time and time again is the understanding that what you are selling is an experience as much, or perhaps more so, than a product.  This means that you need to put your efforts in making the experience work to your benefit; something that businesses using traditional models forget all too often.

The way that experiences are created by Johnny cupcakes is a multi-faceted approach that starts with the details.  The products generally come in limited quantities, adding to the feeling if it being special, and each item is packaged in a unique way.  Products are further enhanced by the inclusion of random variants and a random object shipped out with orders, such as a battery, doll's head, etc.  When customers discover these strange surprises it creates a memory which will likely be triggered by subsequent encounters with that object and links it back to the product.

Customer experiences are even more important in Johnny Cupcakes brick-and-mortar stores, with no expense spared on the design, construction and fabrication.  Apparently, the Los Angeles store started with a budget of about $65K and ended up costing upwards of $600K!  Now that's dedication to customer experience.  Although it isn't likely that many startups would be in a position to do something similar, one can at least admire his vision.

On that note, Johnny suggests that when starting out, your physical business space should be multi-purpose, your product should generate revenue with pre-orders if you don't have much money, and never to rush things because the first impression is the most important.  Hence the L.A. store's months of delays and budget over-shoot.  It sure does look great though!

When it comes to marketing, his business has always relied heavily on word of mouth and does not invest much in traditional advertising strategies.  We are too bombarded with ads everywhere as it is, which seems to be Johnny's primary reason for suggesting that these out-moded methods simply do not work.  That's why new-media also plays a crucial role with Twitter, Facebook pages, and blogs being the most important.  Johnny and his family are said to fall asleep each night with laptops as they personally answer comments and questions on their social media networks.

Additionally, his tips on marketing also include having very few sales, or none at all, and doing contests instead, to send out email blasts on Thursdays and Fridays, and not to carry on conversations on Twitter, rather keeping those in direct messages, emails, and out of public view.  All of which goes back to his code of keeping things special and personal.  It may be unorthodox in the contemporary business climate of faceless money-making machines that we take as the norm but his strategy does create brand longevity and customer loyalty that, in the words of Johnny, "other companies couldn't even pay for."

It makes a lot of sense to me and echoes some of my own conclusions and strategies over the years.  Experiences are key, and variety is the spice of many aspects of life.  Johnny Cupcakes was fun to listen to, threw out a lot of nerdy humor that I appreciated, and kept me interested for the long three hours sitting on the floor in back-hurting positions.

It was worth it for me personally, and hopefully this post will provide some inspiration for the few who might read it.  Some concrete resources to check out, as endorsed by Johnny himself at the end of the lecture, include Kickstarter for fund-raising, Spoonflower for fabric printing, Storenvy for e-commerce solutions, Alibaba for manufacturing everything under the sun, and Jakprints for printing of just about any materials out there.

This would mark my first visit outside the bay since moving here.  Our little excursion took us to Sacramento for a visit to Dragatomi and the Monster Party kaiju show, featuring the work of Mark Nagata, Gatchabert, DLux and LilJapan.


Loved the Dragatomi store.  Not only do they have a great layout and selection, but the proprietors are super nice folks.  If you're ever in Sacramento, this is undoubtedly a mandatory stop.


While everyone at the show was a pleasure to visit with I especially enjoyed chatting with Mark Nagata.  I look forward to revisiting the subject of Japanized youth-culture in America as a result of Japanese media consumption, being something that I may have a slight obsession with.  Mark and Jeremy Dale were even kind enough to indulge my new experimental endeavor.


On the way out we swung by Rick's Dessert Diner and feasted with our eyes on the incredible selection of sugary delights.  In reality I managed to be good and only have half a piece of white chocolate brownie.  It was delicious.  If you have a sweet tooth and find yourself in the California capitol I highly recommend it.

Hey you. Yeah, YOU! You want some free money? Then read on my greedy friend, read on. For the experimental little project that was inspired by little more than a sure-why-not from a couple of years ago at Anime Expo in LA has just launched. Back then I was contacted by a fellow anime art fan and con-goer about printing and giving out some ONE LOL bills. The photos that came back sparked an idea, and now that idea is finally taking off. Here's how it works...

The United States Of LOL is distributing free currency which you can download and print yourself. Photographs of you with said currency, or any placement thereof, may be chosen for publication on this site should you choose to submit them.

You are hereby invited to participate.  Print out some LOL bills, get creative, take some pics and send them in.  Print some fake money, get internet famous.  What's not to love?  Head on over to The United States States Of LOL for details and to download the goods.

Making art using the iconic image of the US $1 dollar bill is something that has obviously interested me for some time now.  Appropriating this design automatically makes a statement about the country, consumer culture, and many other themes which can be highlighted depending on what you do with the image.


While I have made a piece of art based on the dollar, artist Scott Campbell has created an entire series of work made out of actual dollar bills.  These pieces are superbly crafted and contain powerful imagery, much of it religious.  Check out more of Campbell's work over at Monster Casserole and draw your own conclusions.