BEHIND THE DESIGN: KAWS
Despite his degree in Fine Arts and a budding job as an animator at Disney, Brian Donnelly chose to focus his career on graffiti. Under
the alias “KAWS” he started spreading his art across New York bus stops, billboards and phone booths.
His art started gaining a fan base and demand for more pieces grew. This took his graffiti work international, as he started tagging across Paris, London and other cities in Europe.
He migrated from graffiti back to the design world, after an opportunity to create vinyl toys came through. The toys he created solidified his name in the industry and generated exposure across the World.
Donnelly began collaborating with major fashion houses Nike, Dior, Vans, Comme des Garçons and A Bathing Ape. But more importantly, he established his own KAWS brand.
Over the years, he has produced plush toys, vinyl toys, 121-foot-long inflatable sculptures and his art has been displayed in museums worldwide, to name a few of his accomplishments.
With high popularity comes rarity and high prices. His “Seated Companion” KAWS sculpture was sold at resale for $411,000 in 2017. The latest KAWS release was a pink BFFPlush, which was released on April 9th but sold out in minutes.
Stay tuned to @bunkakw for all your hype news.
