CoinOp

A2 Notecards by APAK studio on display at Grass Hut: Printed by Pinball
on New Leaf Imagination 80#C (100% Recycled) with CMYK inks (soy-based)

As part of our Ink in Action profiles, I recently posed a few questions to the dynamic duo behind APAK studio. We were honored to work with them on their notecard series, which features six original illustrations by APAK (reproduced at Pinball using four color process offset printing). I hope you are as charmed as I am by founders Ayumi and Aaron and their magical creations.

Founders of APAK Ayumi and Aaron

Please tell us about APAK Studio! How did it all begin?
APAK is Aaron Piland and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland. We are a husband + wife collaborative art team! Our dogs, Ocho + P-Nut help out too. We live and work at home in a little red cottage located among the giant dougfir trees just on the outskirts of SE Portland. We mainly spend our days collaborating on paintings for art galleries all over the world. We occasionally work separately as individual illustrators too.

Our studio was founded in 1998 soon after we met at Kendall College of Art and Design in Michigan. We combined our initials together and APAK (pronounced a-pak) was born! We never thought we would end up working so closely at that time. And over the years the ways that we have collaborated has evolved quite a bit as our relationship has grown. In 2003 we lived in Japan and started making plush dolls together. In 2005 we moved to Portland and were inspired by the art community here and started painting together. Now it’s a big part of our life to share our common vision with the world. We feel fortunate to have met.

Can you tell us the story behind the artwork used for this card series? 

The “Animals And Me” series of notecards was mainly Ayumi’s project but Aaron helped with prepress and feedback. She came up with a series of 6 different designs of her favorite animals, tapir, bear, sloth, deer, panda, and boston terrier (our dogs). Each design explores the intimate friendship between a girl and an animal which has been a reoccurring theme in her work. Ayumi hoped to communicate love and good relationships through giving and receiving the cards.

APAK notecards on display at New Seasons Market

Where can fans find your cards? What about other artwork from APAK!?
Our cards and prints can be found in local Portland shops like New Seasons Market, Grass Hut, Reading Frenzy, Greg’s, Polliwog, and a few other boutiques in Vancouver BC, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Pittsburg. There are also a few online boutiques that carry our goods as well. Little Paper Planes, Buy Olympia, Renegade Handmade are good places for not only our goods but many other great artists goods also.

Our online store at Etsy (apak.etsy.com) is always open and guaranteed to be stocked with our goods!

What are your favorite inspirations?
Life, Nature, Animals, Dreams, Art and of course each other!

How did you find out about Pinball?
We’ve known about Pinball for a while…their work is legendary! Back when we lived in Oakland in 2003, we discovered them online. We’ve seen many beautiful projects by pinball over the years and have always wanted to work with them!

What’s on the horizon for 2009?
We’re planning to continue showing our work at galleries around the world. Our next show is at Outre Gallery in Melbourne, Australia in March. We’re working with Poketo and Zune on some custom products coming out in the spring that we’re excited about. We’re also working on a story book that we want to release sometime this year which has been our dream for a while! We love making our dreams real together and hopefully that love comes across in what we make. 2009 is going to be amazing!