Squadt by FERG

This interview was conducted in January, when FERG came through town for his Squadt exhibition at Rotofugi.  FERG is an illusive soul, but we cornered him, and we’re glad we did.  It’s clear that FERG would rather not do the whole “me” thing; shying away from photos, uber-humility, and a general stance that emphasizes the work, is the way he does thing.  With possibly the largest Squadt collection EVER, presented at Rotofugi, it was the perfect opportunity to coincide.  It was a pleasure to meet FERG and enjoy a stellar exhibition, and we’re happy to share what he had to say. Below, you’ll find a few words about the evolution of FERG’s artistic career, the ever-popular BUD Series, and what the rest of 2011 has in store for a guy who does what he wants, and does it well.

words by Evan La Ruffa

photos by Greg Kohlhagen

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EL: Welcome to Chicago… hope you don’t freeze your balls off! Come back in the summer dude… 1000x better.
FERG: I was here in the spring once.  It was real nice, but the cold doesn’t bother me too much in short doses.

EL: How do you know this knucklehead? (pointing at Jared Connor of Mexican Chocolate Design)
FERG: Met him from the Austin poster scene…pretty tight knit group.  Jared and I hit it off pretty quick. We both live in houses full of girls, (wives and daughters).  We We both like printing, making shit…hanging out…shooting guns. :)

EL: You started off your art career in posters right? How long did you do that before moving to toys?
FERG: A few years, not that long really… I still love screen printing… any kind of printing really.

EL:  How’d you decide to move from rock posters to toys? What propelled the new direction?
FERG:  I had wanted to make toys for a while.  I was really into the early HK stuff and also BXH.  Kozik kept telling me that if I wanted to get into it, now was the time.  This was in 2002-2003.  He was doing stuff with BXH and Medicom at the time, so he had already figured a lot of things out.  He helped Me and Trevor (my partner in Jamungo at the time) get shit going.

EL: Perfect segway.  You co-founded jamungo… what’s the hardest part about starting a company like that from scratch? You guys have really solidified your place amongst the most sought after products in the scene…
FERG:  The hardest part was getting in with a good factory.  Our first project (Buds series 1) was delayed by a year because the company we were working with in the beginning flaked on us.  That was rough.  We were almost over it after that, haha.

EL: The BUD series has made a huge mark on the vinyl scene… how’d that figure get dreamed up?
FERG:  Trevor and I were trying to figure out something that would make for a good platform toy, but we decided to do something that wasn’t animal based.  There were no ”inanimate object” platform toys at the time so we wanted to fill that space.  We wanted something that was iconic and somewhat static but with lots of articulation.  We started sketching concepts and Trevor did a bomb head.  I was stoked on that so I drew a grenade head.  We refined the body over the next couple of weeks and worked on the modularity aspect of the pieces, until we were happy with them.

EL:  Describe your work with Playge…
FERG: Playge is my outlet for things that didn’t quite fit into what we had going on with Jamungo.  Darker themes, a little more commentary maybe, still fun of course.  I will also release some non-toy-related creations under the playge brand to keep things interesting.

EL: Did you write the backstory to the Squadt series? I love that write-up man… one of the best prologues to a toy series in my mind…
FERG: Haha, yea, that long-winded thing.  Wow thanks, I’m definitely not a writer.  I needed a story to help me get my head around the Squadt universe, because I knew I was going to develop them over a long period of time.  At this point, things are just getting started…..

EL: How would you summarize the show at Rotofugi?
FERG:  It’s every Squadt produced to date.  Some prototypes of upcoming squadts.  The first collab with Brandt, which is the show exclusive; Trouble boys #45 [got away clean].  Prints on canvas and lots of customs…oh and some life size squadts!

EL:  Whatcha got on tap for the rest of 2011?
FERG: I’m gonna make a bunch of toys, collaborate with friends on various projects and continue to have fun.

Check out Squadt – HERE.

Check out Rotofugi’s Squadt Write-UP – HERE