Johnny Cupcakes x PNTRLY

PNTRLY’s latest collaboration brings in Joann Fabric enthusiast and artist extraordinaire, Johnny Cupcakes. The new designs are on the PNTRLY app now, so this is your chance to color your very own Johnny Cupcakes piece. But first, check out this interview we did to learn more about the artist.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

Well, I wanted to be a magician. I did magic tricks at birthday parties. I still do magic tricks every day. I still want to be a magician.

What's your favorite color, and why?

Ooh. I've got three. I love green. I love olive green, army green. I have hazel eyes. So I don't know if I'm seeing things or not, but I feel like when I wear green, my eyes definitely change. And I love mustard yellow. I don't really like mustard, but I like mustard yellow. It makes me feel comfortable, makes me feel cozy. And I love black, all black everything.

I love Halloween. I love that it matches everything. Love that it makes colors pop of whatever you're wearing, and yeah.

What is your creative process like? And how do you get from Point A to B?

Having a great team helps. I think it's feelings — trying to make a complete stranger feel something, feel like it's their birthday, feel so intrigued that they want to tell somebody about an event, about the brand, about the packaging. There's something very exciting and rewarding and addicting about building off of that puzzle. Like, "Okay, we have a T-shirt design. What else can we do to make it special?" If we have an ice cream theme shirt, do we give out free ice cream? Do we rent an ice cream truck? Do we package the shirts in ice cream containers? Do we plan this magical journey where people have to find us? That's what I love. Taking something ordinary like a T-shirt and trying to make it extraordinary.

What's your favorite part about the creative process?

You really want to rush to see the customer's reaction, and you want to surprise them. I think the surprise and delight element is what I'm most excited about. But I do fall in love with the whole journey. For instance, right now, working on the new store opening, every day it's like one step forward and three steps back. As painful as those three steps back are, it just makes me so excited about what the next positive thing's going to be, because then you get to look back on all of it and kind of relish in those feelings of putting the whole puzzle together.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in bookstores, cartoons, vintage cereal boxes, old advertisements, record covers, record stores, food packaging – especially food packaging from the past where the line work is chunky, and the mascots are very playful.

Who are three artists that you admire right now?

For a while, I was collecting these giant posters, lithographs from the 1940s, '50s, '60 – advertisements they used to hang in the windows of different stores, specifically from Sweden and Switzerland. There's an artist named Herbert Leupin, and there’s Donald Brun. They have so many posters that just make me smile. They all look like just friendly mascots. You just want to meet every one of these characters. So, yeah, I would definitely say those two guys.

There's a lot of miscellaneous artists. I have this book here that's a visual history of pranks and magic for the past hundred years. So it's a lot of no-name people that made the artwork for the Whoopee Cushion or the packaging for the first hand buzzer. I love digging up those people and just trying to find all the work that they've done. A lot of it has this specific style that looks like it's from the back of a Boy Scout magazine, or it's purposely colored outside of the lines. Yeah. There's just so many good little nuggets.

What's one thing that most people would be surprised to learn about you?

I can sleep. I can sleep through anything. I fell asleep at a rave once. I flew to Australia once, and I slept almost the entire time. It felt like a half-hour flight. And it was like a 17-hour flight. Yeah.

What are your favorite artist tools, be it a paintbrush, a mouse, a pencil, a pen, a crayon? What's your go-to?

Mine is the MUJI pen, and it's got to be .38. I always have one of these in my pocket. Doesn't smudge. It's just the, yeah, just the right tool for me to jot down my ideas or doodles.

What makes a great design for you?

I love when a design has that aha moment, where you look at it for a second time. and you're like, "Whoa, that's a cool Johnny Cupcake shirt that has a lobster on it. And oh, my God, look at it. The lobster's wearing an oven mitt. And oh, my God, if you look really close, he's smiling and has a gold tooth, and there's gold ink that shimmers on the tooth. And oh, my God, there's a print on the back that has to do with this. And oh, my God, if you were one of the first hundred people to buy the shirt, you got the special Johnny Cupcakes lobster bib or wet nap, or a Johnny Cupcakes stick of butter."

So, for me, it's that scavenger hunt, that visual scavenger hunt. Simplicity, chunky bold lines, something that appeals to everybody. I think sometimes, as the owner of a brand, you go through this phase where you feel like you have to prove yourself to everybody, and you don't just want to be known as just another T-shirt brand. So you try to make cut-and-sew products, or you try to make designs that have so many color prints and all this stuff going on. But at the end of the day, people just want something simple and clean and classic. And sometimes, a one-color print, sometimes just our classic logo, is really just what the doctor ordered.

What type of music do you listen to when you create something? What five tracks or artists put you in that creative space?

Oh. RJD2 and DJ Shadow.

I don't even know what you'd classify this group Disclosure, but they just make really good dance-y music, and they have guest singers on every other track. Their albums give me that boost of energy at night. I've listened to it hundreds of times and have not gotten sick of it. 

There's this guy that I've been listening to. What's his name? Brian something. I love trip-hop music, and I'm a part of a couple trip-hop Facebook pages and Facebook fan groups. I love seeing what people post on there. Unkle is one of my favorite groups, which is also DJ Shadow. Any type of old-time jazz. But that instrumental trip-hop music. And something about Disclosure and Sbtrkt, those two groups or musicians that have a lot of features. They just get me right in the zone, and I love it.

I get that second wind from 10 o'clock to two o'clock. 2:00 AM is when I bust out that music, and I'll get my bowl of red grapes, and my popcorn with nutritional yeast and olive oil, and my chocolate bar from the refrigerator that has bacon in it. It's like the trifecta. I feel like Captain Planet's going to arrive

How would you describe your brand to somebody who hasn't seen it yet?

Somebody who hasn't seen it yet? I would say it's a culinary-themed T-shirt brand that pokes fun at pop culture, and who replaces popular icons with cupcakes. It's fun. It's tricky. And it's fun. It's mischievous and bold.

Yeah.

Get more Johnny Cupcakes:

JohnnyCupcakes.com // IG: @JohnnyCupcakes

The Johnny Cupcakes series is available on the PNTRLY app now! Share and tag us in your art so we can share it with the world.