The exhibition was held to support the launch of their Cannibal Funfair figures by Kid Robot, but the pair wanted to do something a bit different. Taking a two- month hiatus from commercial work, Lily saw them collaborate with sculptor Mike Hunter, as well as an old lady called Gran Gran. The former carved Cannibal characters expertly from wooden blocks, while the latter crocheted unique (and slightly wonky) plush versions of them. For TADO, the exhibition was a creative reaction to constantly designing toys on a computer – work that Mike describes as “super, mega accurate” – with all the paintings done by hand too.
“The hand-painted nature suited the project more than anything really,” begins Katie. Mike adds: “The whole thing was a fairly nostalgic look at childhood and the computerised stuff was just too perfect; too clinical. It simply didn’t suit it. When we were kids, children’s books were hand-drawn and hand-painted, and that’s the effect we wanted to replicate, really.”
Right now, the pair are working on a top secret project. A big, American client has hired them to design the characters and backgrounds for an online game, with numerous levels. The project is so big, says Mike, it’s going to take nine months to complete. And when it’s ready, it’s going to land in the educational sector – so don’t expect more sexy pandas.
“It’s nice because it’s a different audience to some of our other stuff,” explains Mike. “It has to be quite PC because of the nature of the client, and being American they view our work slightly differently than perhaps a British audience would. I think some of our work is quite British in its humour, so we possibly have to be a little more literal with them.”
Despite their deeply artistic streak, Mike and Katie are anything but precious when it comes to commercial projects. They had no qualms about working for McDonald’s last summer. In collaboration with their friends at the animation company Red Star, they produced a 30-second ad for Irish TV, promoting the multi-coloured Coke glass giveaway that the fast food chain had running. The colours come together to form a rainbow in front of a TADO landscape.
Another job that has put their work in front of millions of people was their Sainsbury’s cereal packaging. They created six different boxes, each with a print run of five million, for children’s cereal flavours. “Originally they wanted it so that you could stack all six boxes next to each other and it would make a whole landscape picture, but that kind of went out the window towards the middle, didn’t it?” says Katie.
“It was simply because Sainsbury’s boxes have to be displayed next to the competitor’s box really, so they couldn’t be in a line together,” Mike replies. “They had to go next to the Corn Flakes or whatever. We kind of lost that idea halfway through.”
“It’s nice to go to Sainsbury’s and see your cereal boxes on the shelves, or your poster on a billboard or something,” adds Katie. “It’s exciting. It’s something you can tell your mum about, and then your mum will go, ‘Oooo that’s really good’.”
As for the future, neither Mike nor Katie rave about any grand ambitions. TADO are happy just continuing to do their thing. They took a break in Japan last year, which clearly sparked their creativity, and they’d like to make a return visit. Another aim is to do more animation, and to become more independent in terms of how they produce some of their output. This means learning some 3D software, because at the moment they turn to friends when they want to create characters in 3D. “We’ve actually been trying to teach ourselves Cinema 4D, which is like trying to teach yourself Chinese. That’s something we’d really like to do,” says Mike. Katie continues: “We’ve got so many ideas and we’re picky, and we always want to do a little bit more.” Mike finishes the thought: “Yeah, the pair of us are control freaks when it comes to our own work.”
again an interesting insight into the decisions of the designers and the idea of this balance between comercial and non commericial work, again tado are working with massive clients like mcdonals, GOLA - PRODCING BAGS - which are on sale now interviews before they got this stuff out on sale.
“It’s nice because it’s a different audience to some of our other stuff,” explains Mike. “It has to be quite PC because of the nature of the client, and being American they view our work slightly differently than perhaps a British audience would. I think some of our work is quite British in its humour, so we possibly have to be a little more literal with them.”
Despite their deeply artistic streak, Mike and Katie are anything but precious when it comes to commercial projects. They had no qualms about working for McDonald’s last summer. In collaboration with their friends at the animation company Red Star, they produced a 30-second ad for Irish TV, promoting the multi-coloured Coke glass giveaway that the fast food chain had running. The colours come together to form a rainbow in front of a TADO landscape.
Another job that has put their work in front of millions of people was their Sainsbury’s cereal packaging. They created six different boxes, each with a print run of five million, for children’s cereal flavours. “Originally they wanted it so that you could stack all six boxes next to each other and it would make a whole landscape picture, but that kind of went out the window towards the middle, didn’t it?” says Katie.
“It was simply because Sainsbury’s boxes have to be displayed next to the competitor’s box really, so they couldn’t be in a line together,” Mike replies. “They had to go next to the Corn Flakes or whatever. We kind of lost that idea halfway through.”
“It’s nice to go to Sainsbury’s and see your cereal boxes on the shelves, or your poster on a billboard or something,” adds Katie. “It’s exciting. It’s something you can tell your mum about, and then your mum will go, ‘Oooo that’s really good’.”
As for the future, neither Mike nor Katie rave about any grand ambitions. TADO are happy just continuing to do their thing. They took a break in Japan last year, which clearly sparked their creativity, and they’d like to make a return visit. Another aim is to do more animation, and to become more independent in terms of how they produce some of their output. This means learning some 3D software, because at the moment they turn to friends when they want to create characters in 3D. “We’ve actually been trying to teach ourselves Cinema 4D, which is like trying to teach yourself Chinese. That’s something we’d really like to do,” says Mike. Katie continues: “We’ve got so many ideas and we’re picky, and we always want to do a little bit more.” Mike finishes the thought: “Yeah, the pair of us are control freaks when it comes to our own work.”
again an interesting insight into the decisions of the designers and the idea of this balance between comercial and non commericial work, again tado are working with massive clients like mcdonals, GOLA - PRODCING BAGS - which are on sale now interviews before they got this stuff out on sale.
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