Paul Budnitz

Paul Budnitz (born September, 14, 1967) is the President, founder, and creative director of Kidrobot Inc., the world’s premier creator of designer art toys and fashion apparel. He is also an Executive Producer for San Francisco-based digital animation company, W!LDBRAIN.

Early Career

From a young age, Budnitz displayed a mixed aptitude for computer programming and art. By the time he had reached high school, he was professionally coding safety analysis software for nuclear power plants and creating video games for the now-legendary Commodore 64 home computer.

Budnitz attended Yale University where he studied photography, sculpture and film. During his undergraduate degree he started his first business, M.O.B., a custom clothing company that sold T-shirts and other wearable cultural artifacts to museum stores worldwide.

In 1990, Budnitz graduated with an honors degree in Art and began working on two films, "93 Million Miles from the Sun" and "Ultraviolet. "Both won awards at the Berlin Film Festival and were distributed worldwide. Artforum magazine hailed " 93 Million Miles" as “one of the best films of 1997.”

Budnitz became aware of gaps in the existing editing technology and created his own software that allowed him to edit a full-length film on a home computer. Wired magazine chronicled the achievement with a feature story in their April 1996 issue.

Budnitz concurrently created Big, Inc., a company which sold modified vintage clothing including high-end Levis and classic Air Jordans to collectors in Japan.

In 1997, Budnitz started recording the sound for a 16mm film on MiniDisc, a new audio format that he encountered while on a trip to Tokyo. Budnitz hacked and customized the MiniDisc players to accomodate time-code, specifically for film and sound recording. It was not long before this led him to found his third company, minidisco.com, which sold his reconfigured MiniDisc players on the Internet. By 2001 minidisco.com had become a $7 million business running on home computers using software Budnitz created.

Beginnings of Kidrobot

In 2002 Budnitz discovered images of limited edition vinyl toys that were emerging from Japan and China based on cereal box characters and modified GI-Joes turned into stylized B-boys wearing streetwear. Budnitz recognized the toys as collectible art pieces that fused a variety of artistic disciplines: graffiti, graphic design, pop-art, and animation. He also recognized the absence of innovative art toys in North America, as well as a potential fan-base for this hybrid art form in the United States.

In 2002 Budnitz moved from California to New York City, sold minidisco.com and used the money as the start-up capital for Kidrobot.

Budnitz collaborated with friend Tristan Eaton, an illustrator he’d worked with on previous animated films, to create DUNNY, a rabbit-inspired, vinyl figure designed to be customized by commissioned artists and MUNNY, a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) toy figure that Kidrobot customers could customize themselves.

As the president and head of creative at Kidrobot, Paul has worked with hundreds of artists, brands and designers from around the world. Artists include Frank Kozik, Dalek, Doze Green, Tara McPherson, Gary Baseman, Shepard Fairey, eBoy, Tilt, Mist, Joe Ledbetter, Tristan Eaton, Jeremeyville, To Die For, Junko Mizuno, Mori Chax, Touma, Mike and Katie Tado, Paul Pope, David Horvath, and many others.

Brands Paul has worked with include Marc Jacobs, Visionaire Magazine, Barneys NYC, Burton Snowboards, Volkswagen, Tarina Tarantino, Lacoste, Nike, and others.

Kidrobot Today

In 2006, Budnitz added a complete apparel collection to Kidrobot’s repertoire, co-designing the entire line. Like Kidrobot’s toys, most of the apparel is limited edition and draws on the creative input of the artists of recently released toys.

In late 2006, Budnitz authored the book" I AM PLASTIC: The Designer Toy Explosion" published by art-book powerhouse, Harry Abrams Press. The hardcover picture book, with a foreword by Budnitz, geographically features the most popular and innovative toys in the designer art toy movement with chapters on Japan, China, Europe and the United States.

In 2007, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York acquired 13 of Kidrobot’s toys for its permanent collection. These include “Hello My Name is Dunny”, “Bad Dunny” and “MUNNY 3″ amongst others.

Budnitz maintains an online diary at paulbudnitz.com that has become a hub for the art toy community. His regular posts include artist interviews, coverage of Kidrobot events, rare toy releases and photographs of urban street art.

Budnitz has designed or art directed virtually every product created by Kidrobot since the company’s inception. He has also co-designed all of Kidrobot’s retail stores and the Kidrobot Room in Peter Gatien’s CiRCA nightclub in Toronto.

In 2006, Kidrobot partnered with W!LDBRAIN, Inc. to begin working on animated films for theater and the web. In 2008, Paramount Pictures announced they had signed an agreement with Kidrobot to produce an animated feature film based on the Kidrobot aesthetic.

While Budnitz continues to be the creative force behind Kidrobot he is also focused on other ventures. He’s photographed center spreads for ReadyMade Magazine and album covers for Black Lab. He also frequently speaks at conferences about business innovation and creativity around the world.

Personal Life

The son of a nuclear physicist and a social worker, Budnitz was born and raised in Berkeley, California. He is an avid boxer and owns 120 pairs of size 13 sneakers. He currently splits his time between Montana and New York City.

References

PaulBudnitz http://www.paulbudnitz.com/

Apple http://www.apple.com/business/profiles/kidrobot/

Berlin International Film Festival http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/2002/02_programm_2002/02_Filmdatenblatt_2002_20020178.php

Core77 http://www.core77.com/blog/broadcasts/core77_broadcasts_paul_budnitz_from_kidrobot_interviewed_by_steven_heller_7284.asp

http://www.core77.com/blog/broadcasts/core77_broadcasts_paul_budnitz_from_kidrobot_interviewed_by_steven_heller_7284.asp

Gulf News http://www.gulfnews.com/friday/Art_and_Culture/10229623.html

IMDB.com http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0119061/

Museum of Modern Art http://www.moma.org/press/index.php?/advanced_schedule/

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/books/review/Heller.t.html?ei=5088&en=d5d9f9f24511dffe&ex=1327640400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

New York Times Movies http://www.gulfnews.com/friday/Art_and_Culture/10229623.html

Nylon http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=article&parid=500

W!LDBRAIN http://www.wildbrain.com/kidrobot.html

Wired http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.04/scans.html

External Links

Clutter Magazine http://www.cluttermagazine.com/

Hi Fructose http://www.hifructose.com/

Kidrobot [http://www.Kidrobot.com www.Kidrobot.com]

Kidrobot My Space http://www.myspace.com/kidrobotrules

Museum of Modern Art [http://www.moma.org www.moma.org]

Plastic and Plush http://www.plasticandplush.com/

Toys Are Evil http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/

Toycyte http://www.toycyte.com/

Vinyl Abuse http://www.vinylabuse.com/

Vinyl Pulse http://www.vinylpulse.com/

W!LDBRAIN http://www.wildbrain.com/

Yo Gabba gabba http://www.yogabbagabba.com/ OR http://www.kidrobotlovesyogabbagabba.com/