Interview With Horrible Adorables
Location: Five Points Fest
Interview Date: 6/10/2023
We were able to meet up with Jordan Perme and Christopher Lees of Horrible Adorables at this year’s At Five Points Fest:
Anime Herald: You’ve described the designer toy space as a very friendly space. Why do you think that is?
Jordan Perme: First and foremost… we are designing toys! Toys are innately playful and approachable. For the designers of toys, I believe they share similar friendly and approachable qualities – like their plastic counterparts. The designer toy space is pretty small compared to many other adjacent “scenes,” and most people know each other and want to see one another succeed. One artist’s success is great for the scene as a whole. People come to toys from a variety of different backgrounds and are, for the most part, open with their knowledge and want to help one another out. We really love being a part of the toy space. It is always exciting to see new artists and collectors discovering it for the first time too!
Anime Herald: How did you first become involved with Five Points Fest?
Jordan Perme: We have shown our artwork at Clutter Gallery (the organizers of Five Points Fest) many times in the past. When they announced that they were going to bring a designer toy show to the East Coast, we were in! Besides Five Points, there is only one other designer toy focused convention in the US – DesignerCon in California. We go to that show every year and have a great time because all our friends are there, too! It’s very inspiring to see everyone’s creativity in person. Unfortunately, it is also our most difficult and expensive show to vend at because we travel to it from the Midwest. Having a second designer toy show on the opposite side of the country is really great, because it creates more opportunities for artists and collectors to attend a show who cannot travel easily to the West Coast.
Anime Herald: Did anything about the convention surprise you?
Jerdan Perme: We were pleasantly surprised by the crowd for this year’s show! We had not vended at Five Points Fest since 2019, when it was at a completely different venue and neighborhood. It had been a rough few years for everyone since the pandemic, so we were not entirely sure what to expect. Luckily, the crowds returned. It was even more surprising since the show took place mere days after New York’s post-apocalyptic air quality problems that were a result of Canada’s forest fires. We were not even sure if the show would go on until we were actually in New York!
Anime Herald: What inspired you to jump from the toy space into the games space?
Christopher Lees: In 2019, we released a vinyl designer toy called The Familiar. Around the same time, friends were introducing us to the world of hobby board gaming. We were playing tons of new games designed and produced by small companies and independent publishers, which was having an influence on us. When working on packaging for The Familiar we decided to use a drawstring “magic” pouch to really push the mystical theme. Jordan joked that we should toss in a D20 to really play up a Dungeons & Dragons association.
That joke turned into an intense, three-month project where we created a working board game. We packaged each Familiar with a portion of the game – which consisted of several cards, a coin, and of course, a D20. You could collect all five Familiars to assemble the full game which we called Ballyhoo. In 2022, we decided to transform Ballyhoo into a fully developed and stand-alone board game called Familiars and Foes. We successfully Kickstarted the project in October 2022, and we’re currently taking preorders. Games will be available to ship October 2023.
Anime Herald: Familiars and Foes: Give us the 30-second pitch.
Christopher Lees: Familiars and Foes is a 1 to 5 player cooperative style game. You take on the role of a young elemental Familiar on a quest to rescue their witches and wizards from a horde of evil foes. You’ll be rolling a 20-sided die to cast spells, flipping coins to join in team attacks, using artifact cards to give you a boost, and restoring your fellow familiars when they get in trouble. If at least one Familiar is left standing after four waves of battle, your coven wins the game!
Anime Herald: What attracted you to cooperative games in general?
Christopher Lees: At the time, I was getting really burned out by such an over-emphasis on competition. I believe some competition can definitely be healthy by challenging us to improve, but everywhere I was looking – from games, to sports, to work, to social media – I was seeing it used to tear people down. I have a strong belief that we can learn and accomplish more through collaboration which led us to using cooperation as the central mechanic of our game.
Anime Herald: After traveling to conventions for over a decade, do you have any convention stories, or travel stories, that you would care to share?
Christopher Lees: This one happened a few years into showing at conventions. We had just finished an indie craft show in [Washington] DC and headed directly to Philly after the show to drop off work at a store. Once we got to Philly, we spent over an hour trying to find our hotel and we were exhausted by the time we checked in. We went to our room, inserted our key, and – nothing. Tried it again – nothing. Tried it a third time with no luck, and turned around to go back to the front desk. Just as we were turning around, this guy that looked a little like Danny DeVito, but with more hair, came charging out of the room completely naked. We were already so tired, and in such a state of shock, we had no idea what was going on between all the F-bombs and this guy’s junk dangling in front of us. We apologized over-and-over and slowly backed away. Apparently, I transposed the number of our room – we were in room 23, not 32. I’m not sure we got much sleep that night.
Anime Herald: It’s a bit of a non-sequitur, but are you into anime or manga at all? If so, what are some of your favorites?
Jerdan Perme: I watched a lot of anime and read manga in high school. I was very drawn to the illustrations, and they played a big role in my artistic journey as a teen. My favorites were Fushigi Yugi (I had the VHS boxed set!) and I loved reading Paradise Kiss and Ranma 1/2. Beautiful art and a romantic storyline were very much up my alley! Chris and I do enjoy watching some of the sillier animes together, like One Punch Man. Nowadays, it is difficult to find something that really resonates with me because there is just so much out there on every streaming platform. I get pretty overwhelmed with so many options. I think it’s great for people who are anime fans that it has become so accessible. I can only imagine how excited I would have been as a teen to have access to so much content!
Anime Herald: What advice would you give to aspiring creators?
Christopher Lees: Two pieces of advice come to mind: Number one – get yourself to places where there are opportunities, and number two – be prepared to say “Yes” to those opportunities when they come your way. We usually consider multiple factors when choosing shows. Sales is one consideration, cost is another, but networking and the chance of making in-person connections can be one of the most important factors. For example, one year we decided to do a particular show in Chicago because we knew that representatives from Land of Nod (the children’s division of Crate and Barrel back then) were known to attend it. While vending, we met and made a connection with a director from Land of Nod and had Horrible Adorables in their store later that year. There was certainly a lot of luck involved with that situation, but it never would have happened if we didn’t put ourselves in the position to have that opportunity presented to us.
Anime Herald: Multiple artists have told me that art school taught them how to make art, but didn’t necessarily prepare them for the business side of the art world. Is there anything you’ve learned specifically on this subject that you would care to share?
Christopher Lees: I think that’s a fairly accurate statement from our experience. I think maybe it’s also fair to say that art school students aren’t generally super interested in business lessons. Unfortunately, if you want to be an independent artist, you’ll be spending at least half of your time (if not more) dealing with business issues. Before I went to art school, I completed a degree in engineering and worked for several years in that field. I was lucky to pick up a lot of business lessons at the companies I worked for, which I later applied to our studio. When we’ve found ourselves stuck with a particularly challenging problem, we’ve learned to reach out to our local Small Business Development Center. It’s a wonderful resource we have in Ohio, and I imagine other states have similar programs. They have helped us register our business, referred us to professionals for legal and accounting help, and even walked us through applying for a grant to take Horrible Adorables to Japan – all for free.
Anime Herald: With Porco, you’ve moved into the beverage glass space (home décor?) Have you field tested any of these glasses with their beverage of choice? Did they work as intended? :)
Jerdan Perme: Porco Lounge and Tiki Room is an amazing cocktail bar located in our city – Cleveland, Ohio. We began the ‘Horrible Adorables for Porco Lounge’ collection in 2022, and it has become one of our all-time favorite collaborations. We are Porco’s resident creative team, and handle designing the artwork for all their needs – from glasses, to swizzle sticks, to social media ads. The glasses we created were designed with the utmost care and consideration for the cocktails being served inside them. Tiki drinks are fun, quirky, and whimsical. We wanted those qualities to be reflected in our illustrations. We are very lucky that the owner of Porco enjoys our art and the world of characters that we’ve created with Horrible Adorables. We have a lot of creative freedom in bringing our cast of characters to this form, while also expressing the qualities that are important to the Porco brand. Being members of their staff, we’ve fortunately had the opportunity to field test the glasses many times. We’re happy to report that they work great!
Anime Herald: What was it like working with Kidrobot to create The Curly Horned Dunnylope?
Jerdan Perme: Working on the Curly Horned Dunnylope was a dream come true! Kidrobot’s signature toy is called the Dunny – it’s a platform that is used and transformed by many artists. Dunnys are acquired to customize not only because they lend themselves to endless ways to modify, but they also have an extremely recognizable shape (and thus, a devoted fanbase). In the designer toy scene, being able to work on a production Dunny for Kidrobot is a huge honor! In 2016, we won the Designer Toy Award for Break-Through Artist and a mass-produced Dunny was part of the award! We were given some limitations with what we could do with our design, so we had to be creative to overcome them and express our vision. We made our design pretty complex with many different paint applications and fine details. Understandably, we had many revisions with the factory to get it just perfect. In the end, the design came out exactly as we envisioned, and we’re very proud of it!
Anime Herald: From the department of “You miss every shot you don’t take,” how shocked were you that your version of Share Bear got approved?
Christopher Lees: When the Care Bear project was presented to us, we were asked to choose a Care Bear and develop a couple concepts for Kidrobot to pitch to American Greetings. American Greetings is a somewhat conservative company, and Kidrobot wouldn’t be able to produce any licensed figures without their approval. We did one conservative rendering, which was based on the traditional Care Bear shape which had our signature scaled texture applied to it. With Frank Kozik’s encouragement, we took things a little further with the second design. Conjoined creatures have been a staple of our work from the beginning and we decided to apply this concept to the Care Bear project. We specifically chose Share Bear, since our Care Bear would literally be sharing its body. To our great surprise, American Greetings approved the conjoined twin design. They were very supportive and even shared it multiple times on their social media. It was a proud moment for us, because we were able to work with companies like Kidrobot and American Greetings to create a very authentic Horrible Adorable piece that was not watered down in any way. We think it’s a great example of how artists can breathe fresh life into big licensed properties by reinterpreting characters in their own style.
Anime Herald: Frank Kozic passed away on May 6. Can you share how he influenced your career?
Jerdan Perme: Frank hugely impacted our career in the designer toy scene. In 2014, we vended at our very first DesignerCon, and we were still very new to toys. A man came to our booth and enthusiastically asked us about our artwork and bought some pieces. We didn’t realize until he handed us his business card that this man was the one and only Frank Kozik! It was a great first meeting and we ended up arranging a time to visit him at his studio the following week. It wasn’t long after that Frank became Kidrobot’s Creative Director, and he asked us if we’d like to work on some toys together. Kidrobot released a seven-character vinyl toy series titled with our brand name “Horrible Adorables” in 2016. That series really cemented our name within the designer toy scene. So much of our early success is due to Frank’s belief in our brand. He forever impacted our lives and we miss him very much.
We’d like to thank Horrible Adorables for speaking with us, and Five Points Festival for making this interview possible.
Horrible Adorables can be found on their website, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok,
