Simon Legno is a new illustration in town. He was born and raised in Rome, with a mother who is a classical art painter. Simon has always loved to draw, as a kid he carried boxes of broken and chewed up colored pencils with him wherever he went.
Simon’s fascination with Japanese culture started at an early age. He and his elder brother grew up in the 80’s when Italy was bombarded with Japan animation cartoons and comics. Simon is deeply intrigued by everything about Japan, from the beauty of their tradition, to the super pop flashy aspects of the super modern cities, and the most of all, the people.
He studied art direction and graphic designer institute in Rome. In the mean time he worked as a freelance illustrator for some advertising agencies like Leo Burnett and Milano and Gray. He then found a new media company with his friends in Rome, called Vianet, where he works as a Creative Designer. At present he is also working as a Freelance Design Director and Illustrator in Nurun Italy, Milan. In his free time, he started to paint on canvas and study Japanese little by little. He is the world renowned artist that could illustrate just about anything beautifully because he is has exceptional talent.
What make Simone especially unique is that Simone loves Japan and lives for Japan. When Simone created his creation Tokidoki, it is Japan seen through his eyes and so it is like looking at Japan through Italian binoculars with special lenses.
Tokidoki means “Sometimes” in Japanese. Tokidoki is a Japanese iconography and it is a happy world that is delightful, charming, whimsical, and pure, with a sophisticated sexy edge. It transmits a positive feeling through everyday simple object. “I love everything from the ultra modern happy face of Shibuya to the serious magic silence of Kyoto. I choose ‘sometime’, because everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny. By simple chance or meeting a new person, Tokidoki is the hope, that got the hidden energy everyone has inside that gives us the strength to face a new day and dream. It is something positive and that something magical will happen to us”, Simone said so.
When he creates a new character, he always starts out with a sketch. He found out that drawing a sketch on his travel which and makes him fall from distraction makes him feel more relax. He mostly got his new idea of the new character during travel or on his way to a place. So he draws his sketch on his travelling notebook, after that he scans it with his computer, and from there he used some of the design software like Macromedia Freehand so at there he transforms the character into big sharp line, then put the colors and mixed them with the product.
This is the Cactus Pups or Cactus Friends. It is the most popular characters among the others. The concept behind them is that, the world can be pretty scary and cold. You can see the kids, they dress up like cactuses so that they can protect themselves from the bad things all over the world.
This is Bastardino and it is Simone Favorite. Simone like it so much because it is so cute at the same time very aggressive. It actually going to simulate aggressive but it very soiled, neglect from it kind of fun. It can try to be beat up at sometimes.
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