Candiesmagazine.com loves creative people!!! And in order to let you understand what does we mean, what’s better than a look to one of the most talented creative person’s profile? His style will immediately make you fall in love with him, if you’re among the few ones that still don’t know him! Rubens Cantuni Tokyo Candies!!! Enter in!!

Hi Rubens, thank you a lot for having granted us some of your time. Let’s start with the easiest:

How old are you and where do you come from?
I know the answer! I’m 28 (class 1982) and I’m from Genoa.

Describe us briefly your curriculum. How did you jump from being a “quiet” student of industrial design to be one of the most talented creative on the scene?
Well, do not exaggerate, I’m still not sipping daiquiris sitting on the poolside of my own villa at San Francisco Bay. However, like most of my “colleagues”, I’ve to say that I have what I got/I’m getting thanks to internet. Almost 2 years ago I put online some of my works that have been lying on my hard disk for a while and I began to devote myself to the creation of new works and to self-promotion.

How was your approach to the graphic art? Is it something that you have reached gradually or was it a sort of love at first sight that sprang out as soon as you grabbed pencil and colors?
It’s a passion that I’ve had since I was a child. I’m inclined to temporary “fixations” that overwhelm me and then disappear. The one for drawing and graphic art has been the only constant in my life.

I know you’re also the founder of a blog that’s becoming a real meeting place for the most innovative and cutting edge art forms, what do you say about KoiKoiKoi?
Koikoikoi was born in August 2008, from an idea that I got with my colleague and friend Danilo. The idea was the creation of a blog where to post all those things, related with visual arts, that we were finding around in the net (and not) and that we found interesting and worth to be divulged.

Your style is absolutely unique, an unmistakable trade mark. What was the big-bang that led you to the creation of this world made up of funny cartoon graphics and soft almond-eyed pin-ups winking from the middle of colourful tentacles?
My passion for Japanese culture was born, like for a lot of my coetaneous, thanks to TV for children of the 80s-90s. I brought many influences with me to date, mixing them with many other things that I like, such as tatoo art, street art, underground subcultures and so on.

A question driven by personal curiosity: have you ever worked on something different? Does an “unreleased” Rubens exist, maybe locked into your draftbook or that comes out only on moonless nights?
Often the develop of your own style passes through different phases in which you experiment, you try different things taking inspiration from what you like the most, and those phases develop until you reach a point in which you feel at ease. At this point the develop slow down, but it continue its constant changing, following the natural evolutionary process of the person. So yes, it surely exists an “unreleased” Rubens, but if it is unreleased is because I don’t really feel it mine.

I know you have several active cooperations at the moment, do you want to talk about one that you appreciated in a particular way?
Currently I’m working on 2 games for iphone/ipad, for what concerning the graphics. It’s pretty hard, but I’m really curious to see how the final result will be.

Who are the artists that mostly influenced you? Who are those whom you follow with more regularity?

I deeply appreciate lot of them and I quote many of them in my site, I cite you just a few: one of my favourites at the moment is Rockin’ Jellybean, one of my all-time favourite is Mike Giant.

Do you have a particular source of inspiration? Something that in the grey moments give you again the right shade of colors? Or something that you love doing before working on a demanding session?
I quite always work listening to music. Usually something that pushes me, from hip hop to rock and punk.

If I should think at creativity as an object, I would surely compare it to a sponge, able to absorb every external component. When you squeeze it, it return something that contain everything that has been previously absorbed, but in a completely new and unexpected way. If you let me follow for a moment this deviated way of reasoning, what are the factors that your sponge absorbe the most?
They are really many: cinema, art, cartoon, people and characters, nature, things around me.

Imagine that you have to leave for a long trip – maybe toward Japan eheh – what could never be missing into your bag?
The camera.

What are your working tools? How does an art piece Tokyo Candies come to light?
It depends. Often on paper and then vectorized at the computer, sometimes directly on computer and sometimes it remain only on paper. When I have time (rarely) I have fun painting (badly).

I think that your graphics would be the joy of many skate companies! Have you ever approached skateboarding world or the world of board sports in general?
Not yet, but I ‘d like it. If you have some connections…:)

I imagine you as an omnivorous of films, books, mp3s of unknown indie bands: what’s true? What are your tastes?
I love cinema but I don’t put myself on airs as an intellectual, I’m a fan of Hollywood, open to other experiences. I’m also a pretty voracious reader, recently less than the past due to time reasons, but still above average. I love from the emerging writers to the modern classics, I don’t like beach best sellers and I love to discover contemporary Asian authors, especially Japanese. On music instead I’m lazy and I listen to other people’s advice. Favourite bands of the moment: Band of Horses and Okkervil River.

Thank you so much Rubens! It has been a really nice interview! Keep following the crazy works of this visual genius on www.tokyocandies.com !!!