We were lucky to catch up with Mervyn McKoy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mervyn, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
A few years ago, we met an educator while exhibiting at the Miami Book Fair. We always have an interest in contributing to the greater community, having done charity initiatives and school outreach in the past mostly through third parties. However, this educator gave us a chance to workshop an extracurricular program for high schoolers. Despite our busy travel schedule, we jumped at the chance, and in the summer of that year, we had two young charges in the conference room at our office every Saturday afternoon for a total of three months. It was an extremely intimidating task, but it was wholly rewarding. In the beginning, the two boys were very shy and unsure of themselves or what they even wanted to do with their talents and interests, and that actually inspired us to revamp our initial curriculum for them. So, instead of focusing simply on art lessons (things they could get at school or even watch on YouTube), we focused on the business of art.
Every Saturday we would start with the ‘how’ (to make the work) of it all in the form of drawing exercises, then we would move on to the ‘what’ (are you going to do with the work), involving more technical lessons like graphic design and finally ending with a deep dive into the ‘why’ of it all. The ‘why’ portion was the business of the art and could be best summed up as the part where you make sure all the practice before serves a purpose. A purpose didn’t even have to mean anything commercial but was a means to cultivate the ability to look at what you were doing and evaluate it. We got them to dissect the things they liked, such as comics, anime, manga, and video games. We helped them to learn about the people who create these things, all with a bit of why what, and how. They learned to talk about these subjects confidently and also how to present these ideas coherently in a professional setting. We tested this on our last day by holding a mock pitch meeting where they had to secure funding from my team for a project based on one of our products.
It was the right call because these two young men who initially didn’t even know the names of the creators of their favorite entertainment were now able to cross-reference those creators’ influences in order to validate the pitch of a mock video game or comic to us. As a post-course treat, we invited them to spend a weekend at one of our convention appearances. It was their first pop culture convention, and they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. It was a great way to visually reinforce that they could pursue so many different creative endeavors. It doesn’t have to be what they’re told in school or even what we were teaching them, but most importantly, they just had to get out there. Were they customers? I’m not sure, but we met them through one, and I have to say it was one of our fondest memories. We are still so proud of the growth those young men achieved in that time.
Mervyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m Mervyn McKoy, illustrator, storyteller, and co-founder of Paper Lab Studios. I’ve drawn and conceptualized characters, worlds, and brands for clients in different fields, mediums, and genres for over fifteen years. When I left art school in the early 2000s with a bachelor’s in Media Arts and Animation, I paired up with fellow graduates, and instead of tying myself to an office or studio, we started our own enterprises and created comics, games, and even architectural renderings as subcontractors. Those endeavors gave me a taste of freedom and probably made me virtually unhireable by placing me on the path to entrepreneurship. Ultimately though, it was a few years later when I met my partner in crime, Nicole McKoy, that the journey developed a true purpose.
We both started in the custom art scene early and from different angles, but when we met, something clicked. We both came from very diverse sides of the art field and had even more diverse disciplines. I was more commercial and digitally focused while she was traditional, with roots in the gallery and convention scene as well as a master of textiles. We learned from one another and reformed our approach to art, and thus our ever-popular chibi portraits (popularized at conventions) were born. That has now evolved into an even more popular and sought-after request, the pet portrait. Apart from direct-to-customer relationships, we have used this styling on commercial endeavors such as ‘puppets’ for Adobe’s Character Animator platform.
We mainly provide custom, chibi portraits of people, pets, and everything in between. What’s a chibi you ask? Well, chibi is shorthand for a Japanese word meaning ‘a style of cartooning in which the characters are drawn to be very small and cute.’ Since our work is customizable, it works similar to those caricature booths you see at theme parks. We also take a photo of you, so you don’t have to wait, even though we’re fast and efficient. They can be ordered at the conventions and festivals we attend, online through our website order form, social media, or email. Secondarily, we have pre-made prints and canvases inspired by pop culture icons. As mentioned before, we also work on branding and illustrative services for commercial and private entities. At the moment, we have several, personal comic projects such as Nanny and Speeders INC. on the way, and even one in progress being created through our Patreon.
What sets us apart from anyone else is our attention to detail and our care for our customer relationships. It’s quite uncanny, but in many cases, our customers have become our friends, and in special cases, even worked with us. Also, our art is not only flattering, but quality work, and while there are other caricature artists out there, ours isn’t a visual roast like most caricature artwork. Our goal is to put you in a good head space, and we want to make sure that gift of art is something everyone can cherish.
We aim to put a smile on your face, whether you bought something custom or pre-made, or if you just had a kind word to exchange. If you’ve ever visited us at a show, you know we strive to enhance your experience or to help you find just the right gift for that dear friend or loved one. Paper Lab Studios is about bringing people together, be it the fantastic people who have passed through our convention booth as customers, colleagues, or sometimes both.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As I mentioned before, I worked in the comics industry in the past, and over ten years ago, I pitched a co-creator of mine on reviving an old concept we had been sitting on for a while called ‘Giant Robot Warrior Maintenance Crew.’ The idea was to initially make a weekly webcomic, but with the emergence of Kickstarter at this time, our ambitions grew a bit more. We decided to try out this untested platform and see if it could help bolster our efforts. We came out on top, 110% funded, and a great validation for proceeding with the project. Even better, I had a newly minted Tablet PC and an amazing penthouse apartment with even more wonderful ideas germinating to add to the Paper Lab fold. I started on the first page of this very fulfilling project, and all was right with the world.
That was until circumstances changed. I lost my place, and I had to live off the land for a while. Also, to add insult to injury, my Tablet PC screen gave out, but at least I had that successful Kickstarter. The only problem was I had gotten to the first page and had twenty-one more to go…for this chapter. There were two other chapters to complete along with covers, promo art, etcetera, etcetera. This was a great time to give up, and even when I think about it now, I wonder why I didn’t. To give some backstory, my Tablet PC functioned as a screen I could draw directly on, similar to those 2 in 1 laptop or a Surface Pro. Initially, I thought the whole machine had died but came to realize only the backlight for the screen was out because I could still hear the fans working. When I used an extremely bright light, I could even see the unlit screen. It was a relief when I was able to screen share with one of my unused monitors, but there was still the problem of not being able to see the screen. I would have to commit to using my screen as a drawing tablet similar in function to a Wacom but immensely bulkier. I was never great at that since you had to coordinate your hands and eyes. I ended up teaching myself to work with this method, and it was a struggle. It took me a week just to draw one page to my liking when normally it would only take me a day.
On top of this, I had no place to live, so I was working in library study areas during the day. Through sheer stubbornness, I was able to complete the book in a month, which was great progress considering the situation. I attribute all of this to working past tools because I certainly did not have an ideal or even semi-comfortable scenario to work in. I had time limits, too, because if I didn’t get to the public library early, I wouldn’t get a space with a power outlet, and if I left, I would lose the space. So in many cases, I spent the whole day there without eating anything of note, just hoping I would be able to finish this foolish little Kickstarter dalliance, and that it was worth it. Ultimately, I’m a creator, so I have to find a way to create, circumstances be damned, tech or otherwise.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Comic conventions and festivals have been the best source of new clients for us since these events have not only had nationwide reach but garnered a massive fanbase over the years. We also have a very personable team at our booth that helps with retaining booth visitors. In addition, a custom chibi or pet portrait has often blossomed into larger projects, such as books or multimedia. We’ve even had generations of families use our services to commemorate an annual event or to worked very exclusive art events.
We initially got our start in the convention scene through Super Conventions, the organization behind the now nationwide GalaxyCon events. Michael Broder gave me a table and is one of our most loyal clients. When we started, they used to run Florida SuperCon and hired us to create their SuperCon mascot. Now, over a decade later, we still exhibit at their shows and they’re still a client among the many others we’ve worked with along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paperlabstudios.com
- Instagram: paperlabstudios
- Facebook: paperlabstudios
- Twitter: paperlab
- Youtube: paperlabstudios
- Other: patreon.com/paperlabstudios
Image Credits
Headshot courtesy of @Alonzophotos