CHIBUISM

"I did feel crazy for many years which is why I didn’t talk a lot. Or maybe why I still don’t talk a lot. Because I felt crazy for what I was into and what I wanted to do. [But] this art stuff doesn't stop."

Pencil on paper, drawing from lights on to lights off- Nigerian-American artist, Chibu Okere, is 1000% obsessed. Now, all of that hard work is paying off. His 2D drawings on his Instagram page and for miniSUPER offer only a glimpse at what his creative mind is capable of. As a kid growing up in Georgia, US, he recalls his first electric encounters studying the world of television and his experiences with anxiety and self-doubt.

These days Chibu is busy promoting his original work through collaborations like Louis Vuitton, Mercedes, and Adobe. When he does take a break, you might find him on Nintendo’s squid battle royale game Splatoon 3 gushing over the graffiti that covers the digital city, or in the real world skating the streets of LA at 5 AM. The world is yours Chibu!

The following interview has been transcribed from a call. The interviewer, Claire Kowalewski, is calling from Berlin at 6PM. The artist, Chibu Okere, is speaking to us from Los Angeles at 10AM.

 

Chibu! Welcome to the secret sticker hideout. First and foremost, let’s set the scene: What’s today’s fashion vibe?

The locs are down and curling for some reason. Very much in animator mode this week. Nigerian-artist-with-low-iron type fit.
Shirt: signed SARU shirt by Santa Inoue! One of my favorite pieces in my collection
Accessories: singing Kamen Rider keychain (It plays the entire Kamen Rider theme song for a like a minute)
Shoes: Ashy 11’s

The miniSUPER family knows you from your sticker sheets and your contributions to the limited miniSUPER keychain release. Tell us about the creative process behind the visuals–how did you decide which of your characters needed to become a sticker or a keychain?

For the keychains, it was easy because I am always making characters. It’s like my natural habitat to be working and creating, like one character a day. At that time I had been pitching a couple [of different TV] show ideas, and one of them was really close to my heart.  It described who I am as a person (being a childhood immigrant)—so I think I was “in that same vibe” for the Lagos keychain.

 

"Peace Love Lagos", miniSUPER, 2021.

 

And then for the "B-Hair Guide" stickers, at the time I was listening to Crystal Kay, all of her early albums you know? And I was inspired by a song called Girl’s Night. In the song, she names a bunch of girls. I loved it. So I was thinking… What do these girls look like? in my head. And I just made them into stickers.

 

"B-Hair Guide", miniSUPER, 2020.

 

Was there one great idea for miniSUPER that didn’t quite make it to the final cut?

I think there was. With the keychains especially I was thinking: I want to keep sending more concepts to miniSUPER all night. I’m super into collecting keychains first and foremost, and then stickers probably.

I never mentioned this to Justin actually, but I really wanted to do keychain designs with accompanying super heavy animations. When I got hit up for this project, I was just thinking about the Jet Set Radio commercial where they are, like, in the supermarket and crazy stuff is happening. Y’all. You have to watch.

But anyways yeah, I just regret that I didn’t have more time to do actual commercials for all the miniSUPER products. Like I WANT TO. And I don’t even care like, “All that for stickers or keychains?” YES! It is all about the atmosphere of the products for me.

When I see a product I’m thinking in 2005 it would be shown in a completely different way. Now you see stuff in an Instagram ad or something that is super basic and just says “Hey. This is available.” No drama. No crazy Crash Bandicoot-type commercials. I love seeing all the hubbub… just for some…shoelaces or whatever, but it is a whole 30-second long masterpiece.

 

OFF-WHITE X GRAFFITI MILANO, 2023

 

In your original artist profile on the miniSUPER site, you shared a quote: “Before the city is awake”. What does this quote mean to you?

I like waking up before the city is awake. It feels like you can actually go outside. it’s a completely empty open world for you to do whatever you want. If you want to skate in a certain way which wouldn’t be possible with traffic, you can. No traffic. I don’t feel as anxious. Very zen.

Kinda like how I feel in my room—waking up in the morning, no noise, lights on and just drawing. I have enough time to go out and skate and then I go back in when people start to wake up.

What time are we talking?

Like 5 AM? But it’s like 3 AM Adult Swim vibes, you know?

 

MTV: "Patterns of Us", 2021

 

Can you walk us through a regular Chibu day these days?

Yeah, I usually wake up, get some tea, and I think I immediately sit down and start drawing to be honest.

Most of the time I have one song on repeat or I am watching something on repeat because I have to be stuck in some type of loop. I am the type that could listen to one song for two days straight. You can actually notice stuff–like, you hear? They faded out these cymbals at two minutes and 13 seconds! And check that voice in the background?

A drawing I started working on with one song usually ends with that same song.

I’m also reading some of these magazines, I’ll send you a pic. I have an endless amount of them. [And] Playing games too. That probably takes up the majority of my day… can’t cap on that. Like Splatoon 3. Yo. If I added you, you’d see how much I am online.

I didn’t think of it until now but Splatoon makes so much sense with your work. I totally see it.

Yeah! And by the way…I WISH I could have worked on that. Like they SHOULD HAVE called me. The fashion, the graffiti. That is literally all me. That game describes everything I am into.

I gotta say too, I am not from the art world, I didn’t go to art school or ‘nothing like that. I’m just an obsessive fan that just so happened to fall into this. Because for a long time I wasn’t getting paid for nothing. And I was doing the craziest stuff just to get by, like selling cigarettes?

‘Cause I’m from Macon, Georgia but I lived in Atlanta for a while. When I was out there I was interning at modeling agencies because I was obsessed with fashion and wanted to learn more about it. I wanted to see how brands connect with magazine publishers. You know, Fruits Magazine, and all that stuff? So good. I was there just to learn, not to get money or ‘nothing.

But [before I got into TV] the closest thing I did that was art-related for money was at a type of company I didn't even know existed! It was a company that did art shows for elementary schools. The kids draw and then [the schools] send all of it to us. We are in this warehouse putting kids' drawings into frames all day. So I am looking at kid refrigerator art all day. Packaging it up and driving it all the way back to that school and putting up the show. It was so stressful but I liked the fact that I could see kids' art all the time… how free it looked, the colors, the style. It was inspiring to be in that warehouse. But not something I could do forever.

I wish I had my kid drawings…I was so obsessed with Sonic for years. So I made a Sonic the Hedgehog trading card game based on what I learned from playing Pokemon and Yugioh. I drew all the cards and was gluing them to cardboard stock decks so they felt sturdy. That was probably the earliest drawing that I did. I wish I had them but they are definitely gone.

On the topic of work, we came across an old tweet of yours featuring a photo of your workspace. Tell us about your method. What does Britney bring to the office?

Oh. My. Gosh. Yeah, I got that specific era Britney Spears standee from some party I went to. Before I was just putting my sticky notes on a wall, but then I started putting it on that standee until I filled the whole thing up. As I finished work [and removed the sticky notes] I could see more of Britney.

I love seeing artists' workstations and what they keep around them and for me this is what keeps my energy up ‘cause I can just turn to the left and I get inspired.

Let’s talk about your creative practice, starting at the beginning. Growing up, was there one thing or experience that made you realize that you loved working creatively?

My work is so tied to art, anime, and games. I would say games are probably even the #1 because I was a gamer before I knew anything about art. I would always get inspiration from video game cutscenes–like do you know Sonic CD? I just watched the intro to that on loop, over and over again when I was a little kid.

But there was one moment in high school when I started thinking maybe this art thing could really become something.

My brother is a music artist and at the time he was doing an EP of mixtapes, and he needed a cover. So I made it and then the project went crazy. It felt like a Goofy Movie type thing–you know the main character Max, was lame and everybody called him wack, but then he did the “powerline thing” and turned into this popstar and the people were like “ Oh man he crazy! He so cool!”. That literally happened to my brother, and subsequently, to me because I was involved.

At the time, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. Everybody was on the way to graduation and wanted to be a lawyer or whatever… and I wasn’t even good at ‘nothin. After that [the powerline moment] happened, I thought… Maybe I am good at something?

But I knew I was definitely not as good as what I saw on that Sonic CD. I NEED to get better. I was super inspired to make the art that I wanted to see more of.

 

 

A big part of building creative confidence is finding mentorship from those favorite teachers, best friends, and even your parents. It sounds like your relationship with your brother really encouraged you to believe in yourself, would you agree?

We inspired each other. He is super deep on the Music-tip, and I am super deep on the Animation-tip so, we could give each other advice. So it was kind of like a mentor, but also a peer at the same time because we are close in age (He is like one year older). He was on my side and he was there the whole way. He saw the ascension.

Moving into the topic of inspiration, tell us about your relationship with television growing up.

I definitely was watching TV really early. For a while we didn’t have anything on TV, no cable. So the only times I was watching tv was when my sister would go get her hair braided or at school. And, you know, it would be like law shows, sitcoms or Spanish soap operas at the hair salon.

It wasn’t until randomly my parents just decided to pay for cable back at home so that I would see anime for the first time on the sci-fi channel. I was so obsessed trying to find it.

We were watching Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo and then I started going to video stores and getting anything that looked like an anime. At that point, I started watching things that were even TIGHTER than the thing I was searching for. You know, 3 Episode OVA’s: 30-minute joints on a VHS or something.

I love the recurring “T.V. news broadcast” theme in your work. I’m imagining you watching T.V. and having a moment of realization–like, “hold on a second pause that. Whatever is happening here graphically is really great”, and then figuring out how to blend it into your work. Is that accurate?

Yeah! It has something to do with my love for graphic design. I didn’t even know what that was until I started getting obsessed with graffiti and realizing that text placement is art.

 

 

You seem like you have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of TV shows and video games which feed directly into your art. What are some of your ultimate favorite titles?

Oh man, it's so hard. Like before this, I reread the Yue interview AGAIN, and I knew you might ask about shows and stuff. Let me try to choose one… For video games, I think it’s either Jet Set Radio Future or Splatoon.

Splatoon is cool but you can’t just exist, you have to jump into a 3-minute match of some kind I usually like playing games where you are just in this virtual world and you can do whatever. Like the Jetset titles allow me to be in Japan? They even had a fake New York one.

And then for a show? I don’t even know… Yeah of course there are like ANIMES that I LIKE but, I would also pick a black sitcom that doesn't have anything to do with art style but I just like the world and the story, and the sounds.

You’ve adopted a clear visual style which I want to describe as Tropicana Cyberpunk? Or Pop-Art Noir? How would you describe it?

I need to write down whatever you just said. I’ll wait to read the interview ‘cause that’s perfect.

I don’t know how I would describe my art. It’s from absorbing all this anime knowledge from shows and movies to growing up reading Charlie Brown comics and watching Rugrats and stuff like that… I usually just go for cute and rugged–cute characters but they look like they would do something to you if you, like, tried to swing on them.

 

miniSUPER, 2024

 

Over the years did you feel any stress or pressure to develop your unique style?

Yeah, it was definitely stressful because there is no clear path that says that “someone with this style will be able to get to this level”. You just have to really like it and keep doing it. Especially since I wasn’t coming from the art world I felt like people that got paid for art were people that belonged in museums or they had skills to make actual products, like toys or clothing. I was in my head thinking that I was closer to a graffiti artist than tryin’ to try and get real art money. I wasn’t legit.

Coming from that angle I really had lots of pressure to figure it out. I knew I needed to make enough to have a family in the future.

I had a backup plan that was not working. I went to college for health sciences to become a cardiologist but then I dropped out of the program with just a public health degree. That degree wasn’t getting me ANY type of work.

I was always trying to figure out how to get into a museum. I was trying to answer the question of How do I stand out? Maybe I should just make an animated show? I didn't know you could sell a show or ‘nothin like that.

 

Louis Vuitton: "Virgil Was Here", 2021

 

I only picked up animation as a way to advertise products I could make at the time. Like, I knew about streetwear so I wanted to make an animation that would go with the item to sell it. I definitely don’t know how that would have turned out at the time.

But then accidentally I got into the TV world and my whole perspective changed. Like wow, you can actually make TV shows? I didn’t know anybody personally that was doing anything like that so it didn’t seem possible. It broke my mind even though I grew up watching a bunch of that stuff.

Then there were those artists that made a character and the character became a bigger thing than anybody could have ever imagined. Kaws. Nigo? Futura? I was thinking “I don’t know how you do that either… but I have to try”. But I don’t want to copy ‘nothin, I don’t require loads of money or ‘nothing.

Honestly, I would be happy just watching Sonic CD over and over.

Is there an artist totally opposite your style that you wish you could swap with for a day?

There’s so many. Is it always the people that can get real detailed? There’s this artist…Viper. Malik Viper? His art reminds me of 2000’s video game art. The hardest thing ever! So cool. I like his stuff. Like Fredbread? His stuff is crazy. It’s constant inspiration.

And then forreal miniSUPER’s Yue Wu is super tight. Her detailed anime stuff? I love it. She makes those types of worlds that you get totally pulled into with just one illustration.

Throughout your personal work we see on Instagram, you seem to favor a short animation loop to tell your stories. Would you agree that is where you feel most comfortable?

Yeah, that's where I feel comfortable working at a faster rate. But that being said, I would love to do longer stuff.

The short ones are kinda how my brain works, like me playing the same song over and over again? I literally think in 10-second chunks. The very first idea I have is usually 10 seconds long, and then I can expand from there if I want to.

I am actually planning longer things but everything is in the shadows right now. Stay tuned.

What do you think short-form animation can do that a T.V. show or feature can’t?

I can only speak for myself but, looking at short-form animations feel like it is possible to absorb all the parts of a scene. In longer loops I catch myself just glazing over. Like the whole animation would be cool but you can’t pay attention to the little moments: like the split second when a character is resting on, like a car, and then jumps off. When it is longer you only are aware that the story is moving along.

 

MTV: "Patterns of Us", 2021

 

You’ve been working with Dreamworks wearing an assortment of different hats since 2019. You even worked on a three-season animated series called Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, a story that features an LGBTQ lead and characters of color. Super cool. What was it like to transition from working primarily freelance to working on a project like Kipo?

That was my first TV gig. Kipo was fun to work on. It’s still on Netflix if you want to peep! That was the best production I could have started my career with. The team was amazing and small enough to where everybody was low-key family.

I went from working at that kid’s art warehouse and cigarette selling on the side to working in the TV world.

When I started I got to do prop design and effects designs, like smoke or AD effects, essentially anything that was not a character. And then eventually I got to do character design. It was a good way to see how everything works and how hard it is to make a show.

And to be honest, after Kipo I was like: alright I got the knowledge, and I got money so let’s use these resources to figure out what I really want to do with art. And that’s when I really started with my bigger ideas, like creating and pitching shows. Of course I did freelance here and there to survive, like every artist.

Dreamworks taught me TV, freelance taught me everything else I wanted.

Fast forward to more recent years, it’s been pitching shows and working on my personal projects that are 100% Chibu, not going through studios or a third party. All me.

 

miniSUPER, 2024

 

On top of Dreamworks, you also work as an animator and Art Director for Slug Global, a ridiculously fun underground branding agency you founded with friends in 2016. I really liked one of your tweets describing the namesake of the project being when “ you lift up a rock and find a slug, that’s the underground scene…”. Tell us more about the thinking behind the name and the overall Slug mission.

Bosco(Slug coworker) had come up with it ‘cause she was thinking of sluggers, like baseball? And shortened it to slug. The idea is that slugs are these weirdo creatures that are usually found underneath debris: like logs or rocks. We are all these weirdos that came together under the common interest of art, and music.

We want to see more of the people we relate to and highlight the culture and members of these underground scenes.It’s a cultural close-to-home creative agency. We work with brands that want our ties to underground spots and scenes. All these corporations have no idea about the audience that they want to capture so they hire us to help with that process.

We were cheering you on when your partnership with Adobe on their Photoshop animation tutorial project #Creativityforall launched. I loved that in the video you said that you don’t even know how to use all the tools on Photoshop. They couldn’t have selected a more down-to-earth and fun artist to campaign with. I really recommend our readers who are just getting started with Photoshop to take a peek.

 

Adobe: "The World Is Your Canvas", 2021.

 

When Adobe emailed me I automatically thought it was spam. I clicked it and was like are they hacking me, right now? Change all my passwords quick!

And most recently, you’ve landed projects with Mercedes Benz and Louis Vuitton! Congratulations! Tell us about your work with LV, starting with their “Artist Residency” and 2023 Men’s spring/summer show.

Yeahhh that's actually crazy. All that Adobe, Mercedes, and then Louis Vuitton? Those are the types of things that I can tell my parents and they know what I am talking about. “I can’t believe you are working on Mercedes!” Like come on guys! I’ve done so much! I have been drawing for so long!! But they can identify with it like Hey! I’ve driven a Mercedes! But LV, yeahh that was super crazy.

For LV, I actually initially got on the art team when LV was doing promotional animations for their “shop residencies”(small pop-up events/shops) across the world. Man, some of the animations we did didn't even get aired online at all, that sucked!

The one that was FIRE to work on was the tribute Virgil Abloh cartoon for the closing of the SS22 LV Miami show. That one was special to me for real. Virgil means a lot to me and that was the last show before he passed.

That whole experience was wild, felt surreal. I would love to do more stuff like bigger things with them.

I remember growing up and watching that commercial for an LV purse created by the dude that worked on the Digimon movie, Mamoru Hosoda. At that time I was like Digimon obsessed. I had this game called Digimon World which was probably one of my favorite games of all time. I was watching all of the seasons…I have that Digimon watch on right now.

Literally in the commercial the art style was exactly the same as the sequence when the characters go into the digital world in Digimon. One-to-one the exact same. So when I saw that commercial I was foaming at the mouth.

I was thinking Digimon was related to LV and was like man, I love Louis Vuitton. I watched the low-res, pixelated version on repeat for years. I still watch it now! I think I watch it every year, I haven’t stopped since it came out.

Oh my goodness…I know exactly which one you are talking about. As a middle schooler when YouTube became a thing it was the first video I ever saved to a playlist on YouTube. That is wild.

 

miniSUPER, 2024.

 

Lastly, to leave our community with some creative inspiration, can you shout out one up-and-coming artist that you believe in?

I would shout out Otieno because his style and artistry in general is are what I would love to see more of. He makes some insane music too. There are so many homies, gotta shout out jjj4y0_o, a super crazy animator, like some Studio Trigger stuff. Jeron Braxton, he is a cool homie and artist. There’s so many!

And y’all, honestly if you really like whatever you are pursuing you are going to ask fewer and fewer questions like, "Why am I doing this?" I remember early on I had so many of those questions and I did feel crazy for many years which is why I didn’t talk a lot. Or maybe why I still don’t talk a lot. Because I felt crazy for what I was into and what I wanted to do. [But] this art stuff doesn't stop.

Thank you so much for visiting our blog space! What are you up to after this? Any fun evening plans?

Uhhh just meetings? That’s it. I’m excited to actually show what could be happening this year? I’m not able to yet…but stay tuned folks!

 

[UPDATE] Since this interivew, Chibu's latest project has been revealed. Check out the debut animated short, YOPPAMAN: link. 🧇