Saturday, November 23, 2013

Richard McGuire | Puzzlehead










The bass player for Liquid Liquid (and subsequently Grandmaster Melle Mel's classic White Lines (Don't Do It), which sampled the bass line from their song Cavern), animator, filmmaker, New Yorker illustrator and children's author, Richard McGuire self-published a series of toys including this 1990 work, Puzzlehead.


"Puzzlehead started as a phone doodle made on graph paper and then I made a prototype. I had the good fortune of meeting Steven Guarnaccia (now the head of Parsons illustration program). He was putting together a book project of 'artists who make toys'. We traded work.

A toy designer named Byron Glaser saw the prototype at Steven's studio and called me up. Within a few months I was in Indonesia working with a team who were manufacturing my product. Byron and his partner Sandra Higashi had altready created Zolo, a hand made wooden construction toy that was distributed by MoMA. in the late 80's. They were looking for other products to keep the team working they had put together."

- Richard McGuire

A reissue of the work is available for $40.00, here.


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