kaNO x Marvel - Designer Toys
Art Director / Design Manager
As Art Director and Design Manager on this collection, I worked closely with artist kaNO to translate his bold, NYC street-art-rooted graphic style into three dimensions, making sure his linework, color sensibility, and sneaker/streetwear motifs carried through the sculpt without getting lost in translation from 2D to 3D. The kaNO x Marvel "Heroes" collection spans four pieces: Black Panther, Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America. My job was keeping a consistent throughline across all of them, staying true to kaNO's voice while making sure each figure still read unmistakably as its Marvel character. That meant close coordination with our development PM to keep things on track through production, and just as much collaboration with our licensing manager to communicate the creative vision to Marvel, so we had room to lean into more modern subculture references like streetwear, sneaker culture, and hip-hop without losing sight of each character's core identity and legacy. The result is a collection that feels authentically kaNO and authentically Marvel at the same time.
