Tolky Monkys Illustration Contest - 2nd edition

One more time, and this the second [view some of the winner illustrations of the past edition], we are organizing the Tolky Monkys Illustration Contest in association with the "Arte y Diseño" magazine. Maybe you know it and if not, with this name you don´t need any explanations. You can visit either their site or blog to know them better.

The contest will be publish on numbers 116 and 117. The first one is available from now on. As in the last year, to participate in this contest you need a lot of imagination and illustration skills. You´ll have to visit our site, search the Character which inspires you most and make a version either in an existent situation or a new one. The images must be sent before August 5th via mail or by postal mail to the magazine ayd[at]mcediciones[dot]com or Pg. Sant Gervasi 16-20 Barcelona. Once the deadline for the reception of the illustrations is reached, a jury formed by Tolky Monkys and Arte y Diseño will choose the prizewinners.

To participate you must live either in Europe or America. The illustrations [maximum 3 per person], can be done using any artistic design technic, but must be sent in digital format, have a 300dpi resolution, maximum size of 50cm * 70cm or viceversa and being in CMYK. All the illustrations sent might be used by Tolky Monkys to carry out exhibitions or any other type of events. However, they won´t be used to be printed on t-shirts or any kind of format for its commercialization. This is important, cause in any case we want to take profit of this contest. We just want to have fun with all of you ;]

And what is more important, the prizes. There will be different categories and in each one, there will be several winners. Besides, there will be several accesits that will be given following undetermined criterias, so don´t try to understand them.

1] BEST TECHNIC: A Tolky Monkys´ pack to choose by the winners among the items available at the site in the moment that we publish the results. 3 winners.

- 1st prize..: 6 items.
- 2nd prize: 4 items.
- 3rd prize: 2 items.

2] THE FUNNIEST: A Tolky Monkys´ pack to choose by the winners among the items available at the site in the moment that we publish the results. 2 winners.

- 1st prize..: 4 items.
- 2nd prize: 2 items.

3] ACCESITS: Give away of 5 surprise t-shirts among all the participants. 5 winners. One t-shirt per each.

Find out all the Tolky Monkys Characters
Visit the Tolky Monkys Store
Visit Arte y Diseño Blog
Download the news of the contest in the magazine [spanish]
View some of the winners of the 1st edition at the Flickr

New Characters knock at our door - Boys T-shirts II

And here you have the design for boys t-shirts of the third new Character: CASIUS, an infernal rock band. This illustration is printed with huge screens of 70cm * 100cm, either on the front or back. This last print is made nearly from the neck till the t-shirt bottoms edge, treading even on the seams.

View t-shirts at the store
View big huge pics at Flickr
Fave at Rumplo

CASIUS ::: [Front]

CASIUS ::: [Back]

New Characters knock at our door - Boys T-shirts I

At last, we can announce new Characters for boys t-shirts. We´re really proud, cause they suppose a great change in what we were doing till now, not only in the design, but also in the technical improvements we´ve achieved which allows us to use the t-shirt as a large canvas.

During the past year, we invest much time looking for new serigraphy workshops that could allow us more alternatives when designing for t-shirts, but all we found were companies focus in advertisement and, tecnically, they had plenty of restrictions that didn´t let us take profit of our illustrations after more than 3 years of experience. The search finished when we found a workshop in Galicia, in the North of Spain, in which we can use plenty of new technics. Is not only the million types of inks and finishes they have available, but also that we can now use GIANT SCREENS of 70cm * 100cm and print on the edges of the t-shirt, on seams and sleeves. With these new possibilities, we had the challenge of creating designs that, using most part of the t-shirt, wouldn´t be tedious. We didn´t want the t-shirt to be a great ink mass, something that has been very important for us since the beginning.

You can see the results by your own. In total, three new Character designs: CASIUS, a helly rock band, ROGER, a lab rabbit a little bit stupid, and the well-known EGGEATER Mucus & BLINK Mucus, the Characters in which all of you contributed with a piece of your imagination to give them a story in our last edition of the Microstories Contest.

View t-shirts at the Store
View big huge pics at our Flickr
Fave us at Rumplo

ROGER, a lab rabbit [Front]

ROGER, a lab rabbit [Back]
EGGEATER Mucus & BLIND Mucus

A little bit of mail marketing to Press

In our effort to get Tolky Monkys known by the whole world and swim in money like Gilito McPato, we have taken profit of the new card cases we designed to achieve some attention from press media.

As we think that sending only e-mails is useless, we decided to send a letter by traditional postal service informing of these new card cases. The letter talked about the different changes that had undertaken in the last 20 years in the public transport of Madrid and we compared it with the transport card and the case that comes with it when you register, that despite these, they haven´t suffered any change [Download letter in Spanish - PDF]. With this letter, we attached some card cases samples and we introduced each of them a card with the Character story simulating the classic transport card from Madrid. Finally, we packed all these stuff in an envelop and we put a sticker at the back to write the recipient. You can have a look below to a few pics we made.

After sending the letters, we had to make the most boring and exciting part at the same time. This previous phrase seems to have no sense, but we aren´t mistaken. When you call all the recipients to know if they had received the letters and found with 1001 excuses, you get bored, but it´s also exciting because sometimes, you find a dude that likes the idea and tells you they´ll write about it. At the moment, we have reached "Buenos dias Madrid", in Telemadrid, a spanish public channel, "Conexion Madrid Hoy", in Onda 6, and Duende Madrid, a great free distribution cultural magazine. Good results, isn´t it? Anyway, we´ll continue hassling cause we deserve much more. Or not... ;]

AN ENVELOP WITH STICKER, A LETTER AND FOUR CARD CASES SAMPLES.
INSIDE EACH CASE A CARD WITH THE STORY OF THE CHARACER.
THE ENVELOP WITH THE STICKER SIMULATING A TRANSPORT CARD.
AND HERE ALL THE CARD CASES, LETTERS AND ENVELOPS WE USED.

Votación Relatos Cortos

Atzavara births 1 year and gives a bag to celebrate

One of our stores, Atzavara, celebrates its first anniversary. This small-wide store, based in Reus [Tarragona], it’s commanded by Montse and Raul [you may visit their Facebook profile to get to know them better] and after a long struggle throughout the last year to a non-stop selling, they wanted to have a detail with all those who have gone through or just step by their shop and who had bought t-shirts, sweatshirts, skirts, or any complement. So they talked to Tolky Monkys with the idea of preparing a special gift that no one else could have. And so we did.

The gift consists of a cloth bag with a nice illustration of our Characters of the graphic line. The bag is not made of cotton, but it’s made by a tissue that respects environment, it’s very strong and the size is very large, 44 + 10 * 38 cm, which can be used to go shopping, go to the beach or to the mountains , spend all day long at the pool or whatever you like.

How to get it? Very easy. For any purchase exceeding € 15, they will give you the bag for FREE. Without cheating. It's that easy. So, if you live nearby, we encourage you to visit the store and make a goog purchase.

View Address Google Maps.
View Address on Tolky Monkys Stores.
And here the poster we design to let customers know about the promotion:

Tachaaaan!! Save your cards and notes with Tolky Monkys cases

One year ago we carried out a promotion to make known Tolky Monkys here in Madrid. We invented a strange story about a new Character created for the occassion called Rasputin with the objective of distributing a lot of nice card cases. For those who don´t live here in Madrid, you should know that the public transport card is composed of a personal card, with name and photo of the person who belongs to, and the monthly or annual ticket used either in metro or bus. This stuff is kept into an ugly and simply orange or red case that everybody uses in the beginning because is for free. The image below illustrates better what we´re explanning:

As we thought that this was possible to be improved, we began looking for some choices. After seeking a lot, we decided to use a double flap plastic case with three pockets inside to print our Characters again. One of these three pockets is very small and is specific for the ticket of the public transport in Madrid, but the other two are much bigger and are very useful to keep cards, notes and other personal belongings. This means, that even if you don´t live in Madrid, if you have something to keep savely, you can use our cases ;]

In total we have four designs available in our store, all of them with Tolky Monkys´ Characters of course. The Rasputin´s Great Circus, the one we used for the promotion, Bola 8, a dude with needs of revenge, Uzun, the pandemonium, a little demon that makes bubbles with souls of people who don´t deserve to go to Heaven and Fermin, the cefalofalo, a fish that enjoys gobble up desperate humans for breakfast.

Visit Tolky Monkys´ store to get some.

CARD CASES OUTSIDE...

AND INSIDE...
What do you think? You like it? Hope you live some comments. We want feeeeeeeeeeeeeedback!!

Visit Tolky Monkys´store

A non-stop... this weekend to SOS 4.8!!

This year we are repeating, and, like last year, we have come to Murcia to enjoy the Festival SOS 4.8. An explosive mix of music, art exhibitions and conferences on sustainable development. If you like festivals, this will certainly begin to be a crucial event.

This year it seems the Organization have sold all the tickets, so there are more than twice as many people each of the two days, 1 and May 2, and that's easy to see for all of us that works here. Flood of people here and there covering the four stages that make up the festival this year and stopping from time to time in the market area. We'll let you know how it works!!