Creators, Makers, and Doers: Beau Greener
Posted on 1/6/16 by Arts & History
Idaho native and creative, Beau Greener, dedicates himself to the pursuit of craft, design, illustration, and all things aesthetic. He integrates the range of his interests into every work day, which can be producing beautiful illustrations and designs during the day, to settling into his home studio in the evening to satisfy his craving for handcraft work, which he markets under his Credenda Studios moniker. Well suited in the Boise artistic niche, this toy-maker, illustrator, artist, and designer guru will soon throw himself into the vast unknown with a move to his second home in Seattle.
Can you describe the work that you are making?
I specialize in doing designer toys or custom action figures. It is a pretty small market right now so there are not too many people doing it. That is nice, but it is called so many different things that it is hard to really label it. The term that seems to be going around is designer toys or bootleg toys. I basically take other figures and sculpt on top of them and create my own designed figures. I will make limited runs of them from around thirty to fifty.
How did you get into designer toys/ bootleg toys?
I have always loved action figures. Growing up I had hundreds of them, lots of Star Wars figures, some of the newer ones. I had tons of them, but then in high school I was more worried about girls and got rid of them all and I am now regretting that and trying to get back some of my favorites here and there. I have always been fascinated by action figures and the color choices, the story. I have always been a fan of the villains, they look cooler; they have better color schemes, cooler gadgets, so I would always collect the monsters. About five years ago I joined Instagram and I randomly came across some people in New York that were doing bootleg toys. They were making designer toys and I started following them and looking into it, I thought it was pretty cool and I saw that there is actually a market for it. From there I did some research about what it would take to start doing it and I slowly started working on getting all of the equipment that I needed. My first figure was the General Geddon, the “Being of Terror.” That one I did a run of fifteen and they all sold out in a couple of hours. So I figured I was doing something right and I have continued doing it, and it has been really good. I have traveled with it quite a bit and have met some really cool people. I actually got the opportunity to collaborate with one of my favorite artists, Alex Pardee, on a figure. It has been doing really well. People seem to like them.
Is this a full time job for you?
Not yet. I would like to eventually get to that point, but right now I don’t really see myself being full time as a toy designer. Credenda Studios originally started out as a screen printing operation doing gig posters and all that. I was doing a bunch of work for Treefort and I got burned out and needed something else to keep my interest, so that is where the toys came in. I see Credenda Studios as eventually becoming my full time gig, but the focus would be in all different areas. I will still do screen printing and the toys and all of that, but I see Credenda being a hand-crafted gig for me. It is a venue for me to make stuff by hand. For the Hyde Park Street Fair, I made a bunch of wooden six-pack holders and wooden bottle openers with magnetic backs. Those did really well and lots of people have shown interest in those things. At this point I am just messing around and trying to figure out what people like. It is slowly getting there. My wife and I are actually moving to Seattle in early 2016 and there we are really hoping to push it even more. Getting into a bigger market might open up some chances for us to be full time designers, toymakers, and screen printers.
Do you have a day job?
I do. I work for Carew Company . Paul Carew is the owner and it is a little design agency downtown under Java on 6th and Idaho. I work there as the graphic designer and illustrator. That is my 9-5. It is really nice because Paul is really accommodating with my personal creative outlet. There is a lot of cross over, too, which is really nice. It is not like I am burned out by either of them. They kind of go hand in hand.
Even though you have a creative 9-5 job, what drives you to come to the studio and keep working?
Beyond the day job? I think it is kind of doing something new and different. In a sense the two go hand in hand as far as the design work aspects and advertising, but at the same time my day job is more about graphic design, so I am working in front of a computer and here I actually get to work with my hands. I love building stuff. I love figuring out a way to create something and actually build it. It takes a little bit of elbow grease, but that is the biggest draw for me, to come home and be able to have an idea and create a tangible figure at the end of the process that you can hold in your hand. That is the biggest thing. It is also the fact that I am the creative director; I have the vision for it. Everything is up to me. I don’t have to collaborate with too many other people. I do frequently collaborate with illustrators, but for the most part everything is designed and created by me.
How much time do you spend working in the studio?
I spend at least three hours a day in the studio after work. I get home about five and have dinner and hang out, but then I try to come in the studio and do a little bit of work because that is just the way I am wired. I am not really the kind of person who can just sit down and read or watch TV for hours on end. I have to be up and doing something. This is a way for me to do that and still have something to make some money from at the same time. I am always spending lots of time in the studio. Doing a figure takes from start to finish, about two months, if I am really working at it and in the studio regularly.
What’s the inspiration for your personal creative output?
I draw a lot of my inspiration from pop-culture in a sense, and particularly from the horror genre. I grew up loving horror movies. I would always binge on horror movies growing up. I always loved monsters and really weird looking things, aliens, stuff like that. So, a lot of my stuff reflects that. I am also really inspired by vintage packaging. The stuff that you get in dime store packaging, like ten cent squirt guns, stuff like that, the really simplified packaging that happened during the Baby Boom era. I really gravitate towards that style of packaging, advertising and illustration. For the figures, a lot of them are all monster related. I always create some kind of villain backstory. I don’t think I have actually created a good guy yet. For the most part they are all bad guys. I would say that my biggest inspiration is horror movies, particularly from the eighties, the golden age of horror cinema.
Can you talk about who you audience is for this work?
It is kind of allover actually. It is a lot of people my age, people that grew up watching Star Wars, collecting toys. The audience isn’t really younger people at all. It is mostly toy collectors, people that collect the rare and vintage toys or who are really into the horror genre and they just like figures that are based off of horror movies or other pieces that speak to that genre. But, for the most part, I don’t know if there is a specific age group, but it is probably in the age group of 25-40.
How do you find and connect with your audience?
It is actually all through Instagram, which has been the social platform that has really launched off Credenda Studios. It is a great way to connect with people. It seems as though all of the toy collectors and makers are all on Instagram, it seems to be the platform of choice. I just got on there and starting liking and talking to people and it just snowballed from there. A lot of people starting coming to me and asking me for commissions and it just continued to grow and get better from there.
You mentioned that you are moving to Seattle, what drew you away from Boise?
I don’t think there is anything that really drew us away or anything that we dislike. We love Boise. It is such a great city and everybody here is really nice. The art scene is great; it is growing, which is really cool. That is actually one of the bummers of moving is both my wife and I seem to be doing really well in the art community. We are getting invited to shows regularly and meeting lots of people and it seems like I have a good stronghold, but I think we just want a challenge. We want something new. I have lived in Idaho all of my life and I have always wanted to explore and go see other cities. Every time we go to Seattle we have always called it our second home and we just had some resources open up to where we don’t have a reason not to go. So we are going to go and give it a try. We are going to be jumping into a community that has a much bigger art scene, much bigger names, so it will be that much more of a challenge to stand out. Here we feel like we are doing really good, but there we will really have to push ourselves more and just kind of see what happens. We are moving there, but there is the chance that we could end up moving back in a couple of years. We just want to try something new and get a fresh set of eyes and experience the new scenery and see what happens.
Do you feel that there are any particular resources that are lacking here for you to be successful?
In the beginning, when I first started, I grew up in Nampa, and there really wasn’t much of an art scene out there, but it is definitely starting to grow now. There are some really great artists coming out of Nampa. When I first moved to Boise it just seemed like—partly because I didn’t know many artists in Boise—but it seemed like the younger artists weren’t doing much. There weren’t that many illustration shows or group art shows. I guess what I am getting at is that there wasn’t art for people our age. It seemed like it was a little more sophisticated, but it seems like as the years go by that has become more and more prominent in Boise. There is the Art Deco show that happens, and recently the Krampus art show at the VAC. It is things like that, things that are cool, is what Boise really needs. Boise is such a diverse city that has a lot of young creative minds and it is cool to see that there are now shows and opportunities for people to do something that isn’t considered mainstream, but there are avenues to show work and put it in front of people who will appreciate it and buy it.
Any inspiration or tips for others who are doing the same work you are?
There aren’t really that many people that I know of in Boise that are doing the designer toys. There are a few people that I have talked to that have showed interest. I have had a few people ask about wanting to learn how to do it and the biggest advice I could give is just jump into it. You just have to do it. It is kind of expensive to start up, but just try it out. You are going to fail a lot. I wasted so much money in the beginning trying to figure everything out, but you can’t learn anything without a little bit of failure. Just have fun and don’t take it too seriously. Don’t expect to make a living off of it in the first year, but that goes for anything. Just have fun with it and everything will eventually come around to you. Do what makes you happy and have fun with it.
Creators, Makers, & Doers highlights the lives and work of Boise artists and creative individuals. Selected profiles focus on individuals whose work has been supported by the Boise City Dept. of Arts & History.