Studio 324 is the brainchild of the First Born. After years of contemplation he finally took the leap to bring his family together with varied artistic styles to create a design studio.
Studio 324 is the brainchild of the First Born. After years of contemplation he finally took the leap to bring his family together with varied artistic styles to create a design studio.
We iterate and illustrate. We dose on design. We keep creating.
Studio 324 is the collaborative effort of 3 designers whose creative minds work 24 hours a day! But that's not the only reason why we are called Studio 324. That also happens to be the address of one of the only constants in our lives - our family home.
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Kay, or The First Born, is the founder of Studio 324 and is the lead behind the art work produced at the Studio. The Cool Dad is a retired diplomat and a self taught artist and he is the guiding force behind the medium and styles of the hand drawn illustrations. The Odd Ball is the jack of all trades and the master of them too. He is the brain behind curating the work we create. Trained as a graphic designer, he is the voice of (design) reason.
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Together we bring to the table different design ideas and unique styles to create illustrations to decorate your home. Exposed to different cultures, we gravitated towards all types of artistic styles; whether it's the motifs of Morocco's architecture, the vibrant colours of India, the Japanese minimalist style or the blue hues of Danish designs.
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Our wide spectrum of work is reflective of the varied eclectic tastes we have acquired over the years. Sticking to one style just isn't our thing. So we hope, with all of our unique collections, there's something that will catch your fancy.
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We love to Collaborate
Not only do we collaborate with each other, but we love to collaborate with fellow artists and creatives and those who love to indulge us. Over the years we have loved working with Love Toronto, Avemariabell Designs, and NA Stock Company to host and be a part of the Love Toronto and Friends pop up events in Toronto round the year. We connected with the collective in 2017, and since that time we have grown into a community of local makers and entrepreneurs who regularly get together to showcase our work in pop-up markets in Toronto.
West Elm is a boutique furniture store offering modern furniture and home decor featuring inspiring designs, and we were lucky to get the opportunity to showcase our work to fellow West Elm shoppers pop-up events in their North Toronto location.
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With our designs grabbing eyeballs, we thought it would be opportune to collaborate with others as well. We jumped into the collab bandwagon full throttle and now you can grab our designs as metal posters on Displate.
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Our Growth Spurt with Samsung
Every small business dreams of being able to work with at least one big brand in their lifetime, and we were extremely lucky that this opportunity came to us very early in the Studio's career. Back in 2017 we heard that Samsung Canada was on the lookout for local Toronto artists for their brand new Experience Store at the CF Eaton Centre in downtown. We didn't think twice before applying. We were skeptical that a big brand name such as Samsung would even notice an upcoming art studio like ours; but to our very pleasant surprise, we were contacted by them and were told that we were one of 8 local artists who had been selected into their program. What was the program? Having our artwork exclusively available on Samsung's phone covers and cases along with a one month "Spotlight Event" where our work would be showcased at the Samsung Experience Store in full glory.
We were extremely thankful to Samsung for this amazing opportunity and to see our name in lights. We could have survived the rest of our career with that one opportunity, which is why we were even more excited when Samsung called us back to host not one but two art events! Using the amazing Samsung Tablet and Pen we hosted two art events where we showed off our digital art skills and engaged our audience into drawing with us. This was our first experience with public speaking and we were extremely nervous. But the great staff at Samsung made it really easy for us as they interacted with the audience. For us, that was it. How could we possibly expect more after all these collaborations.
But it didn't end there. We were contacted for a third time; and this time for a commissioned art piece. We were asked to illustrate the Samsung Experience Store as seen from Yonge Street with all the hustle and bustle that comes along with a major city's downtown core. We drew a digitally illustrated piece in a watercolour style, which Samsung then had printed on a large canvas wall and used it at one of their Blue Ribbon events. It served as an amazing photo opportunity for Samsung fans and hopefully made its way into numerous Instagram selfies.
Our year long collaboration with Samsung was such an eye-opener for us and we learnt a lot. Our most important lesson though was how to value ourselves. Throughout the process Samsung treated us like an equal - in fact they made it sound like they were privileged to work with us! From phone cases, to workshops, to commissioned art pieces, our work with Samsung in 2018 was incredible, and we are forever indebted to them for the experience.
We Want to Give Back, and This is How We Do it!
Amid the current Covid-19 situation, many people have lost their jobs, and many small businesses are closing down. Once the world wins the battle against the Corona virus, we may never see some of these small businesses return. Studio 324 pledged to help those in need till the end of April in 2020
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Here is what we promised:
Till April 30th, all profits went into helping those in need.
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How did we survive then you ask?
This business is a side gig for us and we have full time jobs to keep us afloat, so we wanted to do our part.
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What was in it for us?
Some good karma we hope.
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#StaySafe
#ThisTooShallPass
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Apart from that we chose to work with Displate because of their promise to plant trees with every Displate sold. Every time you by one of our metal posters from their shop, they plant a tree on our behalf! What a way to give back eh? (They are well over 14 million trees planted)