How it all began

Jun 28, 2023

Hi! We’re David and Jodie and we put our heads together to create Peski! We met at Uni in Leeds, David studied multi media technology and I studied graphic arts and design. We were in the same halls building and part of a big group of friends. We started working together in 2004 (then as Peskimo, now as Peski Studio) after graduating from Uni. We moved to Cheltenham because I had got a job at a new business start up which designed and printed t shirts, then David got a job at a design agency. There wasn’t much to do in Cheltenham tbh, so we had a lot of spare time to create our own things!

One exciting project we worked on was for MTV. They spotted our characters on Pictoplasma.com and got in touch to ask us to create a series of short idents for a new clips program called Bitesize. We got to visit the MTV office in London (the old TV AM building in Camden with egg cups on the roof, Google it!!) And those animations were then shown at the Pictoplasma festival which was very exciting!

We loved the world of designer vinyl toys and got to know people around the UK involved in that scene, they were a dedicated, enthusiastic, lovely bunch! Some of our dearest friends were made around that time. We curated a little exhibition called Monster Mash in 2005 at the Here Gallery in Bristol which had quite a dedicated community around it and we got to know some of the lovely folk in Bristol. I think we started to fall in love with Bristol around then and that’s not difficult! Bristol is so vibrant, fun, creative and full of community spirit. After a year out travelling around the world, we moved to Bristol in 2007 and have been here ever since!

2007 is also when our very own mini series of vinyl figures called Bamboo Zoo was released! They were made by Kid Robot USA, and is still a career highlight along with our Monster Burp figures made by Crazy Label, Hong Kong, which were released in 2008. Monster Burp was quite unusual as he had a large, bubble-like addition which I don’t think had been done before. It was really fun designing toys. We slowly got out of the loop with that world though and moved into more of a print making and illustration community, which is pretty big in Bristol, and was the direction the freelance work was headed in too.

David started to work as a freelance illustrator as soon as we moved to Bristol. We met with Luke at Synergy Illustration Agency and have worked with them ever since. They help find commission work such as children’s books, packaging design and editorial pieces. When we collaborate as a duo it’s on the things we make for fun, the prints and products. To start with they were submissions to exhibitions and events, in the vinyl toy days it was custom models, then we moved to more illustration and printed artworks. Once we had a small catalog of our own products we started approaching stockists and independent shops and galleries along with selling on Etsy. I’ve always had other jobs on the side, I like a mixture. Since having kids I have found it easier to juggle bits of freelance work and grow the print and product side of things, and I’m really enjoying it all too!