TofufuStudio

We are a creative husband-and-wife sweat shop that places a lot of fun (and ourselves) into everything we do. Our style is playful, with some whimsy plus a pinch of sophistication, and a whole lot of fun. We are your piping hot hotcakes that you wouldn't see anywhere else!

We've been drawing and writing our own little illustrated stories since we were a wee lad and lassie. Having kept a good record over the years, we can see the evolution of how we’ve viewed the world as children, then youths, then adults throughout the years.

As the mastermind and maker-slave behind Tofufu, Wayne is very laidback; he often carries his bulging sketchbook around while enjoying the various minute details and fleeting, ephemeral moments in our mundane life. Meanwhile, Maibelle can only relax when she's constantly churning out the ideas that perpetually runabout behind her lovely forehead...and squeeze as much creative productivity out of her fair noggin as possible everyday.

Though we have different drawing styles and distinct personalities, we share something sacred in common: it is our woven dream to create imaginative, playful and whimsical work that'd makes BOTH of us happy and satisfied. In each piece of Tofufu, there is a bit of Wayne and some of Maibelle. We are fortunate that Tofufu is a constant in our life. Now, as persons who have sort-of grown up, we've acquired the requisite technical skills needed to fully render our childhood imagination and dreams into fun-filled forms, creations which we're then able to share and make the world smile!

Both Maibelle and Wayne loved to draw and make things at an early age. When little Maibelle was not running around collecting leaves and twigs to make various 'imaginative herbal main courses,' nor following beetles around everywhere (Wayne has a lizard-chasing story where he cut his chin!), she would sit down quietly and draw bunnies over and over again (whereas Wayne would draw Tokusatsu figures and make up his own comics). Maibelle's parents let her sign up for whichever art classes she wanted to take: drawing, calligraphy, clay making, etc. Little Wayne just sort of dabbled in this and that, and had lots of fun throughout the years with various mediums.

When we grew up and stepped into the "academic achievement is everything" world (remember, we have Asian parents!), we no longer had time for fun, and instead we spent time doing never-ending homework and papers and exams. Somehow, Maibelle forgot (but Wayne didn’t) about her love of drawing and making stuff until her early 20's when she met Wayne, who rekindled her passion for art and design. Wayne encouraged and showed her how fun drawing can be, so Maibelle's irresistible desire to create gradually grew back, and we have been creating artwork together as a team ever since.

We love to create original, whimsical and playful work with stories full of vivid adventures, and often refer back to our childhood drawings and stories to regain inspiration through the viewpoints of children. We also talk to kids around us to acquire fresh, updated views from the children of today. Our work has a unique look and imaginative feel due to our signature use of imagination and strong influence from science fiction. Like starving sponges (can we say that?), we soak up the pop culture all around us and strive to produce something different and fun, something to which people young at heart can relate and might find irresistible, by imbuing our art with elements of childhood nostalgia while keeping an emphasis on design and quality.

★ We Welcome Custom Orders ★

We now receive many custom orders from customers around the world because... we can make them ANY way you want and perfectly fit them to suit your imagination for your collection! We love custom orders so much that some have even evolved into our new product lines!

It's been fun accepting requests from our customers and recreating their favorite characters with a new look and feel. When we make those characters ABC-blocky, we would change the scale and design accordingly, and we always strive to infuse them with a style that is undeniably us: Tofufu.

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☁ Our Fish Indie interview:
http://fishindieblog.com/post/66376975398/talk-craft-with-tofufu