If you have never been to Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery (located at 2780 N. Lincoln Ave.) make time to check it out. It is likely our favorite gallery in the city of Chicago.  Every time we walk into their store, we find something new to fall in love with or be completely inspired by.  It is one of Chicago’s hidden gems. There’s seldom a time when you won’t bump into another artist, graphic designer, or illustrator looking to see what’s on display.

When the In The Loop staff had the opportunity to do a sit down Q&A with co-owner Whitney Kerr, we jumped on it.  We wanted to find out what her experiences have been like showcasing some of the top modern/pop culture artists around today, any advice she has for students, and what it’s like making a business work.

IN THE LOOP: What is the name and premise of your store?

WHITNEY KERR: The name of our store is Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery. We are a designer toy store. What that means to us is many of the toys we carry are created by artists in small runs and they’re just as much art as they are toy.

We try and carry accessible art.

ITL: What are the two aspects of your store? 

WK: We have the retail store in front, which is toys, homewares, sometimes t-shirts, and plush toys, and things like that. We also have the art gallery where we do monthly exhibits. We’re actually starting a third arm of our business which is events, so birthday parties etc. The thing I’m most excited about is community hours. You can rent the event space here for twenty dollars an hour during the week, for your book club or a meeting you need to have. We’re really excited about having people be able to come back in and share this space with us more.

ITL: Which artists and type of art do you like that you have showcased lately?

WK: We feature illustrators, pop, surrealism, etc. Ken Keirns is an artist we’ve showed multiple times, Jeremiah Ketner, Travis Lampe (another Chicago artist that we really love). I could go on. I like everybody we show. The show we have right now with Jesse Ledoux is amazing, I really like it.

ITL: What advice do you have for artists starting out today and looking to have their work shown?

WK: Before you go shopping for a gallery and asking them to show your work, do some work and get it out there. When somebody comes to me and they don’t have a website, they don’t have a Facebook page, they’re not showing stuff regularly on Instagram, they’re doing nothing to promote themselves, I’m not really interested you know. You want to see some hustle. Help me help you.

ITL: What challenges do you think up-and-coming artists face today?

WK: I think in a lot of ways the world is easier. People use to find art through galleries more, and now people can find things online on their own. I think the challenge is always going to be just climbing above the noise. My thought on that is just about getting better, practicing, and doing it. I really don’t like commenting on what artists should do because I’m not an artist. I feel like I step in after they’re there.

Are you at all a fan or familiar with Malcolm Gladwell?

ITL: The writer? Yes.

WK: I love Malcolm Gladwell. His book about outliers, the whole thought is you get 10,000 hours in and you’re a genius or expert at anything. A lot of people show up before they have their 10,000 hours in. They’re at 2,000, they’re at 5,000. Their stuff is good, and they have good ideas, but it’s not clean enough, the techniques not there. It “looks” like outsider art, but you’re not an outsider artist. I think people stop before they get finished, or before they get to the place to where they’re good enough to move on. They get discouraged because they’re not successful yet. The “keep on keeping on” is what you have to do.

In all fairness I think it takes a while to find your voice. It takes a while to figure out what you want to say. The first bit of it is practicing and getting good at delivering a message. Then life will eventually teach you what your message is.

ITL: What is the history of your business and how did it happen?

WK: Rotofugi has been around for 13 years. It was created by my husband and I (Whitney and Kirby Kerr). In a lot of ways, it was somewhat of a fluke. We had done all this research to open a fancy dog store down south. We never really had financing for it and it didn’t work out and we moved back to Chicago. At the same time we were moving back, we discovered these really fantastic toys coming out of Hong Kong. We loved them, and we thought “Well, we did all this research to open a store, so we know what we need to do, and we just sold a house and we have some money, so we should open a store,” and so we did.

ITL: How did you get involved in the designer art that Rotofugi showcases?

WK: Kirby first saw an article in Wired Magazine about Kidrobot and that’s where we first discovered it. Before that we collected old advertising items, like old like money banks, advertising characters, we had a snow dome collection. Kirby had a collection of cameras. We were always collectors and really liked designer toys. We liked this thought of accessible art, that everything is really affordable. Most art we show we try to keep affordable. The flat art is under $500, and most of the toys we carry, the blind boxes, are mostly under $10. For the most part they’re pretty affordable.

ITL: What can you tell us about the business demographic of people who are interested in designer toys, art, and pop culture collectibles? 

WK: It’s really broad. We definitely have our core, our long-term collectors, our creative professionals 20 to 40. Our most active buyers are always kind of people between 25 and 35. I think between college and when you settle down and get married and start having kids is when you buy most of the things in your life that decorate your home. So that’s always been a big part of our business. But we also have a lot of really great teenagers that collect toys and we always have people that just fall outside of the spectrum of who you think is going to buy from us.

ITL: Where is your store located?

WK: The store is located at a 2780 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago. I really think of our store as a destination. Somebody can come and explore and hang out and look at things. If you’re bored some afternoon and you’re looking for something to do and you don’t have any money, come to Rotofugi and hang out, look at stuff and have fun.