As kids we were constantly doodling; in notebooks, on napkins, sometimes on walls... so when we set out to create our first-ever BÉIS Kids collection we knew exactly who to call to help us bring that feeling to life.
Ashley Percival is an illustrator from the UK currently living in London. Finding early in his youth that art and wildlife photography were his passions, Percival began combining the two in adulthood to inspire several animal-inspired characters, artworks, and prints. Following University, he decided to focus on art full-time and began posting his drawings, and quickly gaining a fan base, on social media website Tumblr. With an obvious demand growing, Percival began selling prints out of his own Etsy shop (which he continues to operate and manage today). Within one week of selling on Etsy, he became completely self-employed. As his drawings began spreading online, he started receiving organic outreach and recognition from large brands to design for limited-edition collections. Today, Percival has collaborated with Gucci for a children’s clothing line, Ikea for home décor pieces and cards, Forever 21, PBS, and many more. The craziest part? He does not invest in marketing his work– all the collaborations and opportunities that have come his way have been completely organic. Just like when we emailed him a year and a half ago, inquiring about the first ever BÉIS Kids line.
Why was it so easy for Percival to say yes to BÉIS? He loved the idea of creating toys, an opportunity that had yet to come his way. While his characters have been featured in prints and clothing for a long time now, he had yet to see one of his characters reimagined in 3D. The BÉIS vision was to bring one of his characters to life, as a fun travel buddy for kids to carry when them on every adventure. And thus, our leopard-inspired travel buddy was born.
When asked how he felt about collaborating in a virtual world, Percival replied how much he loved it. His creativity works best when he’s left alone with his thoughts and has the freedom to sketch and sketch until he feels confident in the characters that he has created.
Percival’s favorite animals to draw almost always have a surf/skate lifestyle tied to them, so finding inspiration for our BÉIS travel buddy was easy. Once we had a few meetings about what we were looking for, he began to draw and sketch out inspiration. Our travel buddy was brought to life with Percival’s signature Hawaiian inspired apparel, backwards cap (to signify the buddy’s chill lifestyle) and skateboard attached– always ready to be on-the-go. Once the teams agreed on the characters, BÉIS’s design team began to add functions and features to the toy and turned make believe into real life!
Every traveler needs a buddy. No longer just an imaginary friend, our travel buddy is the ultimate companion to take on-the-go. An airplane buddy, a nighttime buddy, and everything in between. Because as all great picture books say, a travel buddy a day keeps the monsters at-bay.
Huge thanks to Ashley Percival for helping inspire many aspects of our first-ever BÉIS Kids collection!
