I think it’s a very common goal for artists to want to expose their artworks to the public for the reason of gathering feedbacks or likes. Both, I believe are good for the artist. It not only gives them moral support but also helps them improve their skills. It is also every artists’ goal to see their designs appearing on or being made into physical products like T-shirts and toys.

When I first started creating QooBee Agapi in 2004, the urge of reaching out to more people and hoping that they could view and like my work was so strong that I was completely focused on promoting my design rather than creating more and better contents.

However it was almost 2 decades later, only could I have my designs exhibit to the whole world in a world class trade show in Shanghai China. It happened in 2018 and we had a great time integrating with our fans.

I mean everyone want to be in a situation where they can get everything without moving a finger. And enjoy life like this.

So do I. But the reality is always harsher than you could imagine.

I tried to make different types of QOOBEE products like QOOBEE t shirts, QOOBEE stickers, QOOBEE posters and QOOBEE toys.

Selling them in small conventions many years ago did generate some interest and sales but it’s not enough to support the business as a whole. I even made a comic book with 200 comic strips. It didn’t really sell and my idea of DO-IT-ONCE-AND-GET-EVERYTHING-YOU-WANT didn’t really work. 🙂

After awhile, I realized that just good designs doesn’t really give life to your characters. You need attractive stories and realistic movements to win over your fans. This is what Disney does best. Story is king! That’s the time when I decided to start making digital stickers of QOOBEE. Every sticker means something and it helps people to convey their emotions which sometimes are hard to describe using words.

Long time ago they were called emoticons. And only Tencent QQ chat and a few other software support them. In recent years many mobile apps started supporting customized digital stickers and it is becoming a global trend.

I am now very involved with this daily QOOBEE comic strip idea. I am trying to post one QOOBEE comic strip a day. This will definitely keep fans entertained and it will also make them feel that QooBee is alive and they can meet each other everyday:)

You must have realized that all the products I created before didn’t really work, most of them ended up in the trash. I only seriously started considering to create QOOBEE toys when fans started to asking for it everyday. At the end of the day, I have learnt that turning QooBee into actual toys should not be my primary goal, it will happen naturally when QooBee is loved by so many fans around the world.