Matthijs & Kim, known professionally as MAKI, are a Dutch husband-and-wife powerhouse that tackles art, design, products, children’s books, and more. They have been long time collaborators with Poketo and we were super stoked to get the on board the Poketo for Target Collection.

Prior to the most recent design, they have super cool t-shirts and a wallet design for us at Poketo. They have done other designs in the past and of course by now, their limited editions are long gone!

As you can see from their Poketo for Target key charm, their fun and spontaneous characters translates perfectly for Poketo.

Along with being the prolific art-makers they are, they are also newly proud parents of two-Fez and Kiki-too adorable! Maki shares a part of their world with us through drawings. Read on!

Tulips, clogs, windmills, and cheese. Yes, that does sound quite magical to us.
Check out MAKI on the Poketo for Target collection.

We are going to travel back with husband/wife duo, MAKI and revisit an interview we did with them last year. Their newest Poketo wallet design reminds us that “Some Things Take Time”…. at least the things that really matter in life.

MAKI Interview from August 2009:

Hi Maki! So, how many of you are there in the studio?
Depends on how you look at it. There’s Kim and Matthijs, that’s us. We have a son named Fez who is one year old. And we have 2 cats (Lingo and Mekka) and a dog (Mo). We live in a small house which is also our studio. So it’s a crowded place…

Where are the two of you from and how did you start out?
We’re from Groningen, a town in the north of The Netherlands. We met there at the Art Academy. About one and a half years after we graduated we decided to set up our own studio named MAKI. We never had any real expectations. But now, over 4 years later, we’re still doing well and enjoying almost every minute of it.

Do you feel there is a motif that is signature to Maki in particular?
Most of the stuff we create is handmade, created with a ballpoint in our sketchbook. You can see in our work that we enjoy what we do to a point where we sometimes laugh out loud at our own stupid drawings.

You’ve done music art to kids wear, Poketo, shoes, and so much more. What do you think makes your designs so accessible?
You forgot to mention books! But we’re not sure why it works so well. Most of our stuff is pretty easy on the eyes, funny, and colorful. And we try not to take ourselves too seriously.

Do you guys take up your own projects or do you collaborate together?
Basically all projects are collaborations. In some cases one does more than the other, but we always go over things together before we show things to a client.

What do you do when ideas seem dry?
Take a day off if possible. Do something else: walk the dog, watch a movie, have a beer and try again. On the other hand sometimes you just have to keep going and it will eventually come. Squeeze the ideas out from places where no man has been before…

If you could invent anything at all, it would be a…
Machine that turns our simple drawings into a cool animation in just 2 seconds. We want to learn more about animation ourselves, but are too impatient most of the time.

Thanks again MAKI for yet another super cute wallet!

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For more info or to view more works by Maki visit www.makimaki.nl
Check out MAKI’s Poketo wallet here.

It has been a few years since our last major redesign. If you haven’t seen it already….Poketo’s got a new look! We’ve launched a fresh new website just in time for Spring! Not only have we introduced a new identity, but, the shopping site is cleaner and easier than ever for a seamless Poketo experience. Navigate through the new site and check out all of your favorite Poketo items including our brand new wallet series with artists Julia Heglund, Maki, Marcus Oakley, UPSO, and Will Bryant.

Name-That-Series Facebook Contest
This time around we wanted to see what awesome names YOU come up with. For TODAY ONLY, visit our Facebook fan page, take a look at our newly released wallets, and help us think of a name that best encapsulates this series. Along with bragging rights, the best name will win all six wallets! So start spitting those names out!

Thank You!
And we’ve saved the best for last. We want to say ‘thank you’ to all of our loyal fans by releasing a special discount code that will only last until THIS FRIDAY!
Simply type in “poketonew” at checkout to automatically deduct 15% off your purchase!

We hope you enjoy the new site, please let us know what you think, comment, email us, or tweet it!! Thank you for your continued support!!