www.biglove.nz

POP CULTURE AND ART COLLECTABLES

It’s a stormy Southerly when we meet Anton and Pierre from Big Love, Lyall Bay’s pop culture and art collectables studio. About to spend their first winter in the new store the guys are excited to be gearing up the business and hunkering down to develop some incredible new art goodies.

Anton and Pierre were working in graphic design & illustration in Melbourne and met through mates in the cities creative community and music scene. Anton, a Wellington native and Pierre who was moving back to Wellington with his partner decided to put their mutual love of creativity to work and open a shop-front and studio. Lyall Bay was the obvious choice for Anton, “I’ve always lived locally and prefer chill to the inner city hustle, you can’t beat the beach for inspiration”. Pierre was keen “I’ve always been drawn to the South Coast, it’s one of my fave Welly spots, I like to get out in the surf when I can too, so I thought, why not set up shop here. We’re just really stoked on being at Lyall, our first summer has been so rad, this winter we’ll be in full swing.”

The Bay really suits their style and the sometimes wild weather sparks the creativity. Anton agrees “We were so lucky to have this space come up, it’s real casual here with dogs running around and wet footprints (from surfers in other businesses) on the floor, it totally suits us.” Pierre relates to that bay vibe “There’s a real creative impact being at the beach front, we have all the elements coming towards us. Travelling out here, as soon as I see the beach it’s like ahhh, something kicks in.”

Big Love is best described as low-brow art with a surf/skate/music/gamer vibe. A majority of the art prints, figurines, posters, cards and bubble gum sticker packets are faithful to the best of the 80s/90s. Anton says to their creative influences “As kids we were both into similar things, we grew up marinating in action figures, spacies, monsters, punk, comics, sci-fi, hiphop, skating, heavy metal, robots, trading cards, bmx, forts, doodling, making stuff, and little creative projects.”

The result is all of that seeping into what they produce at their studio. Pierre adds “We wanted a space that was fun and represented us to the fullest. Together we form like Voltron and create art in a wide range of mediums -  illustration, design, handmade resin curios, art prints, gifts, collectables, tattoos, wall murals & jingles. It’s eclectic but it makes sense as soon as you come in the door. We hope it’s something unique that will stoke people out and adds to the community out on the coast.”

They both add, “Big Love was created from a place that we wanted to see in Wellington, and hopefully others will too. Online, we’re slowly building a worldwide audience, our stuff is niche enough for people to make an effort to come here, we’ve already had customers from around the globe track us down when they’ve rolled through, which is rad.” When asked about the origin of the name... “Big Love is simply the love for what we’re into, the toys, the art, the pop culture, all of it, it’s our thank you.”

With an online shop on the way and a real shopfront right next to a popular surf shop there are bigger things to come - look out for future exhibitions, apparel, zines, and creative collaborations!