I had the chance to meet Mauro Gatti at Cut&Paste 2009 in Milan, where he was in the jury and I was contestant. Then I met him in his awesome art toys shop in Milan, Atomplastic, so we arranged this interview about him and vinyl toys.
K3- Who is Mauro Gatti?
MG- I am an Italian illustrator and designer. I love to draw and put on paper all the ideas swimming in my head. A smile is the cheapest way to be happy, that’s why I always try to make people smile through my drawings. As I always say “Welcome, stranger, while you’re in my territory no boring thoughts will fill your head.”
K3- What about Mutado? When did it start? What does it offer?
MG- In 2004 I founded Mutado, a creative studio, in Milan together with my longtime friend Lorenzo. Our goal is to entertain, engage and mix all the different talents inside the studio to produce some quality work that ranges from print, to video, illustration and mobile.
K3- When did your passion for art toys begin? When did you design your first toy? What was it?
MG- My passion started a long time ago, I am an avid and loyal collector of James Jarvis’s toys. My house is filled with toys, my office is crowded with toys and my mind is overloaded with toys 
All my illustrations are conceived to become a toy but I’m not rich enough to make this happen! But I do remember that the day I drew the Carrot Slayer I had the feeling that it was time to stop daydreaming and to try to enter the magic world of vinyl.
K3- Let’s talk about your new businesses: VeryBravo & Atom Plastic Milan Shop
Very Bravo was born out of a question: What if we could see all the bad things in life through an optimistic lens? My answer was simple, let’s add a touch of humour to everything that is frightening!
The first character that came to my mind was the Death, usually an icon of sorrow and pain.
I created a funny Death making the OK gesture and a mocking sneer and turned it into the brand’s mascot.
The Ghetto Reaper flirts with the hip-hop culture in an ironic and funny way, starting from its name, the golden tooth and the large bling jewelry with the RIP symbol around his neck.
The Carrot Slayer is Very Bravo’s tribute to the vegetarian movement: a funny executioner that, being against the murdering of people and animals, decided to put himself to the test in the art of cookery, cutting and chopping vegetables with his axe. His sidekick is a little freshly chopped carrot
Talking with my friend Piero, the owner of Atom Plastic, I mentioned that Milan was lacking an 100% toy shop and in a few minutes we decided to join our forces, Mutado’s creativity and Atomplastic’s experience, and open an Atomplastic Shop in Milan. Every Saturday I go to the Shop to meet some people and it’s like living a dream… being surrounded with toys and smelling the vinyl vapors that make you high
Once we joined our forces we also decided to create a toy production company called Superpowers and to produce Very Bravo under its name.
K3- Can you explain us the process of creating a vinyl toy, from the design to distribution?
The first step is obviously to design the toy. When I was happy with my design, I got a sculptor to make it into a toy out of polymer clay. When this was approved, I had a factory make a rotocast mould from the sculpture, cast it in vinyl and colour it the way I had planned (they produce colouring masks and tampons for this). The first prototype was ready. Once I approved the test shots the factory sent me, the assembly line could make as many toys as I wanted. That’s basically it, really! In the meanwhile someone works on the packaging and distribution.
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