Father of Galaman - Johnee Lau

Biography

After graduated from Digital Media of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Johnee and his schoolmates set up their own design studio, “Minimind Studio” in 2011. As an animator and a graphic designer, Johnee starts with a humorous animation on the Internet, based on his graduation product, “Galaman”.

Why I choose him?
The first time I watched Johnee’s animation was when my friend sent me a link on YouTube called “The Eunuch” (重口味神劇 【 太監尬 】 第一集). 

"Pi-ka-chew" (肶卡蕉)

I was like “What the hell is that?” But to my curiosity, I clicked the link and watched it. And that was HILARIOUS! It is a parody on a local TV drama but cross over with the characters in Japanese cartoon: Pokemon. Some people may find it queer and creepy. But I think it is queer and unique in a good way. I love how Johnee smartly use pun to create his characters and dialogues in the animation. For example, in “The Eunuch”, “Pi-ka-chew” from “Pokemon” is similar to “leg-ka-banana” pronounced in Cantonese. So, he creates a characters with a body of banana with a pair of legs but and also Pikachew’s face. It is so funny and surprised when I saw characters from Pokemon, a cartoon I obsessed in my childhood being re-created. 

Afterward I was crazy to watch his other animations and found that he created his own character called “Galaman”, a superhero that are turned from an armpitXD. Instead of parody on original characters, “Galaman” is totally invented by Johnee. In the series of “Galaman”, he also humorously plays on the meaning of words with same pronunciations to design funny characters and dialogue.

Not only does he make animation, but also design illustrations. He has his own style of illustrations called “faster pieces” that he also puns on Chinese words with same pronunciation in Cantonese. What is more admiring is that he can quickly draw those “faster pieces” when being asked in his art booth.

Rings

Cup Noodles

Eyeball (eye-ball in Cantonese pronunciation also means eye-spider) 

Apart from his wit and creativity, I also appreciate his boldness and determination to be an animator and a graphic designer in Hong Kong where design is considered as a job with no prospects and most of the young people nowadays prefer to choose a promising career giving up their design dreams. However, Johnee sticks to his art works and his dream to become a designer with unique styles.

Therefore, I would like to choose Johnee Lau for my paper.

More about Johnee Lau,http://jacso.hk/johnee
http://www.facebook.com/johneelau?fref=ts