It is now a well-known fact that the late-evening programming of Cartoon Networks Adult Swim has their collective fingers on the pulse of today’s hippest youth. With their bold choice of witty and referenced shows and their toned down stylish characteristics, they have risen to the top of the rating charts with orphaned shows like Family Guy and Futurama and original programming like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Venture Brothers, and Metelocalypse. And the voice they use to berate their audience into listening to it is that of their now famous “bumps”; a simple black title card with small, Arial-type font often-expressing one quip of randomness or another. It was within one of these bumps that I became privy to the quaint, boxy, charm of Cubeecraft.

    Cubeecraft is the result of one man’s passion for both designer toys and the packages they come in. Chris Beaumont, 27, started cubeecraft.com in late 2007, although he says no one seemed to take much notice until February of the next year. But what exactly is Cubeecraft? The creator describes it as “a fun place, online, to download free paper toys for you to assemble, that don't require tape or glue”. By far the most compelling aspect of the idea is the cost: absolutely free. I was shocked when I first investigated the site to see that I could download, print, and build many of my favorite syndicated characters without coughing up a dime. This was fun even I could afford.

    Here on the site were characters from the broadest range of sources: cartoons, TV shows, video games, comics, even celebrities that once accessed could equal hours of hobby-like entertainment. I started with a Cartoon Network classic: Space Ghost. Pointing my mouse at the comically-box shaped caricature, I gave him a click. This brought me to a page explaining where the character hails from as well as little scissor icons rating its difficulty to construct from one to five. Once downloaded, I printed the page of the unassembled, puzzle piece-looking character and got ready to build with only the help of a pair of scissors. Here was another pleasant surprise. As is made clear on the disclaimer heading the site, there is no glue or tape required to assemble a Cubeecraft character. Free and easy, it feels too good to be true. I carefully cut each piece out and began folding them into shapes. The craftiness of the design lies in a series of tabs and slots that fit together to turn a two-dimensional character into a full-blown 3-D toy. It was only after completing the construction of my first few Cubeecraft Toys that I finally found the price they come with: they are incredibly addicting!

    After finding so much amusement from my little paper friends, I decided to find out more about the origins of Cubeecraft. So I went straight to the source and talked to the creator himself. Here is what Cubeecraft founder Chris Beaumont had to say:

QA: Where did you first come up with the idea of Cubeecraft?

CB: “The combined inspiration of designer toys, package design, and boredom at work led to the website, though the idea for the template itself was seeded sometime in college.”

QA: Do you come from a graphic design background then?

CB: “I've been drawing all my life. I graduated Pratt Institute in Brooklyn with an Illustration degree. I also have an associates in Fine Arts. My first job out of school was in Animation.”

QA: How long does it take for you to design a character?

CB: “It all depends on the character. I usually do a few sketches before I set to work on the actual template to get a good sense of how it will be built. From there I set to work in Photoshop. If the character needs something that hasn't been done before on another character I will hand draw the piece I need then scan it in and clean it up (a hair piece, wing etc). Likenesses can be tough as well - taking a familiar face and having to basically jam it in a box and still have it be recognizable is tricky, heh.”

QA: You had your work featured on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. That must have felt pretty cool. How did that come about and how did that affect your traffic?

CB: “I don't even have cable at my place - but the Sunday night it first aired I started getting a slew of e-mail. Needless to say, I'm a fan of theirs and it was a more than pleasant surprise. Some of the work shown in the spot was by Glen Brogan - one of the guest artists. We were both pretty psyched.”

QA: Including Glen, there are several contributors to your site. Do you know these other artists personally? How do they become involved?

CB: “The most prominent contributors are not people I have ever actually met, like Glen who I just mentioned. I have two or three from people I know personally but the majority of guest work is from random people who simply liked what they saw, got inspired, and set to about doing what they did. There is a ton of work out there that I don't even know about. Every week I get sent links to blogs, deviant art pages or forums saying "check this out". Many people don't know I have a blank template available on the site and just modify existing characters. I am redesigning the site now so I'll be making the blank template more prominent.”

QA: Why make it free? Any plans for marketing your work?

CB: “When I started I just wanted to share what I had been working on with friends, etc. It also wasn't much of an investment other than the time put in to making them and updating the site. Cubeecraft used to be on some free space that came with my internet service. I only had 20 MB of space, so I had to be very careful about the file size of the templates and the weight of the site overall, which is why it's kind of skin and bones at the moment, but it's getting a little too big (130+ characters on one page) so I'm working on a redesign.”

“Any stuff I've worked on outside of the site has been the result of people approaching me - The Princess Bride Game or the Vodaphone Christmas set for instance. I have a few ideas for things but I want to finish the new site and the Alice in Cubeeland set before I start concentrating on anything else.”

QA: What are your goals/hopes/dreams for Cubeecraft?

CB: “Honestly, I'm just along for the ride with no goal in mind; I'm just going to see where it goes. I would hope that people keep building and designing them for as long as people are still using printers. Not really a dream, but I wonder if there will be a day when I just say to myself 'You did it! You've made every Cubeecraft you've ever wanted to make - you can stop now.' I highly doubt it though.”

QA: Do you have any future projects in mind?

CB: “Yes, definitely... but they'll have to wait for at least a little while.”

    There is something special in the tiny paper box wonder of Cubeecrafts. From the time my friend Beth and I first discovered them on Adult Swim, until even now when we have made our own, I’ve always found some quiet little place for myself where I can sit down, bust out the penknife, and drift away in a calming sea of paper smiles and laugher. And that is by far the greatest gift I’ve received from Chris Beaumont, the gift of sharing with friends something more than a new video game or TV show; it’s something original, something new.

(Once we at Mongrel Studios became aware of a blank template to design your own Cubeecraft it was too tempting not to try. Jared whipped up a batch of Cubeecrafts from our most recent short film Getting off at Three AM. Click here to download the whole set.)

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