Kozyndan is the joint pseudonym of Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife illustrator team Kozue and Dan Kitchens, known in particular for their whimsical and occasionally absurd illustrations of modern cityscapes.
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Education and background
The pair met while majoring in illustration at California State University, Fullerton. Since then, their projects have included CD covers for bands such as Weezer and The Postal Service, clothing (including lines of illustrated shoes), and posters for companies such as Nike, Inc.
Kozyndan care deeply about the topic of shark finning. In December 2012, Dan Kitchens posted a controversial statement about finning to accompany an Instagram photo of shark fins for sale. He referred to those who engage in the practice of finning as "Chinks" due to Chinese consumption of the shark dorsal fin.
In the Instagram post, Dan Kitchens of Kozyndan stated: "This is the fate of nearly all sharks. They are caught for their #fins because Chinks (yes I will now be using the awful racial slur to refer not to the Chinese but to people of any race who continue to eat shark fin. Sorry if this offends. It will be derived from a Chinese because 95%of shark fins end up in China) think it tells other people that they have a lot of money, or even more foolishly that it will cure them of some ailment or make their pathetic limp dicks hards again. I am probably not the right one to be doing conservation work because I have so much rage against humans of all sort, but there it is. We kill upwards of 100 million sharks a year so chinks can stick their flavorless fins into a soup that they have to season with plants to give it flavor. Sharks breed slowly, sharks cannot be farmed. Shark will cease to exist in your life time. What does that mean for the rest of the ocean? Hard to say what roving a necessary part of the chain in any ecosystem will ultimately do. Maybe it will cause a chain reaction leaving the ocean devoid of all fish, with nothing left for you Chinks to eat but jellyfish. Mmm jellyfish sashimi for all!! Sorry to racists for hijacking a tried and true old-timely racial slur, but there it is. I am really sorry if you offended but I am offended by the Asian shark finning industry."
Video work
The team has recently created conceptual designs for American McGee's video game Bad Day L.A.. Other video game work includes the cover design for The Urbz: Sims in the City and artwork using characters from Katamari Damacy.
Australia
In the spring of 2011, Kozyndan toured Australia, with exhibitions in Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney. A portion of the proceeds went to benefit the Japanese earthquake relief fund.
On-air
The pair also do radio shows at Dublab.