the shrunks

In an early brainstorming session, we talked about what our brand stood for: To help kids gain confidence, to make bedtime fun and safe for them again. Someone in the group brought up the role of a "shrink", as in psychiatrist, a person you might likely see if you're dealing with issues of fear. In the process of scribbling the word on the white board, the "i" was changed to a "u", changing the word to "shrunk". The word "shrunk" had a whole set of connotations on its own: to reduce (fear), make small (kids), etc.

The word was used regularly in daily conversations within the team, often times as a whimsical expression, as if to replace "Oh, shucks!". The Shrunks also sounded like the name of a European family, and shortly thereafter the concept of Sunny, the family's guard dog was born. Being the fearless and protective dog that he is, Sunny always sleeps with one eye open, just to make sure everything is as they should be.

Coincidentally, we discovered later that the word Shrunk sounds like a German word that means "closet", a place where monsters and unknown creatures tend to lurk. Shrunks is also a derivation of a Greek slang word, which means laughter. And what would help one deal with fear better than laughter?
The Shrunks was founded in 2007 by David Cirjak, who plays the role as a proud father of three, and the company's Managing Director. Perry Chua, a father of two, has been involved with the company from the early days of inception, and joined The Shrunks as Creative Director in 2010. All products are designed and conceived in Vancouver, beautiful British Columbia, Canada.