Simone Legno is the Co-Founder and Artist of tokidoki. Born in Rome, Italy, Legno drew incessantly as a child. The boxes of chewed, broken and unsharpened pencils he adored as a kid were the beginnings of a passion for art that led to the eventual creation of tokidoki.
Since officially launching in 2005, tokidoki has grown into an internationally recognized pop-culture lifestyle brand and has amassed a cult-like following for its larger-than-life characters, megawatt partnerships and extensive range of products from apparel and handbags to home décor and even slot machines.
tokidoki means “sometimes” in Japanese. Legno, who has always had a deep love of Japan and fascination with world cultures, chose the word because he feels “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny, by chance or by meeting a new person.” Simone's special moment arrived when his designs drew the attention of entrepreneurs Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold, who discovered the art on his personal website and convinced him to move to Los Angeles to build a brand.
tokidoki has collaborated with many of the world's most recognized brands and organizations, including Karl Lagerfeld, Barbie, McDonald's, Bobbi Brown, the Guggenheim Museum, Kartell, Sephora, LeSportsac, Uniqlo, Onitsuka Tiger, Marvel, New Era, Hello Kitty, Fujitsu, Levi's, Smashbox Cosmetics, Xbox, T-Mobile, Medicom Toy, Skechers, Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, Canon, Be@rBrick, Godzilla, Iron Maiden, Marilyn Monroe, AS Roma, Kashima Antlers, ATMOS, Ladurée, VeVe, Binance, Street Fighter, SpongeBob, Naruto, Hatsune Miku, Snoopy/Peanuts, Sonic, Team Liquid, Arcane, UNO, Bialetti, GUNNAR Optiks, HYTE, Jazwares, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and many more. Legno has also collaborated with the Vatican on Luce, the official mascot of the 2025 Jubilee Year, and created Italiachan, the official Italian mascot for Expo 2025 Osaka, further showcasing his ability to create iconic characters that resonate across cultures and audiences worldwide.
Legno has also expanded tokidoki into animation and entertainment, playing a key creative role in the animated series Mermicorno: Starfall, where he contributed to the concept, character design, world-building, and storytelling while helping bring the tokidoki universe to television audiences worldwide.
As Co-Founder and Artist of tokidoki, Simone has become a sought-after speaker around the world at museums, universities and conferences, from MOCA (the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles) to the Adobe MAX Conference, UCLA, USC, the Flash Film Festival in San Francisco, ArtCenter College of Design, the Apple Store in Osaka, Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Singapore Toy and Comic Convention, Grafika Manila and many others. His work has also been celebrated through museum exhibitions and cultural showcases highlighting tokidoki's impact on contemporary art, design, and popular culture.
tokidoki started as Legno’s professional online portfolio and artistic diary while living in Italy, where he showcased his illustrations, advertising and new media designs for various clients. A partial list of these clients includes Volkswagen, MTV, John Galliano, Champion, Toyota, Renault, Daihatsu, BenQ, Microsoft, Narcotic Bureau of Singapore, Telecom Italia, and TIM.