By day, I’m Vash Chen, a Graphic Designer with 20 years of experience, based in Singapore. By night (and often in stolen pockets of time), I reside in the quiet shell of Robottou, a vessel I use to explore the worlds I can’t quite reach in words alone.
Small Wonderer is where all those after-work curiosities converge: 3D animation, comics, photography, and travelogue experiments. It's a portfolio, yes, but also a sandbox, a sketchbook, a digital garden of things I’m still learning. I’m drawn to the unnoticed, a flicker of wind, a half-thought, a passing shadow.
It’s also the name of a webcomic series I created, now on pause. It’ll find its way back, or into something new, when the time comes.
With every project, I’m figuring out not just how to create, but why. It’s equal parts wonder, repetition, and an unreasonable love for pixels.
At the heart of Robottou lies a deep well of creative inspiration drawn from the enchanting worlds of Studio Ghibli’s animation, the nostalgic echoes of 80s music, movies, and retro culture, and a lifelong love for storytelling that stirs the imagination.
Among these influences is a beautiful Japanese word, komorebi (木漏れ日), which describes the gentle sunlight filtering through leaves, creating shifting patterns of light and shadow. Komorebi captures fleeting, delicate moments that inspire me to explore the magic hidden in everyday life.
This idea guides Robottou’s creative vision, inviting others to experience the quiet wonder found in transient moments where light, nature, and memory intertwine to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary.
