My inspirations are ever-changing. My heart belongs to the English countryside and so most of my direct inspiration derives from nature in some form or another and this changes from place to place. I’m definitely controlled by my environment. I find when I spend long stints back in my hometown of Northern England my work becomes a lot calmer, much more minimal in colour and I tend to spend more time away from digital/digitally enhanced imagery, whereas when I’m in the hustle and bustle of London my work is a lot ‘busier’ and involves more colour. I love to spend days in print studios, mostly screen print and lino at the moment, however, I’ve started to really enjoy digital illustration and love experimenting combining both digital and print together. I get much more fulfilment from the hand printed process than purely digital, but a lot of the time I find digital adds something to my work that I wouldn’t be able to apply by hand. Not to mention it can be a much quicker process and makes it possible to change and rectify things, especially when working for a client. My artist/illustrator/graphic designer/other inspirations list grows constantly and ‘key’ reference artists will change from project to project. I am constantly on the hunt to discover artists, illustrators, poets, photographers and the likes to help inspire and motivate me. Social media has helped a lot to discover new and old inspirations. As superficial as it may seem, social platforms such as Instagram are a great way to find people and contact people. Many creatives use it to freely showcase their work and it can be a great place to get a following if you want to put the time in.
What is your usual process when you get a new brief ? Do you rely mostly on digital software’s such as Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop in creating your work ? I expect your freelance career was successful but how did you arrive in film graphics and illustration and what sustained your desire to work in film? Many of my inspirations, particularly in the film industry, already had sections on their websites regarding answering questions due to the influx of their inbox’s all asking very similar questions and not having time to contact every single person. For the most part each person who couldn’t contact me had a lot of relevant interviews and information on their websites/blogs and social media that I gained a lot of insight from. Below are the Questions I sent out to my current inspirations.
What are your main inspirations ? What is your studio space like ? Do you share the space with others ? (Photos would be greatly appreciated as a working environment is something that I find really interesting.) What advice would you give to a student hoping to follow a similar path ?
Do you have a particular favourite image / project you have produced? What social platform do you mostly use for your work and how did you think this benefits you? How did you seek out freelance work? Who are your current top five artists/illustrators at the moment? If you studied at university/ higher education in illustration/art/graphic design/ how did this benefit you? Looking back, would you have done anything differently with the way that you worked or the resources you used? Did you make any contacts during your time in university/other and did that help you once you graduated?
One of the main things that attracts me to working in graphic and prop design in film is that there is so much room for versatility. I find in the freelance world of illustration you are expected to have a ‘style’ that people will recognise being ‘you’, and though I believe this is great in some respects, it simply isn’t for me. I love experimenting and evolving. Of course, everyone’s tastes are different and this would influence and translate into the work, you are not necessarily restricted by ‘style’ in your outcomes due to the nature of film, it gives you the ability to do something different and constantly challenge you, and I love a challenge.
Annie Atkins gained a degree in Visual Communication and one degree in Film Production before she got her first job on the third series of The Tudors. Since then she has worked on many films and became the leading designer for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. MinaLima are the design company behind much of the Harry Potter franchise visuals. Individually the company has 7 designers working under the name, but the beggining started when Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima met on the set of Harry Potter in 2002. Mira studied Film Design at The National Film School, after graduating from Central Saint Martins in Theatre Design. Mira went to work in film design and eventually specialised in graphic & prop design in the art departments of some of the most prestigious production designers. Eduardo graduated in Visual Communications in Rio de Janeiro. He worked in editing for the film industry before moving to London in 2001, soon landing a job on Harry Potter where he met Mira.
Atkins:
“Google image search is not your friend.”.
Mina:
“That’s what we love in film—you are constantly challenged by having to combine craft with other techniques”.
Lima:
“What is central to our way of designing is to marry the digital with the analog.”.
Robert Sae Heng Frances Cannon
Paul Blow
Dan Hillier Anastasia Tasou
Magoz
Russell Cobb Tyler Kent White
Valerio Vidali
To the left are a few snippets of my inspiration categorised by what avenue of illustration the artists work falls into. Authorial illustration is something I will always continue to do on top of client work because creating my own personal work is an important outlet for me, and sharing that with others is something I enjoy. Artists such as Frances Cannon use authorial work to express themselves, in Cannons case ‘self love’ is her subject matter, and many people are inspired by this which shows in her ever -growing online following. This type of work is something I find really intriguing as I have a personal interest in mental health awareness/mindfullness/mental wellbeing, and over the past few years more and more artists and illustrators are delving into the world of honest self expression and it’s seemingly having a great impact on others who feel similarly but haven’t spoken out. Having that kind of impact it is something I wish to achieve with my own authorial illustration. Though I know I wouldn’t want to dedicate my whole create career to this area of illustration, it is still something I consider to be of importance in my own personal journey. Freelance and Conceptual illustrators/ artists cross over quite regularly but I have chosen 3 from each that have stood out to me in the past few months. Paul Blow has always been a great inspiration of mine and his conceptual artwork for editorial is something to be admired. His use of colours and subject matter is so calculated it is astonishing knowing how the quick turn around of this type of work can be.
What are your main inspirations ?
Hip-hop, Wes Anderson films, editorial illustration, old lettering, Picasso, Matisse and pretty much anything that I like will inspire me. My girlfriend is also an illustrator, so we usually inspire each other a little bit. We’re like a bit of a support network when it comes to each others work and it’s always good to have a second creative opinion on things. One thing I realised recently is that success also inspires me. Doing well at something drives me to do better and better and constantly evolve. I’m also inspired when I see other people succeed.
What is your studio space like ? Do you share the space with others ?
I’ve had a number of different setups in the past, but I’ve found that a home studio seems to work best for me. The main reason is because of my process, I need my iMac and my big A3 printer to produce work and by having them at home I can always work if I have an idea. A home studio isn’t for everyone because a lot of people can be easily distracted, but I’m quite disciplined with it. Recently I’ve been considering getting a studio again. Mainly for the communal aspect, but also for the journey between in the mornings. I’ve recently just moved, so my current studio setup leaves a little to be desired, but I’ve attached a couple of images.
What advice would you give to a student hoping to follow a similar path ? If I had to choose one really valuable
piece of advice, it would be for students to learn the business side of things as soon as possible. As illustrators, we can all draw and make things look nice, but been able to run a business is a lot more difficult and requires a lot of learning. This idea of giving students advice and sharing my experience/knowledge is really interesting me at the moment and I’m looking to do a lot more of it.
What social platform do you mostly use for your work and how did you think this benefits you?
I think Instagram is definitely the most used for me. It’s a great way to immediately show people interested in my work what I am working on and I’ve also got work through it. However, I do get a little concerned about how much value people place on social media for their business. I said to a friend recently “you can spend an hour each night trying to grow your following, or you can spend an hour each night writing a proposal for a massive commission...” The latter is a lot more useful and will most likely influence the former anyway. I think it’s about finding the best way to use your time.
How did you seek out freelance work?
I’ve done all sorts of different things to find freelance work in the past. Here’s a few examples: • Sending album art proposals to record labels. • Arranging for parcels to be placed in dressing rooms. • Producing work for a radio show and sending it directly. • Sending agencies and art directors limited edition prints.
This is just a few, but there’s an endless list of things you can do. I guess it just depends where you want to get and who you want to work with. Some things work better than others, but i think the best way is to just experiment with what gets results. The best results come from people contacting me, so having a well kept and up to date public facing website is essential for that.
If you studied at university/ higher education in illustration/art/graphic design/ how did this benefit you? Although university did teach me a lot, I’m not sure it necessarily taught me the most important things I needed to know. This is the main reason why I find it so important to share my knowledge now. It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but I learnt more in my first few freelance jobs than I ever did in the 3 years of university. University pushed me to develop work and draw as much as possible, but I taught myself software, business, self promotion and everything else.
The most I learnt was during my editorial illustration module. My tutor (Frazer Hudson) was/is a successful editorial illustrator, so he had a wealth of knowledge in how to generate a ridiculous amount of different ideas for the same brief. This is a process which I still use now and I since contacted him to thank him for that.
Did you make any contacts during your time in university/other and did that help you once you graduated?
In short no. I had read in a number of books that you should try and gleam clients and contacts from your tutors, but
I never tried to do this because it just seemed a little dishonest. I think the most important people I met during university were all the graffiti artists of Sheffield who were painting on a weekly basis. This made me paint regularly and draw regularly and I was always developing a style. After graduating I took a little bit of time away from drawing because I needed to get a job and earn money to live in the real world. Books, professionals and tutors are always preaching to students that it’s important to make big waves as soon as you graduate. I personally think this puts too much pressure on people and although it is obviously beneficial to be known when you graduate, you’re not doomed if you’re not! I did think this for a while, until I heard about a professional illustrator who was a care taker at a school until around age 40 and then just decided he wanted to be an illustrator. Basically, there is no right or wrong path...
Starting a studio has always been a dream of mine as working environment is really important to me, but I understand how difficult a venture like this can be. My ideal studio would be a place I can share with others with no restraint of closing and opening hours, with enough space to experiment and not feel like your stepping on toes, whilst being surrounded by people who inspire you and motivate you. I believe surrounding yourself with people that inspire you is one of the most important things to do in life, in general, not just work. Opening a studio would also open the avenue to be able to hold classes and teach in different areas such as Screen Printing. I have always wanted to teach in some way or another. Each time I have gone a level up in education I have changed my mind of the level/ age group I want to teach. I believe holding classes for people who book into the specified classes would be a much more beneficial endeavour and a nicer environment for myself to personally teach and have fun in rather than a regular educational environment. Ideally I want to open up a studio in Sheffield, Northern England. There are a lot of development opportunities in Sheffield, in particular in the surrounding area of Kelham Island where there are many old, disused industrial units. Many of these units are large open-planned warehouses which would be ideal to covert into a studio space with a lot of effort and even more TLC. I take a lot of my inspiration from existing studios as well as general spaces I’ve visited by chance.
Vault 49 Depot Bakery
Selgas Cano Architecture
TBWA
Pixar
Shakespear & Co.