With her bright red hair and roots in edgy Dalston, you’d be forgiven for thinking Sapphire would be somewhat of an exhibitionist. Yet forget the stereotype of pretentious hipster that her Hackney address and station at uber cool salon Bleach presents, Sapphire is indeed one of the most wholesome and down-to-earth people I know. Whilst our first meeting was in discussion over dipdyes and how to create the next ‘it’ look, dig a little deeper and this girl can really offer some food for thought. Sapphire is definitely one who has carved her own path. Unsure as to what to do at 17, she decided to follow in the footsteps of her father and undertook a degree in journalism and screenwriting. Always interested in the creative process underpinning film, it seemed a logical step. Yet by the time of graduation she had lost all passion for the subject. Always wanting to work in the creative industries, she opted for fashion wholesale and despite climbing the ladder well, after two years she just wasn’t feeling that either. Whilst other’s may have grinned and bared it, too scared to leave a well paid office job, Sapphire excels in seeking out fulfilling experiences. At 23 she gave it all up and went back to college to train as a hairdresser. Minimum wage and back at the bottom, but surprisingly unfazed. And it appears this time that she really has found her calling. Not only did she rise to senior stylist within a year of graduation, but now finds herself regularly attending the coiffures’ of a number of high profile personalities. With her feet firmly placed within Bleach, an infamous East London hot spot specialising in the weird and wonderful, expect this star to rise.
What was the inspiration for your t-shirt? Curly hair was the inspiration for my t-shirt, but I wanted to reference my family as well. I have two sisters, Emerald and Ruby, and we all have big, curly hair and that’s fundamentally why I became a hairdresser. So, whilst curly hair was the inspiration, my sister Emerald is quite clearly the focal point. My sisters and I all have green eyes, so we decided to put some green eyes on the t-shirt as well. I don’t know, there’s a bit of all of us within the t-shirt. So with this image I’m just trying to convey my skill as a colourist, my own curly hair and a bit of my family. I also I just think it looks nice, you wouldn’t want to wear a rubbish t-shirt. I didn’t want it to be too abstract either. I think if something looks cool then that’s great. I’m not going to try and be really cool and mysterious or anything. It speaks for itself.
Any heros?/Who inspires you in your daytoday life? I don’t have any particular heroes, it’s just the people around me. You want to be inspired in life, so why not have talented, amazing friends if you can? There’s no-one in my life that has a typically conservative job. Everyone I know seems to be quite creative whether it’s in fashion, art, music, film, photography. That’s pretty much all the company I keep. Everyone I know is very creative so I guess that reflects through my life. Your hair is an obvious focal point of your look. Would you say it’s a reference of your profession…?/something better I only started wearing my hair down when I was 23. I was always so self- conscious of it. But I decided that this is the hair that I
have, and if I don’t embrace it then what I am going to do? That was part of what drew me to hairdressing; I wanted to be great at curly hair so I could provide for people like me who had struggled for so long. It really speaks for itself now. Its like a homing beacon, I can never be inconspicuous. It’s like wearing an accessory constantly. I don’t have to dress up too much. I can wear something basic and with this hair it’s enough. I don’t have to worry about wearing fancy clothes or jewellery. My personal style as a result is quite basic. I don’t spend a lot of money on clothes. I pretty much wear black, white or grey. Quite boring really, but because of my hair I can’t wear a lot of colour. Otherwise I just look a bit mad.
Gary Card
Do you have a personal philosophy by which you live your life? I guess my personal philosophy is what I’ve done throughout my life. Just change whatever doesn’t work for you. I like to think that if you have the means and you’re not happy then you can just start again and do whatever you want. You’ve got to have some sort of drive and motivation but you don’t have to be some crazy person. Just bit-by-bit you change what doesn’t work for you. I think that’s really important.
WHEN SOMEONE’S OPEN TO ANYTHING YOU’VE REALLY GOT TO THINK, ‘HOW CAN I BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME’
People who moan about their jobs, I don’t want to hear it. That’s what I used to do, I would moan about my job and it got to the point where I could just continue moaning or change and do something else and not moan anymore. Often money is something that holds people back. People don’t want to spend their savings on more education, but it can make the difference between success and failure. I mean what else is thatmoney going to go towards, mine wasn’t enough for a deposit on a flat, but if it can provide for a career change then why not?
What can we expect to see from you next? I don’t have any defined plans for the future. I’m planning a book about/I’m really interested in trying to make a book about curly hair. A type of/Kind of a stylebook or a guide on how to look after curly hair. Its all hazy at the moment, no definite dates or anything but it will happen. It’s a project I’m collaborating on with a friend, so hopefully in the next two years we’ll see something come out. And personal? I’m not sure. Probably stay in Hackney forever. I absolutely love it here. Do you want to leave a mark on the world? I’m not sure what kind of mark I’d want to leave. I don’t want fame. I don’t want to be someone you read about in magazines, that’s not for me. I just want to be good at what I do. Hopefully I’ll leave some sort of legacy. Not necessarily anything really outrageous. One of my dreams was to have my own salon someday, so maybe something like that. Or perhaps with my book? Maybe I can help girls with curly hair, who were like me a few years ago and didn’t know what to do with it. Maybe I will be someone, or a name that peoplethink of in relation to ‘curly hair’. Maybe they’ll say “Sapphire, she might
I’m not sure what kind of mark I’d want to leave. I don’t want fame. I don’t want to be someone you read about in magazines, that’s not for me. I just want to be good at what I do. Hopefully I’ll leave some sort of legacy
know something about it”. That would be something I’d like to leave. A sort of legacy like that. London? London’s probably the most inspirational place I’ve been. It’s a city that I feel, I thrive off it. I haven’t been to many cities, but none of the one’s I’ve visited have beaten London. Berlin has got a great atmosphere around it but I wouldn’t want to live there and I’ve never been to New York. Everyone says it’s very similar to London but then at the same time it’s so far away. London is home. My family aren’t far away and there’s so much you can do here. Where I live in Dalston, it’s busy five minutes around the corner, but my little bit with my garden, right opposite the church is so still. On a Sunday you’ll stand out there and you’d have no idea you were in the middle of Hackney. It’s just so beautiful here. I love it and I don’t think I’m ever going to leave. I’ve definitelynever travelled anywhere and thought, “this could be home”. I’m too much of a homebody. London is home to me.
JON & PETE
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K
W
The Craft Beer Market has definitely being growing rapidly over the last few years. Does it worry you that it may just be a trend? Pete: I think there’s definitely a general interest in craft beer at the moment; in the same way there has been a focus on really good, hearty food over the last 10-15 years. All the media focus on organic food, healthy living and local producers has extended the emphasis from food across into other areas, in particular beerand ale. Even in Hackney itself there’s over five small breweries now, which is amazing. When we set up the company in 2011 there was none. There were only about 10 in all of London, and now there are over 30. Jon: But if it’s a trend then it’s definitely a good trend. People are becoming interested, our sales are starting to come up and in general it’s a really good, positive movement. I can’t see realistically it suddenly dropping out. The gastropub movement is still massive ten years later. I think once everyone has started drinking nice beer and engaging with intelligent products, they’re not going to want to go back to a bland taste and lesser quality. Were you worried about starting a new, niche business in the middle of a recession? Pete: We did a lot of research and knew we were catching the market at the right time. We never really thought about it being a bad idea. We never questioned ourselves. We made sure it would work and spent a lot of time on our business plan. We started off with beers that are really quite approachable, we knew there was specifically a market for the range of beers we were going to produce. Jon: We never really worried about the recession. Craft beer is one of the few products that’s still growing compared to pretty much every other product. If anything, a pint of ale is less than a pint of beer, so its not really a bad thing as you can save 50p. I think the recession may even have helped us and the craft beer industry in general. It doesn’t seem to have affected it too much.
WE’RE NOT THE FIRST PEOPLE TO BREW BEER BEFORE, BUT WE’RE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO BREW BEERS HOW WE WANT THEM
Were you guys always drawn to unconventional jobs? Pete: I’ve had a bit of a checkered career history. I have a biology degree, but then moved into IT and worked for the Financial Times for seven years, on their website team. But it just felt like office life wasn’t for me. I then thought I wanted to do photography, so I did a bit of assisting work, mainly food photography, whilst also working at The Eagle on Farringdon Rd, which is where I met Jon. I’ve always been home brewing all the time as well. Just trying to be a bit creative I guess, working with different ingredients and creating different styles. Ultimately I think I’ve found my perfect job. It combines the creativity I was craving with some practical skill.
What’s your creative process when developing a new beer? Do you have to stick to particular styles in order to meet market demands? Jon: We do brew our beer to styles and also depending on season. Craft beer’s very seasonal and you do have to take it into consideration. We stick within the guidelines but we try and develop what we’re making and add our own identity. Creativity lies in the planning and the talking about it and the trial and error. Finding out what other people have done is also very important; we want to be special and different. Someone might say these two particular hops don’t mix, but we think they might, so we do it and often it can create a great new beer. But ultimately we want something that’s a little bit traditional, but with our own spin on it. A modern update on traditional beer.
Can you talk us through your T-shirt? Jon: Our t-shirt is our hackney brewery logo, a bit of hops at the top and the wolf is a reference to my band, The Downtown Wolves. We just tried to tie it all together. I think it represents where I am right now, making music and making beer. Pete: And getting animals drunk.
to us. We’d want to be part of the community and give back to the community. We are building from a brand that has basically being created for us, and it seems a bit tight not to give something back to the people that helped create it. From every pint of beer we sell, a penny goes to a local charity.
Hackney is obviously a central aspect of the brand. Why did you choose to center your business around this area of London? Jon: Our branding is a slightly heritage style and I think hackney has got good traditions, but its now modern and one of the most happening places in the country. For us it works really well that we’ve got a bit of history, and some really amazing, artistic, creative things going on in Hackney. For us it all ties in really nicely with what we wanted to do. Pete: For both of us it was important to base our business in Hackney because it feels like home. We’ve both spent a majority of our lives here and neither of us ever really wanted to be anywhere else in London. Hackney really is the best place. I think it’s a real melting pot of all the best bits of London. Being a local brand is definitely important
What are your plans for the future? Do you want to expand? Jon: We don’t have plans to take over the world. And we want to keep the business local. Maybe be one of those iconic things that Hackney needs maybe? Just stay as part of the community really. For us the idea wasn’t to be huge and rich, but to do something we really enjoy and can make a living from. And meet loads of really interesting and good people in the community whilst doing it. I think that’s almost being the best part of it. We’ve met loads of really nice guys in this business. Everyone’s encouraging each other and bringing the industry as a whole up. There’s no concept of competition really.
What would you like people to take away from your experience with MWT? Pete: I think just that it’s achievable. Whatever you want to do is achievable. If you put your heart and soul into you can do it. Realistically we haven’t stopped thinking about this for about the last year and a half. Our brains just haven’t stopped. Jon: You’ve got to really be committed to it though. You can do it and achieve your dreams, but you’ve got to get the right people around you and get your head in the right place. There’s always a way, you’ve just got to work out what that way is. And be prepared for a few setbacks because they will happen. But yeah, do it!
THERE’S EVERY BIT OF LONDON IN HACKNEY. I THINK IT’S A REAL MELTING POT OF ALL THE BEST BITS OF LONDON
Live music performing arts. Arts and entertainment, business environment. Always been a musician since day 1. Learning piano, learning guitar and harmonica. Whatever he picks up he likes to take on. Has always tried hard to get amazing at everything he turned his hand to. Whilst at university in Durham, felt stifled by the lack of any live music venue. “there was no outlet to share the creative enegries that a lot of people have”. Udi definitely has a gift with words. Udi is definitely someone who is never lost for words. Background? We started a small event at a local restaurant and called it Strum. It worked really well and kept going strong until the end of our tenure at Durham. It gave a lot of people the
platform to practice, to perform, to create, to inspire each other and inspire themselves. A really fulfilling experience for everyone involved. Really enjoyable. Since then I’ve transposed that format into London. Similar format. Un-established artists that want to have the opportunity to develop an experience in an audience orientated space. That’s worked well. I’ve branched out into other aspects of the arts. At the moment I’m working with graffiti artists and finding different mediums through which to showcase them. Mainly through events and though giving them an audience they wouldn’t be able to access normally. We’ve worked in some really incredible spaces. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s a lot of cool people that you work with that influence you and have a lot of input. So that’s really how we’ve gotten to where we are now.
How do you go about finding new talent to showcase? Initially it comes by recommendation. If you’re wired to observe certain things, then you spot them. You come across them through the literature you read. If you’re geared towards looking for some musical nugget that is yet to be appreciated then you slowly but surely hardwire yourself to recognise those opportunities and find these hidden gems and expose them. Next five years. What can we expect to see? In the next five years I envisage that we’ll maintain the desire to give people a platform to perform. I imagine that we’ll start to see a lot of people that we’ve worked with in the past doing really well and we’ll potentially look to growing towards something like management. Help them at further stages. As we develop industry experience I think we’ll look to pass that on to people who are coming through the ranks and working hard and making music happen for them. I guess pursuing the dream for us as well. We’re got a couple of bands that we’re involved with, and some DJ’s who have been residents with us for some time. So just looking to open up our sound to as big an audience as possible. Your own band is a quite unusual. Do you have big ambitions? We’ve got 12 people that filter in and out as and when they’re available. All very talented musicians. I went to school with some of them, went to university with a couple of them and then found the other members in London. Just at events in London or they came to perform with us. They’ve all got these unique talents. Not necessarily with atypical instruments but we’ve got saxophone, trombone, trumpet, piano, guitar, electric, bass, percussion, bongos, cajon, drum. At our full potential we’re a force to be reckoned with.
So far we’ve played a lot of gigs and we’re starting to do the festival circuit a bit. So who knows how far it will go. Our last gig was very well received. We had about 600 people just going mad for some of the stuff we had so it was brilliant. What does your t-shirt represent? My t-shirt is meant to embody the significance of communication to us all. Sound and communication, they’re just integral parts to that which I’m involved in. Its what I appreciate and enjoy most. Of all the senses the one I’d hate to loose the most is my hearing. That’s purely as a result of the experiential process of listening. It takes you to another place. A lot of people identify sound as being such a strong indicator of how you are. Such a strong conveyer of emotion, of meaning. Of a lot of things I guess. Have there been any pivotal moments in your career so far? It can be quite stressful but it can also be quite rewarding. You have a lot of pride
about it. Especially once you see a lot of successes coming through. There’s one guy that we had in Durham. He was busking on the street at 13 years old, and we got him along to one of the nights that we did. It was the first time he had played in front of an audience, maybe around 100 people there. He was so inspired by that experience that he enrolled himself at a music college and worked hard at this café to go and do it. And he’s now about 18 performing around the North East, doing tours and the such. So I like to think that we had a hand in inspiring him to go ahead and do that. What do you like most about living in London? There’s a lot of inspiration to be found in London. There’s a lot of help and support. There is so many places that appreciate music, the arts, entertainment. It’s a very fulfill-
ing place with which to ply the stuff that we do. We have done stuff in other places too. Durham as I mentioned. Oxford and Bristol as well. They all have their unique elements to them that are amazing, but London’s very sound. And for inspirational places in London? It would have to be St Paul’s Cathedral. I live close to it so I guess that helps. But that’s a
cool place to go on a Sunday. Chill, space out and soak it in. I’m not a religious man, but there’s something quite cool about the collective element of going to church. All looking to one direction, and collective silence. There’s something I really appreciate about that.
Of all the senses, the one I’d hate to loose the most is my hearing. That’s purely as a result of the experiential process of listening. It takes you to another place.
LARA
Intro Currently working for District MTV assisting the director of fashion and lifestyle trends. Brand collaborations Background Moved to London at 19 and studied Fashion merchandising management. Then did loads of interships mainly within fashion journalism. That’s when she figured out journalism was the route she wanted to take. First job was at Net-a-porter after graduation, writing. Then at WGSN as catwalks editor and now at MTV Always did dancing when younger. Always needed to express herself. My course was called Merchandising but it was more of a general degree. So we did buying and journalism courses as well. It was more like a broad introduction to the fashion industry so we were able to choose what aspects we wanted to get into.
Peace and love are kind of my key buzzwords. Just keeping positive really and not taking anything too seriously.
You’ve had somewhat of a charmed life in terms of career advancement. What attributes do you think helped you get experience at such prestigious places? I think it was my parents. They’ve had a business for 25 years so I think that’s being a real driving point for me as they have worked so hard throughout their lives. Staying positive was key as well and good experience. I only graduated a year and half ago but every second I’ve had I’ve either interned, or worked somewhere else or freelanced on top of studying and working as well. So keeping busy and working as hard as possible really. What was it about journalism that identified with you? I think just expressing myself through writing. I love to write and find it is one of the easiest ways to express myself. I like how you can really think about what you want to say. The words just kind of flow out quicker and more naturally on paper. I want to write my own book one day when I’m older.
So you’re working at the new MTV District website now. What exactly does your role involve? It’s quite conceptual so it’s difficult to explain. We work mainly on concepts to bring money into the site, its not quite advertising as such, but collaborative projects. The brands come to us and give us a budget, then we pitch to them ideas, creative things that we think would work. It really has to be quite a marriage of both expectations. It’s collaboration at the end so both the brand and us have to be happy with the outcome. We also do weekly trend digests so keeping up to date with all the current trends in the music and the fashion industry to keep internally aware of what is happening in the world. On the MTV District site you don’t disclose that most features are funded by the brand. What are your thoughts on that? I think it’s fine having to mention brands in the copy and features. I don’t think it limits
our creativity. The brand is the subject at the end of the day and everybody has to make money. For us to keep going we have to inject that into the site.
promoting positivity. I just want to make people understand that they can do what they want with their lives. What would you like people to take away. Advice-wise it would be to work hard. Stay positive. Don’t let anything get you down because you will get a lot of ‘no’s’. But you will eventually get to a point in life where you’re where you want to be and be successful and happy.
I think that’s the way journalism is going in general. Sites will need to be backed by brands and money. In order to make money features do need to be somewhat premeditated and sponsored. You do have to be quite intelligent in the way you go about it though. Have there been any pivotal moments that have helped you shape your career? I think everything has shaped who I am and where I am today. Especially the kind of people and company’s that I’ve worked for. Like when I was interning at House of Holland and working with Henry, he was quite inspirational. Everyone likes to diss him but he’s doing well and what he does, he does really well.
to someone and they’re in the same situation as you. You never know what can happen from those interactions. I’ve even started collaboration with someone over a beer. We just started talking and ended up putting on a few nights out together. It’s just the whole networking side of it. There are so many cool things happening over here.
I’ve interned at Vouge as well. So being amongst all those people who are so successful and professional. They’re the best of the best. So I think being inspired by people at the top of their game has really helped me get to this point. You obviously have a very unique personal style. Has it helped your progression through the industry? Sometimes the way that I dress does challenge conceptions and things. At Vogue I would go in to the office in my Doc Martins and my cut-off Levis and I was told to dress a little bit more formally. But it was Summer in New York and I just didn’t know what to wear. And then at Net-a-Porter as well, they used to say ‘we really love your style and really love what you do with clothes, but its not quite right for Net-a-Porter’. But it was never a problem really, it was just different to them and they weren’t really used to it. After they made those kinds of comments I did tone it down a little bit. Not that I wanted to, but I did. But the places that I work at now really encourage my style and the absolutely love it. So I guess that means I’m at the place that I’m supposed to be. What drew you to London? As a young creative in terms of networking you have to be in East London. I mean just down at the pub you can get chatting
How do you go about seeking out new cultural information? I’m quite proactive. I think you have to be. I have loads of different word documents
I’d describe my personal style as quite out there. Rather eccentric, but not too eccentric. Definitely fun and not too serious at all. I just like to play around and mismatch everything.
for different categories of information and imagery. It’s important for my work as well. I’m always picking up bits of information from here and there and adding to my lists. Lists and lists of blogs and sites, all categorized quite well actually. Personally I love researching online. Just starting at one point and then the whole spiral of connections until you end up at another completely unrelated place. Plans for the future? In later life I want to start my own charity. Just giving back to people. I’ve had so many opportunities in my life that so many youngsters don’t have. I just think it’s important to push that and give other people opportunities. It will probably be a youth project or something like that. Just
And finally can you talk us through your t-shirt? My t-shirt represents my philosophy on life I guess. All the words are my key, buzz words. I think it’s really important to be original, always thinking outside the box and bringing fresh ideas to everything you do. Possibility as well, just thinking that you are able to do what you want to do. Remembering that there are opportunities out there. The same with prosperity as well. Happiness is obviously the key to life. And then peace and love, they’re particularly strong buzz words for me.
Background: Working in tv and short films for 18-24 months Living in London on and off sofa surfing. After uni started out at ITV for a few months and it slowly built from there. Did the traditional route of school then uni. Did psychology. Didn’t like it that much and didn’t have a great time doing it. It was only during the last few months of university when everyone was looking forward to what they were doing next and I started to going to the law and recruitment evenings for Deloitte and such and I decided that it wasn’t really for me. It was just a random person on a night out. Just a drunken comment was that you can make money and you can be successful in anything you want to do. So try and find what you like first and then have a crack at it that way. It didn’t take me long from there to think there might be a way to make money through film and TV. From making things as opposed to doing things for other people.
When did you decide you wanted to work in the film industry? I read psychology at university because I loved the concept of studying people and social interactions but in the end it wasn’t for me. I didn’t like it much and didn’t have a great time doing it either. It was during the last few months of university that I really started to think about my future. All my friends were going to recruitment evenings and applying to law school or Deloitte or Accenture type companies and I knew that wasn’t for me. I was a little bit lost for a while, not sure which direction I wanted to head in, until one drunken comment got me thinking. Some random on a night out said “you can make money and be successful in anything you want to do. So why not try and find out what you like first, and then think about the money”. I not sure why but it really stuck with me. It didn’t take me long from there to think there might be a way to make money through film and TV. To make money from making things as opposed to doing things for other people. Did you find it hard to get your foot in the door? Definitely. I came out of university with this massive naivety and arrogance that I would spend the summer off and then walk into any job that I found within the industry and that it would be easy but it wasn’t at all. There’s such an enormous swell of people at the entry level and for those jobs, you don’t necessarily need the qualifications that I had. You’re just swimming upstream, fighting against so many people and there’s just not enough jobs for the demand. For six months I travelled around the UK with different jobs. Wherever anyone would take me I would go. All of it unpaid and all
of it basic menial tasks, fetching teas, driving people around, moving props. I understand completely now, but at the time I had a lot of resentment about it. I felt like I should have been doing better straight away. But as the months go by and different jobs go by you realise that that’s not how it works and sometimes you just have to suck it up to get where you want to go. And that’s what I’ve done. Its what I’m still doing to an extent. What inspired you to write your first script? My friends were very much the inspiration. They were the ones who really got me going and inspired me. I was in a very stationary place after university, whilst my friends were all down in London, working and moving on with their lives. Whether or not they were doing things that I myself wanted to do, they were progressing and getting better and actually doing things. I just felt like I
The inspiration for the script was less what it was about and more what it represented. The concept of me taking the steps to further myself. Doing something that I hadn’t done before
wasn’t getting anywhere and had to have something that was realistic and that was mine . My parents are Egyptian and my family are all doctors and lawyers so this was never something I was expected to do. But one day my dad just sat me down and said ‘do it. Just make something. All you need is a starting point, and that can be anytime in the next few minutes’. That meant so much to me. So what I’m doing is very much a two-way thing. On one sense I’m forging out a career whilst also doing something that is more creative and personal. You just have to try and make it happen. It was my friends and my Mum and Dad who really just said ‘do it’. What is it like actually working on a day-today basis? It’s like a constant job interview. There’s
never a day or moment where you’re completely comfortable in yourself. You always have to make an impression. So what you wear and how you present yourself moreso is really important. It’s a social industry. How you come across to people is a million times more important than what your CV says. Half the jobs I get now are from people I’ve worked with in the past, not necessarily things I’ve applied to on paper. Can you talk us through your t-shirt? The first thing I remember from when I started was walking down hallways in edit suites and making people cups of tea. It’s important to me because one day I’m going to be in those edit suites and in those script meetings, and people are going to come to me with a cup of tea or with a lunch order. So it’s important for me that I am nice and polite to them because I remember how much it meant to me when someone was nice. So that’s what the cup of tea signifies. It really is the most important thing on there. The quote just sums up my attitude to life really. It comes from the start of The Great Gatsby. ‘ Then wear the gold hat if it does please her, and if you can bounce then bounce high for her too, until she says ‘Lover, gold hatted high bouncing lover I must have you’’.
The moment I read that I was like ‘That is me’. It’s exactly what I believe in: doing what it takes but also being a little bit extravagant, and being creative. Just doing things a little bit out of the ordinary to get what you want. And then on the back I’ve got a tv set. Which is initially quite self-explanatory but if I get to where I want to be then what comes out on tv is going to be a huge judgement of who I am. It’s the platform on which I’ll be judged and it’s the platform on which I want people to judge me. London? I came to London with the simplistic goals of being around my friends and being where the work is. But now that I’m here I just absolutely love it. I can be heading home on the tube at 11pm at night and see the entirety of human emotion layed out in front of me. Just the other day I saw this
Middle Eastern couple who were so similar to my parents. The man kept falling asleep and the women would keep checking out all the good looking guys in the carriage. It was just hilarious to see, and so you can just sit there and write about it. Stuff like that can really inspire me. If you’re stuck for things to write about or lacking inspiration just go out, and you’ll see a million things that could inspire the start of a project.
It’s not easy. It’s like anything, like taking out the bins. In your head it feels like such a strain but once you’ve finished it, it’s like ‘oh that was so easy I should have done that ages ago’. It’s the same with writing.
NADIA
Stills photographer A levels in History, Maths and Art. Didn’t know what she wanted to do. Took a gap year and ended up applying to go for something quite fun. Applied for Art History and Film at Nottingham Did two years of degree, but enjoyed student life more than degree. Wanted to do something more hands on and practical. Dropped out in second year and went to film school in London. Great fun. Learnt everything from cameras, how to shoot, write, clapper loading etc. I recently had quite a large commission from Kensington and Chelsea council. My work is up in Notting Hill at the end of Portobello Rd. It’s up for 6 months and there’s 26 pieces about 2 meters by 1 meter each. They asked me to fill this stretch of wall that’s about 100m long. Quite a daunting task but I managed it. I worked with actors and because of my film background I treated each shoot as a short film almost. Its kind of like directing but with stills photography. I really enjoyed that. They even made a ‘behind the scenes’ short about it which was screened at the V&A. With a background in film how did you end up doing still photography? My brother lent me his old Nikon D200 camera one weekend. He didn’t really use it anyway and he thought I might like to play around with it. He said ‘keep it for a week or so and see how you go with it’. So I started shooting and got a bit carried away, I took it everywhere I went. I was in film school at the time and so took it onto set with me and really just fell in love with the whole process. He never ended up getting it back and in the end he ‘gave’ it to me as my Christmas present that year. I guess that was when I started doing stills seriously. After graduation I was asked to come back on set and shoot production stills for a couple of the teachers and I guess it just grew from there. Was it hard to go from an academic based degree to a more practical based career in the film industry? Yeah for sure. I actually wanted to go to film school before university, I was just advised not to. I was told to get myself a proper academic degree. You know, something theory based, and written, something that I could show to people and say ‘I can write essays, I can think for myself and do research‘. Which is all great and I understand why it was suggested, but now that I’m in film I realised that I don’t need any of that. You just need to be a logical thinker. You know, have an eye for things, be creative and want to be involved in all the different stages of the creative process. I feel like I always have to be doing something practical. Making things with my hands or being physical with whatever I’m creating. That’s quite important. I enjoy be-
ing on set. With stills photography I’m kind of in my own department and get to communicate with everyone on set. There’s just so much going on. There’s something there for everyone on a film set and it’s just a really fun environment to be in. What avenues do you want to pursue in the future? I definitely want to have a career in being a production photographer. For me that’s my goal, but I don’t want that to stop me from doing other stuff either. I really enjoy just shooting anything, stills or film projects really. I don’t like saying that ‘I’m a photographer’ or ‘I’m a production photographer’, or even writer or artist. I like the idea that anyone can do whatever they like and however many things they want to in their careers or in their lifetime. I think that makes for a more interesting character sometimes.
I just like the idea that you don’t have any limitations. That you’re not like, ‘ok, I’m a stills photographer and that’s what I’m going to be for the rest of my life’. I like the idea that I’m going to explore other avenues and be creative in other ways.
Were you always a creative person? A part of me thinks that I’ve always been a creative person but I also think its to do with my upbringing. I’ve just always been exposed to arts and crafts. I’ve always drawn and painted. I think its something you can nurture as well though. So maybe its partly in my upbringing and partly how I see the world. Maybe that’s what makes me a ‘creative person’, I don’t know. How do you find inspiration for your projects? I find inspiration from everyday life. It’s the everyday goings on that interest me the most. For example my friend and I were walking through a market and we noticed that everything was in bowls. Literally everything was in bowls. And we were kind of wondering what happened to the whole idea of loose fruit? You know, that joy that you get from picking out your own fruit. It just didn’t feel like a proper market and we both thought like ‘wow’, this could be a great stills project or a great little short film. It just said a lot about where we are in society. Everything’s in bowls, everything’s picked out for us. It’s all saving us time, just take a bowl here and there. We take what we’re given almost. Silly things like that but also they’re quite fun. I think its more interesting than a project on Hirst or a big artist who’s been seen before and there’s already a lot of stuff on them. How do you balance your own creative work with more bread and butter work? I’m very lucky in that my family home is in central London so I’ve had a lot of support from my family. But not necessarily financially, but having that security of having a place in London and I’m so grateful for that.
Do you need a lot of focus and drive to succeed in the film industry? You definitely need a lot of focus and drive to succeed in film. And even in photography. Just in the arts in general I feel. I think a lot of people get caught up in tyring to succeed in the arts so much so that they don’t really enjoy what they’re doing in the present moment. That’s really important to me. I obviously want to do really well and get onto great films and work with super talented people but I’m not going to not enjoy where I’m at currently in order to get to that place. For me its really important to enjoy where I’m at. Because that’s what life is about for me. Can you talk us through your t-shirt? My t-shirt is actually a face. Usually people don’t see it the first time round, but then it clicks and messes with your head a bit which I quite like. The negative space is what gives it its form almost. I just thought it would be quite fun to present a block shape even though I’m a photographer. Advice? For anyone wanting to go into the arts, just go for it. Really truly enjoy what you’re doing because that really shows through you’re work. It’s good to get onto any project for experience sake but just do what you really enjoy. I think that makes a huge difference. When you love what you do you excel in it. So even if you do get into the arts, onto a film or onto a photography shoot, make sure it’s one that you’re sure you want to sink your teeth into. Just give it your all. What would you like people to take away from your story? It might sound really strange, because obviously you do art for other people to enjoy as well but it’s almost a slightly selfish thing. You do it because you enjoy it, but you’re expressing something from within yourself that you want other people to see. I want other people to enjoy my work for sure, but I think moreso I want to share my experiences through my work, bring people on a journey with me in a sense. I guess I want to share my journey with others through my work. That’s what’s most important to me. Not necessarily how big my name is. It would mean more to me if they enjoyed their experience, or enjoyed my experience through my work. I’m not sure if that makes sense.
ALEC
Grew up in staffordshire Always had an interest in drawing. Before even gcse’s realised that he could make drawing a career path and structured rest of his education around this focus. (gcse’s, alevels etc) Did foundation course in Newcastle and ended up specialising in illustration. Spent the next (ears/motnhs?) building up his portfolio. Went to LCC to do GMD illustration. Then moved to graphic design at university. Was focused on the concept of ‘getting a job’. I’m going to university so I can get a job, and graphic design sounded like a promising career. Graphic designer sounded like more of a job than illustration. (where went to uni? LCC/CSM?) Completely bombed first year. Did typical thing of first year uni and just drank and indulged. Failed his first year and ended up repeating. Did two years of uni and then a year in industry focusing on graphic design. Realised two thirds in his year in industry, that he didn’t really like graphic design at all. And moved back into illustration and finished third year focusing on fashion illustration. Since graduation Alec’s worked in a variety of fields, following whatever/ whichever path takes his creative fancy. worked with Derek Lohlu/, on small publications/little bits on publications. Little bits on print textiles. More recently got into 3d animation. His career’s been quite up and down and a little bit sporadic.
You graduated as a ‘fashion illustrator’ but you work across a variety of mediums. Why is that? I began to find my own voice with my illustrations in my second year of university, and from that point on I found it became surprisingly restrictive. As I had decided to specialise in fashion illustration, everything I did had to be quite figurative. Although that in itself was fine, I found it annoying that I couldn’t experiment. I would look around at other peoples’ work on blogs or whatever and I’d see an illustrator who was very graphic, or who had a particular colour scheme that was interesting, but I wasn’t ever able to apply their techniques to the sorts of drawings I was doing. There was such an emphasis that my portfolio had to have continuity. Because I was doing ‘fashion illustration’ it had to be a ‘fashion illustration figurative’ portfolio. I found it really frustrating that I couldn’t just dabble and muck around with really bright simple coloured motifs or whatever. I think that’s why I’ve moved across mediums quite a lot. With animation it just feels a lot more open. I’m working on a music video at the moment and I’m also doing a little short and stylistically they’re very different and that seems to be completely ok. Stylistically it’s not really important, it’s more about your technical ability. I think that’s a big part of it as well. My move into animation was a bit of a changing point as to how I saw my career and myself. I’m really enjoying the variety of work. It’s nice to chop and change. The whole generation of people having the same job for the same company for 30 years or more just doesn’t really happen anymore. People seem to go from place to place all the time. Your career sort of evolves in a way that it didn’t 20 years ago.
How important is freelancing to your creative process? Do you find it liberating? One of the big benefits of freelance is this idea of freedom. That you can do whatever the fuck you want really. If you so please you can just uproot and getgone. But then sometimes you do get little twinges of restrictions on what you’re doing. Over the last year or so I’ve been doing little bits here and there for magazines and it can be really good, but it can also be a real pain in the ass. They can be quite dead set in how they want a particular image to look. At first you think you can give their brief a bit of your own creative spin, but publications are always saying ‘no, we want the composition to be like this, and this piece over here” so it can be really frustrating. Its weird because this year has been the first year of good, decent, well-paid and consistent work, and I’m finally starting to feel more settled with the inconsistency of freelance. Yet at the same time I’m also getting itchy feet slightly, thinking to myself ‘is this it? Is this what I am going to be doing forever?’. The great thing with freelance is I’m not tied down. I can experiment with different mediums and pathways I’m not really particularly money focused at all. I’m quite obsessive with my own time, so for me it’s quite important to be able to work as a freelancer. Just being able to do what I want most of the time. Not necessarily all the time because money does jab in there from time to time. But its this whole ideal of being able to uproot and go somewhere else. I’m not ready for a 9-5 job yet. I’m sure that time will come but until then I’ll just float about.
What are your plans for the future? I’m not really sure to be honest; there are a lot of things I want to do. I think I want to focus on animation for the near future. I want to see what I can do with it, how I can apply it to all different elements of the industry really. In terms of illustration I’d like to press that towards print textile stuff. The things I’m interested in at the moment is a lot of print textile, pattern based work. I kind of want to do a whole series of wallpapers actually. I want to do a wallpaper exhibition, and just have that for a little bit. I’ve been considering doing a bit of street art too. I always complained about how much I hated street art at university. I don’t necessarily dislike street art as a concept, but I just think that loads of it is really shit. I guess it’s that sort of arrogant art school
I’M NOT READY FOR A 9-5 JOB YET. I’M SURE THAT TIME WILL COME BUT UNTIL THEN I’LL JUST FLOAT ABOUT.
thing of ‘I can do a better job than that’. So I feel that at some point I should at least try and do it. Just make a little bit of a mark and hope its not too crap. It’d be good to do some stuff with a bunch of coders as well. Get some really heavy great tech guys in and see what we can do. Just try to change th limitations of what I do really. I’ve always been interested in doing collaborative projects. So loads of stuff really. For me, if you have that eye for design or have good taste then you can apply it to different elements within design in general. You don’t really need to be an animator, or specifically an illustrator. It’s more about the people that you work around. You can apply your ability to whatever.
do. I was just so painfully mediocre at everything else. I was pretty much the standard C grade throughout school with the odd B grade thrown in here and there. Plus I’ve never had a 9-5 job I’ve enjoyed. I had really crap jobs when I was working at home before I went to college. I was working at Alton Towers, the theme park, for two summers. I was in food and beverage, which is like the shittiest job ever, in a kebab store called ‘Nemesis Nosh’. Just perfect summers totally ruined by the fact that I spent every day getting shouted at by angry customers with four kebab machines to my back in absolutely blazing hot summers. That was another factor that contributed to how I don’t care for money so much. It’s important to an extent but I’d rather have my own time to myself really. So I think that’s the big thing. Having the freedom to do my own stuff is my main importance at this point really. Until my life is not my own and I have kids and stuff.
THE ARTS WERE REALLY THE ONLY THING I COULD EVER REALLY PROPERLY DO. I WAS JUST SO PAINFULLY MEDIOCRE AT EVERYTHING ELSE.
How would you describe your attitude towards life? I kind of just want to do my own stuff to be honest. I’m a frustrated artist of sorts. I find ways to make my bread and butter stuff and then do what I want. I’m not really particularly money focused at all. I’m quite obsessive with my own time. To me it’s quite important to be able to work as a freelancer. Just being able to do what I want most of the time. Not necessarily all the time because money does jab in there from time to time. But it’s this whole ideal of being able to uproot and go somewhere else. Have there been any pivotal moments that you felt really identified the path you were going to take? I remember when I was in school and we were asked that question we’re all asked which is ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’. We went around the circle one by on. My friend Dean was first and he called out ‘crypt keeper’ and we all thought it was amazing. So one by one we all called out ‘crypt keeper’ like dicks. It was on the way
back home with Mum when she was asking about school that I became really annoyed with myself. I didn’t want to be a crypt keeper. So I started to actually think about it and the first thing that popped into my head was to be a monster truck driver. I haven’t really changed from that boy a great deal. In the sense that I thought of a monster truck driver because I thought to myself ‘what is a job to me?’ For me a job to me needs to be fun and possibly a little bit ridiculous. And that hasn’t really changed a huge amount. It’s just about doing things that interest me really. I’m probably a bit selfish on the way I want to plan out my career really. Were you always drawn to the creative industry? I’ve always been interested in working in the creative industries for as long as I can remember. I was always trying to figure out how I could make a career out of drawing things. Everything was based around drawing really. To be honest the Arts were really the only thing I could really ever properly
Do you have any advice for aspiring young creatives? When I graduated I had all these carefully laid out plans as to how I was going to approach people and how I was going to find internships and jobs but to be honest they never worked out whatsoever. More often than not the stuff that worked out was just
completely out of the blue. My first really big job was just through friends. And it’s the same with pretty much everybody else. My main advice is not to stay at home and remain insular. Make sure you maintain a friendship with your inner circle of friends within university because you never know where they’re going to go and where they might lead you. And put yourself out there. If your work’s good then keep the faith and be aware of the technical advancement of your subject matter. My career improved a huge amount once I got into motion graphics and new media because it’s a growing industry. Its great being completely analogue, but you have to look to the future and think where is this going to go? So new media and be lucky essentially. God is that advice? I dunno. Just stay in contact with as many people as you can and stick it out. Its shit for a while but it does improve. It took me a long time for things to sort of pan out but planning things didn’t seem to work out for me. When I stopped planning things and just sort of got on with it, it all started to work really.
And finally your t-shirt. What does it represent for you? Like most of my drawings the image is figurative and quite sullen. In terms of creating an image for a t-shirt, it’s always good to keep it quite bold, so I decided to keep the figure a silhouette. It’s a development of a sketch I did quite a while ago and then put down and forgot about. So it’s been quite nice to go back to it and make it into something as opposed to just a sketch. Regarding the meaning, it’s the element of fantasy that reflects my general aesthetic.. Out of hand I tend to draw dead things as default, skulls and thing like that. I’m very placid in real life; I’m not really a scary individual at all yet quite a lot of my drawings are rather morose. I guess it’s a way of dealing with teenage angst or something I guess.
Grew up in northern Ireland. Always was interested in art, did it for A level at school and knew it was always going to be a focus. Always knew she wanted to do art. Thought she wanted to fine art so applied to CSM whilst in sixth form and didn’t get in. There was no where else that really interested her. She knew that CSM was the only place she wanted to be. So she went and did their portfolio building course and got onto it. Clare got onto the foundation course through the portfolio building course. She was put into the specialisation of graphic design and photography In her foundation year she was confused about pursuing photography or graphic design, but was worried photography wouldn’t be varied enough. One day went and looked at some work from the GD pathway. How did you end up in graphic design? I was always interested in doing some kind of creative job or career. That’s the way I’ve always thought I guess. I’ve always thought creatively. But I wasn’t always interested in graphic design. When I went into my foundation course I didn’t even know what it was. In fact, I was leaning more towards Fine Arts. But I went to look at someone’s work that was on the graphic design pathway one day and it all just clicked. It was the way they were communicating and answering questions, the problem solving aspects, that I actually found really interested me. When I went back and looked at my own work it was leaning more that way than fine art. I was producing work that was solving problems and not just creating an experience. So it’s something that has developed slowly and the more I learned about it the more I’ve really love it and appreciate it. How do you perceive the rules and limitations of design? Do you feel they limit your creative possibilities?/Is graphic design largely rule based? Are you limited by aesthetics of ‘good design’? There are rules, but for my work a lot of the time I tend to ignore them. But I do think it’s very important to understand them and know why they’re there. That way if you ignore them you do so in a way that will enhance your work and not make you look really ignorant. Do you think you’ll always be involved in graphic design? I’ll definitely be doing something creative my whole life, but I can’t say it will definitely be graphic design. I do see myself being a graphic designer definitely for the next ten years or so though. Whatever happens and feels natural I’ll go with but for now it’s definitely a profession that I really enjoy and want to get better at and learn more about.
I’d like to say I’ve always been a creative person. I’ve always been drawn to art and design, its what I enjoy. In a way me ending up where I am now has all just happened. Its just felt really natural, all the different progressions, so I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and see where I end up. How do you approach a new project? What is your creative process?/Where do you find inspiration for new projects? I think a lot of things inspire me. Normally when I start a new project I get out of the house, away from all my distractions, and go for a walk or go to a café. The way I work is a bit funny. I’ll go and look at books, depending on what I’m working on or what I’m trying to solve. I make up rhymes in my head sometimes. And its just gets taken from there. I think its really getting away from your work space, going somewhere else and finding something small and then just building up on it. I connect ideas, and things just develop. Does London play a role in the way you work? Definitely. London is this big melting pot of creative people and galleries and inspiration. There’s always somewhere you can go and gain something from. It’s incredible having all these exhibitions and everything on your doorstep. Plus being surrounded by such an eclectic mix of people. That’s what Central Saint Martins was really, this big building filled with creative, amazing people from all over the world. Even if you don’t feel it influencing you directly, it definitely will in some ways. It has benefited me I think. Just so many different points of view. How would you describe your personal style? Do you reference your creative nature? I’d say my style is relaxed. I like colours, especially vibrant colour. To be honest though my style changes everyday, so in that way I guess it does. I have a huge collection of clothes. I normally base an outfit around one colour and then see how many different colours I can wear at once. That’s my usual rule. I appreciate clothes, I love colours but I wouldn’t say fashion is a huge part of my life. How would you describe your creative
space? Does it reflect your approach to your work at all? It comes down to collecting and hoarding. I collect and hoard mostly everything, but books and clothes are my two main things. Every part of my room is like a mini collection and I create little focuses on each part of the room. For me, building a collection is like building a moodboard. That’s the way I start each project, by collecting lots of imagery and feeling all the bits come together. My last large project was my degree project and it was based around my whole collection of kitsch. That was a personal project and it was absolutely great. It just meant I was basing a whole project on something I loved. It started with my gnomes, I love my gnomes. They were a massive part of my degree project. They were only like 1 pound but they mean so much. Any key items that you couldn’t live without? There’s always a story behind the things I treasure the most, especially my ferret. He’s special. I’m not sure how old my ferret is. It was my grandma’s and it used to hang down the banister at her house. One of my oldest memories is being at my grandma’s house and being too small to reach and touch it. She was a hoarder as well, and when she died everything went
up for auction, but I made sure I got to keep him. How would you describe the meaning behind your t-shirt? My t-shirt is a visual representation of how I find inspiration. A fish on Mars, playing a guitar. When I’m just starting a project I like to leave the house and go somewhere else. Maybe not as far as Mars, but go somewhere else. The fish is actually a salmon and they swim for miles and miles and miles and sometimes with ideas you just need to keep going until you find a solution. And the reason it’s a fish on Mars playing a guitar is that I like to make up little rhymes in my head sometimes. They help me figure out where I’m going. (rhymes about what? Can we have a rhyme to quote in the book?) Do you have any advice for people who want to explore their creativity but perhaps don’t quite know how or where to start? I think being creative is just connecting ideas and problem solving. I think people are creative in their everyday lives and don’t even realise it sometimes.
BEING CREATIVE IS JUST CONNECTING IDEAS AND PROBLEM SOLVING. I THINK PEOPLE ARE CREATIVE IN THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES AND DON’T EVEN REALISE IT SOMETIMES.
I question myself constantly, but you always have the gut feeling. There’s been many times with projects and stuff where I’ve wavered. But I was reading this book recently (what book?) and its filled with all these creative mantras and it really struck me. It just said that with you should aim to make every project your best, even if you hate it, because although it may not be your best work, at least you’ll go away with ‘I know I tried really, really hard at that’. I guess that would be my advice really, just always try to make everything you do the best it can be. And finally, where can we expect to see you in the next few years? With my design I definitely want to create stuff that communicates well and effectively. If all goes well I really would love to focus more on creating books and publishing. So hopefully I’ll be creating really lovely, big collector books. That’s what I really love, lots of books.
IT COMES DOWN TO COLLECTING AND HOARDING. I COLLECT AND HOARD MOSTLY EVERYTHING, BUT BOOKS AND CLOTHES ARE MY TWO MAIN THINGS