Goodness Greatness

We've moved: check out our new website!

2009-12-16T10:55:00.002Z

We're no longer just a blog. We're an online zine too. Hope you like the little home improvements and our latest interview with Lucas Hunter from the global phenomenon/DJ duo Zombie Disco Squad.

Thank you for reading! You can now find us at our very own Goodness Greatness website. Click on the image below:

24.0 / Chewing the phat / John Colver

2009-12-07T18:02:00.013Z

What: Stylist
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: John Colver

Northern boy...

I'm quite outgoing with people I know but I'm painfully quiet with people I don't. The first day people meet me I don't really speak. I was born in Scunthorpe and had a very quiet childhood in the countryside. I was very lazy at college and did pretty badly. As a result, I couldn't get into university so I did an HND in Business Studies and Public Relations in Leeds, which was exactly the same as the degree course, also in Leeds. We were in a separate class to the BA class but had all the same subjects. I went to university as a teetotal sort of kid. I'd never really been nightclubbing. I was just into baggy jeans and basketball. A lot of my tastes changed at university. When I arrived I was one of the few people who was into hip hop in a sea of people who were into the Gallagher brothers and indie. That's the sort of scene I fell into. I didn't really go to my classes but just geared up to go out every night.

Foot in the door...

I decided I wanted to do fashion PR and sent a very chatty email (too chatty) to a lady called Lulu Kennedy who does Fashion East. I pressed the send button, then reread it and thought 'what a creepy email'. It was too friendly and familiar. But she actually got back to me and said that she really liked the email. She said it was different to the usual 'I've got a passion for fashion' sort of email she received on a regular basis. Then I came down on work experience but didn't really plan it properly. I just turned up on their doorstep and by then I think they'd forgotten about me. But I was lucky that I emailed them, because they weren't a PR company like I'd thought but were more an events and production company. They were really small at that stage. I met a lot of amazing people through them and developed a nice friendship circle. I went back to college after that but decided that I really wanted to move down to London.

Student life...

Whenever I've been in education I've never really been ready for it. And I've got a bad habit of not taking anything in if I'm not interested. My course was very basic and dull and I think the lecturers were out of touch with the professional world. When I moved to London I studied at LCF. I'd had quite a bit of work experience by the time I applied so they let me in even though I didn't do very well at university. But I found the course there very unrealistic. We'd get asked to do quite elaborate projects that were in no way helpful in the real world. I think after graduating from LCF, your first employer after would have to retrain you to get the most out of a small budget. I lost patience with the whole thing and started doing more work experience and less university to the point where they asked me not to come back.

Dazed & Confused...

My friends when I first met young people in London were part of a magazine called Super Blow, which was about the spirit of London. It was exciting because it wasn't bothered with London Fashion Week. It only covered off-schedule shows so it was about the young designers, graduates and people still at university. I was with a PR company called Blow who still have quite a lot of young clients. The magazine went on to be called Super Super. I was involved with it right from the start. And because my friend who was the fashion editor moved to Dazed, I got to work for them and do a lot of good things.

Styling start...

I had a little taste of styling and looked through a lot of magazines and looked for stylists that I really liked. The ones that stuck out for me were Andrew Davis, who was the fashion editor of Arena, and Thom Murphy who I knew nothing about but I would see him around. He was one of those people you'd always remember because he was about 7ft 5 and was always really nice. He was a friend of a friend so I got his email address and we met up for a cup of tea. He's a Scouser with really funny stories of growing up in Liverpool and getting into fashion. I started working for him and assisted him for a year and half. We'd do Dazed, AnOther Man, Arena Homme Plus and magazines that I thought were really great.

As a result of the work I was doing, ID invited me to speak to them if I had any ideas for features. The first thing I did was a feature for the front section of ID and did something for Dazed around the same time. I continued working for Thom and then went freelance. I did a lot of work for ID until last summer, when they changed faces and we went our separate ways. Now I'm properly on my own. And drinking lots of tea. I contribute to a lot of different magazines, including a few foreign ones.

Childhood and such...

When I was younger I obviously wanted to be a professional footballer for Scunthorpe United. That didn't happen. I've still not ruled it out, to be honest. I used to play football in my garden by myself while commentating. Then I turned into a computer geek, just playing Football Manager. Football Manager or Championship Manager took over my life for a few years. My parents made me leave them at home when I went to university. I probably wouldn't have made any friends otherwise.

Before I left home I didn't really go out. I wasn't like other sixteen-year-olds who were out trying to sneak into clubs. I was at home listening to Tim Westwood in my room, just being sad. So now I'm a little obsessed with nightclub culture and like going out a lot.

The only fashion related thing I did when I was younger was constantly designing football kits. I'd send them into the football clubs but nothing ever came of it. I once designed a football action man with interchangeable heads and kits. The product did come out but I don't know if that had anything to do with me. I did send that design to Manchester United so maybe Alex Ferguson thought it was a good idea.

Influential family...

My family's quite extravagant. They're all Irish. I spent all my holidays in Ireland and think that must have influenced me somehow. I can't pinpoint any specific influence. I've always been into clothes but not really into fashion. My sister was really into fashion and coincidentally I've kind of followed her around. She went to do a university course in Leeds when I was still at school. I asked her about it and it sounded interesting so I went and did exactly the same course. But she only went there because she couldn't get into LCF's Fashion Marketing course, which I ended up doing. She always used to wear labels like Red or Dead and 90s clubbing brands because she used to go out clubbing. So when we used to have to traipse to Manchester or Leeds or Sheffied or wherever to buy these specific things she wanted it seeped in somehow. I loved that era of clothing.

My mum was always into sewing, getting patterns from Vogue and sewing things. My parents like clothes but they're not into fashion. They like seeing what I do. My mum works in a library and is always on the internet so she's always looking at what's happening. She cuts things out of newpapers and magazines.

I think there's also something about the area where I grew up. There are a lot of people from the same tiny village that I bump into down here. If I'd been into photography I think I'd have taken a lot of photos there. It's a beautiful place and everyone there is very normal. It's a mixture of a farming community, steelworks and shops. It's a bit of a consumerist community too and everyone wants to have nice things.

Parental guidance...

My dad gave me a lot of advice. He still gives me a lot of advice. He still thinks I should be getting a trade. I think it's very frustrating for my parents – they've sent me to university twice although not two full periods. I've always supported myself but I have gone to them cap in hand a couple of times. My dad doesn't really understand what I do and ID isn't in the local village shop. That's what I liked about Arena – my mum can get it from her local shop. My parents think it's idiotic and don't really understand why I do any work for free. When I say I'm working, they ask whether it's for good money. And sometimes there's no money at all. I think it is mad too so I understand why they often find it frustrating.

Collections...

I collect rubbish clothes. And recently I've just started collecting shaped clothes – I'm very interested in the architecture of clothing and how things stay up. I'm an eBay fanatic. I have a lot of 80s ad 90s hip hop clothes – a combination of Fresh Prince of Belair, Tribe Called Quest and Fido Dido stuff.

Favourite things...

I love photographers like Ma and Pa, realist photographer Walter Pfeiffer and David Sims' low-fi fashion photography. I spend a lot of time on BBC News – too much time but it gives me something to talk about. I listen to Five Live. And read a lot of blogs - The Interzine (a blog of blogs) – has quite a lot of London people's blogs on it. I spend a lot of time on Facebook, less and less though, Google Image search and eBay. I buy a lot of old adverts on eBay. And there's a geeky website called Fashionspot.

Right now...

At the moment I'm doing something with a Croatian photographer called Bruna Kazinoti. We're doing a shoot this month. At the moment, I've been drawn to reflective cycle wear that I'm turning into punky bondage. That's what I'm working on at the minute, making straps and things. I've had a lot of time off sewing but I'm getting back into it.

I'm quite interested in the teenage fear phenomenon – why people are fearful of younger people. Every generation feels that they've invented youth and controversy. Every era has a clothing attached to that fear of youth. Denim was once feared. The leather jacket was another look that struck fear into America. Right now, it's the hoodie. I'm really interested in the idea of tribes and tribes within tribes.

I'm interested in the war in Afghanistan because it's completely hidden. It seems quite surreal because it is a proper war but there's not really much of a fuss being made about it. The only reason I'm interested in it is because I know people from back home who are in the army. In London, I think we're very hidden from people in the army. We would never know anyone in the army down here, whereas back home it's a very strong career option.

If he could go back in time...

I would be a robber because there would be no CCTV. If I had the knowledge I have now, I'd be a great criminal. Before CCTV you could just walk into any shop and just steal things. I'd commit at least one petty crime. Definitely. I've never stolen anything because I'm just too scared. But I think if there was no scare element, I'd be a great criminal.

If not this then...

I'd love to be a football coach in Africa because they've got these great football academies now. I'd probably go to Ghana or Cameroon. Or I'd like to be a millionaire. If I won the lottery, I'd take everyone I know to a holiday resort at Costa del Sol or something like that. It'd be hilarious. It would be such a brilliant experience – taking 400 or so people somewhere and just being drunk for a week. It'd be really funny.

Words of wisdom...

I'm always overwhelmed by how stylish kids today are. I remember going on a date when I was about 11 or 12, wearing a stars-and-stripes Mickey Mouse tracksuit from Marks & Spencers. I think my mum bought it for me. I don't think I owned a pair of jeans until I was about 12. I just wore tracky bottoms. But, now I see kids who are about eight or nine in skinny jeans and I just think 'you're so cool!' I was never that cool. There's so much information available now too. You can watch fashion shows online. There are kids like Tavi, who are are freakishly young and seemingly have an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and lots of opinions about it.

Getting into fashion isn't that interesting. Fashion is just people wearing clothes inspired by everything around them. The history of fashion is quite interesting though - the reason why people wear clothes is based on various factors in society. Learning about society is a lot more interesting than learning about fashion. I'd just tell people to go out nightclubbing and go to different places in the world or the country and take it all in. It's so interesting to see what people in different places wear.

Also, get work experience. People judge you on the experiences you've acquired. It's how you'll end up bonding with people you work with in the future. There are so many ways to get into fashion - the most obvious is that you could be a designer, a photographer or a stylist but there are so many other things you could do, so many offshoots and ways to get in.

23.0 / Brave wild fire / Stevie Gee

2009-11-26T12:46:00.006Z

What: Illustrator and designer/art director
Where: London, United Kingdom
Websites: Dustywolf and Stem Agency

Who is this man... 

'Stevie has often been likened to a modern day Ernest Hemingway with his masculine, rugged appearance and manly hobbies coupled with his sensitive creativity. He is a big hit with both ladies and men alike.'

That’s a quote from the interweb I once read about myself and it’s pretty much all true. I have a lot of manly hobbies.

What's he all about... 

I am working as a graphic designer/ art director by day doing all sorts of creative wonderment. I have been doing that for five years now. My design style is clean and colourful.

In my own time I pursue the type of illustration work I have a personal interest in doing. Mostly starting as hand drawn with my own style of bad humour and play on words - stuff like record covers, tee shirts, clothes, skate stuff, posters, flyers, zines, just any creative fun times - how I want it to be. In my spare time I especially like fancy dress parties and riding my fixie fast bike.

In the pipeline...

I have a few projects that are in the work in progress stage but a new music collaboration is on the cards and will be the raddest thing yet!

I will be continuing my collaboration with Death Spray Custom.

I have just had my debut solo show at Jaguar Shoes on the Kingsland Road called 'Vengeance is coming!' which a few of these pictures are from. That was pretty rad for me as I was able to collaborate with Tourdeville who provided and built two incredible bikes and Death Spray Custom who did the most amazing paint job of my designs on the bikes. It was a dream come true to do those bikes. The whole show was a concept around a long forgotten race from the 50s that only two riders finished, an old sea dog called El Capitane and a Native American Sioux shaman called Figo Vengeance. I designed the bikes for these two characters. Check more pics of it all here.

 Road to now...

I went to Central St Martins to do a Graphic Design degree and specialised in illustration. I did well there but left not knowing what to do or how to get a job. I needed money quick so I got myself a job labouring for a landscape gardening company. It was an amazing hot summer and I loved it. Cutting down trees and digging holes like it was going out of style. After about a year and a half of doing that, I started thinking I should be doing something creative. My wife was just about to graduate from Camberwell Arts College and I'd got her pregnant so I was getting a bit worried about money.

We both ended up on the dole but through a college friend I was offered a three-day work placement to make an office look busy for an agency that had a big client coming in. I obviously did well at that, as I did during my first interview at Wood Green job centre. Anyway, the company called me back and offered me a freelance job.

School of life...

When I started working as a designer/art director there was a lot of learning on the job I had to do. It wasn’t just illustration any more but working on concepts and having large group brainstorms, which was daunting at first.

When Jesse was born I had only just started the new job and then there were some complications with the pregnancy, meaning he came six weeks early. We had no cot or no nothing in our studio flat. Once we took him home we had to feed him through a tube in his nose that went directly to his stomach, it all seemed pretty gnarly at the time. We felt so young and had so little money but it was a really good learning curve.

When our daughter Rosa arrived the next year we were ready.

As a kid...

I always loved drawing and it was always my dream to be a cartoonist like Rolf Harris when I was little. Either that or join the SAS. I think I made the right decision.

Skateboard riding took up most of my time from the around the age of 15. The Toy Machine video 'Welcome to Hell' came out when I was 16 and blew me away! The soundtrack on that film had Misfits, Sonic Youth, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd. That video and so many others like 411 showed us bands that I still love today.

As a small child I went to a ballet class for a bit (not in a posh child way), personally I always wanted to do Karate. But I love dancing to this day and have won competitions for my erotic moves.

Stepping up...

I guess you never know till you try... opportunities came up, I took them and people liked what I did. Fear of trying stuff is the biggest enemy you can have.

It’s still a battle to be brave and step up. Having my first show recently was like that for me. Making yourself vulnerable and open to both praise and criticism is a good place to be. You learn a lot about how people are. Some truly lovely people come out and shake your hand and some not so much.

Good days and bad... 

Travelling with my job has been really good. I have been to lots of lovely places such as Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Austria, China and America. This has meant wild experiences with all sorts of amazing and different people.

I dislike negative chat about others in the creative world, that seems silly to me, surely we all know what a struggle it can be, so lets help a brother from another mother out!

Place of origin...

I was born in Essex but mainly grew up in Sunbury, a suburb outside London. I had a good group of local friends that I skated with a lot there and just spent as much time outside as possible. We used to skate on everything we could find and build a lot of obstacles of our own. The area had a few wastelands there, which was great for riding BMX and climbing trees.

I guess it taught me you can make your own fun out of what’s around you. Simple pleasures with the right people can just be wild! S.K.Z forever!

A day in his life...

Jay-Z sums it up pretty well:  'Money cash hoes money cash hoes (what)
Money cash hoes money cash hoes (uhh)
Money cash hoes money cash hoes (come on)
Money cash hoes (what) hoes (what) hoes (what)'

Then I put the kids to bed, wake up in the morning and ride to work. Then the cycle continues.

Helping hands... 

My parents and lovely older sister encouraged me always, so I now want to do that with my children as much as I can. Both of them are very creative. Rosa loves princesses and dancing, though she is a real tough cookie, she reminds me of Little Miss Sunshine.

My son Jesse who is four was recently asked at school what he wants to do when he’s older. One of his teachers suggested 'an artist like your daddy' and he replied 'I already are one'. That’s a strong answer.

I do a lot of drawing with my kids, but recently we started to draw where Jesse copies what I do line by line, most of the images are his suggestion of drawing people with 'springy eyes'. He is only young but can already use fine liners, brush pens and paint pens. Truly rad!

That’s the biggest encouragement for me.

The familia...

I got to tell you first things first that my great grandad on my mum's side was the Pearly King of Dalston. So although I’m not a cockney I reckon I should be the honorary Fresh Prince of Shoreditch or something. My grandma was chuffed I had my first solo show on the Kingsland Road as she was born on that road.

My dad's father was number 17 of 21 children in a half Irish family. He was an incredible carpenter and knew all sorts of amazing tricks like playing the saw, throwing his voice, playing the piano by ear with his feet. He even sparred with the North London wrestling champion. My dad grew up on the same street as the Krays in Chingford.

I remember my mum telling me how, as a little girl, she used to shout abuse at the Teddy boys on the corner of her street and they would chase her and her mates down the road. She said they were quite scared as the Teddy boys had razor blades under their collars.

My parents have so many good stories behind them - it inspires me. They showed me you can work super hard to better your situation but its not worth shit if you aren’t with the people you love. My family are good people. They have always put family before earning big money or success. That’s meant I’ve always wanted a good woman in my life and kids of my own more than I’ve strived for commercial success.

Marrying into a large Greek Cypriot family was a good move too. They're the most welcoming and supportive people I have ever met. It’s the best feeling knowing such people have got your back. It gives you a lot of confidence and security. The Greek food at family get-togethers is better than restaurant standard too!

Hoops and hurdles... 

Serious voice: Having a wife and kids fairly young has been the best thing I have ever done for sure but in terms of selfish ambition for success, it’s always a case of doing what’s best for them first.

I remember in Boyz n the Hood, Furious Styles says to his son 'Any fool with a dick can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children.' I think Furious Styles is one of the best names I have ever heard of.

Lesson in motion...

At the end of to my third year at St Martins in 2004 I made a comic fanzine 'Hired Hands' with my cousin, the incredible Paul Griffith. We made a few issues and put them in the end of year show. A young lady called Rach Robinson saw it and liked it. To cut a long story short, she introduced me to her brother Will who had set up an agency called Stem and was interested in new illustrators. And it ends up he becomes like a father/brother/coach to me and I’m still with Stem now.

The moral of that tale is to be as pro-active as you can be, always creating new stuff and getting it out there yourself, you never know what could happen.

Powerful words...

The best advice anyone has ever given me was given to me by myself and it changed my life forever, I said to myself one day:
'Dance like you don’t need money, work like you never been hurt, make love like no-ones watching. Live free.'

But being serious, Uncle Leon who has the best tattoos in London, recently said to me while sitting up in bed with a black eye and fractured skull:
 'Words without action hold no value.' That piece of advice helped me a lot at the time.

Obsessions and collections...

I am trying to be less of a consumer these days as we four live in a small flat so I had to edit things down a bit. But I have a lot of mini collections around on the shelves - records, books, comic books, native American stuff, Wolfman stuff, smoking pipes, Cyprus stuff, vintage skate stuff. It's bad. I need throw stuff away more.

I support Tottenham Hotspurs too. It’s been a good season so far. It's early days but I’m hoping for a top 4th maybe 5th/6th. Realistically top half of the table finish? You can live in hope.

Inspiration...

I love 1950s comic books. I have a small collection of erotic comics I bought in the Dominican Republic. They are so sleazy and violent and the men in the stories are complete misogynists. That type of stuff influences my style. They are all muscles and sexual power but I always imagine they are actually scared shitless and insecure about everything. I love it.

Ernest Hemmingway, Elmore Leonard, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck and SE Hinton who wrote most famously Rumblefish and The Outsiders, two of my favourite books. They are all American writers that write the kind of words my eyes likes to look at. And Raymond Pettibon for art and Mark Gonzales for art and skate innovation.

People...

Popeye is one of my all time heroes. The type of man I want to be. No nonsense with massive forearms.

My wife, first of all, well second after Popeye... She’s like my creative director and way better at drawing than me anyway. I rely on her for ideas when I get a new brief. It's good to work with someone you can be completely honest with and then meet in the bedroom later for a debriefing. Ha ha.

My agent Will at Stem Agency is like my boxing coach, always encouraging me to carry on even when I think I’ve got nothing left to give. Stem is rad because it's grass roots, not corporate, it’s built from the bottom up through hard work.

My friend Matt'sive Help' Tomkins aka The Silent Knight is inspiring for his loyalty, creativity, bravery and incredible unselfishness.

Interweb love...

But does it float has seemingly endless creative inspiration. Toy Machine for amazing stuff in the dream life of Ed Templeton. RVCA always has good stuff on bikes, skating, art, music, fashion and whatnot. Way Out ! for hot motorbikes and wild women (not for kids). Death Spray Custom has cool shit and some stuff I did too. Just watched season two of Epicly Later’d on VBS TV. The Max Schaaf ones were so rad. Best man Ken Bitchen recommended these to me. Thanks Ken.

Relaxation... 

Drinking deep and dressing up, dancing wild and sleazy. My dancing name is 'Sleazy Gee'. Not sure why?

I really like playing darts with my friend’s. I once penetrated the end of a dart through the flight of another dart on the bullseye. My proudest moment. Robin Hood shit. My darts name is Valdez Prince and I defeated Quincy Chalis in the final.

On going back in time... 

I'd insist on taking Karate class not ballet.

Big plans...

Keep on keeping on. Staying wild and staying busy. Rest when I’m dead. Go for lunch. 

Dream life...

I would love to have a gold ring on every finger and have a table reserved in the back of a Greek restaurant for me, where everyone knows me and looks down as I walk past and I don’t have to pay for any of the food. I don’t think enough illustrators have that kind of respect or reputation. It should be a more glamorous a lifestyle.

If not art then...

Probably still landscape gardening. I seriously considered staying with that or training to be a tree surgeon. I love climbing trees and using chainsaws. That would be a cool job.

I want to do animation soon, it's kind of a natural progression for illustrators. I have storyboarded and art directed a few at work but never done any with my drawings. I have a plan with some friends to do something with 'Team Unicorn'. Lets see...

A note of advice... 

In general, don’t take life too seriously, have fun, be rad, make cosmic love as much as your body can handle, stay wild and don’t listen to negative talk. If you’ve got your people around you, nothing can touch you.

Share everything you’ve got creatively: your ideas, your style, your pens, your desk, your body... there’s nothing new under the sun so let's ride into the horizon together and make love happen.

Optional extra...

I’d rather be Joe Frazier than Muhammad Ali, you know what I mean?

Be brave, be kind and stay wild!

13.1 / One Horse Town / Justin Poulter

2009-11-18T11:06:00.011Z

What: Illustrator and entrepreneur
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Websites: One Horse Town

History...

Both my parents are/were designers. At school I was an art nerd and didn’t really pay much attention in other classes except history. I studied graphic design at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, majoring in illustration. I started One Horse Town with Simon Berndt, who I met at college at the beginning of this year.

Work...

I am an illustrator and partner/founder/manager of One Horse Town. I love collecting old toys, frames, photographs and other antique trinkets. I also collect music and DJ occasionally too.

Learning...

Well, studying taught me a whole lot, but I've always been keen on drawing/painting and have put a lot of time into it through the years. Also, keeping tabs on other designers, illustrators, photographers and art directors has guided me along the way.

Childhood...

I was quite introverted and anti-social. This has changed since and I'm quite the opposite now. I loved surfing, skateboarding and punk rock. I still do but time evades me.

Confidence...

I think the positive response to my work from a young age was a great encouragement. The fact that my parents went the creative route was a further encouragement.

Right now...

We are currently working on posters for Gazelle’s 2010 European tour. We also have some ad jobs on the go.

Pros and cons...

I like being able to draw all day. I dislike difficult art directors but most of them are not bad at all.

Places...

I grew up in Simon's Town and Hout Bay, in Cape Town. I think the seaside town lifestyle has had a bit of an effect on me.

Encouragement...

My friends and family are very supportive of what I do.

Family...

Broken but good. Support from both sides has helped me a lot.

Collections...

Old toys, figurines, music from the 50s, B-grade grade films and vintage pictures.

Inspiration...

Blogs, books, long walks, certain friends and music.

Favourite things.

My studio, The Cramps, The Kinks, Bukowski, Mirage Magazine, old travel posters and films.

Websites...

Ffffound.com – there are lots of interesting pictures and I'm a bit obsessed.

Relaxation...

Good friends, good food, good wine, good films and mountain walks.

Admirable people...

Parra, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Xander Ferreira, Gary Taxali, Gary Baseman, David Chou and all the very talented, local illustrators I have been lucky enough to work with.

Plans for the immediate future?

Just to do as much work as possible. The more I work, the more I learn.

Dream life…

Ideally, I’d be drawing whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. A lot of travelling would be nice too.  

Advice...

Know your worth. Keep up to date with current illustrators. And I think the best advice is to draw everyday.

21.1 / It's Saal good / Michael Saal

2009-11-09T22:44:00.010Z

What: Designer, illustrator and art director
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Websites: Mike Saal and Gods And Gangsters

Behind the mask…

I freelance as a designer, illustrator and art director for advertising agencies and on the side I paint, draw, create whatever, collaborate with other artists, take photographs and stare into space. I grew up in Mitchell's Plain, Cape Town, South Africa – also known as the Cape Flats. A strange place full of scary people who control the most notorious gangs in South Africa. I spent most of my time avoiding this reality by daydreaming and playing Nintendo TV games and watching TV. When I wasn't playing games I was running around bumping my head on walls or falling off bicycles, double bunk beds, skateboards, fences and roller skates. Eventually I was sentenced to 12 years of brutal, mind-numbing, miserable, painful and embarrassing school. Somewhere around the end of my sentence I ditched the accounting class. I heard rumours that kids just talked and listened to music in art class and I thought that's the lifestyle for me. There I discovered a funny kind of joy in making pictures and I kept at it.

Education…

I graduated from the Nintendo to PC games in my teens and accidentally discovered Photoshop. It was an exciting tool to twist the world into strange shapes. That was probably the beginning. I can't be sure. I don't remember much before the age of 18. The doctor said this is the result of all my concussions. But I do remember graffiti. That came later. I joined NME crew in Mitchell's Plain and we painted together, drank together and risked our lives together. I learnt a lot from the amazingly talented people in the local scene. That was also around the time when street art started to bloom in Cape Town and there were fun group shows to be a part of. All in all, I'd say I learnt most of what I know from painting, interacting with the artists around me and the internet for information and inspiration.

Youth…

I read interviews of amazing artists and they say that when they were kids they were always drawing, inventing hydraulic systems and teapots made out of tea bags… and I think to myself, I never did any of that. All I did was daydream, play TV games, bump my head and make flaming patterns in the driveway with petrol when my parents were not home. I don't bump my head as much as I used to but I still daydream a lot.

Confidence…

Getting good results in high school art and encouragement from friends and family kept me on the path.

In the pipeline…

I'm building a very tall hill. A lot of awesome artists are helping me and when It's done we are going to the top to shout into the heavens. It's also a zine called Gods and Gangsters, filled with design, illustration, photography and writing. Some people think it's a movie about Jacob Zuma, Al Pacino and Jennifer Lopez and all the things they did at a dinner party together but I assure you that's not true. It's just a rumour to discredit my name.

When the coin lands on heads, I manufacture mayhem with a collective called BLKROK, which consists of a writer, keyboard player, designer/illustrator, skateboarder, mixed blood alsatian, a tambourine player and a struggling poet that's learning to play the guitar. It's a top secret project so I can't say much more. I'm already in kak for just mentioning the name.

I'm freelancing on other design jobs for advertising agencies. Most of the time for the good people at Matchboxology. They specialise in creating campaigns for HIV/AIDS awareness in South Africa.

Peaks and troughs…

I like that I can get lost in my work and transport myself to amazing places. I like working with with musicians. I like the freedom. I like making work that could have a positive impact on people's lives. I like that I don't have office hours.

I dislike being part of an industry that makes useless products that molest people's minds and destroy everything good and wholesome in the world. I dislike that I have to do this kind of work now and then to pay the bills.

Environment…

I grew up in Mitchell's Plain but I spent most of my time in my daydreams and lost in TV-game-land. School was boring as hell and so was Mitchell's Plain. I desperately wanted to be free from both as soon as possible. I was tired of living in a place where strangers would insult you if you looked or acted different to the norm. I was trapped in the land of the automaton and I was greatly outnumbered. I had to sneak around at night and disguise myself as newspapers blowing in the wind. Urban camouflage for a mild mannered Michael.

Encouragement…

Family was the foundation that I needed to do become confident in what I do. When I was a kid, my older sister kept telling me that I was talented and clever and that I could do anything I wanted to do. That was the key factor in my learning how to become a confident young artist.

Home…

My family is like an experiment. One day a scientist called Dr. Skoene decided that he wanted to make a strange fury monster with five heads cut from different types of African animals. Each head spoke a different language and the only thing they had in common was their body. But the monster was strong and clever and it made me some legs and arms from pieces of driftwood and corrugated tin and it took my head and connected it to the limbs and set me loose on an unsuspecting public. The monster has always been supportive of my career decisions. I don't know what I'd do without the fury beast. It made me who I am today, a wobbly nobbly head.

Stash…

I collect embarrassing moments, mainly when I'm drunk. I write them down on the back of grocery receipts and I keep them in my flatmate's yellow teapot. I dont know why I collect them. I have a feeling they'll be useful one day.

Inspiration…

I think my creativity comes in waves. I go with the flow. Sometimes I won't feel inspired and I won't be motivated to kickstart my engine and when that happens I try to stay calm. I increase my bath frequency to one a day and I relax or exercise. I try eating vegetables and fruit and then I watch a movie to forget about work. This can last for days or weeks but when the creative wave starts climbing I grab it and I ride it like I stole it.

Favourite things…

Koh Yao Noi, bands that record in their living room, Ernest Hemingway's book 'A Moveable Feast', friends, grapefruit, soya burgers, flaming meteorites, hysterical laughter, people that use the f-word in public and people that don't wear matching socks.

Unwinding…

I like switching my brain off. I'm obsessed with movies and staring at fires. I can do either for a very long. I justify both as research.

Time travel…

If I could go back in time I'd take my flatmate's yellow teapot with me and not do all the things I wrote on the back of grocery receipts. I'd also take a good book with me because I figure it would be really boring living in a world which can't surprise you. I don't know if I should do anything differently either. That old professor guy in Back to the Future kept warning Michael J Fox not to interfere with his past and his mother was starting to dig his bones and there's a scary scene where she tries to kiss him, which is wrong.

Amazing people…

Jeepers, the list is huge. I tried to write down their names but I know I will forget someone. Basically all of my friends.

Right now…

There are some BLKROK projects on the way. A series of experiments in light and sound. Top secret. Need to know basis only. Confidential and highly sensitive.

Dreams…

I figure I'm already living my dream life. The only thing that is missing is a catapult big enough to launch a car through a desert landscape.

Advice…

Follow a path with heart. If your heart is in it, you will do whatever it takes to get you where you want to be.

18.1 / Poetic by design / Crystal Campbell

2009-11-03T14:53:00.001Z

What: Graphic designer and multi-media artist
Where: Lisbon, Portugal
Websites: Crystal Campbell, NearInteraction, Bokkie Shoes, Rosebud&Grumpers, The Earth Is Not Flat and MELD

Why you'd want to know her…

I have a multi-disciplinary approach to my design work and aesthetic and no preference for any creative output over another. I am not a designer that excels in one field, rather, my creativity is somewhat equally spread over several mediums. I call what I do 'poetic design' and I believe this offers a less clichéd form of communication. With poetic design, the meaning of a product or service is more open-ended, the consumer being regarded as an existential curator or co-producer or invited participant. Within the crafting there is a sense in which it begins to embody the personality of it's maker and it's surroundings. I work alongside my partner Diogo Terroso at NearInteraction. The work at NearInteraction is a good example of what I believe the essence of design should be – interacting with all our senses; what you hear, see, touch and feel – to add new levels of complexity to the experience.

The story behind Crystal Campbell…

I grew up in Zimbabwe and lived there for almost twenty years, during what began as a peaceful, prosperous and hopeful period. The year I was born was the year Zimbabwe got its independence – a birth of the new nation still ringing with Bob Marley's idealistic 'Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny' 1980 Zimbabwe Tour. But 29 years later, Zimbabweans still face a future of hyperinflation, corruption, dysfunction, poverty and exclusion. My parents were committed to the Zimbabwean utopia but were, in fact, outsiders – my father's South African and my mother's Dutch, which meant I grew up with this ultra-liberal view of the world, only realising in my teens that the reality was more along the lines of George Orwell's 'All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others'.

After living, studying and working as a graphic designer for a few years in South Africa, I moved to Portugal. The cityscape reminds me of Harare in another lifetime and the landscape reminds me of the Western Cape in South Africa, so I feel very at home here. Growing up, my family spent periods of time in Mozambique so perhaps that is another reason why I am so comfortable with Portugal. When I was studying my masters I was living in London's East End but London is too big for me. I like smaller cities, with more trees, more birds, more time for conversation... tea and cakes.

One of the strongest emotional links I carry with me are the Jacaranda lined avenues of Harare. I found them again in Durban where I settled for some time, intuitively searching until I found them again in Lisbon. They are blooming at the moment. I guess growing up in Africa taught me to appreciate simple things like feeling the earth under my feet. I like to be barefoot – something I've found to be quite rare in Europe where people seem frightened to see their sockless feet.

As a child…

I was the perfect bossy older sibling. The games we played were mine, directed by me. My brother was very obliging and the perfect companion for my games. I liked to play make-believe games, play acting, dressing up and telling stories. Sometimes I would become so embedded in the story I would forget reality and find myself crying in empathy for a character who died. My make-believes always had dramatic momentums in them. We had a huge garden with fantastic overgrown areas where we could create my kingdoms. These days I have just finished studying a narrative course at Central Saint Martins. I guess I am still working at creating the perfect story.

She believed she could…

My hands tell the stories of mishaps and adventures. I have never not been holding a pencil, chewing a felt-tip or spilling ink everywhere so design was a natural progression. I always liked to consider how good something looked from an early age. I remember choosing to be an ice-cream man with a bicycle (age six – think of all the ice-creams I would be able to eat), a dolphin trainer (a 12 year old girl inspired by 'Free Willy'), a writer, (I asked for a typewriter for my 14th birthday and was horrified at how much work it was to punch the keys down), a ballet dancing-horse-riding-sewing-machine-stitching-bread-baking-iron-welder-graphic-designer-illustrator-VJ-mother with a penchant for the good things in life. To shock people I used to say I wanted to be a housewife. Just think of all the things I would be able to do all day without anyone telling me what to do I would tell them. That past is my ideal.

Projects in the pipeline…

I am very busy working on my latest project, my seven-week-old son. On the side, I am launching a new range of Bokkie Shoes for the South African World Cup 2010 in February at Design Indaba in South Africa. Rather than simply producing a product, I wanted to visually define Bokkie as a state of mind; a search for the definition of what being South African means and an exploration of the icons that both define our history and hint at our future. This means that my work as the creative director is focused on the juxtapositioning of South African iconography and landscapes.

The past year has also seen a side-project come to an end as VJ's Rosebud&Grumpers, where we designed our 'performances' to be very theatrical, having themed shows, dressing up in character, performing with props specific to the show and the invitation of audience participation. For the Balkanology parties, we produced a series of cooking shows, where we mixed pre-recorded footage with live streaming images of vegetable chopping and food preparation performed live, on-site in the middle of the dance floor.

The joys and lows…

I don't really do one thing or another. I like doing many things and I work in many mediums. I enjoy multi-disciplinary collaborative projects best. The chance to mix and match ideas is a fascinating process. The results, whether good or bad, are always beyond your expectations, and the situation always gives you something to learn and take home. What I dislike is that in general the creative industry is not paid enough for being creative. Being creative is seen as personality trait rather than a skill. We are worth more! Designers unite!

A family and family of friends…

I have an amazing network of supportive friends and family across the world. Coming from a small family means that I have adopted many of my friends into my personal 'family'. As I see it, family is something you can choose. All of my family-friends are creative and their creative outputs endlessly inspire me. Having a close network of musicians, artists and writers has most definitely influenced my career decisions. My parents are both ecologists and I grew up travelling with them in the bush. As they worked I would spend the time seeing things grow, poking insects, climbing huge trees, collecting wild flowers and playing in the long grass. I was also really into the precious National Geographic magazine subscription we had, arriving a month late in a crumpled brown envelope, and would spend hours reading it from cover to cover looking at amazing places and people.

The best advice ever…

'Be good. Do good' was a hippy sticker I had on my fridge during my formative years. The message has remained with me like a kind grandmother's words. Two years ago I had a passing conversation with one of my father's friends about meaningless gestures and how the act of performing a gesture to make yourself feel better about something doesn't actually achieve anything of worth. Think about your actions. One of my college lecturers said to me when I graduated 'Be careful of what you wish for'. I had never heard that before, and it still rings in my ears. I've never been one to remember quotes but I did carry around a quote by Lee Hazlewood in my wallet for about two years – it was about throwing caution to the wind when falling in love. Then I lost the quote and fell in love.

Her keepsakes…

I am a collector of memories, colours, thoughts, smells; a curator of conversations, recipes, moments in time, and a researcher of everything under the sun. For years, I have carried around a postcard from an exhibition in Cape Town that says in simple red Helvetica, 'I want to be famous.' I'm not so sure if I feel like that anymore but I can't possibly throw the card away now. Because I travel so much my collections are memories that live in cardboard boxes which are scattered around the world. They contain random snippets of a lifetime of memories. They are disorganised. They are like time capsules, and I never know what I am going to find in one of them. I used to collect rabbits in all shapes and sizes and for a while I was obsessed with birds. You see these obsessions follow through in my work.

When the inspiration runs dry…

I don't push myself. If I'm not in the mood I simply don't do it. In the short term, if you have a deadline for a really boring logo, green tea and cookies work magic. I am always inspired by something or other. I guess being interested in many aspects of design means that there is always something I am thinking about. Inspiration comes as a result of my inquiring nature. You can see layout design in the mangled wires of the telephone poles, logos in the mis-matching of the tiles in the street and potential in the blooming flowers.

A few of her favourite things…

A set of four precious books are my soul inspirations – 'The Little Prince', one of the world's best selling books by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, has followed me wherever I go. I first fell in love with the book's wisdom in chapter one when the narrator shows a picture of a boa with an elephant in its stomach, which is perfectly clear to the Little Prince, but says it is a drawing that adult viewers always mistake for a hat. 'The Velveteen Rabbit' is a 1920's book from my childhood by Margery Williams, a tale of a stuffed rabbit and his quest to become real through the true love of his owner. 'Be Here Now' is by Ram Dass who was this guy who took a lot of LSD with Timothy Leary in the early 1970's. Then they did a super LSD experiment to see how high they could get and after three weeks of being high, he decided to become a Buddhist instead. The book though is a vast collection of metaphysical aphorisms (all 410 pages) accompanied by amazing freeform pen illustrations. I flip through and find a random page to read when I don't know what to do next. It always helps.

'Daybreak' is an autobiographical book by Joan Baez, a surprise book, I can't recall how I got to own it. It is an impressionistic, drifting collage of memories, more lyric than prose. 'In the Night Kitchen' is a popular and controversial book illustrated by my favorite illustrator Maurice Sendak. He also wrote and illustrated 'Where the Wild Things Are' too. I think it was made into a movie that was released this year. Controversial only for the fact that Mickey, a boy of about three, spends most of his time in the book totally naked. Both books create a surreal dream-like environment around a young child and I guess this really resonated with me when I first began to read them.

Her favourite websites…

I used to go to a lot of websites and spend a lot of time on the internet. These days I still spend alot of time on the internet but not revisiting – my viewing patterns are more random. I go with the flow, hopping from one website to the next to the next. I view Flickr collections frequently. I am a big fan. I go to Springwise and I use Wikipedia.

In another life…

Rather than backtracking my life, I would like to go back to the medievel days of Robin Hood and be part of the Merry Men crew. I would have to be a man though 'cause in those days the women didn't have much fun, being married off at 14 and forced to wear corsets. I want to ride horses, shoot bow and arrows and run around in green tights robbing the rich and giving to the poor.

Inspiring people…

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, widely regarded as South Africa's moral conscience, is my biggest inspiration. 'Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.' Described by Nelson Mandela as 'sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless'. I can't put it any better.

The Motherland…

Africa can always be looked at from either a perspective of positive or negative. Often both tend to ignore the other and perhaps this is because Africa is a continent of extremes. Africa can be the rapid rate of a growing population, the pressure of poverty, the plight of refugees and the pain of loss to AIDS or Africa is a continent of creativity, ingenuity, invention, beauty and humour. It is a mistake to see one without the other but it is state of mind to choose on which you would like to focus. I choose to be optimistic about our futures as we enter a period that is marked by an increase in creativity and a more humanistic approach to all we do, think and create.

Plans right now…

I aim to get back to learning Processing and Portuguese for 2010.

Her dream life…

Breathe in. I see a white studio with full length windows overlooking the Lisbon Tejo river. An uber-mac hums in the corner, a glint of sunshine reflecting off the hard drive. There is a cup of green tea sitting on the corner of the table. Breathe out.

If anyone is interested in doing what she does…

I have three rules that I use, and finally wrote them down one humid evening in New York. They are:
1. If you want something done, do it yourself. (This way it will be done perfectly and quickly.)
2. Don't ask for permission. (Usually you can get away with anything! Especially if you smile.)
3. Make your own rules. (People are always trying to stick to other peoples rules. And what are rules anyway?)

8.1 / Massive black truth / Danny Miller

2009-10-28T06:33:00.017Z

What: Designer and publisher
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: The Church of London Design

We like him because…

Hello! I am Danny Miller, and I make magazines and design things, and write lots of emails and talk lots of bullshit, and some sense too. My history is very mag-centric, and it's hard to talk about it without repeating the word magazine over and over, so I'll try not to. In short, I designed my school mag, did an art foundation course, went to Newcastle Northumbria to study graphic design but didn't like the course there so I spent all my time designing the university magazine instead. I also fell in love with a publication called Adrenalin (a beautiful surf, skate and snow mag) and did work experience there a bunch of times and got really lucky and was offered a job, then moved to London (in 2002) to be junior designer.

For my final project, in the third year at university, I made a movie mag called Little White Lies (LWLies). I got content for it from my friend Matt, who'd been writing for our university mag, and made the whole thing – it was a good idea, though pretty badly executed. So anyway, I came to London to work at Adrenalin and Little White Lies issue 0 sat on my shelf for a few years. While I was at Adrenalin, I decided that I wanted to make LWLies for real, so I spent a long time conducting espionage, seeing how the sales, subscriptions, marketing department, etc operated – figuring out print costs, production issues, how to distribute, all that kind of thing. And just as I was getting an idea of how I might make my own mag, the company we were working for went bust and I just thought 'Fuck it, I'll give it a try'. I had a little money saved and a credit card. We just made LWLies 01 (in Jan 2005), got it printed (about 3000 copies) and I got it into Borders, Virgin and maybe a few other places. And that was that. It's just grown, very, very slowly and painfully so ever since.

In his spare time…

Well, when I started LWLies there was me, Matt Bochenski (to edit the mag), Paul Willoughby and Rob Longworth (to design the mag) and we cracked on and made four or five issues, staying up late at night and being poor and doing all that clichéd stuff that people do when they make magazines. And then we decided to re-launch Adrenalin, and did so as Huck magazine. Huck did really well and made a little money. We made six of each a year, scheduled alternately. As we moved out of my kitchen and into a small office (and then a slightly bigger office) we got more people around us, excellent people (I know everyone says that, but hey) and started to get our act together a bit. What we found was that, thankfully, people responded really well to both mags, and would ask us to write and design things, and sometimes make magazines for them. Wwe did all of those things and turned ourselves into a little design/creative/publishing agency, which slowly evolved into who we are now, which is The Church Of London – a creative agency. So, what I'm doing now is running this agency. And in my spare time, I'm mostly thinking about running this agency. . .

How he knows what he knows…

I learnt very little about what I do now through formal education. I just learned from looking at other magazines (really carefully) and reading books about them, and studying them. I've been obsessed with mags forever – I'm one of those mega-lucky people who's always known what they want to do with their life.

As a young one…

I was an incredibly normal and average child/teenager who enjoyed doing exceedingly normal things like playing computer games and footy and being lame with girls. I haven't changed much at all. Seriously, I'm exactly the same.

Where'd he get his confidence…

I don't think that I'm arrogant but I've always been totally confident going into things. Kind of obliviously confident, I guess. I always thought I had a good understanding of magazines and could make one of my own. I thought I understood what made them work properly and what people connected with in them. And then when we started trying to turn our hands to design for other clients and brands even though I knew it'd take a long time to get good at it and understand it (and even though I know that we're still a long way away from where we want to be as group of creative people trying to do good work) I felt and feel really confident that we're going somewhere good and that we'll be successful. So, yeah, what made me think I'd be good was an in-built sense of naive confidence.

Right now…

Lots of side projects, most of which stem from LWLies. We're making a TV programme, organising a three-day festival and launching another magazine, all sorts of things. Many of them probably won't ever happen but I enjoy thinking about them and I recognise that there's lots to learn from exploring all options. I'd say that we're very enthusiastic about doing new things without kidding ourselves that any old pipe dream we have is going to happen. Someone once said to me that big ideas were the scourge of my generation. I disagree!

The ups and downs…

I like working with nice people, who feel exactly as I do about publishing and design, and life in general. I dislike that my job has turned into a largely administrative role. I dislike that we all still earn no money and are also often only able to pay our contributors very little money.

Early life…

I grew up in Chester, which is a mostly nice enough place. Did it affect my life choices? Chester didn't but my upbringing did, I guess. My parents ran their own business, pretty successfully, so maybe that's where my in-built sense of comfort in doing something of my own comes from?

Encouraging homefront…

I never told my family I was making LWLies until the first issue was printed, just in case it never happened. They seem to like it and other stuff we've done too. But, to be honest it's not something they can massively engage with. As for friends, they're the people I work with, pretty much, and we've all encouraged each other along the way. Everything we do now – everything we've done – it's all down to a core group of people, best friends really, who've brought energy and enthusiasm and bill-paying-skills to everything we've done. We're dedicated. And there's nothing more encouraging to me than working hard, while knowing for a fact that everyone around me is working just as hard and cares just as much as I do about the quality of what they're doing.

The power of family…

My family is awesome and super-chilled. As I mentioned earlier, my folks ran their own business and, though they didn't exactly get rich off it, they did well – it afforded me a comfortable upbringing. I believe very much in people being a product of their environment and I guess I'm a clinical case of that. As for my creative decisions, I dunno, I think they all just come from me, to be honest.

Hurdles, hoops and rings of fire…

This is a really boring and obvious answer but it just has to be money. I've earned nothing for five years – just nothing. I'm crippled by debt and I ain't getting rich anytime soon. It's difficult not to get angry about it sometimes. This route that we've taken has been extremely costly for many of us who were earning more money before we began our own endeavours. This really does go for all of us. We don't talk or moan about it (even though we talk and moan about everything else from time to time) very much – we just get on with it. In summation, I'll work all day on Saturday if needs be but when I leave the office at 7pm to head home, contemplating the fact that I basically won't be recompensed for it in any way, I am displeased.

The most amazing lesson…

Honestly, I think the most important thing I've learnt about myself and my creativity is that I'm not an amazing designer but I do have a good intuitive feel for this business so I should just leave that work to the people in our team who know it best. What I'm saying is that I've learnt to really focus on what I definitely am good at, and not what I'm not good at. I must always be realistic about it because when you have someone doing a job that they're born to do, they'll progress 100 times quicker than someone else who's heart isn't really in it or who's talent isn't really up to it. As an example, we've had various members of our team shoe-horned into a distribution role since we started out and we've all done a fairly poor job at it. Recently we took on someone who wanted to do nothing else but to help us distribute our magazines and who was damn good at it too. The results have been amazing. She's done more in four months than I did in four years because this is the job for her.

The best advice he's received…

My first boss told me that if you put two people in a room, you'll get office politics. That wasn't advice exactly, but it's stuck with me.

Does he collect stuff…

I don't collect anything anymore. I'm a non-consumer. I buy nothing apart from food and drink.

When he's uninspired…

I look at old copies of amazing magazines. And I go to the cinema or watch films that I love. I'm inspired by other people's talent more than anything, so just to immerse myself in it for a while is enough to get my brain kick-started again.

A few of his favourite things…

London, New York and The Lake District, Radiohead and films rather than books. I love Paul Thomas Anderson. Something that would make me so happy is if I found out that Thom Yorke and PTA read LWLies. Oh, and that Barack Obama read Huck. That would be amazing. I totally reckon he does as well, on the loo in Air Force One.

And a few of his favourite websites…

Other than our own, I read Jeremy Leslie's magCulture and, erm, Creative Review's blog and the MediaGuardian annnnd… that's it.

To relax he likes…

Watching films, chilling with me missus, eating scratty food in cafés 'round Old street and running, believe it or not. There are lots of nice places to run in London, even though it mostly smells terrible.

If he could turn back the hands of time…

Oh, man, don't ask me that. I'd rip up the credit card mentioned in question 1 of this interview for starters. Other than that, there's not an awful lot I'd do differently. We've always learnt and grown stronger from making lots of mistakes, so I guess I wouldn't want to just go back and start eliminating them.

Inspiring folks…

I'm going over old ground a bit again here but it'd have to be Thom Yorke and Paul Thomas Anderson just for being exceptionally talented and creative people who are absolutely the best at what they do. In my opinion anyway.

Immediate future…

Our plans are to keep thinking of more exciting projects and trying to make them happen, while ensuring that we're sensible and can run a good, solid business at the same time. We're very serious about keeping afloat, doing things by the book and progressing as a company, which is all rather boring, but absolutely essential.

His dream life…

Sickeningly, I'm kind of doing what I always wanted to do already. In my dream world, our company would grow from 15 people to something big, but not huge – say 50 or 60 people – and make more magazines, do more design work, be respected and we'd all continue to be excited about things. My personal dream is to run a small independent cinema from which Little White Lies is made I'll just hang out there, watching films and propping up the bar (there'll be a bar).

Advice to aspiring designer-publishers…

I would advise them to find a place, or places they want to work, and aggressively (but nicely) pester the relevant people there until they let you come do work experience. Then go there and work hard, and hope that something comes of it. I'd also advise people to do their own thing, to show the world that you're serious about what you want to do. Make something of your own, and get it out into the world somehow.

11.1 / Dreaming in colour / Khaya Mtshali

2009-10-20T14:08:00.000+01:00

What: Artist
Where: Pretoria, South Africa

His name is what…

My name is Khaya or 'hisnameiskhaya'. My medium is drawing with pens and markers on paper and painting digitally for digital print or lithography. I drew a lot using graphite pencils as well as the very vivid Albrecht Durer Watercolor Series by Faber Castell in years gone by. I discovered digital media while studying Multimedia Design at Vega in Johannesburg. The computer studios were open 24 hours every day of the month including holidays so I spent a lot of time there, becoming proficient in a number of programmes before having my own computer.

Right now…

I’m making a series of digital prints. I'm not sure what to say about them yet. But I do know they all have something to do with the spirit of freedom and happiness and plenty. It may also have something to do with the cult of beauty, youth and wealth. The colours are washed harmonies of watercolours. My colours are actually very dull, but they feel bright. The line is bold, but has another quality to it. Each print is about a meter in height or width.

How he learned…

It’s always a combination of desire and practise. You learn to do something by wanting to do that thing and then doing it. I’ve had many years of good practise.

As a young one…

I was a quiet child and teenager, but not necessarily shy. I made a lot of friends. In school I was good at everything I wanted to be good at (academics or sports). The things I liked as a child are the same as the things I like today. I liked Sesame Street, which played great music and great musical animations. I liked watching Charlie Brown on Peanuts. I loved drawing. I liked trees, rivers, mountains, the ocean, waterfalls, clouds, rain, fields and green grass. I loved cartoons and I used to tell people that cartoons are harder to draw than actual people and things.

Being good…

I’ve always been drawing. Its not a question of thinking I’d be good at it.

On the side…

I have no side-projects. I like everything I do to be a natural extension of everything else I do. I feel it’s best for me not to multi-task.

Loves work, loves work not…

Love: The way I’m able to resonate with people through my work and the way the world is open. Dislike: Nothing about what I do.

Place of origin…

I grew up in Ga-Rankuwa and Soshanguve, South Africa. It was very sunny and dusty. There were very few trees and a lot of open spaces. I guess that made me appreciate trees, become sensitive to atmosphere (when it rained it rained hard) and spatial qualities. I also put a lot of sunshine in my work. My colours tend to be washed out probably because of they way I experienced the sun.

Encouraging home front…

Yes. My parents have supported my decisions (while sometimes being slightly concerned) and told me that whatever I do I must aim to be world class. My brother taught me how to paint when I was 14 or 15. My cousins and my brother used to draw from an early age so I learnt a lot from them. My friends always support my choices. And I trust myself so I trust and support my own choices.

The family…

My mom has more of the creativity. She designs and sews tailor-made African-style clothing. My dad likes factual, scientific information and he’s a natural teacher. So where my mom would try something new, my dad would read something new. I guess I have a bit of both, but I'm a lot more into doing. My eldest brother took the medical route like my dad. My other brother drew and painted in school, and today he’s a hugely talented hip-hop producer and journalist. My younger sister is studying law and I reckon she has something creative about her, which is still unknown to me.

Obstacles…

No physical obstacles. The only one I can think of is recognising the truth about myself and creating my truest path. For me this means recognising and cutting out the unimportant distractions and working on the things I want – the constructive things. Another early obstacle as a young artist is being too impressionable and being easily influenced by things that don’t reflect what you’re about. You stray off your way doing someone else’s work and that leads to frustration or frustrated expression. It’s like your head spins and you want to do everything, follow every trend, imitate all the big names of the time and keep up with whatever is cool. That’s not me.

Most important lesson…

That my emotions are my most important source of information.

Best advice received…

My dad said I should always close the windows of my car when I’m parked in the garage so that spiders, bees and rats don’t get in. They distract you when you’re trying to drive.

Collections…

I collect podcasts and music of many genres. I collect fashion magazines. I’ve started collecting books on art. I collect these things because I like them. Let me tell you what I’d like to get: All the Sesame Street episodes from the 70s to the 90s. Please.

Shake off creative-block…

By drawing and looking outside at the trees and the sky. But I’d like to add that I don’t search for inspiration, references or influences. These things are inevitable.

Favourite things…

I like the mountain passes and the midlands of KwaZulu Natal – so green, so full of life and peaceful fields. I like looking at pictures and imagining Stellenbosch and the Garden Route towns. I like the forests of Dolder, just on the edge of Zurich, Switzerland (although there are a lot of slugs there and only a few birds). My favourite magazine is Monocle and I hope they cover more on Africa and South America. I also like fashion magazines and National Geographic for their photography. I like books on the history of art.

Websites…

Music sites where I can download podcasts and discover new music. I go to different ones each time. I don’t spend a lot of time online.

To relax…

I draw and play a recently downloaded podcast. Or I read something interesting. I like reading interviews and listening to interviews. Or I lay on my back, cross my feet and put my hands behind my head.

Inspiring people…

Anyone from Jim Henson to Steve Jobs, Tyra Banks, Patrice Motsepe and Keith Haring. Anyone who is living their true expression. Artists, musicians, sportspeople, businesspeople, scientists, academics, mothers and so on.

Immediate future…

More shows and exhibitions in various locations. More fulfilling work. More travel.

The dream…

To travel the world, live my true expression and achieve success.

Advice to wannabes…

Try it and if it feels good you’re doing the right thing.

5.2 / In the mix / K-Tron

2009-10-13T13:52:00.010+01:00

What: DJ, club promoter and writer
Where: London, United Kingdom
Websites: More Light More Power and likeDisneyland

History…

I've done a lot of things since I moved to London. One of the most high-profile things I've been is a club promoter but I'm also a musician, a DJ and I do some writing, lots of creative stuff basically, that I do to various degrees of success and popularity. At the moment I'm just launching a new project with my band More Light More Power.

I come from Leicester, from a messy council estate in the middle of nowhere. I started off in a very different place to the whole club scene and the sort of circles I move around in now. It wasn't a particularly arty or bohemian place. There were lots of nice, genuine people, but there wasn't much access to culture there. I eventually made my way down to London and got into the club scene. I was into experimental music and really weird art projects in Leicester but there was no context to it. When I started doing my first serious bands in London I did a project where we had live dancing girls, a lot crazy art stuff going on and the music was very electronic.

The band scene at the moment is very diverse and playful with genre. When I first started performing in London however, it was a totally different scenario. The biggest band at the time was the Libertines and there wasn't the same context of all these unique, creative acts you have now. There was no crazy, experimental stuff really breaking through. That's why I got into clubs, which were more connected to the context of their own music. I started doing my own parties and worked with people who went on to do some great things like Stuart Semple.

I was lucky enough to meet Stuart in the beginning when we all moved to London from various places, we all separately had potential to do great things but hadn't really done anything. We were all going out to clubs and basically looking for each other, which when it did happen led to a lot of inspiration. We were sparking off each other, founding magazines and ended up forming a group. Being in clubs and doing my own parties seemed like the natural thing to do. I felt lucky. The first club I did went really well but it kind of fizzled out because the guy I did it with was a little crazy, like I am, and we were more interested in partying together than progressing in what we were doing. But then with the second club, a new collaboration, we struck gold with exactly the right thing at the right time. It was at the beginning of Nu Rave and there were all these amazing people who were still going out like the Super Super lot. I met some influential people and people who would later be influential who were part of the clientele of the club.

There were all these amazing, cute looks, all these hot kids and a whole lot of crazy behaviour. We tried to embody the rave ideals of beauty, music for music's sake and fun for fun's sake – none of that Studio 54 elitism rubbish that people think makes a good fashion club. It's more about attitude. That's how it all began for me and it was the springboard to do other things.

Learning…

In terms of Djing, I've had a bit of a rough ride because everything we did to begin with was so DIY. When I first started Djing, although I was musical and understood music, I had no idea how to use the equipment and I had no money to go out and buy any equipment. It was also the early days of CD Djing and the equipment was more expensive and less sophisticated than it is now. It was a baptism of fire really. I started Djing at my club and when we got a massive profile and people started asking me to DJ. There was no genre in particular that we did. It was about reliving old favourites and mixing it all together. Now I'm moving on and am interested in using new technologies and interested in where Djing is going. I don't like getting stuck in the whole 'what's a real DJ' debate. If I use a laptop, I think that if people are dancing and it sounds good then that's all that's important.

I've been making music since I was really young and knew that I had to get out of Leicester because nothing was ever going to happen there. When I had my first band it was made up of all girls and people would go nuts for it. We looked great, were really weird and had great sounds but unfortunately in Leicester there's no serious outlet for it. We reached the top of our little tree and there was just nowhere to go from there. I didn't really want to go into academia but the only way I could afford to move to London was to go to university. I went to Goldsmith's, which is a really amazing university and I was on a great media and modern literature course but in the end it was just a pain in the ass – I had like a thousand books to read every week, I was doing the clubs, was out all night and then would have to spend my days trying to be a student. It was not the easiest thing nor exactly how I wanted it to be. But I met friends for life at Goldsmiths and read some great books but sometimes the material was so stale. At that level, doing a BA, you just do a lot of secondary research and regurgitate things. You're allowed to have an opinion but only when you've referenced about a thousand other people's opinions and I found that quite boring.

Right now…

My new band More Light More Power has some real potential and we've had a lot of underground success. I've had a great lifestyle out of it. I've travelled, played in amazing places but never had a proper record deal. For the moment, this is the project I want to take to the world commercially and conceptually. And I've got a new club project that's brewing but I don't want to mention too much about that yet. Watch this space for more. I'm also working with lots of people that are doing creative stuff. I do a lot of copywriting too and lots of behind the scenes stuff. I've written the foreward for a book (the most high profile thing I've done) called Club Kids, which is about club culture. I was also been invited to perform poetry at the London Literature Festival. I take my writing more seriously than anything else but music's more of an outlet for it because there are a lot of lyrics involved. My talent is probably writing more than anything else. I write fiction and do a bit of writing for magazines and stuff like that. But it's more personal and I don't want to do it as a job. I've done a bit of journalistic stuff and as a journalist you get a brief, then do the research and sometimes you have to write some very flat stories like for a women's magazine or something. If you do it as a day job that's where you find yourself but writing's quite magical and I think lyrics are the pinnacle of magic.

Family…

They were a bit unresponsive and disinterested in what I was doing when I was growing up. I didn't rebel against that but just got on with it. I got a guitar from my dad after about two years of hassling him for one. I had band practises on the other side of town but he'd never drive me there. I'd have to get two buses to the venue, carrying my amplifier, which weighed a ton. My family is kind of weird but now that they can see that I'm doing well, they're happy about it all. Now they're quite interested in what I do. I think I've got to where I am in spite of my family not because of them. We laugh about it now even though at the time it was quite frustrating. Their attitude was kind of like 'when you finish with that hobby maybe you can get a real job'. At the same time, my family was very hard to shock. They weren't uptight at all. My mum was in a band herself once, a 70s band, had a big afro and toured through Germany.

Pros and cons…

Sometimes you do really well financially and socially but sometimes there's a lot of pressure. Some people have a job, get paid a certain amount every month and have some structure to their days. I don't have that. Sometimes I do some cool stuff but I don't get paid for it, which is quite annoying. All the cons are to do with the lack of stability. The pros are obvious. I get to travel loads, meet amazing people and I've seen things most people can't even imagine. I've seen people at their lowest and at their absolute best. I've seen sights and stuff that you read about New York clubs in the 80s – the sex, the glamour and the egos, it's an exquisite experience. The stories I can tell just from the stuff I've seen makes me feel like I've lived two lifetimes already.

Lessons…

People are the greatest resource and the greatest hindrance. I got things to work by understanding people and learning how to communicate. Everyone's got ideas and we need to collaborate. I learnt to really listen and to understand a wide range of people. Creative people are sometimes the weirdest people you'll ever meet. Some people are completely genius but are unable to articulate their ideas. I've learnt to tune into people and engage with them. There are some jobs where you don't have to interact with people. But clubs are quite sociable and you have to understand what makes people tick.

Advice…

Jim Warboy was kind of a father to a lot of people, 90% of people on the scene. Not only did he teach us skills and facilitate others, he was a really approachable guy who taught us how to survive in some very bitchy environments and how to arm ourselves with technology knowledge to be able to build up your own little industries. He's so dedicated to helping others. He's incredibly respected and has made music for fashion shows, he's shown lots of people how to DJ, shown me how to DJ. There are lots of unsung heroes like that, the guys at the sidelines helping other people.

Reinspiration…

When I feel uninspired it's not because of a lack of ideas, it's more a lack of motivation. A lot of people suffer from that. It happens when, say, I'm working really hard and the money's not great and the people aren't great. It goes like that in waves in clubs. But there'll be times when I'll invite someone to a party and it'll be one of their first ever parties. They would've just moved to London, like I did and they might only be about 17 or something. They'll arrive at the party and they'll say 'I feel like I belong here. This is what I want to do with my whole life' and they'll completely relax into themselves. That's what happened to me and that's what I think about when I'm feeling uninspired to get myself motivated again.

Relax…

I never do. I always kind of worry about doing things. I kind of lie and stare into space sometimes. Everything that is a hobby is also something I do for a reason. I watch a lot of movies but that's more out of interest than for relaxing. And I like a lot of crap American television.

Go back in time…

Maybe I would go back and put a bit more finesse into my outfits, not because they were ridiculous but maybe I should have worn pants or something like that, but I'm quite happy with everything else.

Plans…

Musically, I want to get more gigs and deal action on the go. And I have a few club projects and some other projects in the pipeline…

Dream life…

I am living the dream… Sometimes it fluctuates and feels like I'm living the nightmare. It's so varied though. The other day I had my eyebrows dyed blonde and my hair dyed blue. And a week ago I was in a Slovakian forest running around with a camera.

Advice…

Be authentic, don't be creepy. Don't do it for the fame or the prestige because you'll end up in a strange, tragic, little world, not knowing what you really want to do. You have to really learn to be comfortable with yourself and care about people. It's a little corny but there are a lot of two-faced people, in the club scene in particular. People don't have to be like that and there are people who really care – that's one of the reasons the club scene is so popular. People crave human contact and if you have the balls to be yourself, people get really turned on by that and want to come down and party with you.

3.4 / Spitting images / Kjartan S Waaseth

2009-10-07T13:07:00.015+01:00

What: Photo retoucher
Where: Oslo, Norway
Website: Layers

I grew up in the middle of Norway, in Tronhein and went to a photo school when I was 17 years old because I wanted to study photography. I was always interested in the arts before that. My parents were hippies and had all sorts of strange friends coming over to our house and a particularly influential one called Kjartan Slettemark. He was a brilliant artist (he passed away a few months ago) and a great source of inspiration when I was growing up.

Parents…

My father is an architect and my parents have always been interested in the arts. They're free-thinkers and have been very encouraging and supportive of me. I suppose my unconventional upbringing shaped my mind. I don't think in a 'square' way.

Right now…

I do a bit of photography but I am mainly a retoucher and my retouching involves all sorts. Retouching is made up of manipulation, beauty retouching, creating abstract light effects and graphics (although I don't really do the graphic side of things).

Learning…

I leant everything after school. We had a few lessons in retouching but I didn't really learn that much. The things I know now are things that I picked up from other people. A guy called Grant Keats taught me a lot before he moved back to Australia a little while ago. There are also tutorials that I've done online, mainly Photoshop tutorials on Psdtuts+.

Free time, work, things…

It's all a bit of a melting pot. I do work-related things and personal stuff at the same time. There aren't strict boundaries. It's nice to work with different things. I enjoy working on my personal projects, then working on commercials and then coming back to what I was doing before. It's good to take your mind off work and similarly take a break from other projects. I really enjoy manipulating images and making surreal images and scenery.

Pride and joy…

There was one commercial, which wasn't all that hard-core but it was the simplicity that made it cool. It was manipulating an image of a young girl standing on a beach. It was taken in a studio and I just manipulated three versions of the image so she has a different sized ice-cream in each. There's also another interesting job I did here for Norges Blindeforbund, an organisation for blind people and people with eye diseases. One of the pieces I did for them was to manipulate images so that people with normal vision could see a picture as a person with eye disease would see it, which was quite different and fun to work on.

Self employed pros and cons…

I like the freedom to do what I want and manage my time in a way that suits me. I can have a coffee and chat any time I want to. I like working late into the night and can do that without anyone telling me to go home. The downside is that sometimes I struggle to get jobs and I have to work my arse off just to make enough money to make up for the times when I don't have work.

In the future…

I've entertained the idea of going to New York. That would be quite cool but on the other hand I also want try out working in a commercial agency, which would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about chasing work.

Best lesson…

Because of my background in photography, I've always had boundaries but after working in retouching I feel like I've freed my mind and I'm better at figuring out and creating different scenes.

Best advice…

Don't do drugs. Ha ha…

Reinspiration…

I have a big collection of manipulated images and I have them all filed under different categories and depending on which project I'm working on I can just refer to the one that is most suitable. I try out different things and use different images as inspiration.

To relax…

I go rock climbing. There are quite a few climbing sites in Norway. I like bouldering mostly, rock climbing without ropes. I know it might seem like a strange thing to do to chill out but it's a fun way to just relax and unwind my mind.

Plans…

My goal in my spare time is to evolve my work and to find new clients and promote my business. In the commercial world you get forgotten quite quickly so you have to keep promoting yourself.

Advice…

Most retouchers don't have a graphics backgrounds. It helps to understand photography and how light works. You have to spend a lot of time trying things out – lots of trial and error on your own, exploring what you want to do and which area you want to specialise in.

Dreams…

I would love to spend a few years sailing around the world. With my camera and my Mac. That's my biggest dream. I'd love to forget about my bills and commitments and let my mind just float away.

21.0 / Art and audio book addiction / Miné Jonker

2009-09-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

What: Illustrator
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: Miné Jonker

Who...

I was born a 'boere meisie' in a conservative family, in a conservative town called Pretoria, South Africa. Being arty was a good alternative to being boring. I went to a High School for visual and performing arts, which meant I was one of a handful of people in modern history who loved going to school.

After I finished school I went traveling for three years around Europe and the East, which had a huge effect on me. I fell in love with big art museums, old architecture and have continued to be fascinated by different cultures, religions and anthropology ever since I went to India and acted like a real hippy. God only knows why I didn't pick up some strange disease and die from while swimming in the Ganges.

Back home I enrolled in The Open Window School of Visual Communication, but that was dumb, so I moved to Cape Town where I ate very little for a very long time (mainly large amounts of Jungle oats with peanut butter) as I tried to establish myself as an artist and illustrator. I also made and customised clothes for a local boutique and did a correspondence degree in Fine Arts, specialising in Multi-media. If it wasn't for falling into modelling, I would probably never have survived. Nothing glamorous – I did a lot of yogurt and baby nappy TV commercials, which I prayed would never make it to Youtube. My friends still mock me about it.

24/7...

I'm currently employed by the Am I Collective, an illustration studio which is a pleasant five minute, downhill walk from where I live, slap bang in the center of Cape Town. I bribed them with cookies to let me work there. I have a view of Table mountain from my desk and a little lucky cat from Hong Kong next to my computer, which keeps me lucky and happy.

The fact that Am I is a flippen kick ass place with amazingly talented and funny guys, also helps (they pay me extra to say these things.) My job mainly involves digital painting. I can listen to audio books while painting for hours on end on this amazing Cintique that I cunningly stole from my Creative Director. I convinced him that it was the reason his side of the office was always too hot. And now… The power is mine!!!

Little precious time...

Spare time... hmmm... not much of that at the moment. I still try to squeeze in a bit of traveling, a spot of modelling and some freelance jobs in between work. At Am I we try and do as much non-commercial work as we can make time for. We are currently working on an African themed T-shirt range and we're having our charity exhibition which has been in the pipeline for over a year, called BARE (the auction is on now!). We sent out 50 vinyl bears to 50 different artists to paint and it looking amazing! I also love doing ceramics and having drawing evenings with friends.

My ideal evening is watching a movie or documentary while drawing, which means that I usually don't do either of them properly.

Along the way...

My boyfriend showed me Photoshop, which is the coolest thing in my world. I've also learned a lot just from working with clients and other artists/friends/illustrators.

I started with...

Well, I used to draw all the time when I was little. My pre-school teacher complained to my mom that I drew too much and didn't interact enough with the other kids, so that much hasn't changed. Everyone at our studio complains about my audio book addiction and anti-social behaviour. As a teenager, I wore Nirvana T-shirts and spent a lot of time on the roof of our house – drawing, writing very deep poetry and staring into nothingness. I've stopped that now.

Big plans...

I'm hosting a big 'Garage Art Sale' with my good friend Mikey on the 3rd of October from (you guessed it) the garages in front of our block of flats. We're made up of about 15 artists selling cheap art, lemonade and pancakes. It's like an informal exhibition-slash-neighbourhood-get-together-slash-garage-sale. Should be fun.

Longer term: I'm planning two projects with my boyfriend, Jannes. We want to do art installation pieces, sculptures and LCD screens for video all over Cape Town for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and we also want to publish a book on young South African contemporary artists from all genres. I'm also starting ceramics again and want to improve my cooking.

Love & hate...

I love drawing all day. It feels like I'm cheating... how can I get paid for this? I dislike the bad posture I've developed from drawing all day.

Family tree...

What was my family like? Weird and Afrikaans and full of boys. My older brother is a writer and painter (and medical doctor). He tends to tell gross stories about his medical experiences at the dinner table, but he did encourage and inspire me a lot during my developing years. He has an amazing imagination and he taught me how to throw a good punch.

My grandmother was a painter and so is my hermit uncle. My aunt used to run a puppet theatre, my cousin is an actor and my dad has a very good sense of aesthetic. So there has definitely been a lot of inspiration and support from my family. My mom has been amazingly supportive and encouraging since I was little.

Hurdles...

Mainly my own insecurities about my work. A few years of experience in the ad industry and good feedback has helped a lot. I've also learned how to present myself in a more confident manner – unfortunately you have to be able to sell yourself a bit if you want to convince others that you're able to do the job. I've also learned not to spread myself too thin. I use to take on way too much and then wonder why I'm not seeing more results.

Learning curve...

I've learned that sometimes all you need to do is to keep going at an artwork. Most of my pieces look pretty shit at first and only starts coming together when I start crafting it. For me, the most important thing has been to trick myself into not quitting.

Collections...

Ceramic pieces, books of all sort, art work from my friends, pretty glasses, antique pieces and clothes that I will never wear.

To get the mojo back...

I smoke, doodle with friends, take a look at some of my favourite artists' work which usually either depresses or inspires me.

I have just come back from a trip to Mexico – its colourful culture and people has greatly excited and inspired me. I love traveling and hope to one day be able to make it a bigger part of my lifestyle. Places I'd still love to visit include the rest of Africa, Japan, more of China, Burma, Nepal, Argentina and the rest of South America... the list goes on. Juxtapoz is a favourite magazine, as is National Geographic and Visi (a South African interior and design mag).

Bookmarks...

I love the old, traditional fairytale illustrators you find on artsycrafty. I like the variety of things you see on notcot and I love some of the odd photographs on Fffound. Design is kinky, Deviant Art and We are the Image Makers are nice for checking out other artists' work. Stumble Upon can also be mildly entertaining on Monday mornings.

Chilling...

I hang out with my man or my friends, drink tea, smoke, draw, walk uphill on a treadmill, visit an antique market, watch documentaries, make dinner or visit my mom.

If I could turn back time...

I wish I'd never stopped playing the piano.

Inspiration...

Artists Alphonse Mucha, Audry Kawasaki, James Jean, South African history writer Max du Preez, author Frank Herbert from the Dune saga and, off course, my boyfriend. This may seem corny, but go check out their work (Black Heart Gang) and see for yourself.

The dream...

Owning a guest house-slash-restaurant-slash-studio-slash-gallery-slash-interior décor shop-slash-project space for workshops for fellow artists somewhere in the countryside.

20.0 / Brooding and Broody / The Good Count

2009-09-23T00:10:00.002+01:00

What: Designer and writer
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: The Good Countsabel Von Trucklove

Who is Mr Von Trucklove…

The Good Countsabel Von Trucklove wishes to remain unknown. The Good Countsabel Von Trucklove just is. This seems like a loaded question? Who are you working for? Who sent you!? I am innocent until proven guilty, goddammit!

Why design…

It was 1996 and I was on the run after an international incident with some heavy hitters in the underground spread betting world. My only option was to front as a print designer and, better yet, get a job working in the fashion industry. It was at the now disgraced and defunct Storm Models South Africa that I first cut my teeth. Twas a horrid time spent measuring the waists of models and retouching boobs a plenty. I think I am still emotionally and spiritually scarred.

Right now…

Currently, I am employed at Hellocomputer and am based in Cape Town, South Africa. However, I have decided to work for myself and as of 1 October 2009 I will be functioning as a single entity. I am here to provide the universe with uncontrolled misguided apocolyptic awesometicity (TM).

The Good Countsabel and the Electric Fuck Pirates…

It was 1998 and the so-called punk scene was made up of a bunch of people who (we thought) had no idea! One of the bands that were becoming well-known and labelled punk were an ex-Christian band (later they became the now infamous Fokofpolisiekar).

We were not happy with this whole situation so we decided to start our own band and styled it loosely on everything GG Allin did. Twas a glorious time indeed. People were utterly confused and sometimes would think our shows were some form of a performance art piece – as we were fucking drunk out of our skulls and would, nine times out of ten, attack the audience and end up leaving the stage drunk after maybe three songs, if we remembered. The music was short, fast, loud and fucking rude! We accomplished our mission and terminated The Fuck Pirates in 2002 after spawning numerous young, angry, brutal bands.

The name, The Good Countsabel Von Trucklove, comes from the band. We all decided one day – with heads full of brandy – that we needed names that were regal so we became Baron Excelsior (bass, guitar and vocals), Tron McDeath (lead guitar and shredder of doom), The Duke of Wellington (drums) – he was an Afrikaans dude from Wellington – and The Good Countsabel Von Trucklove (me, on vocals and violence). The 'sabel' bit comes from these knives you could buy at all corner stores when I was growing up and I had this hyper gay lumo sticker on my bass that said 'Keep on truckin'. I used the name whenever I wrote stuff or exhibited stuff and it just stuck.

Childhood…

I am an only child and grew up in my grandmother's garden. Twas a wonderful childhood until I bit my gran's ageing Cocker Spaniel 'Bruno' and she proclaimed that I was a 'Devil Child'. This resulted in my being rather unpopular with the neighbourhood kids who were all really into Jesus and such. So I just chilled on my own and drew sneakers (I was convinced I would one day design shoes for Nike), cars and loads of penises for some reason.

I grew up in Athlone, affectionately known as 'Die Salon', on the Cape Flats. Everything about it was awesome. The community, the characters, the lifelong friendships, the fights, the hijinx... everything. It definitely moulded The Good Countsabel in every way, shape and form – it is what has given me my 'chutzpa'.

Why he thought he'd be any good…

I tend not to think, really. It's overrated and just results in more questions. Fucking pointless if you ask me.

Side projects…

I have loads. And loads more in the pipeline. Renovating our house. Running a clothing label with a good friend. Starting a business. Breaking the law. Making mixtapes. Running the Dailyfix. I've got this massive blog collaboration in the works with Gazelle aka my homey Xander a photographer and general all round hustler.

Pros and cons…

I don't like big clients who think they own you. It really really does not sit well with me and has been the cause of many an altercation throughout my so-called 'career' at various agencies – hence me wanting to work for myself. My terms. My choice. My way.

Encouraging family…

Yeah. They were always like 'Do it man, set yourself on fire... it will be really funny and such'.

The greatest obstacles…

My dance moves. They have always held me back. I remember getting a job at a very well known agency, only to be fired one Monday morning after a 'team building' night out on the jazz. I simply cannot help what my feet and body do once music comes into the equation. Call it jealousy or whatever you want but it was just too much. I simply was no longer welcome at that organisation. Sad... but chronically true!

Important lessons learnt…

Never ever drink metholated spirits. Unless it is first passed though government issue 'brown' bread. Seriously!

Best advice received…

If the shoe fits, don't try to fix it and if it ain't broke, wear it!

Collector-maniac…

I enjoy stealing family pictures from people's homes. I have a large collection of shoes (I know, very predictable) and Tretchikoff prints.

The cure to 'no inspiration'…

Music !

Favourite places…

The internet in general inspires. Seek and ye shall find. Engrish.com – it's all I need in life!

Pastimes…

Straight shit talk. The more shit talk the better.

Go back in time…

Hell no! Not ever, never. It is what it is!

Favourite people…

Jello Biafra, Wesley Willis, GG Allin, Mike Giant, Neckface, King Diamond, Workin' Nights Mixtapes.

Plans right now…

Lots of I4 day weeks! Living life and taking it easy. And making some mini-me's as soon as the missus is ready! It's insane how broody I am. I just cannot wait to make tiny King Diamond t-shirts.

If anyone wants to follow in his footsteps…

Don't… become a plumber!

Dream life…

I am absolutely happy with my life as it is. Sounds like I'm full of shit and I am but I really am happy right now. I've got all I need. A beautiful lady – Sarah Joy, Alabama our boerboel, Peaches our snooty cat, a roof over my head, Gaggenau kitchen appliances and fresh local produce to cook until I die!

19.0 / I'm not bein' funny like / Andy Mcananey

2009-09-21T15:00:00.014+01:00

What: Copy Writer
Where: London, United Kingdon
Website: DDB

A career in imagineering…

You could call me a copywriter, an art director, maybe even a creative. If you’re feeling particularly wanky you could say I’m an imagineer. But I’d rather you didn’t.

Basically, my job is to come up with ideas that’ll change people’s perceptions of a product, make them think about a brand in a different light, entertain them. Flog stuff.

Just a little bit of this and that…

I work at an advertising agency called DDB. Doyle, Dane, Bernbach as it was back in the Madmen days. DDB has a huge array of really good clients: VW, Marmite, Harvey Nichols, Budweiser. The list goes on and on. I get to work across all those, which is great.

More specifically…

If I say what I’m working on right now it’ll probably put some kind of voodoo curse on it and it’ll go pear-shaped so I’d rather not.

Back in time…

Well, I took chemistry, maths and physics at A-level and failed my first year spectacularly. Yep, the only thing I have in common with Stephen Hawking is that we both drool occasionally. I was into drawing and art so I decided to chance my arm and enrolled on a graphic design course at Durham College. I did OK, not brilliant, but OK.

After that I moved to do advertising at Newcastle College. Where I met my partner, no, not in that way, my work partner. We moved down to London and started the long, painful process of trying to get a job.

How he knows what he knows…

It’s a strange one really. College can only teach you so much. A few basics but beyond that you just need to get out there and do it. Work your tits off. Or if you haven’t got tits, work your balls off. There’s no real magic trick you can learn. The more you do the better you get.

Mini Mcananey…

I was a pretty quiet kid really. At one point, when I was fifteen, I got ill for a long period. So I spent a lot of time on my own drawing and reading. I think, sorry, I know that lead me down the path I’m on today. Good things came out of it, although at the time it wasn’t much fun.

Confidence…

I’d never thought I’d be good at what I’m doing. I had a good imagination as a kid I suppose but that’s about it. I still think I’m chancing it to a certain extent.

Nature, nurture…

I grew up in Wolsingham, a village in Weardale, Co Durham. It was, and still is, quiet and green. I really like going back, running in the fields and by the little streams. It’s a great place to grow up. But as soon as I knew I wanted to do advertising there’s only one place to go and that’s London. I suppose I could have done the ads for Peggotty’s the bakers or Wolsingham agricultural show (it’s the oldest in Britain I’ll have you know) but I don’t think there would be much money or creative opportunity in that. Although I could’ve gotten paid in vanilla slices, Peggotty’s are particularly good.

The life and times…

My week normally consists of me sitting opposite Christian, trying to squeeze out a modicum of an idea. If one does plop out and the creative director buys it and the client decides to run it, then I take my feet off the desk and do a little jig. After that we have to decide on which director, illustrator, photographer or designer to use. We have to ensure we get the right person to give it the look and feel we want. Someone who’ll polish that turd until it shines like the sun.

Encouraging family…

Nah, they beat me with sticks and said 'You’ll never make it you are a loser Andrew, a loser I tells ya!'. No, they did encourage me. I think it could have seemed like a bit of a dodge, doing graphics and advertising. Oh you can’t do anything real, so you’re going to do some nice drawing. That’s nice. But my family knew it was what I wanted to do and were really supportive and that did help a lot. Especially since I wasn’t exactly full of confidence when I was younger.

Biggest obstacle…

Being made redundant. Pretty soul destroying, I can tell you. It was mine and Christian’s first job and you wonder what the hell you’ve done wrong. We had to take a job, well a half-job, at a shit agency and belligerently try and crawl our way back to respectability. But we learnt a lot in that time. We became more tenacious, found out that there are people who will take advantage of you if you let them and I think we appreciate things more now.

Important lessons…

We used to have a rep for being the wacky, car-razy team. Give it to them, they’ll do something bonkers mad. In retrospect maybe a 100ft golden statue of Ted Bovis wasn’t such a good idea for Ford Focus. Yes, I think our ideas are more grounded now. In the respect that are actually achievable. But I’m still quite happy to be different. What’s the point in coming up with something that the team down the corridor would? We always try to do something unexpected.

Obsessions…

I used to be well into electronic music when I was younger. But I drifted away from it when I couldn’t afford to buy the vinyl and I sold my decks. But over the past couple of years I’ve come back to it in a big way. So I spend loads of time trawling blogs, going on Beatport and keeping up to date with what’s going on via Twitter. I’ve just organised a loan, gulp, so I can get the whole shebang back. And be crap all over again.

Sherlock Holmes is not Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr and Jude fucking Law thank you very much. It is Jeremy Brett as the esteemed Mr Sherlock Holmes and, for me at least, Edward Hardwicke as his honourable companion Dr Watson. I’m pretty obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, as you may have deduced. There’s something about that gentlemanly Victorian demeanour, the capturing of ne’er-do-wells and general all round, god-damn suaveness of the guy that’s irrepressible.

Oh, and apparently I’m obsessed with handkerchiefs. In my opinion a modern gent should carry a handkerchief. Just in case there’s a spillage or the lady you are with has a turn and is overcome with sadness. As they are prone to do. Well, at least around me anyways.

Inspiration…

I don’t think you have to go to specific places for inspiration like you used to. Yeah, it’s still awe-inspiring to go to the British Museum or the Tate. But you can find inspiration pretty much anywhere, if you look hard enough.

In awe of…

George Orwell always inspires me. I hate flowery writing. His style is to the point. But still incredibly evocative. When I try to write I always try to adhere to his rules.

If he could go back in time…

I wouldn’t be so stressy; it doesn’t really get you anywhere. You make better decisions if you’re not running around like a big Jessie. Oh, and to completely contradict that, I’d kick Steve Dunn, the creative director who made us redundant, full-on in the balls.

Another life…

I’d like to write comedy. Christian and myself have written sketches in the past but we’ve lost the impetus, life gets in the way doesn’t it? I’d like to get back to doing that, even if it’s just to say I gave it my best shot but everyone thought I was about as funny as getting consumption.

Telling it like it is…

Like I said before you need to be determined. I see loads of teams who think they’re going to waltz into a job. Wrong. You need to work like crazy to get a job and work like crazy to keep it. But there’s a flip side to that coin. You’ll have a great, enjoyable, rewarding job. And it’ll probably be a damn sight better than working in Dolcis. I couldn’t say that for sure though because I’ve never worked in Dolcis.

Optional extra…

Let’s pretend this is the end of Masters of the Universe, I’m Prince Adam and I’m doing the cheesy summing up. What have we learnt today? Apart from I want Whiplash and Battlecat and Snake Mountain and Evil Lynn and, and, and… Well this is a pretty good quote and I think it applies to anyone who works in the creative industries. Ladies and gentlemen I pass you over to Mr Bill Bernbach, take it away Bill:

'All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can lift it onto a higher level.'

Or in other words: you’re in a privileged position, don’t churn out crap.

And that’s all she wrote.

3.3 / Shooting with his eyes / Kjetil Hasselgård

2009-09-16T12:30:00.023+01:00

What: Photographer
Where: Oslo, Norway
Website: Kjetil Hasselgård

From a little town in Norway…

I grew up in the south of Norway and started doing photography when I was about 16. I had a little trouble figuring out what I wanted to do with my life when I was that age, like many of us, and quite accidentally started doing more creative classes at school and ended up taking photography. I then went on to Oslo Photo Art School. I felt that when I started photography it was something that I was good at. It's something that I get a lot out of too. It's like a drug. I never get tired of it.

My abilities are well suited to photography. I have an interest in the artistic/creative side of life and I am good at understanding the technical side of things. Photography requires both the technical and the creative, which makes it a good subject for me.

Learning from experience…

When I finished school I started working for a professional photographer. That's where I learned a lot of what I know now and the different photographic techniques. That photographer was very into technical photography and combined technique with artistic flair, which was very nice.

For fun…

I try to do some fun things on the side. I started teaching photography at a private school here in Oslo a while ago – everything from technical to more artistic photography. I do many things but my base income comes from doing photography. I teach different classes and am a creative photographer for enjoyment. I'm getting into doing more side projects. They're kind of in my head right now but I'm planning to save up a bit of money and do them soon.

Pros and cons…

The thing about Norway that is interesting and difficult at the same time is that the photography industry here doesn't work like it does in other parts of the world. In London or New York, for instance, and most of those cities there are many agencies that work with photographers. In Norway, we have only one big photography agency.

When it comes to being a freelancer, I really like the freedom but it can also be a negative thing regarding when you get work and when you get paid. I like it when I am able to choose what work I do and who I want to work with. I like that the work varies a lot and I'm not doing the same thing all the time. But there also times when I have to do jobs that I don't want to do . When you're a freelancer, sometimes you have to work with people you don't want to work with because you need an income and you have to pay the rent.

Confidence…

It always varies a lot. When I have a steady stream of work I feel very confident. Recently with the financial crisis or when work is slow, it's harder to feel confident. Everyone has a tiny bit of control over how confident they feel but sometimes it really depends on how things are going at a specific moment.

As a kid…

I guess I was just doing what most kids do when they're younger. But I really started to enjoy myself when I started doing things that involved creativity. There was a process of trying things out and discovering what I liked. I wasn't one of those people who did creative things all their lives.

My father worked as a painter and painted pictures. I think that might have inspired me to do something more creative. When I was about ten I did a picture that my dad sold through one of his exhibitions. It was bought by a sweet, old woman. That was really nice.

Knowing how…

I've learnt to structure things and learnt creative ways of working. I've learnt to spend time on improving my techniques to get the feeling that I am trying to convey across in the work that I do. I spend a lot of time working on honing my skills in Photoshop. I also look at what other people are doing and I try to figure out how they do it.

Inspiration…

When you're a photographer you're always taking pictures with your eyes, atleast it's like that for me. Whenever I travel anywhere it's like I have a camera in my head and I'm always taking shots and storing images of things I like. Sometimes it's a little intense (when you're always studying light) but it helps me to find the right locations for work and for my side projects.

Ideas flowing…

I feel inspired all the time. There are so many ways you can work with photography. If I want to work with a fashion series I can and if I want to just shoot a landscape I can. I can make my life as varied as I'd like it to be. I can do portraits, travel around and just watch people.

If I get tired of walking around with my camera I think it's also important to walk around without my camera. It's important to allow myself to explore different ways of thinking and just see things. I live in Drammen just outside of Oslo and I spend a lot of my time just walking my dog outside in the woods nearby. I spend a lot of time travelling between Drammen and Oslo too and therefore spend a lot of time enjoying the different sights and scenery. When I'm in Oslo I get inspired by looking at people and I enjoy walking around in the town centre, while in Drammen I am closer to nature.

Hot off the press…

I just finished a catalogue for a small brand in Oslo run by a local designer. We did the shoot on Trollstigen, a road that goes up the mountain in Romsdal. We shot out there for two days, which was great.

Since I started doing more fashion, it's nice to do fashion photography that is a little different. The brand makes clothes for women that are not teenagers but are more like 28+. It's very interesting. The emphasis is on trying to show the form and the textures of the clothing. A lot of fashion is very cool and sometimes (as a photographer) you're not able to fit everything into the picture. The challenge is to find a balance and produce something that looks cool but also shows off the clothes and their functionality. The brand I worked with in Trollstigen wanted to capture what we call in Norway 'the national romantic view' that many famous painters and artists have done. Combining the scenery with the clothes was interesting.

Favourite photography…

I've been interested in fashion photography for a long time. Before I started doing it, I'd wanted to do it but wasn't really sure about it. When I worked with a fashion photographer I didn't want to be a fashion photographer because I wanted to be 'this artist' who did 'artistic photography'. I thought I had to be some fashionista to take fashion pictures. But I was good at it and now I'm claiming it back. And I'm starting to combine my interest in artistic photography with fashion. Outside of fashion, I enjoy doing creative photography – deadpan photography (that's what I'm really interested in), photographing people, landscapes and all sorts of things.

Influential Norway…

If I was living in a big city like London, which is very inspiring, it might drive me to do more creative things. I grew up in a small town and then moved to Oslo. Coming from a small town and moving to a bigger city made me feel very inspired. But then, after being here for a while I think I've had to work out my own way of looking at photography. Some people try to do what others are doing and be inspired by them but I try and focus on what I'm doing and doing it well.

Advice…

This is very cheesy but I like the way Charles Bukowski looked at his work. I think he said that whenever he was in doubt of what he was doing or doubted his work, he would just look at what other people were doing and then felt better about himself. It's a little arrogant and maybe cheesy but I like that.

Collections of things…

I've always collected art books. They generally just sit on my shelf and look pretty but sometimes I flip through them for inspiration. They're something that I am always going to collect.

Admiration…

I check out the Art + Commerce website, Terry Richardson (a great photographer) and Sølve Sundsbø. If there are any other photographers that I admire, I like to look them up too.

There are a lot of people whose work I admire but I don't necessarily admire them as people because I don't know them. Sometimes I get inspired by the work but the person is something else. It's more their work that I admire.

Plans for the immediate future…

I'm planning to do a new project with landscapes on large format film. I have some film cameras that I want to experiment with. I'm just saving up some money and then I will start it. I usually shoot digital but it will be nice to use film and work on a more creative project.

Dream life…

I hope to be an artist and just do the stuff I fancy doing. I'd like to not have to worry about getting my next job. The past two years has been quite tight. I decided that I needed to just get into being a photographer on my own and I've succeeded in doing that. I think my next goal is just to have a more constant flow of work and be more of an artist. I'd like to be in a position where I can just work on projects that I want to work on.

Advice…

Be nice and work hard. That's always good. There are lots of people who just bulldoze their way through to get to where they want to go. There are a lot of new photographers who are just starting out and it's always good to just be nice to everyone you meet and work with.

18.0 / Surfing the wave / Alistair Palmer

2009-09-14T10:23:00.007+01:00

What: Illustrator, artist and graphic designer
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: Alistair Palmer

Who is this guy…

I was born in Cape Town then we moved to Johannesburg for a few years and came back just before I started high school. I went to Rondebosch Boys' High, then Abbotts College and ended up studying graphic design at Ruth Prowse School of Art where I had the chance to work with different media. I was able to do a lot of messing and cutting things up, drawing, painting, printmaking, typography and a little bit of everything. I didn’t know much about graphic design but I heard a lot about all the different agencies and it sounded pretty cool.

After Ruth Prowse, I went to Durban and worked with someone my tutor knew named Neil Roake. Durban was great. I used to surf every morning and just wear board shorts all day. I had the chance to do lots of different things. Neil was quite an entrepreneur and got involved with all sorts of projects. He kind of recruited me, taught me a lot and gave me quite a bit of freedom to just do things I wanted.

After that I went to London for a year or so and did some freelance design work. I was working for a music magazine and I also ended up working in a bar. I stayed in a big house in Putney and set up a studio in my room. It was great because I could just paint in the day and work in the bar in the evening. It was cool. I didn’t come back with all the cash but it was OK. When I came back to Cape Town I worked at TBWA. I thought it would be good to try out advertising, get some experience in that industry and just get to know what people expect. I learnt a lot more about basic art direction there and the way people operate. But I got retrenched a few months ago. My year there was great And life goes on.

Just before I got retrenched, I was commissioned by Earthcote to do this bathroom design at Olympia Café in Kalk Bay. And I’m just picking up other freelance projects along the way. Most of them are quite small but it seems to be working out.

On the side…

I'm trying to get into as many group exhibitions as I can and just get my work out there. I've done lots of corporate identity stuff as freelance jobs and am doing lots of illustration now. I had an idea recently. It was a art direction and illustration job. I cut out vinyl and got a friend to photograph it. I enjoy working in a variety of media. Ideas can be made in lots of different ways.

I’ve been drawing a lot more too. I’m just getting back into it because I lost the drawing urge for a while after college. Now that I'm working freelance and am in charge of my own time, it’s nice not to have major time constraints and just do things the way I want to do them.

Nature, nurture…

I've always wanted to open a shop or some sort of business one day. There's a bit of an entrepreneur side to me. My grandfather's a carpenter and my dad's got all the tools and he loves woodwork. I've been influenced by him and I think I might go in that more hands-on direction one day. There are lots of opportunities out there. I don't think I would want to just stick to illustration and draw all day. I enjoy playing around with different ideas.

Back in time…

I used to enjoy cycling, road racing, mountain biking, BMX-ing, surfing (and I still do)… I learnt a lot from my dad in relation to making things and developing practical skills. I like the practical side of things. Sometimes my work isn't creative enough. I look at things from a problem-solving viewpoint and do things a little too methodically sometimes.

Looking ahead…

If I don't go into full-time employment again, I'd like to go into some sort of business. A lot of my friends and family have valuable skills and would be cool to work with. I have a friend who's opened a business called Catchlight Filmedia where there are just three people running it – a creative director, an executive producer and a technical director. They can produce a product from start to finish. I've been working with them on a few things and it's good to see how setting up a business with the right people can work out.

I also started doing a business management course that they're offering for free at AAA School of Advertising for retrenched employees. There've been a lot of retrenchments here. And there's not a lot of freelance work at the moment. It seems like lots of places have had to cut their budgets and illustration/design is one of the big things to go first. I haven't heard any real horror stories though, which is good. And even though it's pretty skimpy, there's still work going around.

Outdoor living…

Growing up in Cape Town definitely affected me because I’ve been able to surf and be close to nature. Just going out surfing, riding and skateboarding has had an influence on my work, like I started doing graffiti when I was young.

My life would have been very different if I'd grown up in Jo'burg. Besides the lack of an outdoor culture, there wasn't a very good art class at my school there but in Cape Town I had a great teacher who really prepared us for the art world. He's been a great influence on so many people. Rondebosch Boys' produces some very good designers, illustrators and creative people.

Family blessings…

At the end of standard 8 (grade 10), I told my parents that I wanted to drop maths. I hated maths and I didn’t see myself doing anything with maths after school. My dad was quite against it at first but my mum was like 'let him do what he wants to do'. I didn't really see myself going into a career where I would use maths. On my first day back at school, not having to do maths, I was over the moon and I started doing better at all my other subjects. Dropping maths just made school so much more enjoyable and easier. And then going to art college was fine. They've always been very supportive. My mum's family have always been very artistic. When I was young my mum used to paint milk cans multi-colours and she started a little label doing African mugs and clocks. It was quite cool being around that. I got my artistic side from my mum and my practical side from my dad. I've taken the best of both worlds. I can figure out technologies, make things and be be quite artistic.

Teachings of life…

I've always been quite humble (you might also say timid or shy) so I've never really pushed my work. Going to work in Durban gave me quite a lot of confidence. I saw people enjoying my work there and I realised that I could make a living from just doing art. I've realised the importance of believing in myself.

Mentor relationships…

Working with Neil (Roake) as my boss was good. He was very encouraging and sometimes quite tough but it all pushed me forward. I used to draw for him. And there was another girl I worked with called Crystal Campbell who was very great to be around. We chatted a lot. I can't really say how working with her helped me but the two of them are the sort of people that just go out there and do things. I found them inspiring to work with. They just had ideas and would do them. If the ideas worked, that was great and if they didn't, it wasn't a train smash.

I have another friend called Wayne that I've learned from too. He always listens to what people have to say. He never shoots them down but just takes what he wants out of everything. I think that's quite a nice thing. There's a lot of information out there and it's important to know what you need and what you don't need.

Collections and hobbies…

I like being outdoors and I like beer. On the weekends I go for a surf or a walk somewhere. I also like hanging out in my garage and playing around and fixing things. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something without having to wrack my brain. It's a bit like a workshop with a desk, power tools and other tools. I also collect tins, random objects, bits of junk, little toys and things that I like the look of.

The juices flowing…

I find exercise is quite a good thing when I'm stuck for inspiration. I just ride up the road or up the mountain or play a game of squash and just clear my mind and rejuvenate myself. And listening to music gets me back too.

Favourite places and things…

I haven't fully figured it out yet. I don't really have a spot that I go to all the time. New things make me feel inspired. I don't like any single place. I would normally choose to be in nature, not somewhere in the city, for inspiration. I'm not really a static person. I like to move around a lot.

I read Fecal Face to look at other people's work and Ted for bigger ideas about the world. I enjoy reading real things mostly like autobiographies.

In the near future…

I'm just trying to get better, to draw more and do more frealance work. I would like to get another full-time job. I enjoy the mentor vibe and learning from other people. The freelance is great for now to explore myself but I would like to work in an environment that's more conducive to learning from other people.

Faraway dreams…

My dream life… It would be in South Africa, definitely. I don't have a passport for anywhere else. Ha ha. But seriously, I sometimes think about living in the Transkei and setting up something like a studio. But on the other hand, if I were to live in such a beautiful part of the world I would probably just love to live in nature and I wouldn't really want to open a business there. Whatever happens in the future, I want to do something that involves art or design.

Advice…

I think you need to have a good work ethic, keep up with what's going on around you and be open to suggestions. Allow yourself to be guided by others. We all want our work and our ideas to be our own and we obviously take pride in what we do but we need to be open to criticism. Not holding yourself too highly is important – you have to believe in yourself but not believe you're the best or be arrogant about your work.

A quart to ponder

2009-09-09T00:01:00.001+01:00

What: A quick review of the last three months
Where: The little world of Goodness Greatness
Website: wethinkyoumightknowit

Reader: It’s Wednesday! Amazing! But wait! What’s this? No interview?

GG: Um, well, we’ve kind of run out of friends…

Reader: What?!!!!

GG: OK, that’s a lie. But this is like an experiment, right? And in theory it should work without any glitches but right now we are waiting for about two dozen interviews to come back via email. It's nobody's fault really. Some of the people we want to interview are super busy and we haven't been militant with a) chasing everything up and b) you know, making more friends, which is the obvious solution to this whole mess.

So, while we wait for interviews to pour in, we decided to do a quarterly post of everyone we've featured in the last three months. We hope this brings back some good memories and/or gives you a chance to catch up on all the old posts.

Thank you for reading and for all the positive feedback.

The Am I Collective, an illustration studio, Cape Town, South Africa
'We started out in a small rented cottage in our beautiful city Cape Town, sitting on crates and working on trestle tables…'

Anita Gohil, fashion/accessories designer, London, UK
'I’m a big procrastinator – I’ll clean out the freezer or make cushion covers when I should be doing important things.'

Rudi de Wet, illustrator, typographer and graphic designer, Melbourne, Australia
'It's weird because if I look back at my life, all the signs were there – almost all of my school books and text books had doodles and hand drawn typography in the back…'

Abdul Dube, photographer and zine-maker, Århus, Denmark
'My first camera was an old Minolta SRT with a 50mm lens. The days, months and years after picking up that camera were both expensive and liberating…'

Danny Sangra, artist and art director, London, UK
'I've just always done what I liked doing. I draw because I like to draw. When I don’t want to draw, I just don’t draw.'

Sarah Dennis, writer and photographer, London, UK
'My school reports always used the words conscientious, quiet and creative to describe me and I think I was happiest drawing or writing stories…'

Matt Boyce, illustrator and comic book artist, London, UK
'My uncle Mark asked me, 'Can you draw anything other than a circle?' Only at that point did I realise that I could draw something other than a circle!'

Ivana Nohel, illustrator and product & fashion designer
'As soon as you tell me ‘Forget it, it’ll never work’ I’m bound to try and prove you otherwise. For me, that’s the key ingredient to success – just being a heat seeking missile for something you want to do.'

Sara Noble, textile artist and scribbler, London, UK
'I love fabrics, garments and textiles that are full of colour, detail and texture. From every place that I’ve traveled to, I’ve picked up a sari or a kimono (or two).'

Ben Parker, film poster designer and writer, London, UK
'In my drawing there were stories – it was never bowls of fruit or still life but science fiction, fantasy and adventures.'

Hank and Matlok, design, art and illustration duo, Copenhagen, Denmark and Melbourne, Australia
'We didn't think it might work. It just happened. I suppose at certain times we questioned whether it was worthwhile, but we were having fun and we both felt it was so refreshing…'

Jo Braithewaite, event planner and writer, Berlin, Germany
'I always enjoyed writing and enjoyed writing stories but I wasn’t aware of all my career options at school… The big turning point was meeting a lot of interesting people about six to seven years ago.'

Arthur Chance, conceptual designer and artist, London, UK
'When I was kid I used to draw pictures of my ideas. I actually found one the other day and I’d drawn a nuclear weapon.'

Michael Linders, artist, illustrator and photographer, Cape Town, South Africa
'I was shy and lived in my head as a kid. I’m not so shy anymore but I’m still living in my head.'

Emma Cook, illustrator and designer, Cape Town, South Africa
'I like the whole process of making something from scratch, from a blank scary canvas to adding a colour, then another and then, suddenly, it all works – you finally get to grips with what you’re doing.'

Cecelia van Rensburg, fashion designer and stylist, Cape Town South Africa
'I’ve had to please people – work really, really hard into the early hours of the morning and I’ve been really broke! But even though it’s been difficult, and it still is at times, I wouldn’t change a thing!'

Toby Newsome, illustrator and designer, Cape Town, South Africa
'I grew up loving books, pictures and a good story… I spent most of my time listening to adventures and fairy tales on my cassette player.'

Tamasyn Gambell, printed textile designer, London, UK
'Having a glamorous French grandmother definitely got me interested in fashion from a young age. She would have loved the fact that I have my own scarf company.'

Stuart Semple, artist, London, UK
'Initially I could have gone in a totally different direction. I could have been a doctor or something.'

Lauren Fowler, illustrator, designer and crafter, Cape Town, South Africa
'(At school) I'll never forget what one girl said to me – she remarked that if I ever made journal covers for a living she'd definitely buy them.'

Mats Ottdal, graphic designer, Oslo, Norway
'Drinking beer with a group of friends is always very helpful. They inspire me with their personalities, their actions and hilarious stories.

Paul Bower, artist and illustrator, London UK
'I know my work is sarcastic but it's usually quite positive in it's nature, even when I'm taking a swipe at something. I want to make stuff and get a reaction from people, for them to say something, whether it’s good or bad.'

Rosalind Davis, artist and painter, London, UK
'It is all consuming, in both good and bad ways. It’s an obsession! I love what I do. For someone who craves stability I have chosen a career that has none…'

Guy Wood, drummer and music producer, London, UK
'I’m definitely not a no person. If you’re not a no person and you say yes to things all the time, you find yourself in a situation were you’ve got three hours to sleep in a week…'

Andrea Simonutti & Patrizia Sottile, upholsterer and design consultant, London UK
'Every piece in our showroom was originally dumped in a skip or left on the street.'

Suzie Brown, illustrator and designer-maker, London, UK
'I like to create work that can find application in different contexts and that people can interact with.'

Ben Hawkes, illustrator and teacher, London, UK
'Everything is I do is experimentation. I surround myself with ephemera that I find interesting.'

17.0 / Raider of the Lost Art / Ben Hawkes

2009-09-07T00:10:00.004+01:00

What: Illustrator and teacher
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: Ben Hawkes

Monsieur Hawkes…

I was born and bred in Norwich in Norfolk (UK). My dad moved away to America when I was one and from the age of ten I was able to go over there in my summer holidays. I’ve always been into art. I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I was a kid.

I did a foundation year in art in Norwich and then took a few years out – working and travelling in the States. When I came back to the UK I got into art school and did a three year degree in illustration. Then I moved down to London with a few friends from my course. We were all illustrators.

I got an agent pretty much straight away although they didn’t get me much work so I did various jobs to make money and pay my bills before working at Little Kickers (football training for children), which started out as a part-time job and grew into something bigger (I run a franchise now) but illustration is my passion.

Child's play…

I drew everyday and it was the one thing I was good at. I could draw things and they would look like what they were supposed to look like. And I used to make things. I used to make Transformers out of cardboard. I was that type of kid, the one who made things. I wasn’t a sporty kid. Illustration was always what I was going to do. There was a time when I thought about doing physiotherapy and later I thought about studying history. History would have been cool but physiotherapy would have been horrible. It would have been a denial of myself. Illustration is what I’m meant to be doing. I just need to make things. Even if it’s just sorting out my window boxes, I just need to make and create things. That’s always been constant in my life.

Location, location, location…

I grew up in a small town. There are some people who grow up around amazing people who are all spectacular. They might know a hairdresser but that hairdresser won’t be just any hairdresser, he’d be a hairdresser to the stars and another one of their friends might be a painter but not just some small-time painter but one who has exhibitions all over the world and sells paintings for £25 000 a pop. Some people grow up around lots of successful people. I didn’t.

In all the circles I knew, people were painter-decorators or worked in factories. People weren’t professional artists. I didn’t think about illustration as a career. It’s what I wanted to do because I enjoyed it and I was encouraged to study it. But I didn’t think about whether it was the right thing to do or whether I could get work from it. Being a professional illustrator seemed very unattainable. But then I realised that the more I did it, the better I got. I realised that I could get work from it and got more confident over time.

For the love of learning…

I love education. When I first started working at Little Kickers, it was just starting out and I was in charge of designing programmes. I enjoy that – working out what to do and teaching a section of society that has never been taught before. That’s been very interesting. I definitely want to continue teaching.

In the future, I want to earn enough money to be comfortable and I’d love to do that through a combination of illustration and lecturing. That would be tremendous. I don’t want to illustrate full-time. I’d like to do a one year higher education course and teach part-time too.

Jumping through hoops…

I want to make my work commercially viable. I have a new agency PVUK (Private View Illustration Agency) who’ll hopefully push my work forward. Developing as an illustrator is just a process that takes time. My work has got a lot better, I’ve got to a stage where I’m quite confident and exciting things can happen.

Right here, right now…

Right now I’m developing stylistically and doing a Batman project, which is based on the old Adam West film. I’m using it to make a flash book for my agency, who will then use it to advertise my work and illustration.

I’m working on developing my style into a more graphic style. Right now my style is quite mixed. I work with collage a lot but I’m using it in more interesting ways. Collage is traditionally about texture. I’m interested in using textures and ideas from comic books, old toys, tin toys, posters, films, and looking for shapes and inspiration for my work. I love how shapes work together. I’m selecting bits of very specific images, cutting them out, reusing them, enlarging and rehashing them. I’m deliberately using less collage now. What I’m hoping is that the projects I work on will dictate the feel of each individual piece I do.

The science of art…

Everything is I do is experimentation. I surround myself with ephemera that I find interesting. I’ve got a lot of Spike Milligan and The Goon Show, Dr Strangelove, Peter Cook and the old Flash Gordon episodes. They’re all great because they all help with creativity. The Goon Show is just completely fucking mad. That show and Monty Python were the first bits of inspiration that got me started.

I once illustrated a Goon Show episode. At the time, I didn’t know how to make a picture. I didn’t find it interesting and I didn’t know how. When I first started doing collage it was very limited. I used found objects, which I don’t do anymore. If you use a found object you can only use it once. That’s why I use a computer now. Besides being more flexible it prevents the waste. When you use a material, for example, it’s something beautiful that you cut up and stick down and therefore can only use it once because you ruin that piece of material, whereas now I can keep everything for posterity.

All the different things I surround myself with create a mindset. The Goon Show was mad and gave me a lot of freedom. I realised that anything I drew could be any size. The ideas I got as a result of that show kick-started my work, which became very surreal. I didn't initially think of my work as 'surreal' but everyone would compare it to the Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam.

My work’s matured a lot now and is getting more graphic and more concise. I have more material and I understand how to make things now. I care more about the aesthetic than the message. With many people, it’s more about the message. But I sometimes force things into a picture because I like the way they look. I might have a portrait or a record that I want to use in my work so I work out a way to use it in a picture.

Ins and outs…

When you’re doing an illustration job you’re working for someone else and you don’t always get to do what you want. Working for a client can be a bit of a drag because you don’t decide what goes out. And while it’s great being self-employed and you have a lot of freedom, the downside is that you don’t have a great deal of financial security.

Encouragement…

My family was always very encouraging. My mum was massively supportive. And the nice thing about my dad was that he would just go out and do what he wanted. He wanted to build submarines so he just went out and did it, not entirely successfully but he was quite adventurous. His whole philosophy is that ideas are out there so you just have to do what you want to do and not just play it safe.

Confidence…

I haven’t always been confident. Being an illustrator seemed quite unattainable years ago but people have always been positive about my work, although they haven’t been very sure about where it would fit and how they could use it.

The best thing that happened to me was getting encouragement from art professionals very early on. That was important at the time – getting encouragement from my peers and professional illustrators, and to feel that I could hold my own. That gave me the confidence to push on.

Lessons…

There are loads of ideas available to us but we can’t access them because we’re used to a certain norm and way of seeing things. If I just start doing work, I’ll have these ‘Eureka! moments’. The deeper I dig into my ideas and the longer I spend on a piece of work; pulling it apart, the more I’m able to develop it. When I work, my first draft is rarely ever anything like the end product because as I work I might change the proportions of things and figure out new ways of how I want to illustrate them. I need to work things out and keep questioning and exploring ideas.

Advice…

We all know what we have to do. Sometimes people need to hear other people repeat these things that they already know. Ultimately, I know it’s going to take a long time to develop as an illustrator. Quite often I’ll hear these ‘pearls of wisdom’ but they’re nothing new. We’re all intelligent people. We all know what has to be done. You just have to set your mind to it and do whatever it is you already know you need to do.

Running on empty…

When I’m feeling uninspired about something I’m working on, I leave it. Then I go and look at ‘stuff’ – images, old posters, books, all the ephemera that I’ve got. I collect anything. At the minute, I’m collecting lots of books and magazines, books about collections like a train and transport book that is full of old tickets. I love illustration from the 20s and 30s. I love heavy line with half tone inside. I’ll look at all these different things and that usually inspires me. There’s not a lot outside of the visual media I have at home that leads me to work.

Admiration…

I have to say that my favourite illustrator is (Paul) Bower. I love that he’s very free. He does what he likes. His work is beautiful. I love his use of texture, his use of type and his humour. He does some very funny work, very graphic, bright colours and big, bold work. I love his stuff.

And Ralph Steadman is officially my hero. I love his images, his drawing and the way he uses line – very aggressive and emotive. I like work that is creative and turns convention on its head, where there are no rules, no boundaries, pictorially or otherwise. I dig that.

Relax…

I love listening to Radio 6 and Guy Garvey. I like doing my work too. I don’t find it a chore as long as I’m working on my own little bits and pieces. I love markets, I love food, I love eating… I love being horizontal. And hanging out with Zinia (my girlfriend).

In my dream life…

I would be Indiana Jones. Or be his dad. Some people want to be James Bond but I just want to be Indiana Jones.

Advice…

Get a second job that you enjoy doing that you can make money from that will pay the rent. You need to be able to make your own pictures and explore your own work, not just do commercial work all the time.

16.1 / Creating opportunities / Suzie Brown

2009-09-01T19:01:00.009+01:00

What: Illustrator and designer-maker
Where: London, UK
Website: Urban Bird

In the beginning...

I am from Disley in Cheshire, England. It's a small village with a lot of evidence of its history – a park where the layout of the landscape has remained unchanged since medieval times, valleys that housed paper mills and mills that made materials for weaving, and woods with gravestones from as far back as the time of the plague.

As a child I liked roaming my area. In my early years my capacity for drawing equaled my capacity for writing. I enjoyed drawing figure heads from history, of kings and queens, and used to get lots of gold stars at school for them. I also enjoyed illustrating the front page of projects, involving collage with different materials – I approached more complex compositions. I also copied from photos in pencil and drew elaborate patterns with multi-coloured pens.

Love school...

I had a clear direction towards art and design at school as my favourite subject. I was also fortunate that at my secondary school my older sister and brother were remembered as being skilled and interested in drawing. I also felt very at home in the art and design department. It felt natural being there. I have an instinctive attraction and curiosity to visual material and surroundings. The work I produced then was from my head and I definitely used drawing on paper with a pencil or colour pencil as a means of expression, which was well received.

I pursued my art and design education to degree level initially, going from secondary school to a college to do my A Levels; to a new environment and a different cross section of people, which was refreshing. I didn't have any special buddies from school and was reaching out for independence.

My school had advised me against leaving and going to college but it was certainly the right move (as it is for many young people – you instantly feel more like a grown up and you can study something you've chosen, which is geared towards preparing you for a vocation). I did a PGCE in post compulsory art and design precisely so I could work with young people and adults who want to learn art or who may be facing decisions about their career or want a change of career or who want to try something new or are wondering where their talents lie or just want to find something enjoyable to do with their lives.

Working life…

I enjoy teaching screen printing and have a good relationship with the staff at Leicester Print Workshop where I contribute to their programme of seasonal workshops related to different aspects of printmaking.

I work for myself too. I develop products featuring my own designs and illustrations. I like to create work that can find application in different contexts and that people can interact with. Therefore, scale can play a part in my work and I make work that can be shared with people.

Likes and dislikes…

I would like to receive further commission work. I really enjoy being asked to produce work for other people based on what people know of my skills. I want this to happen more, as one of the most frustrating things is having talents that don't have a public outing often enough (sometimes due to a lack of funding, the limitations of other people's imaginations, their willingness to take risks or because they don't even know you exist).

En-route…

When I graduated I found work in London following a work placement with a design consultancy and had a great two and half years working on trends, visiting European cities and trade fairs for research. I then took up theatre costume work as my interests career-wise following my degree were in two or three design related subject areas and I wanted to find out more about what roles I could play and what these subject areas involved.

My work from my degree was very texture based and has developed over the years to be much more image based. I always had a love for photographic images – the emotional content or the style or atmosphere and character that could be achieved. Similarly, I enjoyed the cinematography of films and had a brilliant time during the early 90's watching films from other countries that would come to our local art cinema in Nottingham, while on my degree at Loughborough.

Learning from the past…

At the end of my degree I was thinking in broad conceptual terms related to my fabric designs. I wanted the concept behind what inspired the fabrics to continue to the garments that I could make using the concept (including video). I wanted to create work that could echo the concepts and act as a presentation of the collection and themes behind them. But it was quite complex to communicate this to tutors who thought I was trying to do too many things.

I had an interview at the Royal College to do an MA following my degree but I was not accepted. My portfolio was accepted at the first stage of the application process but at my interview I was unable to say what my next move was going to be or how I would develop my work. I worked intuitively. I think I was trying to achieve then what I am trying to achieve now and that is the conception of a brand with an ethos, with routes of manufacture both industrial and hand crafted, something that is original and enjoyable for people and gives my ideas expression.

Turning point…

My interest in image-based media; cinema, photography and animation, received a year's development following about seven years working in theatre and TV costume, initially as an employee for London based companies (the RSC at the Barbican and the Royal Court Theatre) then freelance in theatre and TV working for BBC Drama, ITV and Channel 4.

This was a very successful career but did not involve me designing anything. At the end of my twenties I took stock of my interests and made an effort to change the direction of my career with a year's development at the Arts Institute in Bournemouth. I then did a PGCE so I could teach followed by an MA in Illustration part-time over two years so that I could work and add relevant ventures to my CV as an artist/designer. The MA interacted with live projects. I had the opportunity to explore and create a certain type of work during my MA that I continue to produce in my business now, which has been running a year. I produce work that is an extension of that exploration. My practice and ethos has matured in relation to design, and circumstances have had a great effect on my experience. There are far more support networks around now for people involved in art and design. The term designer-maker has been coined and artists are able to be much more business savvy. And technologies like the internet have revolutionised the number of people able to run an independent business and think as entrepreneurs.

Motivation…

I respond to colour, pattern and design and have immediate visual instincts wherever I am. If my imagination or senses are stimulated in a positive way I try to carry that forward and be productive with it.

Environmental living…

The visual environment is very important to me so contributing to creating pleasing habitats and surroundings for people to spend time in and supporting them as they go about their daily lives is one of my reasons for being involved in design.

Subject matter that might become involved in the work originates from my response to themes that I am sensitive to. I have a desire to balance injustices, raise awareness of vulnerabilities, speak for things that can't speak such as birds and nature, which might make me sound like a caretaker or peacemaker or as my brother used to call me Kofi Annan, although more of the political content and presentation of observations from contemporary life is reserved for my illustration work.

Lamps and bag…

The illuminating quality of the design on a shade is attractive. Many people who would look to buy a lampshade or a canvas bag from me will be looking for something pleasant, pretty, beautiful, enjoyable to complement or add to their interior so it isn't necessary for me to be over the top about the work being imbued with social critique or presentation. Elements of it may contribute to its presentation and give it an edge in the market place but may even contribute to it being overlooked for 'pretty and safe surface design', where there is less demand for a rich imagination and more demand for inventiveness with imagery, colour, materials.

I started designing canvas bags when the eco conscious trend for encouraging reusable bags over plastic ones began. Back then, all I saw on the streets were really, old souvenir bags that were all natural in colour with black or one colour print, which is the cheapest form of production. Many of the bags didn't even have a nerd or kitsch chicness. Hardened environmentalists will say 'Well, did that matter?' but I am a designer first and foremost so I wanted to produce bags that had better design content in terms of colour and pattern, featuring natural and subtle politically/environmentally conscious imagery while contributing to a better aesthetic to be seen on the street.

On the side…

I am very pleased that I can contribute to exhibitions and publications such as Images 33, an annual exhibition of selected work with an accompanying publication that the Association of Illustrators organise to show the best of contemporary British illustration. There is a place for different content in illustration work and there are various ways this can be achieved through the use of different media and ways of interpretation.

Visually uplifting...

I love illumination – the illumination of a subject or set of concerns, the illumination of colours in dark environments. The potential to light a window or building or street with something more magical than the ordinary so that people can enjoy the experience on their way home from work or on their way out.

Light in public spaces can function around the clock, I use coloured low energy bulbs and fluorescent light, which are cooler than standard electricity sources. I see my work as contributing to the regeneration that began in cities such as Manchester when former industrial areas were developed and given a new social and leisure related purpose without losing a sense of the heritage. There is huge potential for this work and the schemes one could come up with.

Processes...

I design the patterns, choose the size and shape of the lampshade and have them manufactured in the UK. Being a one woman show, I prefer to leave the making to the professionals. I want my business to consist of some handmade or hand crafted items and some much more efficiently and cost effectively produced items too. The manufacturers take the work off my hands, allowing me to concentrate on commission and design development work.

Running your own design business is not that cost effective or time efficient in comparison to the large high street names and brands, which as a designer-maker is something you are up against. Being involved in my own business start-up has really made me appreciate craft and the considerably high prices that are charged for individual works of art. What you are constantly fighting is the fact that people have been educated by the media and brands to expect things for less, for the cheapest price possible. To get the cost down involves high volume and overseas production. I operate in a much more bespoke and personal way and deeply respect my customers and the choices they make.

Week in the life...

Creating illustration work and developing imagery takes up most of my time. The rest of my time is used to contact people, to let them know that I exist.

Something for the weekend...

I love the coast and walks in fields and forests with lots of open sky. I like watching interviews, the South Bank Show, topical comedy such as 'Have I Got News for You', movies at home or at the cinema and seeing my family.

Inspiration...

My observations when I am out and about. I take notice of everything around me, research, read, go to cultural events… I also have long term interests; it was great faith to me to learn about artist groups from the past who started movements in art and design and had innovative thoughts and produced inventive work. I loved the fact that Paris was home to artists, writers and thinkers who would meet up and talk. I love the Bloomsbury Group and Charleston, the home they created decorated in their style. I love Gustav Klimt and that Egon Schiele was a student of his, the fashion created by Emilie Floge and the work of the Werner Werkstatte, William Morris, the Pre-Raphaelites, Francis Bacon, RB Kitaj, David Hockney, Peter Blake… I like to go to retrospective or contemporary curated art shows.

Off days…

If I am having a bad day because I can't get going it is because I am in the privileged position of having a brief. I am being faced with a challenge and need to experiment with a few things that interest me or if I don't have the inspiration to hand I need to collect something or some things that interest and stimulate me. This becomes part of my process and can be very abstract or very straightforward and can come from anything. I look for intuitive leads.

Throughout art college you are supposed to discover personal routes you can take to make your own work and if you don't go to art college but want to make art work then you collect or write down what you like, dislike or whatever your motivation is to make the work and find one or several starting points until you begin to achieve something you feel has the purpose you intended.

Great people…

One of my first employees at the Royal Court Theatre and most recently my illustration tutor, Janet Woolley. They are two strong women who are professional, and great managers of people and their work. They are not intimidated by the ambition or talent of others and don't control through anger, intimidation or ruthlessness and bias. They encourage creativity and development in people. In my early experience, both at college and in employment, particularly in TV costume there were one or two managers who used fear and intimidation. When they spoke they acted like they were threatened by us, they disrespected our youth and energy.

One of my reasons for teaching is to help people become aware of opportunities when they are looking to start a career or try something new. I want to help them recognise where their skills, talents and interests lie and what may be available to them in relation to their interests. I want to encourage them and boost their confidence.

My husband Graham has been the most recent and amazing, helpful, supportive and creative person in my life. He is an architect and an amazing draftsman. He also has an amazing capacity to take on complexity (in its many forms) when it arises and has a brilliant imagination. My family are also amazing – my parents have always been massively supportive and encouraging of my creativity and that of my sisters and brother.

Making a living from your love…

Being involved in design is definitely something I love and my strengths lie in my creativity and flexibility. I have a very rich imagination and a lot of good will. Running a business is very time-consuming and involves different roleplaying and expertise. I think you can hold down a full-time job and still have some artistic output, especially with today's facilities at everyone's disposal. To be involved in business, there is some number crunching to do and if you don't make any money, you can't develop your output of new designs or products.

I want my work to be accessible to people whatever form it takes and I want it to be affordable (although I should actually make it less of what I consider 'affordable' in order to make a profit to enable development but I am more comfortable being generous!).

It takes a couple of years to establish the identity of your brand and to understand what you want to do with it once you understand more about the market place and make sense of it all. I have been considering how I want to place my skills within the art and design framework that exists in this country, and internationally – I am interested to learn about the differences.

I prefer being a leader rather than a follower. I am not comfortable compromising my design for a trend or copying/falling in line with a trend in
an obvious way. I want the artistic and creative side of my work to develop organically and intuitively, to keep it natural. I want to design in relation to what people know to be my skills and characteristics and I want to be able to up my game every so often, for example, by being able to use new digital technologies or to work to a challenging brief, either inventively or commercially.

Pretty much all retailers do bow to trends as business comes first and successful selling lines that everyone is stocking will bring in the profit for them and help to keep them going. They are a safe bet. I am trying to marry a more unconventional approach or my individual approach to the business world with an openness to adapt and tailor it.

Important tools…

Creative research, my visual observations and how I communicate them – just doing things. The most important ingredients to my creative life are my supportive friendships and my environment.

Dreams…

I would like to have a really nice house near the sea where people can stay, explore the local environment and do workshops in screen printing or some aspect of art and design. I would also like there to be a shop and exhibition space, showing contemporary work from designer-makers and artists. It would be a place of inspiration and enjoyment. I also have a really good library of books and I think access to resources is important for developing inspiration. I am also hoping that Graham and I become parents in the future.

Advice…

There is a great expression that I got from my sister Jackie: 'Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams'.

Words of wisdom…

If art and design is not your main occupation or developed skill, don't give up – keep working, save some money and start by doing a part-time short course or workshop in something that interests you. Develop a skill as a hobby in your spare time and build a portfolio and website, then start to communicate with people about what you do. Look into some of the support organisations that exist such as Craft Central, The AOI and Hidden Art. City Lit in London is also really good for courses at reasonable prices.

If you don't have something happening in your area that is suitable, look into setting up a local group yourself and invite people with the skills you need to be involved as visiting speakers or for a more involved commitment if they have time. Use the skills you know you have, contact your local council to ask for advise or for a venue to meet after considering what facilities are needed. Apply for funding to a local arts organisation, council or the Arts Council. And ask for or read their advice on making an application.

These are all steps to achieving what you would like to happen in your life and very little happens with out research, planning and commitment. Ideas always come faster than the time it takes to realise them but if it's something you want don't be put off or allow other people's negativity to stand in your way.

Bank holiday Monday – no trading

2009-08-31T23:50:00.003+01:00

If you're in the UK we hope you've enjoyed the long weekend (and carnival). And if you're in the rest of the world, we're sorry about the lack of posting today.

We'll be back on Wednesday. Until then… Keep smiling!

16.0 / Savile Row style / Andrea and Patrizia

2009-08-26T08:41:00.006+01:00

What: Upholsterer and designer
Where: London, UK
Website: Urban Upholstery

Power pair…

Patrizia Sottile: We are the co-owners of Urban Upholstery in London. Andrea has over 20 years experience as an upholsterer. His clients include the Gianni Versace Group, Harrods and a wide range of antique dealers and designers. I am a design consultant, formally trained as an architect with an MA from St Martin’s in Scenography.

In the beginning…

Andrea Simonutti: About five years ago I saw a very nice, abandoned chair (in horrible condition but with great potential) just a few meters from our house. It wasn’t the first time we’d seen a piece of furniture abandoned in the street. So I decided to strip it off and reupholster it. This first piece ended up being a Christmas present for Patrizia.

Initial inspiration…

A: It started about 25 years ago. Every Easter, my family would go to visit my uncle in the north of Italy for a few days. But instead of playing at the beach like everyone else, I spent my time with him in his workshop, excited by what he was doing. And from there the passion began. My parents were very supportive and happy to let me go to a technical college after secondary school. And there, I was lucky enough to meet the most influential person of my life, Angelo Busnelli, a talented man who taught us the Art of Upholstery once a week. He taught at the college for free and made me love what I was doing. He was a wealthy man and didn't need to teach. He did it simply because he was passionate about the subject and filled his students with that same enthusiasm. One day I’d like to follow in his footsteps and do for others what he did for me.

P: It’s very important, especially in your early years, to learn how to do something perfectly, like the way Angelo taught Andrea. When there’s an emphasis on perfection, you learn to produce a flawless piece of work and continue to strive to produce high quality pieces. Likewise, if you learn to produce something that just looks good but is badly constructed, it’s hard to break that habit. You need a teacher that will make you do something over and over again until you’ve perfected it.

I started drawing when I was very young. I drew the portraits of everyone who visited my house. I also decided that I wanted to be an architect early on and when I was 18 I pursued a career in architecture.

Influential family…

P: My family and friends were always very supportive although they didn’t try to understand what I was doing because they were doing very different things. They just saw that I had passion and that was enough for them.

A: In my case, when I was at school, my peers were all going to university and colleges to become doctors, lawyers and that sort of thing. At the beginning, people would look at me and say, ‘Oh, wow, you’re doing upholstery,’ subtly conveying that, in their opinion, it was a lowly job. But, I was always confident and passionate about my choice. And my parents were very supportive. My uncle was and still is an upholsterer so they knew I’d be able to make a living from it. Upholsterers are always in demand. Wherever I’ve been, I’ve had a job.

The allure of London…

A: I arrived in London 10 years ago. And two months later I met Patrizia. I left Italy because my life had turned upside down – my father died in 1998 and I broke up with my then long-term partner. I just needed get away and start all over again somewhere new. My plan was to go to London and eventually get to Australia. I still feel like Australia is the promise land and eventually, who knows, I might get there.

P: I read about England in books and it was always my dream to live here. The final push was through my sister. She travels a lot with her work and told me that London was the place I needed to be, exciting things were happening here, so I took her advice and here I am.

Talents…

A: Patrizia is talented as an architect and artist. She’s good at finding solutions – colour combinations, designing and visualising what works well together. She’s able to find creative ways to make the most of fabrics so we don’t waste anything and meet our goals to recycle endrolls.

My role in the company is the handcraft of upholstery. I do the physical upholstery and Patrizia provides her design skills. We work together to come up with the initial ideas; how to tackle a piece of furniture. But I decide whether an idea will work in reality because I'm more aware of the limitations.

The business side…

P: I have managerial experience so I can handle the marketing. I enjoy making contacts and networking with people that we could potentially work with. Accounting and administration, however, are not the most enjoyable parts of the job for either of us.

A: Even though it’s a small business, there are so many things to check and be aware of. We’ve only been going for 14 months but in time it would be great to employ a secretary/accountant for the office and an upholstery assistant for the workshop.

P: We’ve been lucky to work with a great consultancy team – a web designer and his wife, a multi-talented copywriter. She guides us in setting business goals and produced all the copy on our website, which he created. Their goal is to help small businesses like ours. They’ve been there since the beginning and helped set up Urban Upholstery.

The recycling/reclaiming philosophy…

A: To have a personal connection with the customer is helpful to both parties. Before starting a job, we like being sure that they are happy with the design and colours they’ve chosen.

P: We like to give people time to think. Most of the time, people buy things on impulse, which often leads to waste. If something is inexpensive, we buy it, decide we don’t like it, then throw it away. Ideally, we like the customers to do some of their own research and bring in pictures of what style they like.

A: Every piece in our showroom was originally dumped in a skip or left on the street. We’ve also rescued chair frames from frame makers and end-rolls that would otherwise have been dumped.

We’ve recycled timber and metal frames to create storage and shelves in our workshop. All the metal posts that make the mezzanine were just left in our courtyard.

Recycling takes time. In the beginning we didn’t have much money and we had a lot of time, as our customer-base was growing, so we made the most of what we found in skips and on the street. But even as we grow, we continue to stick to this principle of recycling. Recycling doesn’t mean sacrificing quality or aesthetics.

Collaborating with artists…

A: We’re looking to work with artists and designers that are environmentally friendly, who produce original pieces that aren’t too big as the space available is limited. The relationship we have with artists is mutually beneficial – the artist gets a space for their work and people who come to see what they’ve done are often interested in what we do.

P: We’re open to work with textile designers, painters, people who want to use the window display or anyone whose work fits with our philosophy.

Inspiration…

We read magazines to see what is out there. But we don’t stick to trends because we use reclaimed fabric, which has a look of its own. We go to fairs, art exhibitions and we have a subscription to the World of Interiors – one of the most prestigious interiors magazines.

Relaxation…

P: Well, we’ve started restoring an old house that we bought in Italy, which isn’t very relaxing but it’s very fulfilling. Our plan is to use recycled materials as much as we can, not just for furniture but throughout the house.

Besides that, we like cycling, walking in the mountains, barbequing, cooking for friends and having big social gatherings.

A: Right now though, business takes up a big part of our lives. We’re working six days a week and time just seems to disappear. We work about 10 hours a day, Monday-Friday, sometimes more, and four hours every Saturday so we don’t have much time for relaxing.

At home…

P: It’s mostly made up of reclaimed and restored pieces. We’ve restored tables, chairs, drawers and all sorts of things. My hobby is restoring wood and Andrea does the reupholstering.

Dreams for the future…

P: I’d like to maintain our independence and be a small business in essence.

A: In decades to come, we’d like to be the equivalent of a shop in Saville Row.

P: We want to stick to our principles – recycling fabric and making high quality pieces. Like when people visit Saville Row they want a tailored suit, we’d like people to visit our shop for when they want to upholster furniture. We can’t and don’t want to compete with mass producing companies.

A: We want our customers to understand what we’re trying to achieve with recycling. There are thousands of companies throwing away fabrics and we want to recycle their waste.

P: Quality and precision, along with recycling and reclaiming, form the basis of our philosophy. That’s what we’d like to take with us into the future.

15.0 / Rhythym is a dancer / Guy Wood

2009-08-24T00:10:00.008+01:00

What: Drummer and music producer
Where: London, UK
Website: Death Ray Trebuchay

In a nutshell…

I’m a musician. I’m a drummer. I’m about 6 foot 3 and a half and I’m from Yorkshire. I've trained as a drummer for about 10 years seriously, and about 23 years not-so-seriously since the age of four. I am now in the current location of Dalston, in my studio.

The starting point…

When I came down one Christmas morning, my folks had bought me a bright yellow Remo Junior Pro drum kit, which was like the best thing I’d ever seen in my life. They were instantly elated that I wasn’t destroying the house anymore too. I probably had ADHD, before the term was invented.

Getting those drums was where it all began and I got involved in music. From that moment on, I noticed drummers. My mum would take to me to the theatre and opera. I went to see Tosca when I was about three. I was always exposed to music. We’d go to see a concert and I wouldn’t necessarily comprehend it's complexities, but I’d always visually connect with and start honing into that person playing the same instrument I had at home, it was infectious. I just became obsessive, absolutely obsessive. Through that and my mum driving me around Yorkshire to take advantage of every opportunity with schooling and lessons, I am now doing what I do.

Kabul Airstrike - Tickle me up by goodnessgreatness

The first gig I went to see, that really blew me away and made me go, ‘I want to do that’, was Dire Straits in Faro, held in some massive football stadium when I was seven. It was great. We used to go to the Algarve on holiday and my mum got these tickets. We arrived ridiculously early, like six hours early, and the whole place was shut. We couldn’t get in anywhere so we just sat on the steps and had a picnic and got in the press as we were the first people there. The gig was amazing. They had this drummer called Omar Hakim and another drummer, not sure who he was, but there were 2 of them with massive drum kits. It was 89’, full on stadium rock, Dire Straits, smashing it! It made me go ‘I want to play on a fucking stadium stage on a drum kit! I want to be them!’

Obsessive compulsive…

My mum is obsessed with Theatre and Entertainment. We’ve always had a kind of flamboyant household, which has definitely sculpted my energy for music and drumming. My mum’s always had big parties. She once had this charity party where an entire Circus came and camped in our fields in the country for about four months. Hanging out with them and the bands that came to the house created an energy inside of me, which is partly responsible for how I see myself as a musician today. Now that I’m older and have found a path, my voice as a drummer is that of entertainment mixed with art. Being a performer you have to give out that energy. That’s why I make the choices to play with the bands that I do. At the moment I value the gift of entertainment and the act of giving energy.

Home is where the heart is…

I grew up near a little village called Stamford Bridge, which is between York and Bridlington. It’s a beautiful place called Scoreby Farm House. I was blessed to grew up there. It was like a little country retreat. It got to thrash the shit out of my drums as much as I wanted without anyone complaining at all. It was a complete haven that affected who I am. If grew up in a terraced house in the middle of York, I wouldn’t have necessarily been able to play the drums all night long, so I was really lucky. I was schooled in York, which is a wicked city but I’m glad that I’m not there at the moment, in the most beautiful way – I love it and a lot of my heart is there but it’s a city that I wanted to break free from. It allows you (as someone living there) to let go of it. If you know somewhere is a great place and it’s given you a lot but you’ve moved on, that’s not a bad thing. I feel I have a strong foundation because of that, because of the steps I took. I feel comfortable about not living in York. The world is a huge place I get to explore, which is in my nature.

Under his belt…

Band-wise, I’m working on a project called Death Ray Trebuchay, which is a band of six very merry men that play psychedelic thrash, disco, punk music. We've been going for about two years. It’s formed of three horn players (trumpet, trombone and alto Sax) and then bass, drums and keyboards. There’s loads of crazed shouting and Beastie Boys-esque style rap going on. It’s a completely flamboyant boisterous band and it's amazing to be the drummer. I get to live out my dream of thrashing the shit out of a drum kit while it still being dance music and being humorous in some way. It’s pretty advanced serious music and it's challenging to play but at the same time it’s got kind of a light-hearted element to it. It’s not trying to take itself too seriously. It’s meant to be dance music, that’s the reason the band was formed. Originally we played a lot of Balkan covers and Balkan music, in our East London sort of way, taking a folk music and working out how to put our own vibe onto it, it's nice the way those things happen. Given that there are six people, all trained 'working' musicians, going into an original project, believing in it and forming a strong unit, is a really special thing to keep and to be a part of.

Deathray Trebuchay - Im Gonna Kick You in the Ass by goodnessgreatness

Quite quickly, the six of us became obsessed with the band and put a lot into the music and everyone is putting their personalities into it. We are slowly generating our own sound. It’s getting there. We’re just about to start recording our first E.P in the studio I run, which is another side of my life.

The other side…

I work with a fine musician called Jo Wills and we have a studio in Gillett Square, Dalston - we call it The Dalston Broadcasting Company. We have set up a company called A Fish Called Wampa, which Jo and I began about a year and a half ago and formalised, writing music for media, visual arts theatre and commercial clients of any sort. We have worked for the BBC and Toyota, we’ve just done some sound design for Dizzee Rascal's new music video and we have just signed up on a job with a Japanese karaoke company. So our client list is becoming quite broad-ranged and exciting and that’s great. It provides Jo and I with a financial bed and, in a sense, a routine. I think that’s been the hardest thing about being a musician – it’s this self-employed/freelance life, where there’s a lot of traveling and moving about and you kind of loose your roots quite quickly. We’ve been trailing around for a few years – playing, gigging, teaching, 'wedding' gigs galore and '£20 jazz gigs in some random pub in Chesterfield'. We had enough of that and we just wanted to hone our skills in one area, have an office and get a sort of day job.

School of rock…

School, for me, was always amazingly supportive. I went to a wicked school in York – a junior school called St Olave’s and a senior school called St Peters. They where always supportive of music. As a kid, you want to do everything – I was really sporty. There were loads of rad chicks and dudes at school and I wanted to be out partying, not practising for seven hours a day when I was 14 – 15 years old. I’ve got to thank the school for helping to keep me focused, I don’t think that I would have had the 'teenage' willpower to do music all the time without the guidance. They had lots of small ensembles, jazz bands wind bands and choirs, which meant that I was playing every night of the week from the age of 12 or 13 during school and after school. It was constant.

First band…

There were always school rock bands. I got involved with this band called Skirt. I was 13 and the rest of the band were older, at GCSE level. I was stoked as the older dudes had asked me to play drums for their band. I fancied all the chicks in their year so it was awesome, a total dream......ha ha. We played for ages. We got on the circuit, did Bright Young Things talent competitions and played at the Town and Country Club in Leeds. It was an amazing beginning to a sort of band career. I don’t see them very often now but we are still in touch. The bass player Ed Brooke is an amazing guy. He’s just had another kid and Andy, the lead singer, is now a teacher. We played right through to when we left school at St Peters. In the last two years of it's 'life' the band transformed and we renamed it - ‘The Constituency of the Rejected’, which was our post-teen angst-ridden alt metal, love child. We were into the Deftones and early Limp Bizkit. The music grew from very, very, very, homoerotic Gary Glitter inspired Brit Pop, writing songs about ice creams to writing tunes about Lyndon Baines Johnson and the conspiracy’s of the teenage mind. It was fucking awesome!

Sion - Get Your Knees Up by goodnessgreatness

Life after the school of rock…

After GCSE’s, I had a choice. I was old enough to realise that I wanted to be a musician and also old enough to realise that I couldn’t continue being a musician if I stayed on at St Peter's because of academic commitments. It was a very liberal public school but at the same time driven by its ratings and Ofsted reports so was pretty highfalutin, which is totally rad, but I decided that I needed to spend a lot of time playing. The tutors that I had were great pros. One of them was a classical player, Janet Fulton that played in the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic orchestras and the other guy was called Damian Harren. He was my kit and contemporary percussion teacher and they are both responsible for helping me get into music conservatoire, and furthering my career. They where like ‘If you don’t do it now, you’re never going to do it. You need to start practising four hours a day. You need to learn all the repertoire’. I left school and went to Leeds College of Music to study my A-levels, and practise... alot... which was a massive step.

And... a massive step for my dad as he, my grandad, my great granddad and my uncles all went to that school, all the way through. My dad wasn’t the greatest academic but held on to the philosophy of carrying through tradition, which is integral to my beliefs. Music doesn’t run as a profession in my direct family. My dad's side of the family ran FW Wood and Sons, a chemist, with shops around northeast Yorkshire. That side of the family are essentially business focused, so for my Dad to give me the support to go off and be a 'bohemian' and leave St Peters was a huge step. That’s when I really began to develop my relationship with my dad on an equal level, no longer just a Dad/Son thing. He knew that he didn’t need to 'train' me up into his profession to follow in his footsteps, and so we both started to learn from each other. He’s like my total best mate. Allowing me to do that was the biggest part of my music career, because if I didn’t go, I would never have gone to the Guildhall School of Music to do a four year Bachelor of Jazz degree in drumming and then do a masters there. I never would have done that. I wouldn’t have been good enough to get in.

Play that funky music

I started at Guildhall as a classical percussionist. I was really into solo repertoire for marimba and vibraphone and late 20th century contemporary music and wanted to study that throughout the four year degree. But I thought within that as a percussionist I’d still be able to play the drums, as that was my main passion. However, I had this thing when I went to Leeds that I just got really involved in contemporary music and high art music. I think I wanted that intellectualism of being a late teen. Genuinely, some of that music is amazing but I got to Guildhall and, after about three months, I realised that the classical percussion degree, as far as I was concerned, was primarily sitting at the back and playing a triangle part in a Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. You'd sit there for five minutes counting bars and then you have one hit of a triangle, which you'd probably forget because it took you too long to get off your stool to go over to the triangle and hit it before you went back to sit down for another ten minutes.

I realised that music was more creative, for me, and I wanted to write. I wanted to perform and play original music so I left the classical course and they took me onto the jazz course about half way into the first year. For the first two years you still have to do classical studies as well, which is really important, a great discipline and great technique training. I finished off the last two years of the degree doing jazz solely and drums as my major.

Working it out…

I taught for the college on a community project, on their outreach project called Connect, the year after I finished. I was kind of a tutor. I did loads and loads of teaching mainly in east London. We’d do these mass multi-instrumental projects with kids from the ages of 8-16 years old that would be playing anything from a violin to shakuhachi to tabla to bass. The projects were all bespoke and the aim would be to write original music with the kids for a performance or recording session. It was wicked. I did that mainly for a year and through that went on to do a masters in leadership, which sounds like some military training, but it wasn't, it was predominantly about how to lead yourself as a musician, as a creative artist. I majored in composition for moving image and that got me into an internship with a company called Brains and Hunch. Chris and Tom who run it are wicked. They’re such beautiful friends. They’re a company who work for advertising and branding. I worked with them for a year and then through that I set up A Fish Called Wampa with Jo.

Leaving jazz behind…

Even while I was studying and playing jazz, I had a real issue with it's 'traditionalism'. I hate to say it because a lot of jazz players are my best friends but they are part of a very introverted and cliquey scene. It’s quite contained, which really frustrated me while I was studying. For such a 'free' art, it was weird that people looked down on working with artists from other genres.

It wasn’t until the third or fourth year that people started to open up and work with, say, a cellist from the classical course or do a project with an opera singer and use the resources available to them. It was all quite closed like we’re just going to play Bebop and that’s it and if you’re not playing Bebop like that, then you’re shit. It became quite bitchy and I lost sight of why I was studying jazz music. I listened to jazz as a teenager and the reason I got into it was because I didn’t understand it, it was mystical and had this captivating energy. So, when I was playing it every day, studying it's theory and analysing performances, the fascination and mystique and the reason for it's existence, kind of disappeared, but, most importantly the spiritual connection remained. The stuff I listened to (I was really into Coltrane and early 60’s Miles Davis) managed to convey this awesome power and had a magical quality. But I was surrounded by priviliged people (including myself) who were middle class, lived in a different country, a different demographic and culture and a different world of reason. It was really hard to see the purpose, in New York in the 60’s, even if you were middle class, music was created and was there for a reason – invented for a reason, political, social and all the rest and I couldn't really find that purpose at all while I was at college.

Electronic music has always been a massive passion of mine. Hiphop, skateboarding and drum and bass raves were looked down on while I was studying. I almost tried to forget that side of myself but all of a sudden I went ‘What the fuck is going on? This isn’t what I believe in’. I got sucked into that snobbery thing quite quickly, so towards the end of my degree I made a conscious effort to detach myself from that shit as much as possible and begin to find my own voice and my own way. I started writing a lot of music on computers and writing dance music and trying to find my own 'mid 60’s energy'... ha ha. I realised that we are our own people and we have our own things to say. We don’t need to copy all the time.

Likes and dislikes…

It gets exhausting. I’m definitely not a no person. If you’re not a no person and you say yes to things all the time, you find yourself in a situation were you’ve got three hours to sleep in a week and people are shouting at you for not completing things. It gets a bit too much. I’m trying to learn how to plan a schedule but it’s a bit of a challenge. I just end up in chaos quite a lot. Then just traveling and not being able to see your friends means, essentially, I pine for a sense of community.

On the other side, I love the fact that I don’t have a schedule as it gives me an awesome sense of freedom and the opportunities that just arrive. For example, I can get a call tomorrow about doing a show somewhere for some rad musician or a great studio job might come through and everything's beautifully kinetic. I also get to work with my mates all the time. That’s pretty rad – the majority of my network is made up of my close friends.

Sion - Untitled by goodnessgreatness

Organised chaos…

A couple weeks ago was crazy. On the Monday morning, I was in a field in Cambridge at the Secret Garden Party, camping in the back of my car. We had two shows on the Thursday and Saturday night and I was meant to come back on Sunday but couldn’t drive – I definitely couldn’t drive. We were meant to be going back for a rehearsal with Death Ray Trebuchay but myself and two other band members where still in the field so we cancelled.

We drove back to London in a sorry state, came home and had to go to the studio to sort some Fish Called Wampa business out for a couple of hours. Then we packed my drum kit back into the car and went to the Proud Galleries in Camden to play a gig with Death Ray on Monday night. We went back to the studio and unloaded the drum kit at 2am and got to bed at about 4am. On Tuesday, I got to the studio at about 10am to work on finishing the Dizzee Rascal job for lunch time. We then went out to pick up equipment, came back to 'cave' and finished in the studio at about 11pm. On Wednesday, I did a 10am – 6pm stint in the studio. Thursday morning was spent driving round London running errands for the studio and then I did a recording session on Thursday afternoon

All of Friday was spent in the studio. In the evening, I did a gig at Pizza on the Park for a jazz singer, covering for her drummer. The gig finished at midnight and we headed back to Hackney to unload the drum kit at the studio at about 2am. I caught up on a few hours sleep and went back to the studio on Saturday afternoon to wire in the desk. I picked everything up to go to the Hackney Wick Festival for Saturday night. And then, at 7am on Sunday morning I forced myself out of bed and came to the studio to pick up the band and drove through to Standon Calling Festival near Cambridge. We played a lunchtime show on the main stage and then came back to London and worked in the studio, ready for recording the Death Ray E.P. Then, I went home and died at about 9pm.

IAMWAMPA - That's Right Mother Fucker (remix) by goodnessgreatness

Excess skin…

I collect drums and anything to do with them – cymbals, vintage maracas… If it’s got a skin, I’ve got it!

Obstacles and hurdles…

The biggest obstacle is constantly comparing myself to other people, other drummers, others musicians. It’s taken me a long time to develop confidence in myself, not having to play like any other drummer. I think the insecurity was born at college and is quite a big hurdle.

Words of wisdom…

What you do today is who you are tomorrow.

6.2 / Painting the light / Rosalind Davis

2009-08-18T21:07:00.014+01:00

What: Artist and painter
Where: London, UK
Website: Rosalind Davis

Rosalind at work…

I am a mixed media painter (a graduate from the RCA) creating melancholy dystopian landscapes that explore human experience and identity. Before the RCA I was at Chelsea College of Art and studied textile design. I left the RCA in 2005 and have been painting and exhibiting ever since. I live and work in London and got here through sheer determination!

I seek out buildings that on the surface might seem neglected. But for the individuals who use the them, they are a refuge and are of vital importance. Often, the buildings house communities in areas of widespread social deprivation that may seem hostile or full of pathos. I am interested in transience and survival, community and isolation.

In terms of the physical aspect of the works, I fuse painting with collage, print and embroidery. Embroidery is used as a form of paint – the qualities of textiles provide an opportunity to find new freedoms and expressions in painting. The meticulousness of the embroidery and its intimate and alluring qualities are used to emphasise the fragility of the spaces depicted.

Childhood…

I was very melancholic as a teenager. My home life was an area of great conflict and trouble and I was often left alone at home during my adolescence, which was very lonely. My family are wonderful in their ways but we have had a very tormented and difficult past. I was estranged from my mother and father for a number of years when I was younger. My mother is an alcoholic and when she left my father she had relationships with violent and aggressive men and that all spilled over to me, my younger brother and older sister, with whom I have very close bonds. We lived on a council estate in Brockley and we were very poor, which did not add to the fun. When I was 17 I was also trying to look after my little brother, which was difficult. I did not have the purpose and meaning of painting in my life then so I felt lost.

It wasn't all bad though – I loved school and I did have a fantastic social life to make up for the emptiness at home! I also became a published poet – an outpost for all that angst! Things are very different now, thankfully, and I have also found my drive and purpose within my painting. So, I guess it was all this instability that made me fascinated by homes and communities as we had neither. I also feel a huge amount of pathos for these places and I hope to explore this side of humanity in my works. Also, in terms of me, part of my own recovery from my childhood is linked to my work, in the creative and physical expression as well as the concepts. And I am also happy to say I have a close relationship with both parents now.

Hurdles…

Apart from the above there have been plenty of hurdles. I studied mixed media textiles at the RCA. When I went into painting I didn’t really fit in at the college. I had quite a lot of challenges in my work and practise there. I used to feel very conscious of the fact that I had not come from painting, officially. But now I am being taken seriously as an artist and painter so that no longer worries me. It also means that I have originality in my work – I embroider and use print and collage on top of painting.

Unconventional education…

I come from an artistic family. My father is an artist, a sculptor, and my paternal grandmother and great aunts used to be painters, although I never met them. My maternal great grandmother was a model for Vogue and she married into the Pringle family (the jumper empire) and my maternal grandmother sings with The Bach Choir. All in all, it’s pretty creative. Art and creativity was always around us and we were always going to exhibitions with our dad and grandparents.

I loved drawing when I was very young and used to draw porcelain dolls from adverts in magazines and Disney books. I also had an amazing art department at my secondary school (Sydenham Girls). The whole art department was very passionate and we were using oils from the age of 13 and doing big paintings. We also went on incredible art trips to Barcelona and Nice which really inspired me.

But I think it was at the RCA I became an artist. I was actually in the Textiles department so I persuaded the professor of painting, Graham Crowley to teach me. I learnt a lot about painting, concept and theory with him. Since leaving the RCA I have had opportunities to be mentored by Trudie Stephenson and Paul Benjamins who have also been invaluable in moving my work forward. I am still learning all the time. I rely on a peer network as well as going back to former tutors and talking to them about my work.

Talented lady…

I am constantly wanting to improve my painting and to be experimental. I find painting rather humbling as it is always a great challenge and acts as a constantly moving dialogue. My interests are architecture, the places that bind us together as well as the stories behind them, the social and political aspects of the places I paint, which are fascinating. Where possible I try and speak to people in those buildings and find out their stories.

Right this minute…

I am finishing some new paintings for a group show called Floorspace at Phoenix Brighton, a great contemporary art space and public gallery, and I am also promoting my solo show at Projection at John Jones which closes on the 21st August.

Gradual build-up…

The art world is a pretty competitive place but since I left the RCA I have managed to exhibit a lot. The shows I get into each year, or am offered to a place take part, get better and better and I sell a bit more every year. I take that as a good sign.

Last year I was selected for Salon 08, an exhibition selected by judges such as Andrea Tarsia fom the Whitechapel Gallery. I felt like I had finally gotten recognition as a painter in the contemporary art scene. It also led onto a solo show at John Jones, which was great! I also feel more confident within my work. I got the first reviews of my exhibition as well which was lovely.

On the side…

I teach. I am a freelance tutor for Bedford College, teaching the textile HND. I also set up educational workshops and have worked with the Stephen Lawrence Centre teaching people how to paint and embroider. Right now, I am planning for a drawing workshop I am doing at The Tower of London in autumn.

I have also been working on a blog called ‘Artists Talking’ on a-n, which has been really interesting and enjoyable to write. I even made it as a choice blog in August on a-n, by Matt Roberts, quite a surprise! The blog has led to more dialogue with other artists and art professionals, which has been great.

Pros and cons…

It is all consuming, in both good and bad ways. It’s an obsession! I love what I do. But I dislike the uncertainty of it all. For someone who craves stability I have chosen a career that has none, so I can feel fairly fragile at times.

London life…

I’ve lived in London since I was very small. I utterly adore it. I know it is a cliché but it is such an exciting and diverse place – such a rich cultural place. There is always somewhere new to explore and I am never bored here. I’ve had access to fantastic universities here, which undoubtedly helped things. Growing up on an estate in south east London, I learnt to appreciate unconventional beauty in order to survive in what may seem, on the surface, hostile and ugly places. That fascination grew with me and into my work.

Average day…

It’s ever-changing! I usually try to spend as much of my week painting but often this is broken up with the occasional meeting with a curator or gallery or meeting people about the workshops I do or teaching. There is always a lot going on. And so much more paperwork than you’d expect!

Confidence…

I still have lots of insecurity at times and can feel rather shy. I just get better at hiding it! But I get a lot of confidence from various things I’ve achieved since leaving college. Whether it be an exhibition or a meeting with a curator or arts professional, particularly where people give positive feedback or engage with the works or, of course, if I sell a piece. I’ve begun to get confident in my skills over time although I always think I could improve.

Encouragement…

I am very lucky my friends and family are my fellow travellers in this funny and difficult world and we go through all these experiences together, they always come to see my shows and support me and I do the same. My partner is very supportive of me and encouraging, listening to me agonise over my works! He seems to think I am going to be rich one day and it will pay off somehow!

As for my parents, neither my father nor mother ever really had a normal kind of job, so they had no judgements on what I should do with my life. They are very supportive of me and my father and I get together and have a rant about the art world, its pro’s and cons!

I also get encouragement from supporters of my work, the people that buy my works and invest in it are very lovely too!

Learning about creativity…

It is a deep unending well, that occasionally needs help!

Best advice…

Keep going! Being an artist is a complex and demanding job besides, of course, being a fantastic job.

Collections…

My partner and I have actually started collecting art! We are very passionate about contemporary art and have a few wonderful (and very small I hasten to add!) pieces that we fell in love with. It is a very satisfying thing to collect and support artists. I highly recommend it! We have a piece by Jane Ward, a piece by Fiona Curran and Donya Coward. I am saving up for a Matthew Atkinson piece.

She re-inspires herself through…

Persistence! I do research trips where I go and explore – a lot of the time I explore places in London but recently also in Margate, in Kent! I go to galleries too and look at other artists. I do lots of visual research basically, but just also to keep going – drawing and thinking and making it happen.

Favourite places…

I love the Tates and their bookshops! They’re always good for inspiration. And, of course, the east end galleries too and the Modern Art gallery in central London. On the web, I use A-N, Axis and Artquest.

A little downtime…

I love to read when possible. I read a lot of Pablo Neruda’s poetry and love Louis De Bernière and Isabel Allende, the mixture of tragic romance and political history is enthralling. I always used to escape into books when I was a child. Now there is never enough time to do much of that. I also like films and socialising with my partner and friends. And I really enjoy cycling and running.

Back in time…

I don’t really believe in looking back at what could have been but just moving forward instead. I guess I should have formally applied to go to the painting school at the RCA but I am happy with my life as it is and where it is going.

Great people…

I luckily have lots of inspiring and brilliant friends and mentors. My friend Matthew Atkinson is very inspiring to me as a painter. His works are quite brilliant and he has been great at talking to me about my work, challenging and helping me to see how I can move forward. He persuaded me to use oil paints again too and I am very happy I took his advice!

Also, in terms of painters, I am inspired by Michael Raedecker, Peter Doig, George Shaw, Nigel Cook, James Wright and Graham Crowley. Shelly Love is an inspirational film maker – my sister Miranda Davis produced her film ‘The Forgotten Circus’ which is a marvellous thing to behold.

Future…

The immediate future is extremely busy! I have three more exhibitions before the end of the year – the one in Brighton I mentioned before Floorspace from 4-21 September at Brighton Phoenix Gallery. Then with Stark Projects, I shall then taking an exhibition I took part in at The Roundhouse, From Light to Dust, to Brussels. The third show is at the end of November. Trudie Stephenson of Emineo Arts and Salon Projects is putting on a solo show of my works at Four Regent’s Place, W1. I also show works with Long and Ryle Gallery, and so I shall also be in a couple of art fairs too before the end of the year.

I am also about to move into a studio at Cor Blimey Arts, which I am really excited about. I think it will be a great experience!

Dream life…

I would like to be in a more secure position as an artist. I work largely independently with different galleries, projects and curators, which keeps things exciting, but I would one day like to be with an established gallery, such as Modern Art, painting away! Maybe I’d do a bit of teaching too… and who knows what else!

If not art, then what…

I can’t really say what I would be doing. I can’t imagine anything else now. I guess I nearly became an actress or writer. I was also once a singer in a band, so I guess it would have been something creative!

Advice from the lady herself…

You don’t just paint and then see stuff happen. It is hard work. You have to be very savvy, professional and organised. You have to learn as much about the art world as possible and be as knowledgeable about your subject. And be good at promoting yourself and create opportunities if there are none. Persevere and persist.

All three images of Rosalind Davis: Courtesy of Anastasia Taylor-Lind

14.0 / Idea shaker, image maker / Paul Bower

2009-08-16T20:58:00.006+01:00

What: Artist and illustrator
Where: London, UK
Website: Paul Bower

Back in the day…

I was shit at school. Looking back, I think I faked it. I didn’t get most subjects like maths, science or French but when it came to drawing, I really enjoyed that. I remember once on one of those days when teachers put up all the students’ work, I was walking down a corridor and saw a bunch of people standing and looking at a picture I made. That was really nice and made me feel proud that I could make something that people would stop and take time to look at.

As a kid…

When I was younger I always thought I was very timid and quiet. I wouldn't do sports or any of the stuff other kids were into. I remember that primary school was amazing. You went to school, you saw your mates, you played all day (it seemed), you had art lessons with paints and plasticine and clay and collage. And you didn't worry so much about getting it right or wrong. Very natural. High school was a completely different story all together! It was fucking awful. I had so many hang ups. I wasn't cool – a lanky streak of piss who had his mum cut his hair into a bowl cut (even at 16) because he hated hairdressers. I wasn't very clever and nobody picked up on any learning disabilities or problems I had. I was into comics and drawing, Prince, Guns 'n Roses and Salt 'n Pepper. A real geek. Looking back I think I just always knew what I wanted to do and what world I wanted to live in so I kind of just went on my way, even though I thought everybody else knew what they were doing and it was me that didn't have a clue. I had some great friends at the time but puberty was a bastard (as it is for everybody, I guess).

The art path…

My art teachers said I wasn't really smart enough to do A levels and that there was no living to be made as an 'artist' so I should go and do graphic design at college. I'd never heard of it before but it turned out to be exactly the right path for me. My parents didn't really get 'art' and are very 'Yorkshire' in their attitude to things, but they totally supported me. Apparently my grandmother once told them that if they let me do what it was that I did, I would always be alright. She was right somehow. I'm really proud to be a Yorkshireman. Especially in London. There is so much fannying around and bullshit and fake drama around here. I obviously love it here but I often think that most people wouldn't do anything unless they could be seen doing it. They can't just get on with it and enjoy it. It's all fake whistles and bells a lot of the time. Up north, we know our muck from our brass! The same can be said about the art and also the design world. I'm not interested in joining either one. I'm quite happy doing what I do though I think you should always take any opportunity that comes your way from all directions.

Illustrated life…

I'm an artist and illustrator living in south London where I have been for the past 13 years or so. I studied Graphics and Illustration at Lincoln University (a long time ago). I realised that I always wanted to draw and make things, but didn't like the way we were taught just one discipline. I decided to major in illustration because I wanted to do everything at the same time – typography, graphics, painting, drawing, 3D, photography. Illustration lets you do that while I felt (which isn't the case for everyone) that graphic design was more computer-based and less about art for art's sake.

Along the way…

I worked in restaurants, shops, many years in bars and cinemas – whatever gave me the opportunity to draw in the day and work at night. My first creative job was as a window display designer for American Retro in Soho. I was a shop assistant there and one day Sue Tarran the owner asked me to have a go. She was pretty tough (she had to be to last so long in Soho) and I was as green as grass, coming from a small mining village in south Yorkshire. But she kind of saw something in me, I think, and it was the start of something new. Sue let me be very creative with her displays. Once we set fire to sheets of wallpaper and hung it in the window. It was great fun.

While doing that I was working stupid hours at the Dogstar (bar) in Brixton. I would work until two or three in the morning and then start work at American Retro at nine on a Saturday. It was crazy but I looked forward to it, to creating. The Dogstar had such a high turn over of staff and everybody would move on. Sometimes I felt left behind but it was the only way I could build up a body of work – gradually. It was a tough time I guess.

Obstacles…

I didn't like the work I had produced at university. It was a good university but it had a very particular approach to art and design, which was great for some but not for me. But that was useful too because you need to know what you don't like in order to find out what you do like! In London I decided to keep the bits I liked and start all over again (I'm still trying to figure it out. But I like that). I started taking my portfolio 'round to magazines and places like the AOI (Association of Illustrators) but all of them told me 'Thank but no thanks'. I once got ripped to shreds and shouted at (in public) by a well-respected woman in the illustration world and told that my work was 'too schizophrenic'. She said I had ten different styles and used ten different mediums, way too many in her opinion. Looking back, I think she had some valid points but she scared the shit out of me! My work was often called schizophrenic. Publishers didn't want me but I found that strange things would come along, out of the blue, that would keep me going.

Confidence, slowly slowly…

A gentleman I served drinks to in Brixton got chatting to me one day. He found out what I did and asked me to do art installations in his newly opened café called The Brixton Lounge. Maynard (the gentleman) became a friend and paid me to do whatever I wanted, to draw attention to the place. He never once asked me what I was going to do beforehand. I experimented with all sorts of things including sculpture, which I'd never done previously. My favourite installation was a cloud sculpture with lightbulbs. Every time I did something for the café it was totally different to the last. And each time I got more confident.

A lucky break…

After working for years in my tiny bedroom (see the photos), I was encouraged by a boyfriend, artist Jimmy Robert, to hold a show. He worked in a cinema in Soho that had a small corridor for exhibitions and he had a vacancy to fill. I said 'Yes, I'll do it' and 'How long have I got to produce the work?' He said 'Two days!' That was great really because I was quite shy and didn't have time to think about how to do it. I just had to use the work I had built up over time. It got some good and bad reviews. I sold a piece, which I'd broken while cleaning for the show but instead of not using it, I'd written on the frame 'Sorry I broke it'. That became its title. As a result of the show I got an agent, Pocko, who I am still with and I love their style.

I don’t know how it’s all worked out for me. I used to work in my bedroom and then I got my studio because a friend gave it to me and I took over it. And in the end I started to afford it myself and did it up. I keep trying to do stuff and sometimes people like it and sometimes they don’t. That’s just how it is. You have to keep going.

Currently…

I am making images, conveying ideas. At the moment, I am making a book cover for Random House, I'm painting a sculpture project for my agency to have a show and I've just got my first proper printing press and am trying to make prints to sell. That will hopefully lead me on to printing my own books and stupid stories for kids and immature adults. Eventually.

Learning…

I learnt a lot of things at university but since then I have taken evening courses in animation, life drawing and screen printing to name a few. None of which I use on a daily basis at all but they help my brain to work from different angles and help me work with different mediums. A lot of the stuff I have taught myself which I think is the best way. You don't get to know everything but you also don't learn the 'limitations' that others get taught. One of my favourite designers David Carson was self taught and he just ignored the rule book because he didn't even know it was there.

Favourite work…

One of the most important things that anyone has said to me about my work is that my sketchbooks are where my 'real' work lies. I'm still trying to get to the point where I have the confidence to go with my original work and not put it into the next step of 'over finishing' it. That is my goal really.

People, inspiration…

All those people who just make stuff for the hell of it. I love it when people just get an idea and go with it. Some of my favourite artists are the unrestricted ones – Jean Michel Basquiat, Peter Blake, Sara Fanelli, David Carson, Eileen Agar, Tim Burton, Jim Henson (Muppets), Hat Show Print (their typography and posters are all amazing), Arthur Adams (Marvel comics), Leigh Bowery (a crazy performance artist/fashion designer). When I used to work at American Retro this guy used to be one of the customers. He had all these amazing outfits. I didn’t see what the point of it was but if you look at what he created it was just amazing.

At the same time, the really tight work of people like Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, Lane Smith and Chinese paper cuts.

When inspiration runs low…

Sometimes I'll spend the afternoon going around the Tate in 10 minutes flat, followed by the comic shops, followed by the record shops, and then Borders or Waterstones. I go to shops and treat them like galleries, especially bookshops. I love bookcovers so walking around a bookshop is like walking around a free gallery, with lots of free art work. If you rush through and let your eyes drift along you instantly know what catches your eye and gets your heart racing again. It gives me a little reminder about what I love doing and how lucky I am to do it. I also get to see all the things I don't like and that helps me clear my head and steer myself back to my own path and go in the right direction. I should do the same on the internet but I find that when I sit in front of it my mind goes blank and I don't know where to start.

Friends…

I'm really lucky to have friends that inspire me. They all do such different things and every time I get to see them they seem to have done so much since the last time. Cara the illustrator, Loo the animator, Jo the painter, Katherine the textile designer, Jimmy the performance artist, Itxasne the photographer, etc. The most inspiring people I know are my best friends Clair Tivey (a mad Yorkshire lass down here in London who is a currently a civil servant and has such a positive outlook on life. You can't help but want to take the world on) and Charlotte Ratcliffe, mother of three who remarried her kids' dad after earlier divorcing, did a HND, then a degree, then an MA, while bringing up the kids (the oldest has aspergers, the youngest survived heart desease. I remember her writing her dissertation at the hospital bedside while the kids were sleeping). She's had many jobs, including teaching, even learnt sign language so she didn't miss anyone out. One minute she is cooking a Sunday roast for six, then she is out in the garden building an allotment while it's all in the oven. Then they're whisking the kids off to an art gallery and taking pens and paper along so we can all draw what we see. Very inspiring people. They have absolutely no regard for how things 'ought' to be done. They just do it.

Future…

I aim to be more like my friends and people I look up to in the future, as there are loads of things I want to do but have a terrible habit of thinking too long about it rather than just doing it. As well as starting up a range of printed work (posters, cards, fabrics, papers, etc), I'd love to start getting into writing and illustrating my own children's books. I love doing book covers too. It allows me to do typography and illustration at the same time and I love the discipline of it. The famous three 'f's rule of 'Form Follows Function' totally applies here. I was really lucky in that the very first book cover I did won the Victoria and Albert Museum award for Best Book Cover back in 2007 (ooh, get me!), and now I sometimes think there is a bit of pressure to perform but there isn't really. It's all about the fun of it. That should always come through I think. Probably the most important thing I can think of for me. I know my work is sarcastic but it's usually quite positive in it's nature. Even when I'm taking a swipe at something. I want to make stuff and get a reaction from people, for them to say something, whether it’s good or bad. I just hate it when people don’t really say anything at all. That gets on my tits.

Advice…

If you are going to spend half your life at work, you might as well try to do something that you enjoy. It scared me to think that I could spend the majority of my life doing something I don't like at all. What I'm doing now is perhaps more a result of that fear than of bravery!

You just do what you need to do. The only thing you need is to feed yourself and have a roof over your head and to be honest, most people in my position can do that. So, if you work to earn enough money to cover the necessities, what else are you going to do with your time?

Out of office reply

2009-08-06T18:08:00.003+01:00

Dear John and readers with other names

By the time you read this, we'll be gone.

Just temporarily though. On holiday. Road trip. France. Spain. Cheese. Croissants. Chorizo. Cerveza. Sunshine. Sea. Good times…

But we'll be back with more interviews on the 17th August 2009.

'Til then, au revoir. Ciao. Take it easy.

3.2 / Less is bore / Mats Ottdal

2009-08-05T00:10:00.002+01:00

What: Graphic designer
Where: Oslo, Norway
Website: jeksel.com

Who is Mats…

My name is Mats Ottdal. I am about 185 cm tall. I work as a graphic designer and I live in Oslo, Norway. My talents are limited but my interests are many. My passion is my job and life itself. I love music, movies, winter sports and graphic design.

Background info…

I grew up in Stovner, Oslo and spent a lot my time with friends, playing sports and doing graffiti. In high school we made fun of our teachers behind their backs – I spent my time drawing funny pictures of them in class. I also did a comic strip section in the school paper and, so, pretty much realised that I had to work doing something creative in the future. I had to go to the army and after that I started studying at a design school in Oslo.

Now now…

I'm working as a graphic designer in an Oslo-based design studio but I also work as a freelance designer. I work too much but still manage to find time to hang out with friends, my girlfriend and my lazy dog Gizmo.

Projects…

At the moment, I'm working on a typography project for a Norwegian graphic design magazine, packaging design for a chocoloate brand and visual identity for a norwegian fashion designer. I am also participating in a project with a design studio in New York.

History…

I studied for two years at a design institute in Oslo, Norway. Then I moved overseas and got my bachelor of design at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, 2005. After that I moved back to Norway and started working as a graphic designer. which I have been doing for the past five years. So far I´ve worked for three studios and learnt a lot a long the way. I have met a lot of talented people that have helped me and inspired me over the years.

Learning…

When you love your job, it's easy to be taught and teach yourself new things. My job is my passion and also a hobby and so i put a lot of time and effort into it.

Then vs Now…

I loved drawing as a kid and I drew my way through high school and ended up as a graphic designer. I also did some graffiti during high school and scribbled on everything around me. I guess I'm pretty much the same person today...

Believing…

I never really thought about it that way. I just loved drawing and being creative and I guess I just kept going in that direction when I made my career choice.

Pros and cons…

I like that there´s a lot of variety. It's a good feeling to sit on the tram on my way to the studio and have absolutely no idea what the next project is going to be. I like expressing myself through every project and trying out different styles. It's fun to just experiment with ideas that pop into my head as well as old ideas that I've been wanting to use for a while. I never get bored and I always feel like I'm taking a break from one project by working on another. The downside of it all is that my work is personal and sometimes there are tough crowds to please. I think I take the job too seriously sometimes rather than just having fun with it.

Family…

Well, my grandfather was a painter/photographer and my mom loves to draw and always encouraged me in my drawing.

Obstacles…

I´ve had to pull a lot of all nighters and I've sacrificed quite a bit of quality time with family and friends.

Important lesson…

To trust my instincts.

Obsessions…

I have a huge old comic book collection and wrestling dolls from the 80s. I also have a hockey bag filled with dinosaur toys... still in the attic.

Finding inspiration…

I don't really go looking for it. I get inspiration from people I meet, places I go, from looking out the tram window in the morning and from just keep my eyes opened. I love visual communication in form of typography and I don't have to walk far to get inspired or motivated. It's pretty much everywhere.

People…

Drinking beer with a group of friends is always very helpful. They inspire me with their personalities, theirs actions and hilarious stories. Artists like Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson and Paul Rand. My girlfriend and my dog motivate me to work hard and at the same time get a good night's sleep so I can go out there and be inspired in the morning.

Websites…

I read the local and global news updates, my Gmail and Spotify. Every morning.

Relaxation…

I have 20 minutes to relax in the morning on the balcony with a coffee and the radio in the background before heading to work. I also relax by watching movies, hanging out with friends, taking long walks with my dog and sleeping.

Go back in time…

I've never really thought about it. I would rather travel to the future and check out the final episode of the Simpsons and take a walk on Mars.

Plans…

Clean my messy desk and take a vacation!

Dream life…

Have my own studio, my own airplane and my own dinosaur.

If not design…

When I was a kid I wanted to be a grizzly bear. When I was like 18, I was thinking about becoming an architect. Hmm… who knows.

Advice to wanna-be designers…

Do it! And have fun!

Best advice he's been given…

Less is bore.

13.0 / A little bit of everything / Lauren Fowler

2009-08-03T00:06:00.006+01:00

What: Illustrator, designer and crafter
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: lost is a place too

Lauren who…

I'm all about finding new ideas and new ways of doing everyday things. I want to understand how things are made and then make them again, my way. Sometimes it doesn't work, but I still learn new things. I was born, raised and presently live in Cape Town, South Africa. I have a degree in graphic design but I prefer to focus on illustration and craft.

Back in the day…

I was very shy as a child and most of my extra curricular activities fell into the arts bracket such as playing instruments, choir, drama and ballet. So I think I was always interested in expressing myself creatively. I wasn't ever very good at art when I was at school but my high school offered an extra subject, graphic design, which I found to be more stimulating.

Inspiration…

I'm mostly inspired by listening and watching people. I like to draw myself in embarrassing situations and I looove to draw Victorian houses. I grew up in one. I'm also inspired by other people's work, internationally as well as locally, whether it's professional or just for fun.

Favourite medium…

I'm very comfortable with black fine liner and black ink. I think this is because I have a lot of control over the pen, whereas with other tools such as paintbrushes I feel a bit uneasy and unsure.

How it happened…

I did my tertiary education at AAA School of Advertising where I completed a BA in Visual Communications. I got into doodling in high school mostly on the covers of exam papers and in my diaries. After my degree I worked at a web design company for three months. I really didn't enjoy it. Although I learnt a lot there, I just don't think I'm built for offices. After that, I put an illustration portfolio together and mailed it to everyone I know including all the advertising agencies and magazines. Eventually after many months, someone contacted me about some illustration work and I've been working as an illustrator ever since.

Sense of style…

I suppose it's kind of a quirky, doodley, girlie kind of style. It's very minimalistic. I don't like drawing something for too long, I get bored or mess it up.

Believing before seeing…

I remember in high school, we had to make journals for English class and make a cover too. I'll never forget what one girl said to me – she remarked that if I ever made journal covers for a living she'd definitely buy them. I should track her down now! Later in life, I guess seeing other people with a similar style of illustration to mine made me realise that just because I couldn't draw in the classical sense of the word, it didn't mean that my illustrations were bad. They're just different.

Design vs illustration…

I think I mostly design for work. There's more of a demand for it, whereas illustration is very specific. I definitely prefer illustration over design. I feel like I'm in the right place when I illustrate – like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.

Top blogs…

Ffffound is a great site for finding lots of inspiring work in a short amount of time. Boooooom is an awesome blog where you can find new artists and they also put out little projects every couple of months. On the local front, Heather's work is always as inspiration to look at. Jesse can knit and sew anything. I find her work inspiring and interesting. The instrucatables website is fun and handy. There, I find new ways of doing things as well as step by step tutorials on making stuff.

Cape Town's finest…

My mum works in a consignment shop called Stock Exchange, a high-end second-hand/vintage shop. I buy most of my clothes there. I love to have tea at The Daily Deli in Tamboerskloof. It's nice because it's one of the places that all the cool kids don't know about. Lazari is also nice for a tea with friends. The Milnerton Market is a favourite for finding old dusty stuff to fill my house. Otherwise I like to stay home most of the time.

SA faves…

I've recently come across an illustrator called Justin Southey. I really like his work. Alex Latimer is an awesome illustrator and his works makes me feel jealous, which means I think his work is great.

Downtime…

Besides knitting and drawing, I like to cook, clean and bake, watch movies in bed, drink whiskey at Arnolds (a restaurant) with my two best friends, play guitar, drink tea and gossip with my housemate.

Knitting…

I was always a bad knitter. Dropping stitches, bad tension. It was terrible. Then, a couple of years ago I decided to knit myself a scarf. I found that my knitting wasn't looking too bad! I got a book on knitting and learnt some different stitches and all of a sudden I was making tea cosies, hotwater bottle covers, teddy bears, etc.

On the side…

I bought a guitar last year July and took a book out of the library and taught myself how to play. I now have a steel string acoustic/electric and I plan to play and sing at an open night mic just as soon as I gather some courage..

A day in the life…

I take about half an hour to get out of bed from when my alarm goes off. I can't work in a dirty environment, so I do a few chores before starting work. I also find it eases me into being awake, getting my brain to start up. I work from home and I get down to whatever is on the agenda, unless the job requires me to go into an office for work.

A few of her favourite things…

I really love tea cups, little glasses and crockery. I think I collect a lot of stuff I put out as decoration. I also collect eye glasses frames. I hope to fill them all with my prescription one day. So far I've had two done.

Happiness is…

My friends and family, music and cheese.

Right now…

I've just finished doing a range of cards with a local card company and I'm also working on a few exhibitions as well as market days. I'm also working on a t-shirt design for a local band. Besides that, I'm just doing freelance graphic design for a few companies.

In the future…

I want to be doing exactly the same thing! But at more of a steady rate with more work and collaborations.

Words of wisdom…

Do what you love. If you do what you love, nothing can go wrong. Be patient with yourself and let yourself grow. Very few things happen over night. I read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron last year. It made a huge impact on my life and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.

5.1 / Money changes everything / Stuart Semple

2009-07-29T00:00:00.002+01:00

What: Artist
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: stuartsemple.com

His thing…

I’m really interested in pictures and images – the possibilities of how they can be made and what impact they have on the world. Drawing and painting are my things really but I’m also into design and crossover stuff. And I love music too.

In particular…

There’s a solo show in October in Hong Kong. I’m making some new paintings for it and I have a few commissions going on. I’m working on a collaboration with The Prodigy at the moment. I hope to have it done in a couple of months – the artwork goes with a track off their new album called ‘Thunder’. I’m working on my next article for Art of England magazine and trying to do some more critical writing, just for myself. I’m working on designs for another large public work too.

Day in the life…

Well, we’ve just had a little boy so I’m trying to spend as much time as I can with him, and when I’m not doing that I’m in the studio carrying on with my work.

Geography and history…

I was born in Bournemouth and was quite a quiet kid. I spent all my time drawing and making things. I was always impatient and easily bored. I had a great, loving family and was very close to my grandfather, who I made things with, and my grandmother who painted. I went to a catholic school and after a decade or so of that, I realised that the belief system wasn’t for me. I went to art school and did advanced art and design. I left with a distinction and then moved on to Bretton Hall at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I focused on painting and printmaking although a lot of people wanted me to go the Mac design route, because in those days you could get paid well doing that. While at Bretton, I got very ill and was hospitalised for a while. I made it through that experience but it was a close call and took me several months to get over.

Then I started making very different works (compared to what I was doing before, at least) and I was selling them on eBay. I sold a few a day. Then I started working with other young artists in the North of England (I lived near Leeds at the time). Eventually I moved back to Bournemouth, into a studio and started making more works. I had my first show in the west end when I was 21 and that went well so I carried on. In 2004, my friend Anthony d’Offay (the art dealer) suggested that I move to London, so I did and I’ve been here ever since.

Unconventional learning…

I sort of learnt as I went along. I think I’ve made a lot of mistakes, which is the best way. I also read a lot of books. I used to live next door to a Borders and I would go in there every morning for at least two hours. I’d sit there and read as much as I could. I could quickly spot any new magazine or book that arrived. I did this for three years religiously. I read the entire marketing section, the whole thing from left to right. I also read a lot of the spirituality section and flicked through every fashion, lifestyle and design magazine. I think I learned the most in the time that I spent there. I still go into Borders now and read but only twice a week because it’s a bit of a walk.

Art vs science...

I was always quite frustrated and hyperactive. I had to be doing something all the time. I was always drawing or making things. As a teenager, I was good at school – just as good at the sciences as I was at the arts, so I was very torn about what to do. I think right up until the last minute I could have gone either way. But if you look at my school exercise books they are basically sketchbooks. I think I’m less frustrated now because I have more resources to realise the stuff I’m thinking but overall I don’t think I’ve changed much besides being a lot hairier.

Doing it for love…

I never really thought about being good at it, I just knew that I enjoyed it and it felt right. It always felt like I was doing what I was supposed to. I guess I was encouraged, which I’m very grateful for. I won a few competitions as a kid too. I got to switch the Christmas lights on one year with the mayor because I won an art prize. I won a few things with my pictures. I was better at being on my own and daydreaming and doodling than I was with other kids, say, playing sport or something.

Ups and downs...

I like the challenge of it and strangely I like the struggle with the work itself. I love coming up with new ideas and working away until they're finished. I don’t like the social aspects of the art scene. I don’t really like private views. I hate eating out. I don’t like the hustle of it all and having to sell my work.

Home sweet home…

I think growing up in Bournemouth is strange. There are two sides to it. There are all the old people – exactly how you would picture them being – and then there’s also a very affluent younger scene too. There are some very rich people and a lot of entrepreneurs. I think because it’s a closed community to an extent, there are a lot of people there that have become big fish in a little pond. So you’d see the stereotypical status symbols around. There are also pretty rough neighbourhoods, drug problems, crime and all the rest of it too. So it was clear to me when I was growing up that there were only two ways you could go and I obviously wanted the more favourable one. That desire motivated me. It became apparent that there was no real culture in Bournemouth, apart from music, which is strangely vibrant. Quite a few good bands have come out of there and it’s a destination for some pretty good DJ’s too. I think if you’re born in Bournemouth and you want to be an artist you need to achieve some sort of success so you can leave. I miss it though. My family is there.

Day in his life…

It’s busy. I’m managing the studio so I make lists of what I want to happen. I sometimes have meetings. I paint as much as I can, obviously. I’m up at seven and I do all my computer work 'til about nine then at 10.30 the assistants arrive. Works might be being shipped out. I could be working on proposals, designing things, writing. By Friday I’m normally exhausted. The assistants leave at 6.30 and I work through 'til about 11pm with a supper break.

Confidence kick-start…

Initially I could have gone in a totally different direction. I could have been a doctor or something. At one stage I really wanted to be a paediatrician so my family were forcing me in that direction, after all this was before the YBA (Young Britsh Artist) thing so the main artist example for them was Van Gogh and that’s not the sort of life you want for your child. I can definitely see that now, after having one of my own.

I think to an extent there was a motivation in me to prove them wrong, to make art and to show I could make a go of it. They always encouraged me with making pictures, even though they might not have thought I could make a living from it, and said my work was good.

Now, because so much in my career has happened, they’re more like ‘oh that’s very nice dear’. I think they’ve become a bit immune to it all, they are very used to it.

My friends are great. I love them all. They always support me and pitch in and help. I hope they feel that I do the same. I’m very lucky with the community I’ve found myself here.

In the family…

They are all amazing. My grandad could make anything out of anything, and I’d spend as much time as I could working in his garage with him making allsorts. Weather vanes, chess sets, bird tables, magic tricks. It was brilliant! And my grandmother, on my mum’s side,
painted and had all these impressionist-style works she did. She had some amazing art books, she showed me Pissarro (who I loved) and Rodin. I was drawing from those books and playing with her art materials almost from day one. My mum got me my first set of proper paints (ones in little metal tubes) when I was about seven. I remember how happy I was. I was always surrounded by music, every kind of music and I think that influenced the way I thought about making pictures. I memorised all the lyrics and quite early on started writing words on things I was making.

Jumping over hurdles…

There’s always something, a creative hurdle like a creative block. Keeping enough momentum in the act of making things is really hard sometimes. Then there’s business type stuff, tax and deals and things. Having to raise funds for ideas or just getting into work when you’re exhausted. There were my health problems when I was younger and my shyness, which is an ongoing annoyance to me. Technical things too, with different materials, pose some challenges. Sometimes if something is being done outside the studio there are hurdles in trying to explain what I want it to be like.

Basic instincts…

I’m learning all the time. I’m not sure what the most important one is. I think one thing I’ve learned is to really trust my gut feelings and instincts. There have been times where I’ve felt very strongly that a particular thing should happen or I should do something. On those occasions I have let logic or other people talk me out of it and each time I’ve made a big mistake by doing that. Sometimes when this happens it sounds and looks completely irrational but in retrospect it would have been the right course of action. I think I’ve learned the hard way to trust my hunches.

Heroes…

Not particularly. I collect music, and I collect images in huge amounts. Massive amounts. I have heroes that I’m obsessed with and I need to read about them or have anything to do with them. Cyndi Lauper is a huge one, I’m fanatical. Then Conor Oberst, Bob Dylan and John Lennon.

Truly inspiring…

There’s music, which I find mostly via word of mouth or particular blogs that I like because I know the writers are on a similar wavelength to me, magazines (I still go through all of them) music videos, Borders, iTunes and blogs.

A friend indeed…

Hockney is a big inspiration. He talks about the process of making pictures in a way I identify with a lot. I think all my friends in one way or another inspire me. All of them are doing their thing, whatever it is. I love to hear the stories of people’s lives because I’m very much just keeping to myself in the studio. I love it if someone has travelled or has some kind of gossip. My heroes have inspired me a lot – a whole heap of artists actually – Twombly, Polke, Rauschenberg.

A few favourites…

My friend Ken has this blog This Heart's On Fire I love it! Ken and I have similar tastes in things so it’s a great place to find out about stuff that I’m going to be into. Slamxhype is good too and Facebook/Twitter to keep in touch with what’s going on with people I care about, which is most interesting to me to see what’s going on.

Time to unwind…

I meditate and I like to exercise. I’ve not been to the gym for a while because I’m balancing the little one with work time and it’s still very early days. I love reading, normally things relating to spirituality. I love a hot bath and music television. I’m also a big DVD collector. I love films. I’m also a bit of a gossiper on the phone.

Back to the future…

I’ve made so many stupid mistakes. But I don’t regret them really. You’ve got to go through what you’ve got to go through to end up where you are. There are a few personal memories that are sore points but we’ve all got those though I’m sure.

Big goals…

To spend as much time with my son as possible and to keep making, keep pushing along doing what I’m doing.

Day dreaming…

In my dream life, I have a house in the country, not flash but comfortable, with a barn at the bottom of the garden to paint in, a few dogs, some long walks, a couple of kids and a treehouse to meditate in.

Starting from scratch…

If I wasn't an artist, maybe I’d be a paediatrician, perhaps a graphic/editorial designer or I could have run a record label – I still might.

Advice…

Keep doing it, every day counts. You can use today to build on what you did yesterday and if you do that long enough you’ll find yourself in a different place. You should defiantly follow what your gut is telling you. You should be yourself, find your own language, your own vocabulary. Never ever, EVER make stuff just for the money no matter how bad it gets. And never believe you’re not any good at it.

6.1 / Sustainably stylish / Tamasyn Gambell

2009-07-27T12:30:00.001+01:00

What: Printed textile designer
Where: London, United Kingdom
Website: Tamasyn Gambell

The Gambell…

I am a printed textile designer and run my own eco luxury brand, which sells fashion accessories and notebooks. I graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005 and moved to Paris where I worked as a freelance textile designer at several couture houses. I then moved to Stockholm where I worked as a print designer for H&M. After six months there, I realised it wasn’t for me and moved back to the UK where I went about starting my own company.

Why textiles…

I always thought that I would study fashion design but during my foundation year in art and design I discovered screen printing. As soon as I picked up a squeegee I knew I wanted to be a print designer. I love the physical element of it and the way it makes you directly involved with the fabric.

After seeing Chelsea College Of Art with its huge print tables (it’s still the most wonderful print room I’ve ever worked in) I knew I had to study there. It was amazing being able to experiment with all the different processes and the unpredictability of screen printing that appealed to me.

What, where…

I grew up in Earls Court in London which is home to many a colorful character. I think being part of such a multicultural and diverse environment has had a huge impact on me. Everyone was so different and I grew up with adults who hadn’t necessarily followed a traditional career path.

London also has some of the best design schools so I think this made my life choices clearer. I always went to the graduate shows at the Royal College with my dad and knew quite early on that I wanted to do an MA there.

Mama and Father…

My mother is French and my father English so we spent all our holidays with family in Paris or Normandy. I think part of the reason I wanted to work in Paris was to explore that side of my heritage – I’ve always wondered if I would have been different if I’d grown up in France.

Having a glamorous French grandmother definitely got me interested in fashion from a young age. She would have loved the fact that I have my own scarf company.

My family is an intriguing bunch. My mother's grandparents were anarchists – her grandmother ran away from the south of France to Paris where she rallied and marched for equal rights and was legendary for being able to tango on a coffee table in the bar she worked in.

Her parents were communists during the war and my grandfather was imprisoned in a concentration camp for his beliefs. He had amazing strength of character and survived four years. He was well known for whistling famous operas to keep the other inmates spirits up. My father’s grandparents were famous opera singers who toured Europe and were friends with Toulouse Lautrec. My father's mother was a twin born in Chile and married my grandfather who was from a very wealthy family but gambled his fortune away and died when my father was five. He was sent to a children’s home and stayed there until his many part-time jobs could buy him a plane ticket and he went travelling for years, occasionally coming back to London to work for a few months, which would further fund his travels. He was a real adventurer and loved to draw. I inherited both those loves from him.

My mother was brought up on politics and literature and is a fierce intellectual. She is a very strong character and was heavily involved in the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), taking us to marches and demonstrations in our buggies. It is from her that I get my interest in environmental issues and my stubborn nature!

Childhood…

As a child I was quite bossy and loved anything gold or lamae! My grandmother called me a ‘force de la nature’ due to my determined nature. I used to dress up a lot and wanted to be a tight rope walker so my mum advised me to start ballet lessons as they would help with my balance. I was always drawing, cooking or getting lost in my and my sister’s imaginary worlds.

I had a fantastic and happy childhood. My parents were both extremely creative and I had amazing themed birthday parties. My favourite was a circus party where my dad and his friend hired a horse suit and my mum dressed up as the circus tamer. My dad hand painted circus posters and we performed a levitation act in front of lots of bemused parents with my dad's invention – fake legs that I stuck out of a sheet, while pretending they were my real legs – creating the illusion of me floating! After the party my mum forgot her drawn-on moustache and confused the men at the petrol station when she paid for petrol while looking like Salvador Dali!

Then vs now…

As a teenager I thought I was incredibly mature. I wore a lot of black, DMs, elaborate eye make- up and was really into grunge music. A couple of friends and I ran a fanzine where we managed to blag our way into various concerts and often to interview the bands. We had a great time!

I have chilled out a lot but am still quite stubborn and ambitious. I’ve always worked hard, but can be too hard on myself.

Encouragement and approval…

My parents were really encouraging of me choosing a career in art and design and I think their backgrounds and the fact that neither of them had a traditional upbringing meant that they didn’t expect us to do the expected.

We didn’t have much money growing up and I have never been materialistic, which has let me do something I love rather than something that would make me rich.

My father grew up in a children’s home and was a really talented artist but never had the confidence or support to pursue his passion. I have memories of being a young child and watching him draw and paint and as soon as I started showing an interest in art he was very encouraging. We would always take pencils and paints on holiday with us and escape from the rest of the family to draw. As I got older we would go to art galleries together and he loved it that I went to art college. My family is quite unconventional and has always told us to follow a path that makes us happy, rather than one that makes us rich!

My friends are mostly creatives too, so we all support each other. None of us ever have any money but we find creative ways of making do with what we do have!

Working abroad…

I absolutely loved Paris and learnt a lot about myself while I was there. The city has a real energy to it and everyday brought something new. I was addicted to the flea markets and found some real gems on my ritual weekend jaunts.

I worked as a freelance print designer in several Couture Houses which I was really excited about. I learnt that you have to be really pushy as no one is going to come to you at first. It’s quite a fickle and elitist world that forgets you quickly. I was on the phone for at least an hour every day ringing round making appointments and hassling people. It was a real challenge as I’m quite shy and I used to have to psyche myself up and pretend I was this ultra confident person!

Stockholm was a beautiful city and I loved its quirkiness but it didn’t have the same buzz and appeal for me as Paris does. In the summer it was incredible and I lived near a huge lake and would go for runs at sunset. I was unhappy in my job and spent a lot of time questioning myself and my creativity so I felt quite raw by the end of it. I learnt that working for a commercial company can be very exciting but I felt really limited and stifled.

Swedish design however became very influential on me and I learnt a simplicity and pureness of design there, which I didn’t fully understand before.

I miss elements of both cities and could easily live in either again.

Free time…

I run my own company producing eco friendly scarves and accessories. I also work as a freelance writer for WGSN and design collections of printed fabrics for various designers in New York.

In my spare time (that which is left), I love going to markets and travelling. I recently visited southern India and fell in love with it. My boyfriend and I made the trip to spend some time at the Welfare Project I work with, based in Munar and built a holiday around that. There is something about waking up somewhere different each day that I could get quite addicted to. The scenery, people and food out there blew me away! We are already planning our next trip.

I also love going to galleries, museums and the cinema and cooking really relaxes me.

Relaxing…

I love cooking and find it really therapeutic. Going running and my daily cycle to the studio keeps me sane. I can also be found in galleries, museums and cinemas or having a relaxing natter with friends.

Acquiring knowledge…

After seven years of college, I was ready to get out there and learn on my feet. Working as a freelancer in Paris taught me how to design away from the print table. I had always been very experimental and tended to neglect imagery a bit in favor of new techniques and color combos. But not having a workshop space forced me to focus on the imagery I used.

I spent loads of time researching and drawing, which I feel made my work progress a lot. I also learnt the business side of the textile industry and what it is like to be your own boss. I set time aside each morning for what I called secretary hour where I would put on my poshest voice and ring around scouting for work, and promoting myself. I’m naturally quite shy so I would dread doing this, but in the end I just pretended I was someone else and quite enjoyed it.

When I came back to London and decided to set up my own business selling scarves I attended some free business advice sessions in Deptford. This really helped me get my head around the financial and practical side of things and gave me the confidence that I needed.

The rest I have picked up along the way. The PR side of it is always tricky but I have a great placement student and together we have learnt loads about contacting press and promoting the brand.

Talents and interests…

I am really interested in all elements of art and design and love seeing new things whether that’s in a gallery space or on the streets. I find London a really exciting place as there’s always something new to do and see.

I am a very talented market haggler and always manage to find something. My proudest finds have been my art deco dinner set with beautiful hand painted motifs and my vintage printed dresses which never fail to inspire me.

Taking the leap…

It’s never been a conscious path for me, things have just fallen into place. I was at a point when I couldn’t imagine working for someone else and I didn’t want to be a freelancer so it seemed logical to start my own business. I knew that people liked my designs and felt confident in myself that I could sell them and make exciting products, so I just went for it!

I think the amount of training I’ve had has really helped me. When I lived in Paris and worked as a freelancer, I had to be confident in my work as I had to sell it. I’m not naturally that confident a person, but I have always been confident in my work as I put so much into it.

I think its more the fact that I couldn’t not do what I love. It’s such a huge part of who I am and my identity that I would feel lost without it.

On the side…

I have just launched a new notebook range which I am really excited about. There are two ranges, a paper back and a hard back version. The paperback one is made using recycled card and are individually printed and bound by a young British bookbinder. Its pages are reject sheets from local printers in Holborn, all pages are plain with a blue side and a white side.

The hard back range is bound in vintage scarves which have been overprinted in our unique designs. The spines are in contrasting colours. These were bound by a family bookbinding company in Essex and use recycled paper stock from a 100 year old British paper mill.

With each range, no two notebook is the same.

Hoarding…

I am a complete hoarder! I love old ceramics and my flat is filled with mismatched crockery. Anything with print, an interesting colour or texture will draw me straight to it. When I was a teenager I was really into swing and jive. I was totally obsessed with that period and took lessons in jive dancing and collected 1950s dresses and toy cars. I am currently really into old prints and packaging. The flea markets in Paris are full of gems, luckily my boyfriend loves them too so we’ve framed loads of them in our flat.

Pros and cons…

I really like the independence of it all and having my own studio. I love being able to screen print and spend time developing my own designs, so that I am not only printing on fabric but papers and potentially other materials.

I also like having freelance projects that take me away from my own head space and enable me to explore other peoples briefs. Working for WGSN is great as I am able to see new things and I get to write which I love. It’s a different kind of work but I find it very stimulating and I love taking photos, especially doing street shots and city guides.

Its really hard from a financial point of view as I am at the stage when there’s a lot of money going into the business and not enough coming out. I would love to have a business partner who would take charge of the PR of the company and manage the books. It’s a lot to do for one person and can get really stressful and tiring.

I would like to feel more financially secure but know unfortunately that’s probably a long way off!

A day in the life…

Very busy! I don’t sit still for long. Monday morning usually involves me cycling to my studio then the rest of the week is always different. It could involve me printing ‘til the wee hours of the morning or being out and about, meeting potential stockists or visiting museums/galleries or shops for inspiration.

I’m usually quite mucky and can be seen in my ink splattered boiler suit running around Holborn!

Jumping over hurdles…

When I worked in Paris my father became very ill with cancer. My career there was starting to take off and I was getting increasing amounts of work but I had to make the decision of either staying there or coming back to spend the last few months with my dad and help look after him. My mum works as a head teacher and he was alone all day so I felt I had to come back. We were extremely close and I wouldn’t have lost those last months I had with him for anything.

I did bits and pieces of work but it gave me the time to think about what I really wanted to do and it was during this time that H&M contacted me. After my father died I ran away a bit and moved to Sweden. Now when I look back I realize it wasn’t the best thing to do as I was away from my family and friends and felt quite isolated.

I overcame this though and made lots of friends there and feel that I got what I could out of the job. Sometimes it’s enough just to know what you don’t want to do (if not what you want to do).

My biggest hurdle in setting up my own business was financial. I entered the Cockpit/Nadfas award for sponsorship of my first year in business and was lucky enough to get it. I gained studio space and business support, which really kick-started my business.

Learnt about herself…

I have a strong design sensibility that is most successful when I am able to experiment and work for myself.

Best advice…

My mum’s always told me that regret is the most worthless of emotions so try and do everything you want to do – including things that make you feel mortified when you think back to them – but never regret anything as it’s made you who you are today and you’ll have learnt something from it!

Advice from Tamasyn to you…

Think long and hard about it before hand. Get as much business advice as you can and make sure its something you are really passionate about as your life is about to be lost to it! When you are working all weekend and late nights you have to love it!

Re-inspiration…

I get out of wherever I am and go to a gallery or museum. For some reason I always get my best ideas on buses. I always have a pen with me to scribble them down on old receipts or scraps of paper.

Few of her favourite things…

One of my favorite places in London is the V&A arts library. It is very ‘old English’ with wood panelling and long walkways through the middle of heavy oak desks. The walls are covered with bookshelves and the head librarian sits at the main desk where you write the name of the books/magazines on a small slip of paper and they are bought out to you. I love looking at Vogue and Harpers Bazaar from the 1930s and 40s with their Surrealist photography and illustrations.

I have a wonderful book called ‘Textiles of the Wiener Werkstatte 1910-1932’, which is pretty worn now. They were a collective of designers who produced incredible modernist designs which really inspire me.

Most of my inspiration however comes from markets and objects that I pick up along the way – be it an old scarf, piece of fabric or ceramic.

Back in time…

Everything I’ve done has taught me something. I think at the time I wondered whether I should have gone to Sweden but it taught me loads and made me stronger.

Inspiring people…

Artists and designers like Moholy Nagy, Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois, Vivienne Westwood and Elsa Schiaparelli.

Immediate future…

Expand my notebook range and do a new range of recycled scarves based around old family photos and collages.

Dream life…

I dream of owning a huge old farmhouse and converting one side of it into a huge print studio with a 10 foot print table where my boyfriend and I can work all day. I would have a big garden with some crazy dogs and a pot bellied pig!

I would travel to Paris and London regularly where I would have a couple of boutiques selling a mix of antiques, vintage clothing and my work. My weekends would be spent in markets finding goodies to sell on and inspire my new collections.

4.2 / Nova Scotia watch this space / Toby Newsome

2009-07-22T00:06:00.010+01:00

What: Illustrator and designer
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: toby newsome

Mister T…

I was born in Cape Town and spent most of my childhood in this beautiful city. I grew up loving books, pictures and a good story. I studied graphic design, also majoring in illustration and my first job was in advertising but I soon left and went solo, mainly to do more illustration, with a dream to design album covers. I discovered book cover design instead and did that intensively for a few years. I still love doing book covers. But right now, I get excited by pure illustration and am enjoying animation – something I’ve always loved.

Presently he is…

I’m illustrating, animating and designing book covers. I’m going through a bad book reading patch (hopefully it won't last long). I just got all the Tim books out of the library (wonderful children’s books by Edward Ardizzone). I also do a bit of walking and I’m learning about dogs.

Acquiring skills…

I’ve always drawn (but not as much as I should have). My mom’s an illustrator too so I was exposed to the illustration processes pretty early on. I’ve always been obsessed with figuring things out on my own – not sure if that’s a blessing or a curse! I figured out a lot of the programmes I use through long hours in front of the computer. And I taught myself to play the guitar too (hence, my bad rhythm).

Then vs Now…

I liked going up the mountain with my dad when I was younger. I was pretty active but was sick a lot as a child and spent most of my time listening to adventures and fairy tales on my cassette player. And reading books. I still like to read or be read to aloud.

The short version…

I’m good with line. I enjoy animation. I can play a mean blues guitar lick. I like walking in the forests. I love snorkeling – I love experiencing that ‘other’ world and the quiet with just the sound of your breathing, the flashes of light and colour.

When the penny dropped…

Maybe I believed I was good enough because when I used to copy surf label stickers at junior school, the other kids thought they were cool. I don’t think I thought too hard about it. I knew I wanted to be involved with images and I wanted to tell stories. Exactly how I wanted to be involved is something I’m still discovering.

Free time…

Magazine illustrations, a book cover made with collage and cut-outs, an animated TV commercial, a web site, web animations and an animated video short… I have no spare time!

Likes, dislikes…

I like being in charge! And being involved in the whole process of what I do (I love and hate that actually). I love trying new mediums – cut-out , collage, clay. Working on my own does feel a little isolated sometimes. But I share my studio with two great people, and the best cat in the world (Max the champion) so it’s OK.

Old world, new world…

I grew up in the southern suburbs of Cape Town – middle class suburbia. When I studied, there was no specialist course in illustration available, which I think I would have done. So, studying graphic design was a little random but it worked out well. It’s also been hard focusing on being an illustrator, and especially a childrens’ book illustrator, as there are relatively few local children’s books being produced in SA and the budgets are pretty tiny.

Average day…

I keep pretty regular office hours. In summer I end off most days with a quick ride to the beach or a walk somewhere peaceful. If work’s going badly, I play a lot of guitar… it’s my Valium. I constantly listen to music. I look out the window a lot. I do some stretching too.

Family ties…

Generally they’re quite quiet and introspective – like me. Those qualities definitely influenced me to go solo. I like my own space. My mother’s an illustrator, and my uncle and grandmother are both painters too so I’ve always been exposed to creativity and seen as it a possibility to make a living.

Obstacles, of course…

Quoting for fees has always been difficult, but I’m getting better at it. Being decisive with the direction of a project was a problem in the past too – I’d always do loads of options for my clients, which wastes time.

While drawing for a living you lose spontaneity and life goes by. I hate not having enough time. And another of my personal obstacles is not being physically flexible – I have to get supple so I can touch my toes one days!

Confidence…

I’m still getting there! It’s hard to say whether I'm confident or not... I’m stubborn! I think there’s an initial confidence needed in deciding on a career, but once you’re there, you just keep going. Sometimes I have no confidence at all but at other times it’s easy. There’s an excitement when starting new projects – often I have a very clear picture of where I want it to go but even if it doesn’t work out, I still get excited all over again.

The familia approves…

Yes, often, usually in a rather general way. I think my parents were worried about me becoming an illustrator from a financial point of view. And I see their point! But they’re always telling me that that they saw my latest illustration for such and such a magazine, which is really nice.

Big hoarder…

I’m more of a hoarder than a collector, so it’s more about what things I should be throwing away, which happens to be a lot! I don’t really hoard specific things, it’s more about thinking, ‘Hey, I might need this plank of wood in five years…’ And when I do and can actually find it, it is so rewarding. I used to collect badges.

Books are very important to me and my collection is growing, slowly. I love old children’s books. The more I use a computer, the more I enjoy the experience of sitting down with a book. And I definitely collect music – a lot of folk and country.

If the batteries run low…

I go to the library, go for a walk in the forest or near the sea or talk to a friend.

Favourites…

Books always inspire me . And anything, really. I like the Sea Point Promenade, a 5km stretch of bricked promenade along the Atlantic Ocean, which is only 10 minutes away from my flat and has an adjoining garden maze, mini golf park and a train park, in beautiful disrepair. It’s home – my magic mood lifter.

People…

Many of my friends inspire me. Just to see someone excited about what they do or with a strong conviction is enough.

More inspiring people…

Matisse, Egon Schiele, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Jackie Wilson, Jean Luc Godard, David Attenborough, Ronald Searle, Arthur Rackham, Edward Gorey, Hergé, Yuri Norstein, Alexander Alexeieff.

Downtime…

I like swimming, walking, beach bats, playing guitar and beer at sunset at a bad schwarma joint down the road.

If he could go back in time…

I would cut to the chase.

The plans and dreams…

Focus, focus, focus. I want to do more of my own projects or get involved in others. And I’m going on road trip up the coast.

I definitely want to do a book soon and one day own a small house in Nova Scotia, maybe – chopping wood, rugged coastlines, wild forests… sounds perfect!

If things were different…

I might be a folk guitarist or a professional dodgem car driver. I love theme parks! Ooh, the bright lights!

Wise words…

As an illustrator, I would say, ‘Specialise as soon as you can. Decide at what you’re best at, and go with it.’

Important lesson…

Dreams only take you so far. You have to work at your talents.

Best advice he’s been given…

Go with your gut feeling. And, you won’t know unless you try.

12.0 / Like Coco before Chanel / Cecelia van Rensburg

2009-07-20T00:10:00.007+01:00

What: Fashion designer and stylist
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: cecelia van rensburg

Cecelia in the making…

I was born on the 10th of June 1984, which makes me a Gemini baby. I grew up in Strand, a small town about a 30 minute drive from Cape Town and after school I moved to Stellenbosch where I studied fashion for three years. After those lovely student years, I moved to the big, beautiful city of Cape Town and started working as the Ladieswear Designer and Patternmaker for a Cape Town based label called Darkie Clothing.

I did about five Fashion Weeks with them over three years. I loved my job but after a few years I realised I had to move on. So, I started pursuing one of my other passions, styling. I’ve done freelance styling for eight months now. I’m absolutely loving it. While styling, I’ve also freelanced as a designer and patternmaker for local designers such as Doreen Southwood, Boma and Undacova.

Right now…

I’m working as a freelance designer and patternmaker for a local label called Tart, with designer and owner Cari Stephenson. We’re currently working on Spring/Summer 09/10 for Cape Town Fashion Week.

Oh, and, in my free time I do interviews!

Side projects…

I’m working on a project called Swan Lake, a fashion shoot. I am designing and making the clothing and will be styling the whole shoot. It’s a really conceptual project so I’m very excited about it.

Learning…

I think you learn the basic stuff through formal education but the stuff you actually use in the industry comes with time and experience. I’ve learnt everything I know the hard way. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Practical experience is the key to success!

Looking back…

As a child, my sister and I used to have this big suitcase full of old, amazing clothes. We used to play dress up, along with one of our friends (a boy).

Bless my mom, she turned a blind eye and always let me wear whatever I wanted. I think that’s how I really developed my own particular style.

Passions…

I believe that I am a very creative person. I love working with clothes and I love people. I think the two make a brilliant combo. Food is also a great passion of mine. I have the power of the pot, if you know what I mean…

Believing in herself…

I’ve always had people believing in me so I know I can make a success of anything I put my mind to.

Pros and cons…

As a freelancer I love being creative and having free time to explore ideas but I don’t like the lack of stability.

Nature nurture…

I grew up in Strand, like I said, which is quite a small town. It definitely taught me to be humble and it made me realise that I needed to live in the city. I love Cape Town city!

Average day in her life…

9am: Wake up and have a bath. 10am: Walk to the internet café around the corner from my flat in Seapoint to check if I have any meetings. 10.30am: Drive to the TART studio in Observatory. 11am: Cari, Sandra (the lovely lady who does the sewing) and I have coffee and discuss what we will be doing during the day. Cari will give me my tasks. We’ll make patterns and sometimes jump in behind the sewing machines to make the samples. Throughout the day we’ll try things on and make changes, brainstorm, look for references, cut fabric, make patterns and work really hard, while having fun and enjoying every minute of the day!

Believing…

I have a lot of confidence in myself and a very supportive network of family, friends and my lovely boyfriend. I have the best support system ever! My dad is my biggest fan and my family and friends are always there for me, pushing me to be the best I can be. I’m really lucky!

My work is part of my life so I have to love it or I wouldn’t be able to do it.

Influential family…

My mom is also a very creative person. She does a lot of handwork like embroidery, crochet, quilting and making teddies. You name it, she does it! My dad is very business orientated and he helps me with that aspect of my job. My brother also helps me a lot with business. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today!

Lessons…

I’ve learnt that I need to challenge myself everyday to keep life interesting. The more I do, the more I’m capable of doing. I believe that I can always be more creative.

Collections…

I am a stylist/designer so I have a excuse to collect things. I collect handbags, shoes, gloves, sunglasses, swans, hearts, boys, coats, dresses and (my favourite) vintage swimwear!

Topping up inspiration…

Whenever I feel uninspired, I visit my favourite vintage shops, walk around in town and have a glass of wine (that always helps!) People inspire me – all the crazy, cool kids in Cape Town!

Favourites…

My favourite place is Transkei. I went there two years ago and it was love at first sight! My favourite music is Fat Freddys Drop (at this moment). My favourite magazine is RUSSH (it's Australian). My favourite websites are The Cool Hunter and Style.com – I love them both for their street style. My favourite people for inspiration are Stella McCartney and the lead singer of Moloko.

Winding down…

I love going to muizenberg for a surf. I just started surfing!

Plans…

Be in love, go on long holidays and be extremely, super happy.

Dream life…

I love to have my own label called Cecelia and own a little deli that sells cupcakes and other pretty things.

Hoops and hurdles…

I’ve had to please people – work really, really hard into the early hours of the morning and I’ve been really broke! We all have, haven’t we? But even though it’s been difficult, and it still is at times, I wouldn’t change a thing!

Advice…

Always be the best you can be and never give up (it’s cheesy, I know, but it's true). Working in fashion or pursuing your dreams is always hard work, but in the end it is worth every tear!

11.0 / Diamond in the rough / Emma Cook

2009-07-15T00:00:00.000+01:00

What: Illustrator and designer
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: Emma Cook

Only a child…

I’m an only child and when I was little I’d love having my family and friends come over to my house. But I’d go from being very happy to very sad as soon as they left. I’d cry and throw tantrums until one day I decided to start entertaining myself and took up drawing. Then, I drew everything.

My parents are engineers and my mum would bring huge industrial-sized rolls of paper from work for me and I’d spend days drawing all over them. I had all the Disney movies and would watch them, then pause them and redraw the frame. That’s what I did. I drew lots of cartoons.

At school, I was the arty one and whenever we had assignments or we had to write a story and draw a picture to illustrate it, I’d help three or four people in the class because they were convinced that they couldn’t draw.

I would always draw and carry around notebooks to doodle in – that was my entertainment. My parents worked late and I was always at aftercare so I would just sit and draw there. And the other kids would come and stare over my shoulder.

High school was much of the same. Everyone used to send letters to their friends in the different classes and would always do fancy headers on their letters. I drew the headers for other people’s letters. That’s what I did. And whenever there were plays I helped build the sets and design posters and did little things here and there. I did lots of little bits basically. I wasn’t the school star or anything like that. I just did lots of little things.

Post-school…

When I was little I wanted to be an archeologist, a fire fighter or a sniper, which is probably why I like Call of Duty now. In high school, I really enjoyed biology and seriously considered doing forensics but I decided that if I ended up working with dead people I’d probably pull them out of the drawers and dress them up in party jackets or something! So I abandoned that idea and decided I wanted to be a cool art director, dress in all-black, wear funky glasses, smoke a lot of cigarettes and say ‘fuck’ a lot, which is pretty much what I do now except I’m not an art director.

Introductions…

I really liked advertising and got into it through my dad. He introduced me to Benetton ads and collected them for me when he went away. There was once an ad with a picture of a baby being born and every advert was always amazing and different. I don’t think my dad knows it but he’s the one who got me into advertising. He started showing me the Benetton ads when I was little and I really looked forward to seeing them. At the time, I just enjoyed looking at them and later on I realised they were more than just images. They were about a product and the product had a personality. That’s why I decided to go to Vega and study to be an art director.

Well, I was going to be an art director but then I ended up taking graphic design. We did a foundation year and got a taste of all the different subjects – copywriting, multimedia, everything… but I wanted to do something more hands-on and be able to craft things.

First job…

I ended up at the Am I Collective because my best friend at the time was convinced that he wanted to come down to Cape Town for his internship and I wanted to come down to Cape Town with him. In the end he didn’t come to Cape Town but I did. I just looked for Cape Town collectives and ended up finding the What If The World website where I saw some super cool images of a show that the Am I did. I thought they were interesting so I contacted them and asked them if there was any possibility that I could work for them. Then I ended up here as an intern for five weeks, where I sat in a little house with them and helped where I could and then they asked me to come back and do an internship and I just stayed on. Now I’m pretty much part of the furniture!

Work vs play…

I try to do things in my own time but I’m not that confident. I end up giving up on most things I do in my spare time because I think I’m just not good enough. At work I have no choice. I have to sit down and work and make something pretty. That’s cool. I can do that because there’s the pressure of the deadline and it needs to be done. If I’m sitting at home I don’t always feel super inspired to make beautiful things. Every once in a while I can make a strange type face or something but it doesn’t happen very often. It’s just a confidence thing.

I started something last year and am doing it again – every time someone says something weird in the office like a single ambiguous line or phrase, I write it down on a post-it and stick it up on the wall. We’ve had some classic ones in the office like ‘I waxed my Greek friend’ and ‘The cheese is fast’. I’ve been illustrating some of those phrases or doing illustrative type for them.

And I started working on a toy project recently. I know every designer’s done it already but I’ve always loved the Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos) – those awesome skulls with the patterns on them. On my of my random inspired days, I found a forensic layout of all 206 bones of the human body and I put those patterns on every single bone. Now I’ve made a skeleton character. I just need to figure out a way of making the body all hook together as a toy character that can stand.

Highlight…

As a model student and suck up deluxe, I kept in contact with all my lecturers. I’m good friends with two of my lecturers and they asked me to come back and teach the third year illustration module (which I studied in my third year) recently. They thought it would be interesting to have me come in since I was an ex-student. It was really cool and lots of fun. I was standing up on the first day in front of about 60 kids and doing a presentation about the Am I – about what we do and who we are, telling them about the different processes we use that lead to specific results. They all looked really interested and it was cool seeing people react to things I do and things I know. There’s nothing quite like going back to teach people who indirectly make you realise how much you’ve learnt in just a few years.

I started off by giving them a brief, telling them what the industry’s like and working with them in class to help them with their illustrations. We read a couple of articles together to find interesting bits in the copy that would work well as illustrations and then I looked at everyone’s layouts and scamps and gave them advice – considering different layout options and collecting reference for their illustrations. It was great working with them and I’d go back in a heartbeat. Teachers always say ‘It’s the good ones that make the job worthwhile’ and that’s so true. It was a brilliant experience having students come to me for advice and take what I said on board.

Obstacles…

Confidence is my biggest issue. I’m still working on that. I’m always really suspicious of people who compliment me. I used to be really confident at college but then I started working and realised how amazing some professionals are and my confidence got squished. It’s daunting stepping out of college and seeing how accomplished some of the people you work with are. I feel like I could never achieve what some of them have achieved or do what they're doing.

Inspiration…

I’m an internet whore. I’m constantly on the internet. I can’t help myself. I go on blogs and websites and have a folder that’s full of cool images I’ve downloaded from the internet. I don’t always go back and look at them but I just love looking at other people’s work, looking at what other people are doing and how they’re doing things – like making a beautiful line. I look at the way different people use lines. That’s my thing. I hate the way I do line work so if I find people whose line work is similar to mine but better I get inspired and spend ages looking at how they do their line work.

I like working in vector. I like building things. I like making a chunk and then another chunk and building on things. I make typefaces. Recently I did a typeface made from candy. I dabble in everything. I’m confused about my speciality. I’m an illustrator more than designer. I wasn’t bad at design at college. I came top of my class and got the design award but I can’t really design these days.

I’d like to get into character design at some point – animation like Nickelodeon. I love their characters. One of my favourite things to do when I go home is slouch around on my dad’s couch watching Cartoon Network.

Pros and cons…

I like making pretty things. I like the whole process of making something from scratch, from a blank scary canvas to adding a colour, then another and then, suddenly, it all works – you finally get to grips with what you’re doing. When you get to the end, it’s a bit of an anti-climax because it’s more fun building something than it is finishing it.

The one thing I don’t like about being an illustrator is the whole super cool scene. Everyone in Cape Town is an illustrator or a designer and the majority of them are super trendy hipsters. It irritates me. They do great work, which I love but also have the time to go out and be super trendy. I guess I’m just jealous.

Place of origin…

I don’t think I’ve had a ‘South African’ upbringing because I’m first generation South African. My family’s all British and Scottish. I grew up with BBC tapes that were sent from the UK. I think I had more of a British upbringing than a South African uone but if I were in Britain I’d say I had more of a South African upbringing so I sometimes feel like I am without a specific culture – I don’t belong to either which is kind of weird and sad.

Motivation…

Seeing other people do well makes me want to do well and try harder. Watching what they do and seeing them excel at the things they love makes me think, ‘God, I can do that!’ People motivate me. I love being around them, watching and listening to them.

Inspiring people…

Kris is really cool. We sit and chat all the time and he’s taken time to sit and chat to me, especially when I just started working. He told me how the industry works and inspired me. He’s probably one of the best people I’ve ever spoken to and one of the biggest inspirations I have. Christo and Ruan are also really inspiring. When I first started interning, I remember I’d get to the house really early and Christo would be the only one there and we’d sit and talk about illustration, art and design and all sorts of funky things. I had so much fun on those mornings, just sitting around and talking about stuff with him.

All the people I work with inspire me. There was never anything like Am I Collective in South Africa when they first started it. It was great that they were able to take something that they loved and turn it into something so important and valuable. I hope that one day I could do half as well as they’ve done.

Encouragement…

My dad is very embarrassing. Every time I go up to Joburg and his girlfriend’s around, he asks me to take out my computer so I can show her all my work. My dad always wants to know what I’m doing and likes to show other people what I’m doing too. He sends things to my family in Scotland so they can see what I'm up to. Both my parents have always given me every opportunity that I could ever want and they’d do anything for me. I’m so appreciative of everything they’ve done.

When I first said I wanted to get involved with the ad industry or the creative field they didn’t understand that I could make a living from it and survive, do cool stuff and get recognition. At first, my mum was adamant that I needed to get a degree, not a diploma. I had to get a degree! She said I couldn’t go to Vega at first because they didn’t have a degree programme but they introduced it when I was in Matric luckily. Now that my folks understand what I’m doing they’re very pleased that I’m doing something I enjoy and it’s all paying off.

Average day in her life…

I set my alarm for 6.30am but I usually keep pressing the snooze button until about 7.30am. Then I get ready for work and head over to the office. I’m usually one of the first to arrive so I read emails and check out blogs and things to get inspired and then launch into the day’s work. Then we have the 12 o’ clock Shick Shack (Shick Shack is the ‘sound’ of Call of Duty). At lunchtime, we generally all sit together and talk about nonsense or talk about the last Shick Shack or the next Shick Shack. I head home in the evenings to work on my own projects or take work home. Every once in a while we all have a braai (bbq) or sometimes we’ll have an epic lunch and go out afterwards.

Favourite places…

I like the National Gallery and the Company Gardens. I love parks because I don’t have a balcony or outdoor space at my flat. Outdoor breeze and grass is just great. And then there’s Hermanus and Kalk Bay as well. Kalk Bay’s where I first place I saw a whale. I’d just moved to Cape Town and was sitting at the Brass Bell and this huge creature came swimming around the pier and waved at us. I love the sleepy vibe of Kalk Bay. Nobody's in a hurry. It’s just very relaxed and not as hipster cool as Cape Town city. Everyone there seems more chilled out, going about their day, doing their thing and there’s nothing pretentious about it.

Collections of stuff…

I collect fans, like old Chinese fans. I love fans. I like the way you can just flick them open and shimmy around being all dramatic. I don’t have many of them but if I see a nice fan, I will buy it. And I collect books – design books, illustration books. They’re like my treasures. My mum always told me when I was younger that you must never hurt a book. So in my book collection, spines are never bent and there’s not a dog-ear in sight. They’re still as perfect as when I bought them.

I’d love to learn how to do proper old-school bookbinding one day and make books with type embossed into them, beautiful trims, all kinds of different materials and gorgeous spines, like the old volumes that you can get. I love paper too and would love to be involved with magazines somehow one day. Magazines are different to advertising. It’s nice to think that someone would actually carry a magazine around with them and page through it. Magazines are more personal. Advertising is something that is pushed on to people but they choose to buy magazines. Books, magazines and anything with pages are great.

On the side…

I love reading biographies and autobiographies. There’s so much I learn from other people by reading their stories. I grew up watching Monty Python and I just finished reading their autobiography. It was so interesting – because it took them years to get to where they got and they had to do so many different shows before they found each other. And even after they found each other, they had to get over little problems with each other. It’s very cool learning about other people and finding out what their story is. It always makes me think that even though I have a lot of feelings of inadequacy, it could eventually all work out for me some time. I can get it right. Other people have gotten it right so how hard could it be to crack the whole confidence thing?

Advice…

The book It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden is full of all the most brilliant advice I’ve ever read.

Future…

I don’t know if I’d like to go overseas. I don’t know where I would go or what I would do. I feel like I need to be more involved with stuff over here before I can go and be more involved with stuff anywhere else. I’m also on my own little soul-searching mission and trying to figure out what I’m about so until I’ve got that all figured out I don’t know. All I know is that I have to be here in South Africa to do that.

I’m just going with the flow now. I’m not sure whether I’ll have a specific goal later in life but right now I just want to take it as it comes and if something cool presents itself then I’ll do it and see where it goes from there. I don’t want to avoid doing certain things because they don’t fit with a set plan. I'd rather not have a plan and let things unfold for now. I’ll plan later. I’m 24. I don’t need a plan. There are still a thousand things I need to do!

4.1 / Nomadic transmutations / Michael Linders

2009-07-13T00:10:00.012+01:00

What: Artist, illustrator and photographer
Where: Cape Town, South Africa
Website: a page a day

The story…

My name is Michael Ilias Linders, however most people know me as Migi. I was born in Zurich, Switzerland. My immediate family immigrated to South Africa in 1987. We lived in Johannesburg and I went to school there. After school, I started working as a photographic assistant and in 2002 I went back to Switzerland for a while. On my return, I studied photography in Pretoria. And after my studies, I moved to Cape Town and have been living between here and various European cities since.

I am living with a lovely lady and life just isn’t as good anywhere else as it is in Cape Town. I try to spend as much time on my own work as possible but lately I’ve done a number of freelance jobs. I’ve been working part-time as a university lecturer, on commercials (working in the art department) and as an illustrator. Every so often I shoot some pictures. I gave up on art for a very long time, as I was preoccupied with having a so-called career. These days, I am more focused on art practice and the bigger picture of making and doing things that I want to do now and which will hopefully be able to support me one day.

Now…

At the moment, I get up and walk across the park to my studio. I sit down, paint, draw, write, smoke and then walk back across the park (while trying not to get attacked by any dogs). I watch a lot of TV, read and eat once in a while. Then sleep some more. In my spare time I do much of the same – maybe sleep more if I have a hangover or it’s raining.

Acquisition of skills…

I have always drawn. But I thought I couldn’t draw and was always embarrassed by my drawings. I still can’t draw but at least I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will never be able to draw realistically or with any kind of perspective that makes logical sense. I’ve come to love the way I draw as it is the way I see the world.

Then and now…

I was shy and lived in my head as a kid. I’m not so shy anymore but I’m still living in my head.

Talents, interests…

One of my talents is probably photography. I take a pretty decent photograph and know a fair amount about the history of photography and the subject in general. I really enjoy researching photography and finding references for shoots. I also work as a creative photography consultant every once in a while. I enjoy the finished photograph more than the process of taking of a photograph.

I really enjoy books, magazines and blogs. I need information all the time. Books are probably my greatest love – I love their textures, their smells and how they all sit together on a bookshelf and are always there for you, to rediscover them.

Moving on up…

I always wanted to be a film director but that desire faded away over the years and developed into a desire to be a photographer. Photography fulfilled me for a few years. But I got to a point where I could no longer express everything I wanted to say through photography. So, I started drawing and painting again. I never really thought I was good at anything – I just progressed by doing what I was interested in and experimenting. It is just a continual progression that I hope never ends.

Current projects…

I’m working on several projects and ideas, all based around the concept of trying to get back to the process of making more constant art. My process involves doing a certain amount of work each day relating to what I see on that particular day, in a daily diary format. My main project is documenting what I see in all the different media that I am exposed to everyday. This involves looking at books, magazines and the internet for images that interest me. Then I draw or paint the images on an A4 page. I try to do two to three pages a day.

The series I’m working on will hopefully end up consisting of 250 pages, which will become a book. This’ll be similar to the self-published books I’ve done in the past – Random Lines and Can I leave it up to you, non-narrative illustrated stories.

I’m also making studies of volcanoes using different media, inspired by the idea that volcanoes were once believed to be proof of the existence of hell. I have a bit of a hard time using colour – most of my work is in black, white and tones of grey – but through painting, especially acrylic and watercolours, I’ve begun to see things in strong, flat colours. My paintings mostly depict a brightly coloured apocalyptic world. My work is based on reproduction, re-interpretation, re-evaluating and series as a whole.

Pros and cons…

I like the freedom (when I have it) of making work I really want to do and actually enjoy. I don’t like having to do other work for money as it takes so much time to get back into doing the things I really want to do. I dislike not being paid for the work I love doing although I’m lucky that I do often earn money from it.

Growing up…

I grew up in Johannesburg – I really liked it there. We always lived on farms with lots of space which helped my already over active imagination. I think my holidays in Switzerland and Italy, during which I saw a lot of classical art, really opened my eyes to the possibilities of self-expression. I started to understand that what I saw in Johannesburg was as important as what happened and what was happening in Europe. I could interpret what I saw around me and realised that it could be important or meaningful in the context of the world and my place in it.

Day in his life…

Everyday is always different. I’ve never had a 9 to 5. What my day will be like depends on whether I’m teaching, working on a film or just doing my own research. I try washing the dishes so my girlfriend doesn’t think I’m a sloth. I even wash my clothes, sometimes. Weeks go by so quickly – some are more exciting than others, some are just wasted (but hopefully not too many).

Confidence…

Confidence is too strong a word – I don’t know if I am that at all. I just like doing things, even though I dream of being a world superstar!

Roots…

My family is very vast and spread across the world so the idea of culture and identity has always been very interesting to me. Most of my family live in Switzerland – some are of German descent while others are pure Swiss. I have family in Mexico, where my mother was born. I suffer from chronic homesickness and it’s rather confusing – it makes me a bit of a nomad.

The big hurdle…

To make some kind of a living.

Lessons…

Just do it – produce the work, find the means, just make make make and make some more.

Collections…

I collect magazines, books, knives and old toys. I don’t collect as much any more because my girlfriend is a collector maniac but a good book will always make my heart race.

When he's uninspired…

I normally stop working all together and spiral into a deep, dark depression. Then, usually after a few days, my depression becomes my source of inspiration and I see the light again.

A few of his favourite things…

I love blogs, mainly fashion blogs, but lots of images of pretty things too – f&art, JAK & JIL BLOG, Gnarlitude, Geometrie Variable, Vvork and Them Thangs.

Relaxing, maxing…

I should exercise but I mainly just drink or something of that kind. When I sleep I relax. Other than that, my brain is burning holes in my eyes.

If he could go back in time…

I wouldn't have bleached my hair in the 90s.

Inspiring folks…

I admire Hans-Peter Feldmann, Raymond Pettibon and Robert Crumb.

Plans…

Draw, kiss, paint, kiss, draw, kiss.

Dreams…

Making money from just sitting in my studio – drawing, drinking wine and smoking cigarettes.

Best advice received…

Wake up!