Interview by Rachel Gottesman

Welcome to your interview! How were your holidays?

Thank you for having me! My holidays were pretty good thanks - quality time spent with my family brought the usual compliment of overeating, 'overdrinking', indigestion, tension, screaming arguments and pledges to spend next Christmas alone on the Falkland Islands.

In all seriousness it was great - I love spending Christmas with my family and catching up on stuff that we have missed throughout the year. We also had tons of snow over the holidays which was fantastic - a real-life winter wonderland.

Let's start from the beginning. When you've come up with a concept for a design, what's your next step? What does your process look like from idea to finished piece?

Almost all of my ideas come from doodling in a sketchbook, on a piece of scrap paper, beer mat etc. From that point I used to take quite a lot of time sketching and re-sketching until I had something approximating finished artwork which I would then scan and digitize.



Increasingly I am doing much more of this process digitally - so I am now more likely to scan the original super-rough sketch and work on it on the computer. This obviously speeds up the process but more importantly for me I think it gives the final piece more immediacy and a more 'raw' feel. I don't like things to look too polished - I would rather my work looked a bit rougher around the edges but retained the energy of the original sketch/concept.

When you enjoy working a lot with textures, the difficult part can be deciding when a piece is 'finished'. Some days I don't know when to stop with distressing and practically end up with a blank screen again!

What is your favorite subject matter? Do you find yourself drawn to a certain topic?

I'm not sure I have a particular favourite topic but I am definitely drawn to the whimsical and slightly surreal. I like mixing visual elements that you wouldn't naturally associate with each other, or setting things outside of their normal context.



I used to be quite partial to visual puns but have moved away from that recently. I'm much more stylistically driven at the moment, and if a great concept happens to come along for the ride then all the better. Now that I'm thinking about it, a lot of my concepts tend to centre around hands - which is weird because they are my very least favourite thing to draw! I must be a subconscious masochist.

I love a good horror story. (Without dropping names), do you have any tales of impossible clients?

I'm not just saying this to keep in their good books but I must have been lucky in having worked with a bunch of really great clients. Sure there have been the usual last minute revisions, requests to see a million different different colour palettes and lots of toing and froing, but generally I have to say that I haven't had any nightmares.

I think if you're not precious about your work then difficult clients are easier to deal with. The way I see it, once a client has paid for a piece of work it belongs to them - my job is to do whatever it takes to make them, not me, happy.

Do you have one piece of work that you are especially proud of? Why is that your standout work?

I think I'm typical of most people in that pretty much as soon as I have finished a piece of work I generally hate it. So I tend to forget stuff that I have done and focus all my energies on the next piece. But I would say that my Music Business Remastered Threadless design is a piece I am particularly fond of. First of all I was lucky enough for it to get picked by you guys the first time, and then it was also chosen to be a Select print - which was awesome. It has also been reprinted a couple of times which means it must have sold pretty well - that makes me very happy.



When I look at how I remade this design compared to the original version I think it marked a key shift from a cartoony style I was using previously to the more minimal, stylistic, retro approach that I employ now. So although it is a pretty simple concept and execution, from a stylistic point of view it's a really important piece for me. It was also the first t-shirt design that I saw a stranger wearing out 'in the wild' which just about made my week!

From a flattery point of view it always gets picked out of my portfolio by potential clients as a piece they really like - and that is always gratifying.

What's the best and worst part about being a freelancer?

I think at different times the best and worst part of being a freelancer for me are the very same thing - the independence. When things are going well - ideas are flowing, lots of work, bills are paid - then that independence feels incredibly liberating. When things are perhaps not going as well, being solely responsible for your own destiny can be a little scary. The times when you don't have any client work and are sat at 9am staring at a blank sheet of white paper, trawling the inner recesses of your brain for ideas can be pretty nerve racking!

I think ultimately it comes down to the kind of person you are and the sort of lifestyle you want to lead. I went freelance because I wanted to limit my stress levels and be more in control of my life and the direction it was taking. Freelancing can be tough but I see it as pressurized rather than stressful - and because it is a pressure of my choosing I feel much less affected by it.



What would you recommend as a starting point for someone just getting into the freelance industry?

To anyone looking to go freelance I would suggest trying to get a few freelance gigs while you are still working full-time.
The biggest inhibitor of creativity for me is the pressure having to earn money - so if all of your financial obligations are taken care of by your salary then you are set free to let rip creatively. Just remember though, that if you want to pursue design/illustration as a career (rather than fine art for example) then what you produce has to have a market in the real world.

I would also suggest that they have a really good look out there and make a conscious decision as to where they want their work to fit within a commercial context - do you want to illustrate for magazines? Create apparel graphics? Make band posters? I think having a recognisable style is important, but that will come over time.

To me concept is always king and there is more than one way to stylistically skin a cat. Picking an smaller area within the big design pond and going for it 100% would be my starting point if I was starting again.



What is the biggest mistake a newbie can make when designing?

Probably the biggest mistake would be to insert sharp pencils into their eyeballs. If they've already realised that's a bad idea, then I would advise against trying to copy someone else's style. When you're starting out it can be tempting to try and mimic popular artists. Of course there is nothing original left in the world and everybody's work is a little bit like someone else's, but I think a newbie should at least start with the intention of finding their own stylistic path.

I think the key thing is not to panic - it can take a bit of time so try a few things out and see which suits you the best.

Is there anything you'd like to say to your fans?

To anyone that has voted or commented on my designs I would like to say a big thank you. I'm not one of the big willies on threadless but I really appreciate the small band of people that encourage me to continue submitting or critique my ideas or just generally shoot the breeze with me on the forums. THANKS GUYS!!!!!

Thanks for chatting!

No, thank you and good luck to everyone at Threadless for 2011 - let's make it a great one!!!

Interview by Rachel Gottesman

Read more interviews!