Artist 09: Lauren Mann

Lauren Mann is a young, talented, self motivated illustrator/graphic designer who's amazing sketches are reinforced with deep understanding and technical knowledge gained since she started freelancing at the tender age of 14. (I was still running around the town...) Check out our interview with this powerhouse illustrator!

Who are you:

Lauren Mann

What do you do:

I'm currently a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. I recently graduated with a degree in art and am looking for full-time work in the design industry.

How did you start:

It's hard to say as I've been drawing from a very young age. I've been driven by the inspiration all around me, the hunger to learn something new and the challenge of improving my skills. It was only a few years ago that I decided to consider art a career option and impulsively transferred to an art degree!

A personal statement about you or your work:

While I am a figurative illustrator, I aim to play on the viewers sense of curiosity and create a world for them to explore and characters for them to engage with. My work is varied and influenced by everything from classical art and childrens illustration to decorative art and animation.

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Months of the year: April

April

By Aniela Murphy

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Months of the year: March

March

By Nicola Ellen

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Artist 08: Felice Perkins

Felice Parkins is our next beautiful feature, her work instantly grabs you with it's bold lively colours and evocative imagery. This collection is themed around Mexican culture and the day of the dead celebrations. Her style is vibrant, full of life and movement and I hope you will enjoy it as much as me!

Who are you:
Felice Perkins(FEP)

What do you do:
I'm not actually totally sure what I am! I like to say I make stuff because artist/illustrator sounds scarily defined. I've illustrated student magazines, been in Fine Art shows and am currently doing some childrens book illustration. I like to just follow my intuition, if I'm still having a good time doing it then its going in the right direction.

How did you start:
Its just what I do, I can't remember a time when I didn't want to create. As a young child I spent my lunch breaks in the school yard obsessively drawing fish, adding bizzare elongated fins and hundreds of intricate scales. This is probably my earliest memory of being totally compelled by creating.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is an ever changing delight in colour/materials and ideas. Most recently I have found myself becoming interested in more provoking subjects's such as the wealth divide and the environment (something which I now have mixed views about) and I have slowly been trying to filter this into my artwork. The end product varies from pencil drawn scantily clad designer branded anorexic ladies, to blobs of paint peppered with strange creatures, to what you see above. Mostly my main criteria is to have fun and not feel too boxed in, I hope that this feeling is projected in the work.

http://feptopiachronicles.blogspot.com/

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European countries: Le Tricolore

France

By David Booth

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European countries: Finland

Finland

By Ian Caulkett

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Months of the year: February

February

By Lea Wade

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Artist 07: Simon Cheadle

Simon Cheadle is another young talented illustrator who whilst still in his first year is fast becoming an established illustrator. You can tell from his vibrant exciting work, he is really enjoying himself and his work. Never one to be tied down Simon is proud of his evolving style and we are sure you will enjoy to hear a little bit more about him!

Who are you:

Simon Cheadle

What do you do:

I'm currently studying BA (Hons) Illustration and Animation at Kingston University, London - about to go into my second year. I am also part of an illustration collective called '717', named after an abondoned office in my old college that we turned into a studio, pillaging photogoofs of old ladies and making shrines to Jade Goody and meat. We make zines, prints, drink gin and terrorise our neighbourhood in our biker gang 'the grim wizzards'.

How did you start:

I officially started 'illustrating' two years ago on my foundation course at Suffolk College, at first it was a bust-up between illustration and graphic design, being told by my high school art teachers that I should be a graphic designer, but illustration won.

A Personal statement about you or your work:

I don't really like to get philosophical about my work- I like to make stuff, in what ever form that might be, that I would want to see myself. I always have to enjoy what I'm doing and my work always starts with drawing. On a few occasions in the past, my work gets taken 'off the page' into the 3D, although I never would make my work 3D if I thought it unneccessary. I don't like to think I have a 'style' , to quote Charles Eames - ' The extent to which you have a design style, is the extent to which you haven't solved the problem' and because of this, I enjoy the way my work evolves and shape shifts.

http://www.simoncheadle.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/s_cheadle

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Artist 06: Thereza Rowe

Thereza Rowe is a lovely girl/dedicated illustrator with a wonderful sense for the dramatic. She excels at creating beautiful products such as her pretty and sweet hand made paper houses, zines and prints you can buy them all at her shop. She also has a blog which is a joy to read and full of inspirational images and moments, you should all enjoy her interview, here she is!

Who are you:

I’m Thereza Rowe. Illustrator, pink milk junkie, owner of thousands of pens and mountains of papers…

What do you do:

Most of the time I can be found drawing and illustrating in my tiny red workspace. Other times in daydreamland where everything makes sense.

How did you start:

The beauty of being able to create something has always been my main drive. One ordinary day I woke up and decided I wanted to draw and so I did and never stopped ever since…

A Personal statement about you or your work:

My work is honest and simple and it relies pretty much on the way I view the world.. Some say I’m weird, some think I’m from another planet and maybe I am… if I had a choice I’d move permanently into one of the little worlds I create :)

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European countries: Estonia

Estonia

By The Tree House Press

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Artist 05: Jamie Mills

Here is our fifth artist feature on Jamie Mills, he is still studying at his university but he already has obtained a style and I pretty much love his use of colours and observation of things along with his good sense of composition. I think we are going to see a lot of him in the future! :)

Who are you:

Jamie Mills - often known as Jamie Milk.

What do you do:

I study illustration at the University of Gloucestershire and I spend a lot of time getting distracted by excellent dogs in the park.

How did you start:

I suppose I haven't really 'started' yet - but I am about to enter my third year and the prospect of what happens after that is a little daunting. Starting a blog this year and making myself do something creative every day has helped my work massively. I'm just trying to get involved with as many things/projects as possible now to, hopefully, give myself some sort of platform for when I do 'start'.

A Personal statement about you or your work:

Currently, my work seems to be about mountains - nature, generally, plays a very big part in my drawings as does geometry. I like quite fine, textured pencil work mixed in with big, simple, colourful shapes which, ideally would be screen printed. And bears. I really like bears.

Follow me on twitter - www.twitter.com/jamiemilk

Blog - www.jamiemilk365days.blogspot.com

Flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/jamiemilk

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European countries: Denmark

Denmark

By Emma Armitage

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Months of the year: January

January

By Laila khubeize

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European countries: Czechia

Czechia

By Tom Colmans

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Artist 04: uberkraaft

Here is our fourth featured artist uberkraaft, he is super talented, self motivated and the model of a great illustrator with his many projects and community activities. He has a fun doodling style of illustration with a more developed, skillful digital illustration. His European countries rally submission is yet to come, so keep your eyes peeled for his country!

Who are you:

Hello. I'm uberkraaft - doodler, drawist, dreamer & digital paint monger.

What do you do:

By day I am a Creative Director, designer & illustrator for a small agency just outside London, and all other waking hours I'm a freelance illustrator and perpetual image maker. I live and breathe rad & creative stuff and try my best to make some ace work myself.

How did you start:

I've always drawn - I did a Fine Art degree in sculpture at Sheffield & snaffled a Masters in Digital Media from Coventry along the way... I picked up the illustration bug only last year and have carried on from there. I remember reading a thing about the super prolific & talented 'maker' Malota where she said the biggest thing she did to make work & get better was to get rid of the TV. That kinda clicked with me & I figured that I should just get busy and see what would happen....

Personal statement:

Just making eclectic work and enjoying the ride... At the moment, swinging between doodle based illustration, grainy environments and retro flavoured oddness and basically trying to avoid having a set style or path. Taking on too many projects & not getting paid but having a bunch of fun.

http://www.uberkraaft.co.uk/

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Artist 03: Ian Caulkett

Ian Caulkett is our third featuring artist on our blog and has contributed "I" for Alphabet rally and his European countries submission is coming soon. As well as being fantastically versatile artist and graphic designer, he is commited to the illustration community and to me personally as my graduate mentor, all round nice guy, enjoy his interview.:)

Who are you:
Ian Caulkett

What do you do:
Im a designer & illustrator. I work as a creative at a small advertising agency, but also split my time working with Tiptoe, an illustration collective i set up with friends and fellow illustrators Mark Whittle and James Nicholls.

How did you start:
As long as i can remember i have been inspired by creativity, it was always the only path i was going to take in life. I graduated in 2006, and have been working professionally in various roles ever since. I feel privileged to be able to wake up everyday and do what i love for a living.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is best described as mixed media collage, largely based on language and type, drawing from many contemporary designers as well as American pop artists. A passion for records led to some of my biggest influences in Peter Saville, Peter Blake & Stanley Donwood.

http://iancaulkett.net/
http://twitter.com/iancaulkett
http://tiptoecollective.co.uk/

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Artist 02: HelloWilson

Big welcome to our second artist to be featured, it's HelloWilson! Also a contributor to European countries rally with her beautiful Bosnia and Herzegovina, HelloWilson creates wonderful detailed patterns and these are locked into mythical and natural forms.

Here is her interview,

Who are you:
I am HelloWilson (better known as Rachel) and I'm a freelance graphic designer. I'm originally from Yorkshire but I currently live in Rome (although I'm returning to England in the autumn). When I'm not busy designing and drawing things I can usually be found drinking coffee and practicing my Italian; I have very recently discovered the joy of a good car boot sale. The things I miss most about England are the pubs and the British sense of quirkiness, while the things I will miss most about Italy are the pizza and the fun-loving friendliness of Italian people.

What do you do:
I'm first and foremost a graphic designer, having left a job in publishing to pursue a career in design. The illustration work that I do stemmed out of a need to escape my computer and let my imagination run wild with a pen and paper. I think making hand drawn designs is the most satisfying, creative and relaxing way to work. Designing in this way has a positive effect on all the work that I do.

I think my illustrations have a strong graphic look to them. It's very important to me that the work I produce is decorative and beautiful but also useful. I enjoy the way they can be applied to practical objects; my favourite piece so far is the 'Storm in a Teacup' tea towel I designed for ToDryFor.com. I have big plans for making new HelloWilson designs available later in the year.

How did you start:
Having always enjoyed art and design at school but also being good academically I initially went to Oxford University to study English Literature. During my degree I continued to go to art classes in my spare time. Afterwards I graduated and worked for a while in marketing for a large publisher. As time went on I did bits and pieces of design work on marketing materials and realised that design was what I was good at and what I wanted to be doing all the time. I left my job and went to Kingston University where I did a masters degree in Communication Design. For me the internet has been invaluable in providing platforms for me to get my work seen. I have work on Society6, Behance, Envelop.eu, as well as my own blog and website, and I'm frequently (perhaps a little too frequently!) on twitter and facebook. All these mediums have given me ways to learn from my peers, communicate with them and get their feedback not to mention find clients and customers!

A Personal statement about you or your work:
My work is bright, bold and hopefully has a sense of fun. As a designer it's important to me that my work has an end use and is not just art for art's sake. I am most satisfied with my work when I see it applied to some vaguely practical object such as a tea towel or cushion. For my part I couldn't feel luckier to have the opportunity to build a career in a field that is so challenging and exciting.

You can find out more about my work at: www.hellowilson.co.uk

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Artist 01: Anthony Zinonos

Here is our first ever artist feature on illustrator Anthony Zinonos. He is also the first contributor for our European countries rally too, I'm sure some of you remember this! He creates lovely collages which is one of the most difficult media to use and stand out with. He manages to not only stand out but has a unique flavour and style that is uniquely his, his images are both humorous and intelligent. Enjoy his interview here!

Who are you:
Anthony Zinonos: pug owner, frequent drinker of coffee and car boot veteran.

What do you do:
I'm a freelance Illustrator and paper goods collector.

How did you start:
I did a degree in Printmaking and Photo media, worked part time as a cake baker for 2 and a half years after graduating then finally went full-time freelance Illustrator.

A Personal statement about you or your work:
Born in South Africa and bred in Cyprus Artist / Illustrator Anthony Zinonos now lives in the self proclaimed 'fine city' of Norwich, U.K. He creates minimal hand made collages playing with shape and colour. Anthony is a co-founder of the Norwich based clothing company 'dirt box' as well as a member of the WAFA collective.

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