Email from Joe Wilson

Decided that I am leaning more towards illustration freelance - or even in a studio - so for PPD and Design Context sent a few emails out to various illustrators and a couple replied - so nice of them to take time out for me - really helpful and it has started to shape more of my decisions for the near future...

Correspondence:

Me.

Hello Joe.
I'm putting together a publication based on designers / studios who have influenced my design practice or create work for the type of industry I'd like to work for. I've followed your work ever since I picked up the Attack the Block issue of Little White Lies and really loved what you do. 

I was wondering if I could email you some questions through for you to answer to help put it together - about the illustrating for the industry etc?

Thank you and hope to hear back soon




Steph Bourne
http://cargocollective.com/stephbourne 




Joe

Hi Steph,

heres some answers, hopefully some help!

cheers

- Are there any particular influences that have led to your current style of work?

I really love nature and animals, and i love to draw them. they just constantly crop up in my work

and i cant seem to escape it so ive grown comfortable with that. its just a source of endless inspiration to me,

always something cool to look at. So that is a huge influence on my personal work. 

I think other artists or filmmakers animators etc who are into the details. i like detail. so anyone who

spends time getting that right is good in my book. 

I got very into etching at university so the limitations that that provided me, learning to draw with lines like that is probably the biggest reason

the way my work looks like it does.

- Do you find your style has changed much over the years?

Yes, it definitely has. I started out from an etching and printing background, i did a lot of black and white only work.

just line drawing and mark making really. i started getting into colour when i first started working commercially.

i started to have to put colour into my drawings and its developed through the years to something i love doing. 

and my work has just come into its own and i now have a system of working which i really like.

- Do you feel that location has an impact on gaining work / clients?

When i first started this really bothered me, i wanted to be in london to gather up as much exposure to clients as i could.

Im not going to lie, most of the UK clients i deal with are based in london, but im not and its never been a problem.

when i wasnt getting much work i thought that it was because i wasnt in london but it was really just a matter of establishing myself.

It takes a while and my agents debut art have been instrumental in helping me to get work.

- Can you roughly describe your working process?

i research a little, do a couple of pencil drawings, settle and develop into a proper detailed rough, ink that up, scan it in, colour it digitally, send it off!

- What are your initial concerns when approaching a brief?

I try not to have too many concerns when starting a brief, i like to get into it positively so i don't get bored

or talk myself out of it before i start.  usually i have an immediate visual in my head of how i want it to look, and more often than not it will end up being somewhere similar. i guess the initial concern would be, can i actually do a good job of this? 

- Have you always been freelance - or did you start in a studio? Recommendations straight out of uni?

I've always been freelance, i didn't start in a studio, but i would have liked to i think. i couldn't do it now as i wouldn't have any freedom to work on things the way i do, but it would definitely have been useful after graduating to learn how the industry works. Thats one of things you have to learn pretty quickly, that being a freelance illustrator is a business and you have to operate with that in mind. A job is a job, and you need to be paid fairly and treated fairly. Its important to know where you stand. but i think working within a studio would give you an idea of the financial and legal side of things.

-You've had some pretty huge clients, how did you go about getting them - did they come to you / where do you hear of opportunities being freelance?

Im lucky in that i have a really great Agency behind me. Debut art have repped me since i started out so they market me to an extent and hold a great website folio of my work. A lot of large clients work through agencies as its reliable and gives them security to know the work is going to get done and the artist is a professional.

So a lot of clients come through them to get me, wether they know about me before they visit the site i don't know. Any work that comes in comes directly to me and is usually a result of people seeing my work out and about or on the internet.

- Any tips on trying to make it?

don't be too concerned with making it, it sounds glam but its really not. just work really hard, do great work and you'll be fine. 

hope some of this helps

cheers


The last question and response has really spurred me on - thinking now about agencies and just seeing what happens.It's good to know that some people aren't solely based in London and it doesn't seem to be an issue for them.