interview with masala chai (india) 2008

 

1. Have you ever been to India or seen the process in action  i.e. the producers screen printing the t-shirts etc. , what was it like? how do you feel about the impact your designs have on their lives?

 

I have actually been to India three times now, I love India! Unfortunately I never made it to meet the actual artisans yet, the first two times i was there i was just backpacking around and i hadnt started working with People Tree then. And the last time it was a bit of a rush. Ive been around a fair bit of the country, i think ive spent about 4 months there all in all.
I have met many of the people who have set up the workshops when they come to London and they have a lot of stories about their projects, they are doing really great work there. It makes all the difference to think you are doing work for projects and companies you really agree with…
The last time i went to india was three months ago, i taught a 3 week course in illustration at Srishti college in Bangalore. I was really impressed with the college, they’ve a very forward thinking approach. The teaching staff were all really passionate and very good at what they do, it was very inspiring.

 

2. Do you take any design influences from Indian culture? If so, what are they?

 

I really love Indian folk art, Madhubani and Warli paintings and also a lot of the textiles. When I was in 3rd year in college I went backpacking around India for the summer and when I came back I went through a phase of being really crazy about Indian folk art. I bought a lot of books on Indian painting and textiles, it was very fresh and inspiring for me to see that then. I spend quite a bit of time in the British Museum and the V&A in London (when i feel burnt out) they have some really nice work … although ive been visiting the african and pacific island section more often than the indian one recently… they have some amazing stuff in there.

 

3. Who are your favourite artists/illustrators/designers ?

 

I like a lot of folk art mainly and get a lot of inspiration from visiting museums in London. David Shrigley’s work is always outstanding, also I really like Sara Ogilvie, Neal Layton and Tom Gauld. Michel Gondry and Traktor have done some great short films and videos. I worked for a year at a very good London animation studio a few years ago and was very lucky to meet some really inspiring animators in there, Grant Orchard, Ben Bocquelet and Steve Small are all doing really amazing work.

 

4. Do you really , honestly love vegetable fried rice? 

 

Not really actually… ive gone right off it! I was living in Hong Kong when i set up the site. I was living in a youth hostel and i had no money at all (and im vegetarian) so it was a running joke that the only thing i cooked or was seen to eat was vegetable fried rice. I used to boil a huge pot of rice and freeze so it would last for the week.

 

 

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Interview with Fast Company: Jenara Nerenberg August 2010

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fast company

Are books and toys the future of fair trade?
 
I dont know if its the future of fair trade but it makes a nice gift!  Every part of the little owl made from scratch from raw cotton, it is hand-spun, dyed, woven and sewn all by the women from a womens shelter. It is helping to provide the income to support 90 new women per year and their children, as well as supporting their literacy training and educating their children. Mahaguthi, the fair trade company that makes the toys was actually set up with a donation from Gandhi eighty years ago and has a really fascinating history. One of the things i love about the toys is that each owl is slightly different and each one has a different (worried!) expression on its face which just isn’t possible with industrial manufacture. Its just a more meaningful gift as it benefits people who need a hand and has this nice story behind it.
 
 
How did you get involved with PeopleTree?
 
I was friends with a designer who was designing the clothes for People Tree around seven years ago. She had told me about the way the company was set up and I wanted to get involved. Initially I volunteered some designs to produce a line of children’s clothing, i designed some little animal prints for cute little t-shirts and bibs and they sold really well so i was asked to do more. Then we did some adult tees and stationery. In the end I have done a whole range of things for them and i sort of ended up branding the company by default.
 
 
So tell me, why has the bulk of your work been carried out in Asia? 
 
My illustration work is quite popular in Japan and Korea and I seem to get a lot of commissions from there. People Tree was actually started in Japan, and also my picture book was first published in Korean when it was picked up at a book fair. Also this year i have spent 8 months developing products in India and Nepal. I’m not sure why I have been so centred around Asia. Maybe it’s just co-incidence or maybe because of the lovely food.
 
 
What role do young designers like yourself play in changing social norms in the design field at large? 
 
I think that design will have to pay more attention to things other than surface or aesthetic appeal. As I see it, design right now (especially graphic design) is more part of the problem than the solution. I had become very disillusioned in design because i had been working in a very superficial way. I think many designers feel this and there is a growing movement of designers who are thinking more seriously about design, but not nearly enough is happening right now. I think the most effective thing to do as a designer is to try to create or instigate projects from the very start. Otherwise graphic artists and designers tend to get hired right at the end of a (usually!) ill-conceived project and our work is just simply tacked on to ‘make it look nice’.
 
 
What’s next for you?
 
I have developed some products working with four different fair trade groups in Nepal and I hope to find distribution now in London. The one im most excited about is producing rugs with KTS, an adults technical school that supports an orphanage. I realised we can create rugs from digital images where each pixel corresponds to a carpet knot. They produce the most amazing hand knotted rugs from tibetan wool. We have produced some test rugs and I hope to have an exhibition in London soon and perhaps also sell the designs from my website.
I also have two more childrens books in the pipeline. One is about a bad dog!
 
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Textile student thesis. Interview about fair trade

Does your work for Fair Trade companies differ much in terms of style from other projects you have worked on?

I try to approach every new project from a different angle. Every project has a different aim or objective, so a different approach or style is needed.

With the work I have been doing with People Tree I wanted my imagery to fit in with the rest of their collections so I drew inspiration from the beautiful folk art and textile designs that they produce and tried to create illustrations and designs that echo those designs.

I have actually been a huge fan of asian and african folk art and textile designs so it was something that i really wanted to use in the designs.

 

What is it that interests you about designing for Fair Trade companies?

I believe in the work they do. I had been too long working with advertising companies and other design jobs, and i found it very frustrating and unsatisfying to work for companies and products that i don’t agree with or believe in.

 

Do you feel restricted as a designer when working on Fair Trade projects?

Not at all. The only problem I have had is sometimes the standard of production is not as good as it could be. But thats because fair trade is sometimes about training unskilled workers to give them a help onto the first step of the ladder.

They need help to improve their skills and People Tree and other fair trade producers work closely with them to do that.

Having said that, many of the artisans that People Tree work with are first class highly skilled artisans and many of the products have come back looking twice as good as I had imagined. It depends on the project. People Tree’s workers come from many different backgrounds and skill levels.

 

Where does your inspiration come from for your work with People Tree?

I had actually been a huge fan of asian and african folk art and textile designs and i had travelled around asia before working with people tree and collected all sorts of designs and inspiration. When I was asked to do some t-shirts for people tree to start with i looked back at these images and also went to the british museum to pick up some inspiration there.

 

What image/message are you trying to create for Fair Trade? 

I hope i am helping to create a more modern and fashionable image for fair trade.

Because of their lack of money and their non design-led background some of the fair trade brands are not as well designed as they could be. Most of the fair trade brands come from an activist background. They are often affiliated to charities or development groups whereas most fashion brands are set up by designers. I hope I could attract some people that wouldn’t otherwise think about buying fair trade. 

 

What is your opinion of other existing Fair Trade design?

I think it is really improving, if you asked me that five years ago i dont think anyone was really doing anything too interesting design-wise. There are some great new independent designers choosing to work with fair trade. 

 

What would you change about the way Fair Trade is marketed to help it become more mainstream?

I think it is doing quite well as it is. The commodities (bananas, tea, coffee etc) are doing really very well with almost no advertising, it’s incredible how far they have come. Most of the coffee sold in the UK is now fair trade and ten years ago it was less than five percent. I think clothing/manufacturing needs more work to compete with that, there are a few things holding it back. Firstly its is much more difficult to certify as there are so many parts all made in different areas and also the designs and brand names are not there yet.

 

What do you think the future for Fair Trade fashion holds?

 The future of fashion I think has to be fair trade and more environmentally aware. The whole of the fashion industry is completely unsustainable, high street fashion is almost entirely branding with little thought to anything else. Most of my fashion design friends are very disillusioned with the industry. The turn-around for clothing is so fast, there is little consideration for the environment, cotton is probably the single most polluting farmed crop the way it is currently farmed and dyeing and manufacturing are also a real problem. The way that the industry works is so wasteful, one year knit-wear is fashionable, the next year its out. And the whole knit-wear industry in asia behind the making of those knitwear items is suddenly out of work.

I think if we as consumers could see the damage that we are doing with out spending habits we would all be buying fair trade. The job of fair trade and the trade justice movement is to make people aware of these issues. 

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Interview with Big Magazine (Russia) 2010

Since when you doing illustrations? How it has started?

I have been illustrating since 2000. Full time since 2005.
I started doing small spot illustrations in a small Irish fashion magazine.
I began to get work in other magazines and then some advertising work in advertising agencies.
I moved to Hong Kong in 2002 and managed to get some work there also.

 

 

What do you like in your profession?
 
I like the variety, i am lucky in that i have got to work on a good spectrum of things. animation, product designs, childrens books that sort of variety makes it really interesting.
Also I like not having to work in an office! I have tried that a couple of times and it didn’t agree with me ….actually i couldn’t get any work done!!!

 

Your works are selling well, isn’t it?

Yes its going great. It slowed down for a bit last year but i think everything did.

 

How would you define your style of illustration?

Its sort of hand-drawn but digital. 

 

Do you stick to exact format or do you think of some experiments?

I try and take the time every so often to do my own work and ideas. Its really useful because i always get some new ideas and then i can use those ideas back in my commissioned work. It more than pays off to do it. I should do it more often, the problem is i have to force myself to do it as there are no deadlines.

 

Please, tell us about your most interesting project?

Probably the project im most proud of is my involvement with the fair trade company People Tree.
They work with artists and craftspeople from all over the developing world and help them access a world market.
I am involved in helping out with some designs. The work they do is fantastic and they make really beautiful products…

  

Would you like to illustrate some children book? What do you think it should be about?

I did a book last year in Korean, i actually wrote it as well, but its a very simple story, its for 3 year olds. Its coming out in English and a few other languages in August. Its about a lost owl.

 

Where do you get your inspiration?

I like a lot of folk art, especially asian folk art. 

 

What you will never do, ever?

I wouldnt do advertising for companies that are doing things that I dont agree with.  

 

What are your future plans? Any new streams? Projects?

Im working on two new children’s books.
One is about a bad dog (its for 3 year olds) and the other is a non-fiction. It takes an unusual view on the history of development, its going to take forever though.

 

What do you think you do better than anyone in the universe?

Copy and paste!!!!

 

Without what you could not live?

My laptop. and the internet.

 

Imagine yourself as movie director. What this movie would be about?

I’d love to do a  sort of animated-info-graphic documentary. My favourite director is probably Adam Curtis, you can see most of his films on Google video. He takes a really interesting take on familiar subjects. They’re all great. I’ll do the animated version for kids.
 
 

What colour would you choose to paint your life?

off-green has been going into all my pictures recently. I go through phases with colours. It was orange before that

 

What makes your heart work faster?

coffee…!

 

What distinguishes creative person from others?

I think creativity can be applied to any subject really, anyone who tries to do things a bit differently. I think art and design has sort of hijacked the word. Economists or mathematicians or anyone can be just as creative as artists or designers ..and artists and designers can often be uncreative in their approach.
 
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Interview with Bas Maliepaard Dec 2011

Someone told me Dick Bruna was an inspiration to you. why do you like his work? What did you learn from his work?
 
Yes, i went to visit his show at ‘the museum of childhood’ here in london a few years ago
i love all his work, his earlier graphic work for book covers as well as Miffy. Its very very graphic and deceptively simple. There was a story in the London exhibition about how he came up with the idea for his first book, it mentioned that he was 28 on a rainy beach holiday. I was actually 28 at the time so it resonated with me somehow, I had been promising myself for a number of years that i should do a picture book and it reminded me that i should try and give it a go. In fact it took me nearly another year to come up with the idea!

 

Are there other artists who are a source of inspiration? Leo Lionni? Eric Carle?
 
Yes i especially love Leo Lionni, every time i try to make something simple i try to look to his work.. he has so much character from so little, it makes it magical. I really like the russian animator Yuri Norstein for his simple characters too. I like lots of contemporary artists too, olivier tallec, kitty crowther, marc boutavant as well as animators (i worked in animation for a while)
 
 
What does it feels like that A BIT LOST is ‘Picture Book of the Year’ in the Netherlands?
 
im very excited, i have a dutch friend prina who studied with me in university in dublin and she is always sending me updates and pictures of mama kwijt in shop windows. she is a designer herself in holland.
http://www.prina.nl/  I love the animation that was made and all the exciting that have been done around this award. Another irish designer friend lives in amsterdam and is also keeping me up to date with sightings and events! Im particularly proud that it is doing so well there as im a big fan of dutch graphic design and the standard of design over there is so high.

 

Do you make your illustrations on the computer?
 
i always draw everything first in pencil but the majority of the work happens on the computer. the computer is a very powerful tool because of the flexibility it allows. Things can be changed endlessly so sometimes its hard to know when to stop.

 

What was the most surprising/satisfying reader’s reaction on A BIT LOST?
 
One mother wrote to me to say her baby’s first words were ‘Uh-oh!’ im not entirely sure if she was joking or not!  Another mother said that when her daughter sees the book she always says ‘uh-oh’, for her first birthday she baked her an owl shaped cake and she knew it was a success because when her daughter saw it she said ‘uh-oh’!
i got some lovely letters from kids too
Many parents have told me that their son or daughter has spotted the mummy owl hidden in the background before they did.
 
 
What do you think about the fact that your book got a slightly different title in Dutch? ‘Mama kwijt’ is short for ‘I lost my mommy’.
 
Its hard for me to comment as i dont speak dutch, i think editors do need to make decisions about what will work best in their language. I was perhaps a little dissapointed that the quote was not used in the Dutch version though. In the original versions i have a little epigraph by Robinson Crusoe on the title page which says: ‘Thus we never see the true State of our Condition, till it is illustrated to us by its Contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it’ (in summary: you dont know what you’ve got, until it’s gone) Although it really only speaks to the adult reader i quite like that its there. I quite like the contrast between the 17th century classic and a funny little book about a lost owl. I have a similar quote by a stoic philosopher for my next book Oh No George! (stoute hond) which is about a dog trying to be good. 
 
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Irish Independent Interview 2010

When did you leave Ireland? I went to London in 2003. Im always coming back though. I usually spend a few months of the year here.

 

Where did you study Graphic Design and Illustration? NCAD

 

Highlight of your career to date? I was listed in Time Magazine’s DESIGN 100 a few years ago for the fair trade work i have been doing with the company People Tree, also I have just won the Gold AOI Best of British Illustration Award in the Childrens book category this year for my first book A Bit Lost which came out last month.

 

Do you intend on publishing more children’s books? 
Yes definitely. I have nearly finished another one about a bad dog. Its called OH NO! GEORGE! He eats a cake and chases cat and digs a big hole but he feels terrible about it afterwards.

 

Have you ever illustrated a book for another author? No

 

Book illustrator that you admire (Irish or otherwise) 

 

I really love Beatrice Alemagna’s work. Un Lion a Paris perhaps is my favourite. It is about a lion that takes the train to Paris, she wanders around the city and falls in love with Paris and finds here home as a famous Lion statue in the heart of the city.

 

Also Tara Publishing in India do some great unique (even screen printed!) books. Catch that crocodile is perhaps one of my favourites of theirs

 

 

Cho Sunk Yung is a huge inspiration for me also. His books are quite different in tone than my own. His Underground Garden is about a man who plants a garden in the middle of a dark city and it bursts through the walls and takes on a life of its own. There is a beautiful poetry in his writing and there is always a metaphor and meaning behind the stories. 

 

 

Awards your work has won? 
I have just won the Gold AOI Best of British Illustration Award in the Childrens book category this year and got the Bronze in the Advertising category 2 years ago

 

Proudest achievement to date? 
Im very proud of the work I have been doing with fair trade. I have been working with People Tree a UK based fair trade clothing company. I have just started doing work with a fantastic company called Mahaguthi in Nepal too. They are an organisation with an incredible history and were originally started by Gandhi and his friend Tulsi Mehar in the 1920s. I had read about their work and philosophy and I was very proud to work with them and contribute to some of their handicrafts and products.

 

Favourite project to-date? 

 

My book is definitely my favourite. I had wanted to write and illustrate my own book for many years and do something with my own characters and story. In the end it had to be wrestled from me by my editor. We worked hard on the design of it and the details… i think i was probably driving my publisher crazy but we got there in the end. Im really happy with it.

 

Any other interesting / quirky facts that you can share e.g. How many countries have you worked in over the last year? What you wanted to be when you were young? Career ambition? 

 

I worked in India and Nepal for eight months this year before coming back to London. I have been doing fair trade work with some organisations there. I have been making and designing fair trade rugs and soft toys (an Owl too!) amongst other things

 

When I was young I wanted to be an archaeologist because I loved dinosaurs.

 

I hope to continue to make picture books. I hope to do some non-fiction books for older children too.

 

Advice for budding graphic designers / illustrators in Ireland today?

 

Keep working hard on varied projects that interest you and try to keep pushing and expanding the types of work you do is the best way of learning and developing interesting work. Do a lot of research and be aware that no matter how good anyones work is, it can always be improved on.

 

 

Why you feel it is important to develop creativity and self-belief in children.

 

I think creativity has come to mean the arts but it is essential to every part of life. It is a way of looking in a fresh way at the world. The best breakthroughs in any field come from creative thinking and self belief. Whether it is in science or the arts, any sort of problem solving can benefit from creativity and thinking about things in a new way. There is no-one in the world better suited to viewing the world from a new angle than children.

 

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Interview for amateurillustrator.com 2008

Published in 2008 on amateurillustrator.com

 

Firstly, tell us a little about yourself and how you came about to do art?
I studied graphic design and illustration in the National College of Art in Dublin, Ireland. While i was there I was always trying to get work in magazines and other bits and pieces here and there. After that I wanted to take a break and get out of Ireland for a bit so moved to Hong Kong with two friends, we started off with teaching English but after only a few months we managed to find freelance design and illustration. I ended up traveling around and about in Asia for two years before moving to the UK in 2004 to work for the London based animation Studioaka. I left there to work again on smaller more creative freelance projects. I illustrate for several magazines and newspapers I have just recently started making hand-made prints and designs for clothing and stationery with the fair trade company People Tree. I always loved drawing I don’t know how it started really. In Dublin I had been doing a few very small jobs for terrible money and I never really thought it was possible to make a living out of it but when I got to Hong Kong the first job I got there was this International advertising campaign. I couldn’t believe the money they wanted to pay me. So I threw in the English teaching job and that was pretty much it.

 

Tell us about your original and strongest sources of inspiration and what you do these days when you’re in need of a little creative spark?
I love Japanese prints and Indian painting and in fact most Asian art has something ornate and very beautiful about it, which is part of the reason I wanted to travel in Asia. I used to be crazy about Rousseau’s work until I saw a book on Bengali painting which just blew me away. The patterning and colours are just awe-inspiring. I’m living in London at the moment and I visit museums pretty regularly at least once a week. I live quite close to the British Museum and I’d go in there quite often, its an amazing place anyway, I love work with a naivety to it. I’ve kind of used this for the work I have been doing for People Tree.


The standard of design and illustration I think is really very high in London so its very inspiring just walking around the high streets over here. I spend hours in bookshops too… I had to do my Christmas shopping last month and I think I bought more books for myself than I did presents for other people. Having said all that drawing from life and observing people doing everyday things is pretty good too. I used to always listen to a Walkman on the bus until I discovered that listening to other peoples conversations is much better.

 

How do you go about approaching any given piece of art, i.e. what do you do first/ how do you set the mood?
I usually have an image in my head that i scribble down very quickly. If i don’t do it quickly it loses something, its weird but i think its really true, there’s a good book called ‘Zen mind, Beginners mind’ which i think kind of describes that kind of unconscious process really well. I always start out on paper, never on the computer because the first images are quite important to get down right and I’m quicker on paper than I am on the computer. I always do lots of drawings first and usually i scan them all in and attack them in Photoshop. Usually the image looks really cluttered initially so i start whittling it down… it ends up quite stark by the end of all that. I end up not using most of the work that I do in the end which is a shame… but less is usually more in a lot of ways. Thats the great thing about digital images, its so easy to change and have complete control. When I started out doing illustration I was doing original pieces and sending them off to be scanned in. But I was never really totally happy with the images i was producing, there was always some part of them that i wanted to change. On the computer the images are so much closer to what I want.

ell us more about your distinctive visual signature and how important you think a distinct style is for upcoming artists?
Its funny a lot of friends always ask why i have such a distinctive style and why do i always draw in the same style, but the truth is half the time i approach a drawing I want to do something completely different and it always ends up looking exactly the same as all my other drawings. It does in some way make my portfolio look stronger when its put together rather than if they images were very different to each other. If your portfolio is a bit of a random mix I’m sure the art director might be a little concerned about what they’re going to get. I think its much more important to produce work that you are happy with, if you are continually trying to push yourself a style will naturally follow i think. I used to love to kind of slavishly copy other illustrators work when i was in secondary school (high school), some of them I’d love their line drawing, others for their humor etc and eventually I think all of that just ended up merged into one style. I don’t really know…! I never really thought about it before.

 

 

What is it about your work that you like best?
I like it when its very subtle but gets the point across. If its too literal or obvious its a little bit cheap, and likewise if its too abstruse nobody can figure out what you’re getting at. I don’t like punchlines very much. I usually prefer drawings that say something more than they seem to on first glance. But they’re the hardest to do. I tear photos out of the newspaper that I like, that are usually just of people with weird expressions on their faces. I got a good one a few weeks ago from the TV section of moses standing there with a staff ready to part the sea but he has this look on his face that makes him look like he’s not sure whats going to happen next. If I manage to convey that sort of feeling in an image I’m pretty proud of myself. I did one lately for the Guardian that I quite like.
I’m very proud of the recent work I have been doing with the fair trade clothes company People Tree, the work they are doing in developing countries is fantastic so it’s great to think I’m helping them out.
I remember I saw Tomato (London based design group ) give a talk about design and they said that as a designer ‘you get the work that you do’, which i think is a really good piece of advice.
If you start out doing fashion illustrations and have nothing more than fashion illustrations in your portfolio or on your site you’ll find it hard to get hired to do editorial pieces.
Art directors are naturally unwilling to take a risk so you&
rsquo;ll find that the only way to get out of that side of the industry is to take a bit of time off and create the work yourself.


The best thing to do is to work in your spare time and find a way of working that you like and enjoy and then take that to the art directors.
A friend of mine had an agent for Children’s book illustration. She advised him to produce work in particular styles that she thought would sell, so he followed her advice but he still found it hard to get work and he didn’t enjoy doing work in a forced style. It wasn’t until he produced a body of his own work that he felt comfortable with did he start getting serious work.
If your work is unique you definitely will get better and more interesting work.
Having said all that probably the most important thing to do is get your work out there, I went to college with a guy who does really really great work but he is quite shy about showing his work off and as a result hasn’t got half as much work as he should be getting. Illustrators are pretty good at this I think, compared to photographers. Every fairly successful photographer I meet is a born extrovert who has no problem at all with selling himself and his work but most of the illustrators I’ve met are all really very shy and modest.

 

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MS Readathon Ireland 2011

1)     What is your favourite book of all time?
Maybe Guns Germs and steel by Jared Diamond. Its a really interesting history of the last 10,000 years.
 
2)     Why do you love reading?
I think reading is a great way of following and developing your interests. If you have a mild interest in something and you discover a good book about it you can really start to get into it. it can open up a new world and lead you on to other books. If you follow your curiosity theres no end of places you can go.
 
3)     What advice would you give to both adults and children to help them to make more time for reading?
I usually carry a book with me, you can make use of your time on the train or if theres a delay. I go through phases of reading a lot and not reading at all depending where i am living and the circumstances, if i live in a quieter house with nice living room with no tv or distractions i will read a lot more. I dont have a tv in my place now and i think i probably read more because of it. Always have a bedside light and good book beside your bed.
 
4)     Is there a reading or book related memory/tip that you would like to share with young readers around the country?
Ask your friends what they enjoyed reading. I have friends that share similar interests and whenever i meet them we swap interesting books we have come across. There really is nothing better than being able to share a good book with someone.
 
5)     What are your must-reads 
a.     In literature
The Third Policeman – Flann O Briens
Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert M Pirsig
b.     Children’s book
Where the wild things are – Maurice Sendak.
Oh the places youll go – Dr Suess
Alice in wonderland – Lewis Carroll, is an amazing book for both children and adults.
i loved everything by Roald Dahl. I read ‘the twits’ for the readathon when i was very young and i loved it so much i read everything else by him.
c.      Adults book
The man who mistook his wife for a hat – Oliver Sacks
The selfish gene – Richard Dawkins
 
6)     Who is your favourite author?
I really enjoy the books of Jared Diamond, ‘Guns Germs and Steel’, ‘Collapse’ and ‘The Third Chimpanzee’. He writes about very interesting popular science and i saw him give a talk in foyles bookshop in london a few years ago.
 
7)     Where is your favourite place to read?
I tend to read more and i really enjoy reading when im away. on the beach or train or wherever. when im in london i mostly just read on my bed
 
8)     How did you get into writing?
im really more of an illustrator, i never wrote anything i was proud of while i was at school, i wasnt great at english and i was always pretty terrible at writing essays. I just focused on drawing and art. But after i finished art school i was doing illustrations for other peoples ideas and i thought i could try and give it a go myself. It didnt seem to be that hard. Actually it was harder than i thought, but i enjoyed the process almost more than i enjoyed doing the actual drawings. I dont know if i could write anything that didnt have pictures though, it’s the pictures that tell my stories.
 
9)   Any advice for budding authors?
im a budding author myself really. i think the main thing is to find an area or an interest you enjoy and dig deeper and follow your enthusiasm. if you continue along that path far enough you will always arrive somewhere interesting.
 
By |2020-05-13T12:50:07+00:00February 11th, 2009|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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