What is it about collaboration that interests you so much?<\/b><\/p>\n
I just kept finding designers and artists that I thought made amazing work. I wanted to work with them and fortunately, they wanted to work with me too. Really I\u2019ve just always thought it was the best way to meet people from around the world, it meant that then when I would go travelling say, I would have people to hang out with everywhere. It really was as naive as that, I was never approaching this as, \u201cWow cool this will get me more followers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n You get to see your work in a different light<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I think in part also I was inspired by the fact that I know lots of musicians, and they were always working with producers and vocalists from halfway across the world. I\u2019ve always thought that was so cool, and I wanted to be able to do the same thing with art. There\u2019s something about having the input of another artist, you get to see your work in a different light, and with their take on it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why did you want to work with Kelly Anna and Annu Kilpel\u00e4inen?<\/b><\/p>\n They are both really good friends from way back. Kelly was my first friend when I moved to London so I\u2019ve known her for maybe 10 years or so now. I\u2019ve always loved Kelly and her work is just an extension of her personality, so I find I\u2019m naturally just drawn to it \u2013\u00a0I love everything she makes. The same goes for Annu! I\u2019ve known Annu for around the same amount of time, and we even lived together for about four years. Again, I love Annu and her work is an extension of her personality too. Annu\u2019s work for me is like an explosion of brain colour (which I find similar to my own work) plus we share a mutual love of cars, so that was an easy one really!<\/span><\/p>\n How did you adapt to working with new people, what is your process like?<\/b><\/p>\n I always think ping ponging is the best way to collaborate. Basically you both come up with a rough initial concept, then decide who\u2019ll get started with the first part. When they\u2019ve done their bit they send it to you, you add some things then send it back, they add some things, and you keep going like this until you both feel it\u2019s finished! It\u2019s cool, and I think it\u2019s the best way to make a piece of work that truly represents both people\u2019s style.<\/span><\/p>\n I always think ping ponging is the best way to collaborate<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What tips would you have for anyone else who wants to work with new collaborators?<\/b><\/p>\n Just keep finding people whose work you like and reach out to them, this is especially if they\u2019re already your friends. Also, be respectful, people can be very busy and don\u2019t always have the time to work on a collaboration, especially as often this kind of work is not paid (and we all need to make a living!)<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t overthink it or lay down loads of rules, just riff off each other\u2019s work and have fun with it.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t approach it in terms of what you can gain from the situation, be that followers or attention. That\u2019s kind of a depressing mindset, do it because you genuinely want to make work with that person.<\/span><\/p>\n What have you learnt by working with different artists?<\/b><\/p>\n We are all in the same boat really. We all have the same excitements, let downs, anxieties, etc. The more you surround yourself with people who work in similar fields to you, the easier it is to stay focused and remove a lot of the anxiety that comes with being a freelance artist.<\/span><\/p>\n How do you adapt your work for physical formats, like T-shirts?<\/b><\/p>\n To be honest, T-shirts were the first thing I ever designed, I had a clothing label that did relatively well while I was still a student so I can kind of draw on that experience. My advice is, like anything, don\u2019t just make a rectangle or a square piece of work and plonk it on a T-shirt. Think about the actual T-shirt, what you want to do with that format and how it might look in the end. Also don\u2019t forget, people have to want to wear it, otherwise there is very little point in making it.<\/span><\/p>\n Holly St Clair<\/a> is a London-based illustrator and designer, and\u00a0Martina Martian<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is an Australian designer and illustrator.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n How did you first become friends?<\/b><\/p>\n H: I think we met for the first time at The Jewellery Pop-Up, right? We have a mutual friend in Rosie from Mood Good Jewellery, I had done a collaboration with her last year so went along to support!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n M: Then in terms of work, we met up for a sketchbook date, which really turned into eating a large amount of pizza and a brief tour of Brixton. It was lovely!<\/span><\/p>\n How did you adapt to working together, what is your working process like?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n M: For this project, we\u2019d originally have liked to sketch out our ideas in person at a cute cafe, but self-isolation meant we scheduled a Facetime chat instead then DM\u2019d our ideas over Instagram. I\u2019ve had to head back to Australia for a few months so we\u2019ve actually ended up collaborating across the globe\u2026 It’s been surprisingly easy! I love the internet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve ended up collaborating across the globe<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n H: It\u2019s quite a fun time difference too, Martina gets up as I\u2019m going to sleep so often I\u2019ll wake up to a lovely update. Our process is based on things that I\u2019ve found work from previous collabs; there\u2019s a layering of ideas so we go back and forth. From the outset, we agreed Martina would do lettering in her style and I could draw around it. Then it\u2019s a case of following our noses, chasing that creative gut instinct.<\/span><\/p>\n Would you say there\u2019s a distinction between your friendship and working relationship?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n M: Our conversations drift between projects and personal life, I guess we keep some distinction by putting all the important work stuff into an email.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n H: I don\u2019t remember to do anything unless it\u2019s in an email! I like having this overlap between the personal and the professional. My work, and Martina\u2019s too, in my opinion, comes from a personal place, I can\u2019t really distance myself from that. It\u2019s different when you\u2019re working with a paying client obviously, but the fun thing about working with friends is the blending of two worlds.<\/span><\/p>\n What do you think each person brings to the table?<\/b><\/p>\n M: I think my strength is in writing quotes, Holly definitely has the uplifting, whimsical drawings side covered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n H: Martina\u2019s lettering is awesome. I also admire her ability to create these sentimental, in a good way, statements. I obviously bring star power. I\u2019m kidding \u2013 I bring the whimsy!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What tips would you have for any other friends setting out to collaborate on a creative project?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n M: In general, just make sure everybody involved is getting something out of it, try not to control too much and keep an open mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The fun thing about working with friends is the blending of two worlds<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n H: 100% agree. Let the project take you where it wants to go. I also think it\u2019s important to remember that this is an opportunity to indulge yourself, make something you love with people you love! Also, stick to deadlines you set, it\u2019s easy for personal projects to stall due to procrastination. (I\u2019m very guilty of this!)<\/span><\/p>\n How do you adapt your work for physical formats, like T-shirts?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n M: I like to keep in mind the function of a T-shirt and where each person will wear it. In this case, the buyer would most likely be wearing our T-shirt while social distancing at home, so we kept that in mind when designing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n H: I\u2019ve learnt that you can\u2019t just slap a picture on a T-shirt and call it a day, you need to remember how it will be worn. I have a Moomin T-shirt that\u2019s my favourite example of this; Moomintroll has his arms outstretched like a conductor, but when I wear it, it looks like I\u2019m being groped by a beloved children\u2019s book character. Said T-shirt has been consigned to the pyjama drawer, but a wear test would have highlighted that issue immediately! Similarly, check how the design looks tucked in or worn under a jacket, that\u2019s why Everpress\u2019 sample service is super useful.<\/span><\/p>\n Mar\u00eda Medem<\/a> is an\u00a0illustrator based in Seville, Spain.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n How did you first start working with musicians?<\/b><\/p>\n I think the first time was when a band from my city (Vera Fauna), who are friends of mine, asked me to illustrate the cover of one of their singles. It was a very cool starting point because I\u2019m confident with them and I felt able to explore my own different approaches to the song, knowing they\u2019d still guide me well. After that, I started making more work for musicians, including Alaskalaska, Jay Som and Bombay Bicycle Club. I\u2019ve also made an animated video clip for Hovvdy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How does working with musicians differ to the rest of your practice?<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s very different from illustrating an article. Sometimes a musician will come to me with a very clear idea of what they want, and other times they won\u2019t and I’ll get to interpret their music or the album\u2019s concept. One of the big differences I\u2019ve found is that with music I can work through concepts in a more free and abstract way. For me, the atmosphere of an illustration is the main thing here, so my task is to try and reflect the mood of the music somehow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My task is to try and reflect the mood of the music<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What has it been like collaborating with RAMZi?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n It was very cool! I\u2019d been listening to their music from way before she contacted me, and actually I\u2019d been playing one of her records while working on a very long commission a couple of weeks before she wrote me, so this felt like a very special coincidence. RAMZi brought a lot of things to the project, the aesthetic of the music and RAMZi universe is very interesting to me, and an element that I carried over to the T-shirt, in particular, was animals. I drew this strange creature, basically a combination of a couple of very weird monkeys, that was totally inspired by the universe she creates with her music.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How did you adapt to working together and what was the working process like?<\/b><\/p>\n It\u2019s been a very long process because at the beginning I was going to make the cover of her new record, but then everything took more time than expected and suddenly it was summer and I was on holiday. So we delayed that collaboration and the idea was to use some of the sketches I had made for the cover on another thing. Initially, we\u2019d thought to do a 2020 calendar, but instead, we\u2019ve ended up at our T-shirt, and we\u2019re going to make some more merch together soon. It\u2019s been cool though because we get along really well together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n She\u2019s from Canada and I\u2019m from Spain but we actually ended up meeting each other in person last year in London, totally by chance, because I was doing a book fair and she was DJing there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What tips would you have for anyone working on a collaboration between a visual creative and musician?<\/b><\/p>\n Good communication with the musician is really important. Also don\u2019t be afraid of trying weird or unexpected approaches to the artwork, and send all the sketches that you\u2019ve prepared. It\u2019s happened to me now a couple of times that the sketch I\u2019m the most unsure about, even the one that I think it\u2019s better not to send, ends up being the musician\u2019s favourite.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid of trying unexpected approaches<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n How do you adapt your work for physical formats, like T-shirts?<\/b><\/p>\n When possible I try to make something specifically for the tee, because how a T-shirt is perceived is very different from how a record cover or magazine page is perceived. With T-shirts I also try to use fewer colours than usual because the tees that I like and wear the most have a very restricted palette, plus fewer colours means your T-shirt can be screen printed, which is much cooler!<\/span><\/p>\n Poppy Crew<\/a> and Miles Tewson<\/a> are both Bristol-based illustrators.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n How did your working relationship begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n P: Our working relationship started at university, where we met in the first term of the illustration degree we\u2019re both on. We\u2019ve been working alongside each other since!<\/span><\/p>\n M: Because we had all the same projects to work on throughout the start of our degree and relationship, our working relationship began straight away and slowly grew over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n How did you adapt to working together and what is your working process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n P: We both have quite similar working processes, which is why I think adapting to working on a collaborative project together was quite smooth. For instance, we both rely heavily on sketchbooks to plan and design our initial ideas and we both also turn most of our sketches into finished digital pieces, which is what we did for this T-shirt design!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n M: We\u2019ve been creating our own individual illustrations and working on our own projects since before we met and still do now, so in this case, it was really exciting being able to adapt our processes to work collaboratively. Like Poppy said, it was actually a really easy transaction because of the similar individual working process we have!<\/span><\/p>\n Do you find there\u2019s a separation between your relationship outside of work and inside of work?<\/strong><\/p>\n P: I think there\u2019s definitely a sense in which our work life and personal life bleeds into one, largely because making art is something we do for fun as well as for work, and this has been the case since before we met. But this means we\u2019re both pretty okay with there being a fine line between the two, and most of the time it doesn\u2019t even really feel like work, which is ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n M: I\u2019d add to that that I think it\u2019s important to know when you need to create the separation between work and personal life, which is something we\u2019ve learnt to do over the last couple of years. It\u2019s about finding a balance that works for you both!<\/span><\/p>\n What do you think each person brings to the table?<\/strong><\/p>\n P: I feel like we\u2019re both pretty equal with what we bring to the table in terms of work; we bounce off each other\u2019s ideas constantly. Miles is really good at offering me support on days where I\u2019m having a really bad art block, or days where I start questioning my work and my ability! I find it really important to have that support.<\/span><\/p>\n M: Poppy will always offer useful constructive criticism when I\u2019m struggling to move on with my ideas, or when I get stuck with what to do to improve my work! She\u2019s also been doing freelance illustration for a little bit longer than me so she\u2019s been really important in helping me get into it properly.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you work separately on any projects too now, how does this differ?<\/strong><\/p>\n M: Most of the projects we work on together are individual projects, so it doesn\u2019t really differ too much from before the collaboration!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n P: This T-shirt collaboration is actually the first time we\u2019ve properly worked together! So it\u2019s more normal for us to be working on individual projects, but just in the same space as we live together.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What tips would you have for any other couples setting out to collaborate?<\/strong><\/p>\n Know when to take breaks while working! It\u2019s definitely important for your relationship to have some separation between the collaboration and your personal life so it doesn\u2019t get too overwhelming.<\/span><\/p>\n Try to find a balance<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Listen to each other\u2019s suggestions and try to find a balance between both of your work, even if it requires a compromise.<\/span><\/p>\n Have fun with it! Collaboration with someone you\u2019re close to is exciting because it\u2019s something you can do together, and it also makes you produce work you might not think to do otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n How do you adapt your work for physical formats like T-shirts?<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of our work is made digitally or simplified into block colour layers so that it\u2019s easy to turn into screen prints, which I think has helped to turn our work into T-shirt designs as simple designs seem to be a lot more successful! Screen printing is something we\u2019re both into so I think that carries through our styles for other products we create.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"kris-andrew-small-x-annu-kilpelainen-everpress-blog\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/kris-andrew-small-x-annu-kilpelainen.png\")
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Holly St Clair & Martina Martian On Friendship<\/h3>\n
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Mar\u00eda Medem On Music<\/h3>\n
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Poppy Crew & MILES TEWSON On RELATIONSHIPS<\/h3>\n
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