View from the Zoo

I change business cards like I change clothes - every season a new outfit! And it’s a lot cheaper than in the old days of offset printing. This season I printed 100 4×6 inch postcards through Gotprint.com and cut them up to achieve the clothes tag size cards which is smaller than the standard 2×3 inches. Six different colors on one side and six different animals on the other. I also simplified my job description to read «illustration» which works in English and French (cards have to be bilingual in Quebec). And, voilà, 600 glossy business cards advertisng my website www.julienchung.com! I like fishing so I placed a very small fish under my name. If you would like a set, please e-mail me at julienchung@hotmail.com and include your postal address.

I found Jeremy through his t-shirt website amorphia-apparel.com and his surreal animal designs thoroughly intrigued me. So I wrote him a few questions to satsify my curiosity and here the results, true to his form. Thanks, Jeremy!

Other Jeremy websites: wearscience.com and controversy.wearscience.com (T-shirts); jeremykalgreen.com (personal website); newstereotypes.blogspot.com (New Stereotypes to Teach your Kids, a satirical blog).

Q : Who is Jeremy?
A : I’m a professional slacker, former OSU photo student and general ne’er do well living and working out of beautiful Columbus, Ohio.

Q : What were you thinking about when you came up with the Angler and the Morningator designs?
A : I honestly have no idea what inspires me, and my designs often tend to be non-sequiturs. One day I was just pooping around at this or that when I heard a little singsong voice in my head chirping «mornin’ gator!», and the image of a grumpy alligator getting ready for a long day of gatoring with a cup of joe and his morning paper just popped into my head. Luckily, since I am my own boss and my overhead is virtually zero, I can just throw new ideas out there without trying to justify or rationalize them. And that was just one of those totally random ideas that apparently seems to connect with people.
    This last Valentine’s day I just wanted to offer a few different shirts with different tones, so I made a design I thought was cute but weird (octolove) one design that was a little more cryptic (gearheart) and one that was a bit more cynical (which was where the Angler design originated). Continue reading »

I was quite excited to discover that Esther is based in Maastricht, where I will be on holiday in a couple of weeks. She is a Dutch textile artist who has recently seen her work make it to the big screen (again!) in Sex in the City (thanks to Vic at Tigerprint for pointing it out to me).  Her wonderfully quirky dolls and animals are inspired by her own childhood drawings. Her signature : humour, simple shapes and unusual proportions. I find those long, striped legs irresistible! In just five years she has succeeded in selling her toys, books, music boxes, puppets, pillows and many other things in 18 countries and in 250 shops. Bravo! 

This is part 2 of 3 of the interview with Rob. I really enjoy Rob’s imagery especially his personal work. Above we have selection of commercial and personal illustrations.  Check out his new portfolio of character design on his blog. 

Q: How and why did you start to draw animals?

A: I’ve been interested and sympathetic feeling toward all kinds of animals my entire life. We lived out in the country so there were plenty of opportunities to explore and discover things. My childhood dreams of wanting to be a zookeeper or veterinarian evolved into an environmental consciousness when I hit my teens. Art has been the other passion obviously. I was disappointed that my studies in Fine Art (BA painting, MFA sculpture) led me to conclude that “serious art” had no business depicting animals. You could talk about landscape but not the organisms that were part of its ecology. That has changed but I think in general, animals are often used in an ironic or symbolic way in order for the art to be about itself rather than the subject it appears to be about. Anyway, luckily, I discovered the work of Morris Graves and a few other artists that depicted various animals in a sympathetic light. In order to experience animals in art, I just had to expand my search criteria a little: children’s books and Disney films, comics, other design and illustration art.