as www.​asmith​illus​tra​tion.com

Intro­duc­tion

Andy Smith grad­u­ated from the Royal Col­lege of Art in London in 1998. Since then he has worked as an illus­tra­tor for clients such as Nike, Expe­dia, Mer­cedes, Vaux­hall and Orange. His work is about char­ac­ters, humour and events and is inspired by his imme­di­ate sur­round­ings to create a visual world that is all his own. Illus­tra­tions are com­bined with strong typog­ra­phy and copy­writ­ing skills to create work that speaks for itself. As well as com­mer­cial work he also pro­duces self pub­lished books and prints. These are hand silkscreen printed and allow him to con­tinue and develop his sto­ries of Fatty, the target people and other strange goings on. He lives and works in Hast­ings, East Sussex.

How many times have you been told – ‘Do you really draw silly look­ing stick men and get paid for it by the likes of Time Out, Nike, Orange and Vaux­hall? Are they mad? Or am I miss­ing something?’ And what is your auto­mated response to this sort of question?

This is the kind of thing my par­ents might say. I’ve stopped both­er­ing to explain to them, its best to just change the sub­ject. No clients have dared to say that, I sup­pose if they are think­ing like that we prob­a­bly won’t be work­ing together anyway. I expect they say it after the phone has been put down.

How much do the big boys pay you; is it com­pa­ra­ble to the size of the companies?

The big boys can pay a lot but obvi­ously it depends on where stuff is going to be used. Strangely enough it tends to be the smaller jobs that are the more fiddly and time consuming.

I prefer to bash stuff out so short dead­lines suit me, it tends to work better if you don’t have too much time to think about things.

Apart from art and illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

I don’t seem to get time for much else, so just boring stuff like relax­ing and sit­ting about.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

I have a piece in a new book called ‘If you could do any­thing tomor­row what would it be?’ by Will Hudson and Alec Bec I think the page of con­trib­u­tors is a pretty full list of good illus­tra­tors and design­ers who are work­ing today. I haven’t seen the book yet but I’m sure it will be interesting.

What makes a good screen­print? Do you have a home studio and how often do you involve your mon­i­tor and mouse when you are working?

The thing I like about screen­print­ing is that it gives you lim­i­ta­tions with the amount of colours you’re using and also the fid­dle­ness of the image, (del­i­cate stuff is dif­fi­cult to print) and so you have to allow for this when you plan your image. I think the best screen­prints are the ones when this has all been thought about. Once you come to print all the deci­sions should have been made and you can just switch off and print, become a robot for a while. I don’t have a screen­print­ing studio at home, I usu­ally hire one when I need to print as I don’t really do it that often. Com­mer­cial jobs don’t really allow for it as there are always last minute changes and to reprint would be a night­mare. I just screen­print if its stuff for myself or for pro­mo­tional books and posters. It means I don’t have to get involved with tem­pera­men­tal print­ers (except for myself). So most of the time I’m a mon­i­tor and mouse man, its less messy too. Except for that black sludge that builds up around the bottom of the mouse.

Has the vinyl toy market ever caught your eye, what would an Andy Smith toy look like?

Hmm I’m not sure. I think it would have moving parts though. I’m not sure about the ones that just stand there like lumps, what do you do with them? Maybe it would have a pencil sharp­ener incor­po­rated so it had a point in life. I think I’m more into sto­ry­telling than char­ac­ters so I’d be keener to make a book to go with the toy than the toy itself.

Do you exhibit your work? What do you think about the whole gallery thing?

I’ve never had an exhi­bi­tion of my own as I’ve just never got around to it. I expect one day I will as I have a plan chest full of screen­printed posters that would prob­a­bly look good as a set. I put stuff into group show when asked which is a lazy way to do it. I had some work on show at Colette in Paris recently and Soma Gallery in Bris­tol show my work and lots of other great stuff. Also Shelf in London have my books.

Are you involved in any col­lab­o­ra­tive projects at the moment and is there anyone you would like to work with?

I sup­pose I see every job as a bit of a col­lab­o­ra­tion between myself and the art direc­tor. I’ve done some work for a new book about hand drawn typog­ra­phy called ‘Hand­job‘ by Mike Perry in the US which looks like it will be good. I’m about to draw some­thing on some train­ers for a book called ‘Custom Kicks’ about cus­tomiza­tion by Maki. Apart from that I’m open to offers.

What’s next in the pipeline for Andy Smith?

I’ve just had a fairly busy time doing 15 posters for McDon­alds (France) and some ads for Free­view here in the UK. I’m hoping for a little time off so I can do boring things like cut the grass.

Life of Brian or Holy Grail?

Life of Brian

Fish and Chips or a Sunday Roast?

That’s a dif­fi­cult one but it would prob­a­bly be a Sunday roast. It’s much harder to come across than fish and chips, which you can get any­where. Sunday Roast is more exclusive.

Nike or Reebok?

Part of work­ing for Nike meant I had to swear alle­giance to them so Reebok haven’t got a hope. They’ll have to offer me a job to get my support!

A jumbo marker pen or a bucket of paint?

A bucket of paint, it’s more gooey. Though you have got the fumes with the marker…..

Illus­tra­tion or Animation?

Illus­tra­tion! Ani­ma­tion takes too long.

Al Murphy or Uglydolls?

Al Murphy.

Jon Burg­er­man or Tado?

Both

You can see more of Andy Smith’s work at
www.​asmith​illus​tra​tion.com

Related News

• New print by Andy Smith
• Mcdon­alds posters by Andy Smith
• The Rainy Season by Andy Smith

Cats: Animation, Editor's Choice, LCS Interviews
Tags: Al Murphy, Alec Bec, Andy Smith, Bristol, France, Interviews, Jon Burgerman, London, Mike Perry, Nike, paint, Paris, Reebok, Royal College of Art, SOMA GALLERY, United Kingdom, United States, www.asmithillustration.com