jv www.​jere​myville.com

I’ve always seen you as an illus­tra­tor / vinyl toy designer, but Jere­myville seems to be so much more, can you explain this?

For me it’s more about the idea. So the idea can man­i­fest itself in any format or vehi­cle really, that best expresses what you’re trying to say. Some­times it’s a simple haiku con­cept for a comic strip, other times it’s a t-shirt graphic, or a mural for an art show, or a 3D toy, or a sketchel col­lab­o­ra­tive project, or a book. I like keep­ing in mind the essence, what you’re really trying to say, then seeing how best to express that essence.

Of course you need to main­tain your own dis­tinct voice through­out, and that is the key point that I think some miss, if they try to do too much. I guess it’s like a musi­cian being able to play sev­eral instru­ments, and each really well. It’s still the same musi­cian and his or her music, but through a dif­fer­ent instru­ment. But if a musi­cian is only really good at guitar, they should stick to that. Thank­fully I seem to be com­pe­tent at a vari­ety of instru­ments, and don’t really favour one over any other. This comes from prac­tice, and enjoy­ing the medium for what it is. I also love trying new medi­ums, for exam­ple I’ve been doing a lot of ani­ma­tion recently, eg for MTV, and this is a new medium I love.

Or maybe I’m just mad. It really could be as simple as that.

When the Jere­myville and Megan Mair’s book Vinyl Will Kill! got pub­lished, what effect did it have on your career?

It was really a big inter­na­tional call­ing card, and a big com­mer­cial suc­cess, and I still get about 5 emails a day from say some­one in South Africa or Ice­land who has just bought the book and tells me they love it. It’s a great start­ing point for some­one get­ting into toys, or writ­ing about it as their uni­ver­sity project. That has been a big group I hear from actu­ally. It is still having reper­cus­sions inter­na­tion­ally, and my pub­lisher IdN is doing a new book with me now, out in Novem­ber, called ‘Jeremyville Sessions’, all about the process of col­lab­o­ra­tions with 300 artists and com­pa­nies. IdN were thrilled at how Vinyl Will Kill went, and it’s still going.

When you were car­toon­ing at the Sydney Morn­ing Herald, did it ever think you would be in the posi­tion you are now?

I always new if I got the humble car­toon right it could take me far. The car­toon is like short­hand for me, the sim­plest way to get an idea across. Like a chef making a simple omelette. A great chef can make a per­fect omelette, even though it is very simple, it takes nuance, timing and restraint. Like a simple car­toon with 8 lines that convey a mood. It is a lot more dif­fi­cult than it looks, and it is as much about what you leave out as put in.

In Aus­tralia there is a sweet called ‘Minties’ by Nestle, and on the wrap­per are very small car­toons that I have been draw­ing since about 1994. I’ve drawn about 300 all up by now, and they are still on there. It is prob­a­bly the most haiku I’ve ever got. They really need to say so much in about 3cm!

You did a Com­puter Arts cover recently and so did Jon Burg­er­man. Out of you and Jon, who do you think got paid more?

Ha-​ha, I’m not sure how much Jon got paid, but per­son­ally the money I received for it wasn’t even a factor, rather the honour of doing it, and the fact that I was the first Aus­tralian to be on the cover! They are also really great to work with, I mainly dealt with Roddy, he was an absolute plea­sure to work with, and he did a great job on all the com­po­nents of my art in the mag­a­zine. I was really proud of the result, and it was a dream brief.

Who are your favourite artists/illustrators alive today?

This is a very impor­tant list for me. I love artists who achieve cut through to the wider pop­u­la­tion, while still main­tain­ing their voice and authen­tic­ity, because that is the great­est chal­lenge. So anyone who touches a wider audi­ence, and main­tains their vision. Annette Tison, Jim Woodring, John Kric­falusi, KAWS, J Otto Sei­bold, Roger Har­g­reaves, James Jarvis, Dan Clowes, Base­man, Genevieve Gauck­ler, Miss Van, Fafi, Dev­il­ro­bots, Tim Tsui, Big­foot, Dalek, Jeff Soto, Camille Rose Garcia, Mark Ryden, Geoff McFetridge, many more!?

Which gal­leries have you shown at and which gal­leries would you like to show at?

One of my first solo shows was at Bunka­mura Gallery in Shibuya, Tokyo, as well as many others, and group shows such as at Reed Space in New York, Trust Nobody in Barcelona, an upcom­ing group show in Gallery Lele in Tokyo, a recent show in St Peters­burg, lots of others, but right now I’m con­cen­trat­ing on fin­ish­ing my book, and then sev­eral other big projects on the go. I have a few more group shows coming up.

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

The ‘Jeremyville Sessions’ 304 page book is one big project, all about the process of col­lab­o­ra­tions, with people like Beck, Geoff McFetridge, Miss Van, Genevieve Gauck­ler, Deanne Cheuk, Jim Woodring, Lego, MTV, Adidas, Sony, Base­man, Biskup, Dev­il­ro­bots, Tris­tan Eaton, Kidro­bot, STRANGEco, Circus Punks, Trexi, Colette, Jon Burg­er­man, Paris Hair, Wooster Col­lec­tive, MCA Evil Design, plus about 300 more. The book also con­tains a DVD and a large poster. It will be show­cased at Pic­to­plasma coming up, then avail­able for Xmas.

What’s next in the pipeline for Jeremyville?

Sketchel 2 is on the go, (Ape­fluff is in series 2!) plus more ani­ma­tion projects, the ‘Jeremyville Sessions’ book, new t-shirt designs for LEGO, designs for Yoya­mart in New York, designs for Pabobi snow­boards in Switzer­land, comic strips for Fused Mag­a­zine in the UK, a 10 inch Jere­myville toy coming out through Red Magic’s Love Orig­i­nal project, a 10 inch Trexi, a mobile phone arcade style game, the new Jere­myville Circus Punk through STRANGEco, stuff in a comic book anthol­ogy, a com­pi­la­tion DVD in Japan, and a toy I’m design­ing for an Ital­ian racing car driver… a fun gig!

But I’m also run­ning a lot as spring has come to Sydney. I’ve been spend­ing a lot of time down at Bondi, and swim­ming and kayak­ing around Sydney Har­bour. For me, health is as much fun as cre­at­ing stuff, and as impor­tant. Health, love and friendship.

Shouts?

I absolutely LOVE anyone who enjoys what I’m trying to do, and shows appre­ci­a­tion for my stuff, it is the best thing in the world, second to actu­ally cre­at­ing it!! So shout outs to anyone who visits Jere­myville and spends some time there, thank you so much! And thanks to theApe for the inter­view, your site is really cool and I’m proud to be a part of it! I dig your style!

I also have a lot of respect for fellow illus­tra­tors who are doing their own thing, and get­ting their work out there. I know how much of a lonely chal­lenge it can be, and I feel a strong affin­ity and empa­thy for people on that path. Rock on dudes and dudettes!

James Jarvis or Michael Lau?

Both and many, many more!!

You can see more of Jeremyville�s work at
www.​jere​myville.com

Con­tribute an inter­view to the LCS

Related News

• LCS INTER­VIEW :: Nick Deakin
• FOR­EVER and ALWAYS… Jere­myville at Artoyz Paris
• LCS INTER­VIEW :: The Broth­ers McLeod

Cats: Recent News
Tags: Annette Tison, Australia, Barcelona, Bunkamura Gallery, Camille Rose Garcia, car driver, cellular telephone, Dan Clowes, Deanne Cheuk, Fused Magazine, Genevieve Gauckler, Geoff McFetridge, Iceland, IdN, Interviews, James Jarvis, Japan, Jeff Soto, Jeremyville, Jim Woodring, John Kricfalusi, Jon Burgerman, kayaking, Mark Ryden, Megan Mair, Michael Lau, MTV, Nestle, New York, Otto Seibold, Reed Space, Roger Hargreaves, Shibuya, Sony, South Africa, St Petersburg, swimming, Switzerland, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, Sydney Morning Herald, the Sydney Morning Herald, Tim Tsui, Tokyo, Tristan Eaton, United Kingdom, www.jeremyville.com