Q&A

Many curious souls, usually budding designers & illustrators, have extracted a deluge of chatter, rantings and ideas from the auburn ape for college projects and magazine articles (or simply because they're nosey!) These ramblings may also be of use to you so Ginger Monkey's Tom Lane has posted them on this section of the site.

Q: Why do you think floral design is so popular?
A: We often see, in fashion, music and art, styles and trends taken from the past; re-contextualised and adapted for the present. From what I've seen, floral design has infiltrated nearly every facet of contemporary visual culture in one way or another and appears to know no bounds. I guess it's like most things concerning creativity – everything seems to go in circles. Most styles and trends have their 15 minutes, die out and then some time in the future get rejuventated and brought to the forefront again. It only takes a few prominent people to start looking back at the Arts & Craft movement, referencing their use of flora, flourishes and nice illustrative elements, before everyone else gets inspired by what they're doing and you have a snowball effect. That inspiration filters up to the creatives in high positions and down to the nubies and students. In addition, the floral, even decorative approach, can help to create a strong emotive response with the viewer that has added to it's proliferation. Clients want floral design and its presence is an option to attract them to your portfolio.

Q: Why do you use it in your design?
A: While studying graphic design in the late 90's and early naughties, I was inspired by grungy, layered and messy design. My taste only really developed when I began to appreciate the work of a series of very different designers, it was then that I began to understand that there are many different ways to fulfill briefs and my work became much cleaner and more carefully constructed. Later on, I started combining my design and illustration skills and created a certain naturalistic, craft approach to many of my pieces that clients and art directors responded well to. My use of floral and decorative design and illustration has definitely attracted clients to my portfolio but I also think that I've managed to steer clear of the 'floral pigeon-hole' by using several other methods; clients appreciate range.

Q: Would you work for a magazine or company that you are morally against for exposure?
A: No, probably not. I'm a very open minded, tolerant person and sometimes, to my detriment, see the good in people and companies before I see the bad. Saying that, if a company was positioned against something I felt strongly about, there's no way I would sell out my beliefs for exposure. I have strong social values and would trust my judgement if I was approached by a company with whom I am morally against.

Q: Do you find it harder working with well established clients?
A: Not really. Sometimes you can work with a client who understands the creative process, other times the client may need their hand held. One thing is certain, you can rarely nail a project first time: it often takes two, three or four goes to get it just the way the client wants. An established or experienced client may know exactly what they want so are likely to not hesitate in telling you. The truth is, there is no preference between my clients. For me, it's pleasant and rewarding working with my whole range of clients (but, then, I think I may have been quite lucky!)

Q: Have you seen any other illustrators or designers blatantly emulating your style? Would that discourage you from giving your work editorial space?
A: If someone completely ripped off an entire piece of mine then it would really annoy me but it wouldn't discourage me in any way. We should all be looking and gaining inspiration from others around us but remain careful of how that line can be crossed (like copying Arts & Crafts exactly rather than adapting it to match your own creative style). I'm not overly precious, if someone uses certain qualities of my work to take it in their direction I would be flattered and if it emulated my work then it would probably motivate me to push myself harder really. I tend to think that by the time you've seen the copycat you should have had a new and different piece out there anyway. Do your thing well, get known for it, and the copycats become irrelevant because they'll just be associated with aping you not as talented, original individuals in their own right.

Q: Has a client ever altered a brief to suit you and your ideas?
A: Yeah all the time. Briefs develop from the first point of contact pretty much until the piece gets handed over. It's not usually re-written but once I start imputting my thinking, things can change. Once the client sees the design, the brief can often change again because perhaps the way I've approached things has triggered more thought. It really is very different from the university process, exactly why it's important to try and gain experience asap. Through experience you can get a much better understanding of the process and your role within it as a designer or illustrator. Sometimes you can be left alone to literally fullfil a brief (in depth or ambiguous) because the client trusts you and knows you'll come up with the goods. Then there's the client that go really into detail about what they require but don't really know what they want – experience helps you to spot this and stop it from becoming a real time waster. When you don't agree with a brief you have to 'advise' and help shift the client to believe what you think is the best course of action – you need experience and confidence to do these things and to create the best pieces - after all, thats your duty as a designer/illustrator/.

Q: Have you ever worked with a really difficult client that wants to change your ideas? If so, how do you deal with that?
A: Clients want to change ideas all the time but that doesn't necessarily make them difficult to work with, they're simply doing their job or have their own ideas. Again, it's all part of the process and you can't be precious about a piece until it's signed off and going to print. It's one of the hardest thing to learn: I've had some frigging awesome pieces or routes for a piece to go down, then had them shot down and re-directed for what felt like ridiculous reasons. You have to suck it up, breathe, think and then come up with something better, incorporating their 'new, magical, solution' (if you can) or provide an alternative. If you stick to this mentality, nine times out of ten the piece will still develop. Don't get deflated and defeated by failure, because having a piece rejected is not actually a failure, it's a learning curve. A good art director should be able to see things you can't (because that's their job) and even if you're an exceptional designer, illustrator or webdesigner etc, they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't push you and point out faults.

Q: What are the pros & cons of editorial illustration?
A: Sometimes the money isn't amazing and I think you'd struggle financially if you were just an editorial illustrator. On a more positive note, you do get to see your illustrations on nice glossy mags and as an accompaniment to cool articles. I've done pieces on Snow Patrol, The Fratellis and Frans F for Q magazine, that felt pretty cool. I've also found it really rewarding to work with in-the-know art directors. It's so different to the process of working with people who are, say, starting up their own company and have little knowledge of the creative process.

Q: What makes you want to carry on being freelance instead of trying to work in a studio like you imagined while at uni?
A: I think once I started to get a lot of positive feedback for my work I simply felt I didn't want to work in someone else's studio and that I could actually make it on my own. I also knew the amount of illustration work I could take on would be seriously affected if I worked for someone else and I kept being told that it was too strong to be wrapped up and brought out only on special occasions. In other words, I knew I had a good chance at making a career out of illustration as well as design and I needed the freedom to make that happen.

Q: Is it hard/restricting having to do the financial side of your work along with the creative part?
A: I was a little amateurish in my day to day business practices regarding finances in the beginning. You can save money by having an accountant, remove worry to some degree and, by having a good financial system, make it easier to analyze and track income and expenditure. Identifying where your money is coming from, what's chewing it up and where you could save is vital to a freelancer - or any business - because you just don't know what's around the corner. You need to be able to look forward and plan your spending and saving so you can grow your business. It would have been nicer to have had the knowledge I have now in the beginning so I didn't have to learn the hard way but it's all a learning curve...get an accountant!

Q: What are the biggest obstacles you've been through as a freelance?
A: Getting work coming in regularly over a 12 month period so you can actually have a decent working capital. You need to have enough cash to pay yourself, pay tax and enough to keep in the business so you can expand and grow and cover any costs that can spring up like a broken machine etc. Getting that balance has been the hardest thing.

Also getting the right clients that value your service and will pay well has been tricky. Companies often dictate how much your service will cost them. It's odd really because you don't see people walking into a mechanics and saying "fix my car for £200 and I won't pay more if the parts are more expensive or if it takes you more time than first thought". I'll have to say that next time!

Q: In your opinion, why would a company choose freelance instead of a full time team?
A: For the cost, for the freelancer's reputation and dependent on the brief. Once you become tried and tested most companies don't care if you're a company or freelance but some projects really do require a team because the project may be large with a tight deadline, simply too much for one person to handle.

Most freelancers charge less so a company can save money by using someone they trust with a lower day rate. On average, in the West Country, a freelancer charges from £200 - £400 a day. A company can charge from £500 per day or whatever they can get away with (i've known some that have been ridiculously high).