Cryface Interview

Next in our series of interviews with super talented artists across the net we caught up Cryface. The Jacksonville based artist has worked with massive clothing brands like Iron Fist. With large prints featuring artistic illustrated designs becoming the trend Cryface's amazing drawing ability has seen his artwork become much in demand. We caught up with Cryface to ask him just about everything we could think of, thankfully he was cool enough to answer everyone of them.

TFS - Hi Stephen, thanks for doing this. Firstly tell us how you got into graphic design and designing shirts?

CF - Well I have always been interested in art and drawing. Growing up I always wanted to be a comic book artist. When my son was born (2001) I needed to get a real job and gave up every hope on making a living as an artist. I enrolled into collage to get my degree in information technology. While in school and working full time I came across emptees.com. Just for fun I started putting up t-shirt designs. After a few months I was contacted by we are the ocean to do a design for them. Over time more and more bands and clothing lines contacted me and I dropped my day job to part time to focus on my designing. So in a nut shell, I started by accident.

TFS - What inspires your work? (Music, an artist, another designer, etc.)

CF - Everything does. It may be a song, a movie, a cartoon, a toy or just an odd shaped tree. Inspiration comes from everywhere. You just have to keep your eyes open and you will fine inspiration in almost anything.

TFS - What is your entire process when designing a shirt?

CF - I generally start with a digital or pencil sketch. I then ink the sketch in Manga Studio. Front there I will take it to Photoshop t add any effects (splats, textures, etc). Then I take it to adobe illustrator and turn it into vector art. Then I will take it back to Photoshop to do the color separations and halftones.

TFS - How did you first become noticed as a designer?

CF - Emptees, nuff said.

TFS - What is the most important thing to remember when designing a shirt?

CF - There are 3 things really. 1. Remember it is a shirt so there are very specific size constraints. 2. Know how many colors you can work with. Screen printing limits the amount of colors you can use and most clients want 4-6 colors only. 3. COMPOSITION!!!

TFS - How is being a freelance graphic designer different from working under a company

CF - I have no idea, I have only free lanced, although I can only speculate. I guess working for a company limits the amount of control on what jobs you take. I take work that I am excited about and turn down what I don't want to do. I would think that you don’t have that option working for a design company.

TFS - Do you differentiate styles when working with different clients or do you just have one general style you stick with? If so, how do you change it?

CF - Yes and no. All of my work can be spotted as my work but I will give the art a different feel or look depending on what the job is. Some projects require a more cartoony look and some need to be more realistic. In shot I try to keep a style that is mine and yet still try to be diverse.

TFS - How do you relate music to clothing?

CF - I have always been a fan of band shirts. I am a huge metal and hard core punk fan. I would go to a lot of shows and always bring home at least one t-shirt. To me the shirt is art and a way for you to say “hey I love this band”. Besides bands still need merch to make money.

THS - Due to the decline in the music industry bands are beginning to rely more on merchandise sales than record sales. Do you believe that this is causing bands to care more about their merchandise than their music?

CF - No. Bands are made up of musicians. Most of the time these musicians are not visual artists. Bands will generally higher an artist or get a friend to do their merch for them. The band does this so they don't have to worry about their merch so much and focus on the music. Besides, I don’t care how cool a bands shirt is, if the music sucks, the band sucks.

TFS - Do you believe that being in a band helps designers get noticed faster?

CF - No, being a good artist helps you get noticed as a designer and being in a band helps you get noticed as a musician. Horsebites is a good musician and is in some great bands, but I did not become a fan of his art because I like his bands, I became a fan of his art because it is great art.

TFS - Do you believe that the music industry uses the clothing industry as a crutch more than the clothing industry uses the music industry, or visa verse?

CF - Neither, they work in tandem with each other. The music industry and the clothing industry are working together to create the different styles that we see today.

Thanks Stephen, check out the Cryface website to see his artwork or contact details at http://www.cryface.com/

Atomic Child Interview

Its been a while, but finally TFS has returned. We're kicking this come back off with a series of artist interviews. We've been hooking up with artists online to ask them what inspires them, what drives them, what made them start and what made them get noticed.

Our first artist up is Denver based Atomic Child, who has worked with bands like All American Rejects and Forever The Sickest Kids, and online clothing companies like 8 bit Zombie. With his client list getting longer and his free time shorter, we managed to catch up with AC and asked him a few quick questions about whats driving him to success.

TFS - Hi Jimmy, thanks for doing this interview. Firstly tell us a bit about your self and what made you get into drawing and creating artwork, and what or who inspired you to first pick up a pencil and draw?

AC - Thank you for the interview. I would say I have no idea how it all started as like many other artists I have been drawing my whole life. I would say the difference with me was that I never stopped. I live in Denver Colorado and I do Graphic apparel design fulltime for my job.

TFS - You’ve worked with some really cool companies and bands, who have been you’re favourite to work with and who have challenged you the most?

AC - My favorite companies so far have been Randrtees and 8bitzombie. The reason I choose these two companies is that they let me do whatever I wanted to pretty much and well that rules.

TFS - You’ve worked with some large bands like All American Rejects and Forever the Sickest Kids, how did you build up a reputation which has lead you to gaining work with these types of bands

AC - In all honesty you just have to email people and let them see your work that I started with a few small bands and do some killer work then email everyone you can. It just takes off after that.

TFS - Would you say you have your own style of design? And how did you go about building your style and making sure it different to the other artists out there. With there being so many other artists online how important is it that you stand out?

AC - I would say when it comes to my illustrations I have my own style. I have often wondered how a style comes about. I for one never made a decision to draw the way I do it is just the way I draw. I would say standing out in todays everyone has a copy of photoshop times is really important.

TFS - What type of things do you take influence from when creating artwork? Do you take influence from other current or past artists?

AC - I really try to not look at other artwork before I start working on something. I want to just let my mind wonder and create what comes out. I would say in college though I loved Keith Harings work and it influenced how I think about line work and its impact.

TFS - Have you got any exciting projects on just now or coming up that you can talk about?

AC - Other than continually staying busy and loving what I do…… nope

TFS - What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start out as an artist?

AC - Well if you want to be and artist and make a career out of it you have to know it is one of the hardest things to do. You have to be a business man and a creative person everyday all day and never stop creating. I would say just go for it work hard and show your artwork to everyone.

TFS - Finally what music are you listening to right now and what music should we be looking out for this year?

AC - I am listening to Flatfoot 56 right now while a write this. You should be looking for a lot more atomic child artwork to be put out. THANK YOU

Thanks Jimmy! If you want to check out Atomic child's artwork or contact him you can at http://www.atomicchild.com/

Chris from INK interview

With so many clothing companies appearing from around the country, its not easy for any of them to make a name for themselves. Glasgow based company INK clothing have had as hard a time as any, being one of the first DIY companies to appear online back in 2005, its been a long journey that now seems to be paying off. With a new range just released and work with EMI records coming up, INK finally seems ready to get some of the attention it deserves. We first met the boys from INK when they redesigned the TFS blog a few months ago. Since then we've witnessed first hand just how much hard work the guy behind the company put in, we managed to catch up with creative director Chris to find out whats going down.

TFS - Hi Chris, thanks for doing this, firstly tell us a bit about your self and what you do in INK.

Chris - Well I am currently employed as a graphic designer, and have recently made the jump into the digital world I.E web design etc. The rest of my time is spent doing freelance work and designing INK stuff. The hope is, to one day be self sufficient, when this new range does well who knows what will happen! And with the work we are doing with EMI Records, there are certainly lots of doors slowly opening for us. It’s really an exciting time at the moment!

TFS - Tell us a bit about how INK started and what you’ve been up to over the last couple of years

Chris - If I’m being honest, I’d have to give my brother credit for starting this company and coming up with the whole idea. I can only speculate on why it all began, but I’d say it was a combination of seeing what was on offer from other clothing companies, deciding we could compete(maybe) and just the exciting nature of the whole thing! It certainly has been quite an adventure – and with this new range you can really see how we have developed as individuals (who accept their responsibilities) and as a company! I’d say my tasks are visualising concepts that we come up with – granted I do go off on my own from time to time – but it usually starts with us sitting down and saying ‘we need a new range... what do you want to do?’ then it just stems from there. Plenty of discussion, plenty of ‘debates’. Then I will do some sketches, fire up illustrator and so on... so yeah I do the designing or something like that. I also designed and built our website (and styled this blog).

TFS - Tell us a bit about the new range.

Chris - Developed, mature, exciting, colourful, magnificent, perfect, crisp, clean, fresh, zingy, fruity, delicious, focused, organised and our absolute best work to date! Maybe that’s down to the help we got or our new focus and drive (certainly mine). We actually finished it ahead of schedule! And it was the least stressful ‘range creation’ to date... we got it right this time! Let’s just hope it gets the acclaim and publicity (I think) it deserves!

TFS - have you got any other projects your working on

Chris - Well we just released our new range so we’ll mostly be working on promoting that, that’s the main project just now. As I said before though we’ve been working with EMI records on a range of tshirts for them, using lyrics from songs they own, we’ve got some great designs for Nirvana, Calvin Harris and others on the way, so that’s a big project that we’re looking forward to continuing with. What else will I be doing…. Trying to grow a decent beard. Playing with Fruity Loops and tending to the website.

TFS - being a ‘music inspired clothing company’ what roll has the music scene played in the growth of INK

Chris - Yeah we are a music inspired clothing company, and we take a lot of inspiration from the music scene when we’re designing our clothing. Music and fashion have always been linked so we try to let the music we’re into at the time influence the clothing we’re designing. INK does try to work with bands as well, promoting them so they promote us. We’ve ran a couple of gig nights, to be honest though I cant say we’ve had to many great experiences working with bands. To many of them don’t support you back well enough, and come with egos that they just haven’t earned and shouldn’t have.

TFS - INK promotes itself as an eco friendly company, what does ink do to help the environment.

Chris - We promote and donate to the World Land Trust, and print all our designs on eco friendly materials, like bamboo (not friendly for pandas) and 100% organic cotton. And we never ever print designs out on paper when we review them.

TFS - With so many DIY clothing companies starting in the last few years, how do you make ink stand out from the rest and what advice would you give anyone wanting to stat a clothing company

Chris - I think the trick is to stay true to your believes! Before any designing, in fact before anything is done I think it is important to create an ethos for yourself, for your ‘company’ and never deviate from that! Decide on a target market, decide on how you want your company to be perceived, decide on a style and do as much bloody research as you can!! Then do some more. Then decide how you can improve on what is already out there. Set your standards high and don’t let them drop! It’s taken me a long time to realise this! Oh and work hard.

TFS - finally what music are you listening to right now.

Chris - Well I’m in a bit of transitional period at the moment! I really love a good bit of heavy metal, Pantera, Metallica, Slayer... and so on, the usual suspects y’know, great to play and great to watch! But the stuff is just too hard to work to! So I have really got into electro, none of your ‘trancy’ crap though, just good beats, good bass lines and plenty of elektribe vibes splashed over the top – that’s’ where it’s at for me at the moment. For example ‘Hadouken’, ‘Does It Offend You, Yeah?’, ‘Danger’, ‘Yuksek’, ‘Moderat’, ‘In Flagranti’, ‘Vitalic’ and plenty of good stuff I don’t know the name of. Also, album artwork is far more interesting in the electro scene! Who wants black all the time – let’s see some vibrant colours! Definitely and influence on my INK work anyway.

Thanks Chris, check out INK's new range at their website http://www.inkclothing.co.uk/

INK IV - Coming Soon

So our friends over at INK have been jumping up and down and getting very excited about INK IV. We're not really sure what INK IV is, but we're guessing its their new range which we've heard is due out some time in March. They have released a small INK IV ad which is above. Keep checking their site www.inkclothing.co.uk for more news.

Greg Abbott Interview!

With a client list boasting massive bands like All Time Low and awesome clothing companies like Glamour Kills and Pyknic clothing, there is no doubt that super talented artist Greg Abbott is much in demand. His unique style and creative designs have brought him much priase from art, music and fashion scenes a like. Having just finished some work with our friends at INK, we managed to catch up with Greg to find our what drives him professionally and creativly.

TFS - Hi Greg, thanks for doing this interview. Firstly tell us a bit about your self and what made you get into drawing and creating artwork, and what or who inspired you to first pick up a pencil and draw?

GA - Hello! Thank you for having me. I am a freelance illustrator and designer from England, I mostly work with clothing companies and bands to produce merchandise designs. I specialise in character design but am interested in working on any projects I can. I've been freelancing for about two years now but have been drawing since I could hold a pencil. I've always enjoyed drawing and creating characters but didn't realise that it was even possible to make a living from doing so until recently.

TFS - You’ve worked with some really cool clothing companies and bands, who have been you’re favourite to work with and who have challenged you the most?

GA - Pyknic, Babycakes and INK Clothing are a few of my favourite companies to work with that I have had the pleasure of doing so recently. Pyknic offer really good art direction and often make really good calls on subtle changes to a design. Babycakes and INK Clothing are both really fun and easy going to work with; both gave me quite a lot of creative freedom to produce fairly complex pieces. My favourite clients are the ones who have interesting ideas that they can explain well enough for me to understand exactly what they want. As for challenging, there is good challenging as in the clients who really push me to the best of my current abilities and then there is bad challenging, the clients who ask for too many revisions, drag out projects, are slow to respond and don't communicate a clear idea of what it is that they would like me to produce for them.

TFS - You’ve worked with some quite large companies like Glamour Kills and big bands like All Time Low, how did you build up such an awesome reputation which has lead you to gaining work with these people?

GA - When I started digitally illustrating I didn't have a portfolio, I wasn't that good and was just posting my work online to share my creations with people. The first time someone inquired about purchasing one of my designs I was very excited but didn't have a clue as to what to do, how much to charge or how to conduct myself in a professional manner. I found that being friendly, polite, clear and straight-forward worked well and have tried to continue to conduct myself in this manner since. I produce a lot of work in my spare time and in doing so have gradually become better over the last couple of years and also have become reasonably well known by some online communities for posting so much and for thanking anyone who is kind enough to leave me a complimentary comment on one of my pieces. I owe a lot to https://webmailcluster.1and1.co.uk/xml/deref?link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emptees.com which I joined when it was relatively new. All of my initial clients found me through there and most of my art-friends are from there also. I have found that my working process has been refined and has become a lot more efficient over time and think that being well organised and having a slightly obsessive compulsive mindset has helped me a great deal.

TFS - you’ve got a really unique style, with there being so many other artists out there, how did you grow a style that was unique and different from the rest?

GA - Initially, I knew I really wanted my own style but just couldn't seem to do anything that hadn't already been done or taken. All of the time that I was trying to uncover a unique style to claim as my own, it wasn't working. I eventually went back to just drawing without putting much thought into the style of the pieces and ended up creating my own style through trying out different things and learning different methods and techniques; by drawing things how I liked them to look, I arrived at the style I now call my own. For a while, although I had a recognisable style, my work varied a lot between piece to piece; I would like to think that there is now quite a lot of consistency between my regular pieces. A large contributing factor to my current style is the colour-schemes, I didn't used to put much effort into colour selection and didn't really consider it as being a large factor in the process of designing a piece but have recently discovered how much of a difference a good colour-way can make and how it can change the overall feel of a piece. I'm always trying out new things, trying to be better and to improve my own style but am very pleased with the direction I seem to be going in.

TFS - do you take influence from other current or past artists?

GA - I think I am influenced by everything. I'm not always conscious that my brain has stored something but often find myself applying a new technique or a doing something in different way to how I regularly would. I rarely try to do something like someone else, most of my style evolved from trying not to do certain things like other people but think that I observe certain qualities from art and artists that I like and then try to isolate and recreate that quality in a separate instance.

TFS - Have you got any exciting projects on just now or coming up that you can talk about?

GA - I have a vinyl toy currently in development coming out soon with Pyknic. On my list of things I want to achieve, having a vinyl toy was right at the top so I'm really excited about the project and can't wait to see how it turns out.

TFS - What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start out as an artist?

GA - Practise.
Manners.
Listen.
Acknowledge.

TFS - Finally what music are you listening to right now and what music should we be looking out for this year?

GA - For a long time I've had a lot of new music to wade through. In trying to make sure that I wasn't missing out on anything new, I ended up neglecting my existing collection. Right now I'm listening to less recent releases from: The Shins, The Cribs, Elliott Smith, The Subways and The Offspring.

Thanks Greg, check out his website at http://cargocollective.com/gregabbott

Tom Leishman Interview!

Born and raised in Cannock, Stafford and now working out of London, Tom Leishman is an exceptionally talented young photographer who is now receiving the attention and work load he deserves. Having worked hard for years, mostly with in the music scene, making up and coming bands look cool, hes now finding his time being spent working with massive acts like The Saturdays and Mcfly. We caught up with Tom to see whats been happening and find out what 2010 has in store for him.

TFS - Hi Tom, thanks for doing this. Tell us a bit about your self and how you got into photography and what inspired you to first pick up a camera

TL - Hey! I’m Tom Leishman; I’m a 23-year-old photographer! I started photography when I was 19 I’ve been doing this for about 4 years now. I never did enjoy school I felt I’d never be able to achieve anything with myself once we’d finished, I had bad experiences at school... I never had the stomach for the educational system... So when I left school feeling lost in a dead end job with a huge chip on my shoulder at 19 I only had music and art that I felt any passion for... So it just naturally happen when my cousins where in a popular local rock band and I had just bought a new camera from a police auction website! Haha but I never imagined It would have taken me on this journey!

TFS - you’ve done a lot of work with in the music scene, working with different bands and artists, tell us about your first photo shoot

TL - My first ever photo shoot was with my cousins pop-punk band "NeverSayDie" I only had a camera and a tripod! I believe my weapon of choice was a Canon 350D. It was at a fancy dress party and the guys where all dressed as zombies, we did it in a graveyard, oh dear oh dear! My first shoot with my own lighting equipment was with a Alternative/Metal band from Essex called "Last Nights Recital" I told them I’d just got the lighting so they had to be patient with me... I think the shoot went on for hours! Haha. Nightmare we got there eventually in the end!

TFS - who’s been you favourite band/artist to work with

TL - Any band that isn’t afraid to challenge me like Random Conflict or Heights! Random Conflict let me bury them alive in my back garden! Haha... Heights let me drown them in the middle of winter in a swimming pool! I do love a challenge but I love accomplishing them more!

TFS - do you have any favourite photographers who you take influence from or tried to learn from?

TL - I draw influences from many photographers just to name a few of them Chris Strong, David Lachapelle, Dave Hill, Joey Lawrence, Jill Greenburg and Tim Walker... I spent a lot of time studying and trying to understand their lighting and techniques, these photographers are always inspiring me to push myself, but I think that my biggest influences don’t just come from photography they come from every day-to-day things such as the smallest sounds you hear to the feelings you get when listing to your favourite songs.

TFS - have you got any exciting projects coming up this year?

TL - Yes! I have more work coming up with The Saturdays and Mcfly, which I’m really excited about! It’s only early days of 2010 and it’s already looking bright! I love taking photos of the girls they’re so pretty its hard not to get a good photo of them! Plus they’re really easy to get along with! But who knows what this year holds for me, only more good news I hope!!

TFS - you’ve managed to build up a really excellent portfolio of clinets, like The Saturdays, New Found Glory and Enter Shikari. How did you go about building your name and reputation?

TL - Thank you! Back in the day when Myspace was an addiction rather than just a social networking website, promoting yourself on that was a really useful tool if you knew how to. I used that to network with bands, promoters, models and photo-lovers all around the world (This is how I met Dave from INK). It doesn’t cost that much money for business cards or postcards... So at every rock show I went to I used to whore myself out to the crowd, letting everyone know what I was about, because if you don’t tell everyone no ones going to do it for you!

TFS - have you any advice for any new photographers who are looking to build up their reputation?

TL - Just network, talk to as many people as possible, make friends with people from all walks of life and always give out a business card! If you want it bad enough and you’re serious about what you want to do, anything is possible. Keep positive and photograph everything! Learn from your mistakes and remember what worked! Assisting is a good way to pick up things and learn, I’m always looking for assistants on jobs as are many other photographers; So get in touch.

TFS - finally what music are you listening to right now and what acts do you think we should watch out for in 2010?

TL - I’m a music obsessive so this is an amazing question for me! I love all sorts of music genres! But I’d keep my eyes and ears open for Alain Clark, this guy from the Netherlands who’s bringing back soul the way its meant to sound! Bad Rabbits who are doing this Gym Class Heroes meets Prince thing, its awesome! Sharks from the UK they’re doing this Clash meets The Gallows mix up which is just incredible, really nice guys to! The Heyday, Parachute and Brighten are all amazing pop rock bands, if you’ve not heard these then you’re missing out! Finally this man Sam Little... Believe me... Little might be his second name, but his voice is BIG! Thanks for talking to me TFS!