Jon Burgerman
Leading the way for a decade of British creatives, he has helped fuse commerciality and artistic passion within illustration. Jon Burgerman tells Garrick Webster how he’s shaped his career so far
From Pepsi cans to gallery walls, colouring books to laptop sleeves, clothing to club flyers, iPhone apps and more, Jon Burgerman’s doodled characters pop up just where you’d expect to see them, and very often in places that you wouldn’t. There’s a reason for this: although Burgerman is an easy-going guy with a quirky sense of humour, he’s always busy working on something, collaborating with other artists and spotting new opportunities. Behind it all is a naturally expressive drawing talent that has enabled him to develop a style that is recognised and adored by creatives around the world. So, how does this star of contemporary illustration get so much done?
CA: How easy is it to divide your time between your own projects and shows or client work?
JB: It’s always been a juggling act. You might be involved in a big commercial project that takes up all your time and have to sort of delay working on your own projects. I’ve always got my own projects; sometimes they overlap, like I’m doing an iPhone app with this company in London called ustwo, and it’s called Inkstrumental – that’s one of those hybrid projects.
CA: If you could have your way, would you only work on your own projects?
JB: I probably would. Having said that, it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t produce any commercial stuff. It would just be all mine, completely led by me. That’s why I set up my brand, Burger, so I can still make commercial products and objects. But, you know, it would be me that decides how things are, what things we make and how they look and stuff. Just ‘cause it’s fun, I guess. It’s fun to be in charge, to have that control and be able to do your own thing.
CA: Your style is so well known now. How do you feel about that?
JB: It’s really nice when people say they recognise my work. It’s just the way I draw. It’s weird because now I get students and graduates emailing me saying they also work in the doodle style. I find that really strange. Maybe there is some sort of doodle style but the way that I draw is just the way that I draw. I didn’t realise it’s becoming a category of drawing in its own right. I always assumed that I drew in a very bad way.
CA: What about when your work is copied by other illustrators?
JB: If a big company does it and they’re selling your work, then it’s an easy thing to go after them. But [then there’s] that case of the recent graduate who hadn’t copied the work, but they’d made new work that was very, very similar. They’d taken some of my pieces and used the same colours and the same composition but the lines were all their own. I was more disappointed with the university than the student. I just thought, ‘How could a student graduate with work that was heavily copying any artist, let alone me?’
CA: How do you keep your work evolving between projects?
JB: Just in a natural development; kind of like my work that’s got text in it, where the typography’s integrated into the drawing. That was a little decision I made a year or two ago, to do that and see how it comes out. A lot of people had said to me that they’d read stuff in my work, and I was like, ‘Ahhh, there’s no words in there. There’s no letter shapes.’ I think a few teenagers with homemade cigarettes had been staring at my work for too long.
CA: You recently turned your talents to making music with Jim Avignon. What’s that been like?
JB: I can make my work in different ways, I think. I’ll always be a drawer, I’ll always paint and create images in some respect, but it doesn’t need to be anchored into just working in that way. I can express the way that I work in other ways, so it could be through performances, it could be through clothes, it could be through music, or it could be through a mixture of all these things.
this interview offers some great insight into the work of a professional at the top - well known world wide, producing a wide range of products, coming up with new ones, think the interesting questions being asked are shown like what he thinks of people trying to copy his work, and also the different techniques and ways that he produces his work is really interesting.
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/interviews/jon_burgerman
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