I’m beyond excited to announce a new Questions section for our blog. Looking at illustration is great but I think it will be even more valuable for us to actually talk with some of our illustrators. So, I came up with a short list of questions to ask and am pleased to present our first session with the lovely, the intense, the inimitable Laura Barnard. Without further ado…
1. Describe your work in five words.
Cities, connections, streets, patterns, buildings.
2. Who are your creative heroes?
Ed Ruscha knocks my little socks off every single time, and Keri Smith is really inspiring from an ideas point of view too. I was recently shown Stefan Bleekrode’s work too, and that’s my current wow/envy/wow target at the moment – amazing stuff.
3. What are you reading?
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Murakami – in a vague attempt to inspire me to run again. So far, this has not been fruitful in the slightest – but it’s a beautiful book. I’m very fond of that pared-down writing style, where every single word’s been considered.
4. Why do you think illustration (particularly hand-made) is important?
I think, like a lot of art and design, that’s something that’s been debated quite a lot recently, with cuts to all sorts of schemes. I certainly think it would be a pretty miserable world with no art or decoration. Another thing that’s often overlooked, is that illustration – even at its most decorative – can inform, warn, clarify – all sorts of things that words don’t do as well, like a map, for instance.
5. What’s inspiring you right now?
At the moment, the fact that it’s suddenly not raining here in the UK is inspiring me – time to go out and explore the streets! I’ve been using Pinterest a lot – it feels a bit like a visual Twitter, so that’s been really inspiring to connect with some people I haven’t come across before and see what’s inspiring them.
6. Any advice for future illustrators/designers?
Get your work out there and get on with it – you’ll never be ‘ready’. The more people you can get your work in front of, the better chance you’ll have. Be polite, be nice, be helpful, but don’t let yourself be walked over. You’ll get there.
See more of Laura’s work on her website. There’s something deeply engaging about examining the space between the imagined (compositions) and the real (the textures, the idea of the city). Make sure to pop into her shop to check out her prints. Thanks, Laura, for taking the time to answer our questions.
To kick off our first week of Questions, we have an incredible lineup of illustrators, one for each day. Going forward, I’ll post the conversations less often (1-2x/week). If there are any questions you’d like to see asked and/or any specific illustrators you think we should talk to, email me or click the Submit an Illustrator link on the sidebar.