I am delighted to share the work of Yusuke Nagano, a Japanese born Illustrator and Art Director who has lived and worked for much of his life in Sweden. He’s one of my favourite illustrators working today and I was fortunate to briefly speak with a busy Yusuke during his recent and very successful exhibition at the Motala Konsthall in Sweden.

——

Thank so much for talking with us Yusuke, could you tell SickManSick briefly about the type of work that you do?

Many of my works are based on children, because children have had the most impact on me in my life.

Congratulations on your current exhibition at the ‘Motala Konsthall’, please could you tell us a bit about the work you are showing?

In my paintings, I portrayed dreams from my childhood, my memories and wondering about how the world would change and showed them at my current exhibition at Motala Konsthallen.  You can see my short film there as well.

You’ve mastered a variety of creative endeavors during your career. I know of your passion for drawing and I really admire the diversity within your studio and personal illustration work and also in particular how the energy is translated into your animation work.

Does this type of transition feel natural and what difficulties did you discover in this kind of process?

Through my long career as an illustrator, I have had contact with various kinds of people from different creative areas, which influenced my style of work.  I was affected by how musicians, designers and dancers around me felt and saw things.  I think that these various influences are reflected in my work.

We’d love to see your work here in London in the future, Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, we wish you all the very best,

Thank you Yusuke!

Japanese version

このたびはインタビューをお受けいただきましてありがとうございます。ではまず簡単に長野さんご自身について、そして長野さんの作品のタイプについてご紹介願います。

僕の作品の多くは子供が主体になっています。それは自分が生きていた中で、一番インパクトがあつたせいかっだったからです。

このたびの’Motala Konsthall’のご盛況、誠におめでとうございます。今回その展覧会ではどのような作品を展示されていらっしゃいますか？

Motala Kosthallen では、子供のころの思い出またその時、見た夢、それプラスこれからどんな形に世の中が変わっていくのだろうか、という疑問を絵にしたものを展示しました。それにShort Filmなどです。

私の知るうえで、長野さんは過去にさまざまな独創的な試みに精通されてこられました。
長野さんの絵画に対する情熱を存じ上げており、スタジオや個人のイラストレーションの作品の多様性、そしてまた特に例を挙げると、それらの努力がどのようにしてアニメーション作品へと変えられているかということについて大変敬服しています。

この様な変化は自然だとお感じになられますか、そしてこれらの過程でどの様な困難がみうけられましたか？

僕はイラストを長い間、描いていたのでいろいろな人たちと仕事をしての経験がたぶん生かされていると思います。僕にとって僕の周りにいる絵描き、音楽家、デザイナー、ダンサーなど彼らから物の見方、感じ方、心を動かされることがありそれが作品の方向性につながっている可能性があるとおもいます。

先生の作品をロンドンでお目にかかれることを楽しみにさせて頂いています。今回のインタビューをお受け下さりありがとうございます。先生のますますのご発展をお祈り申し上げます。

ありがとうございました

Thank you so much to Hitomi Sato for doing a great job with the translation work.

Please check out more of Yusuke’s work at www.yusuke.nagano.nu and you can also purchase a selection of his illustration work at www.then.se

Rich.

Dialectica Studio is a small, focused, design driven, creative boutique from Lisbon, founded by visual artist Carlos Matias, currently living in London.

Take a look www.dialectica.net

Jucapinga

My name is Francisca Veloso and I’m a designer.
I’m interested in investigating how design can work with other subjects and vice-versa.
Social innovation, anthropology, maps and collaboration are themes I already worked with.

I graduated this summer from London College of Communication, BA Graphic Product Innovation,
Now I find myself  in Lisbon, where I’m from and working in Interbrand as a designer.

—

My first post is going to be about one of my final major projects I did for university -  Collaboration Project.

It’s aim is to get people together and help them follow a process for a multi-disciplinary project, with people from different knowledge backgrounds.

The Collaboration Roll’s objective is to lead participants to rethink their brief, generate their own findings, get as many ideas as they can and other tasks which should follow the group until the very end of any project. It was designed to be shifted sideways to unravel in bits, it can be placed on the floor or a low table and it’s tone of voice is as friendly as a kid’s drawing table – inspired by Tim’s Brown TED Talk On Creativity and play. Why? So that you are encouraged to use lot’s of post-it’s, big markers pens, sketches and have no fear of experimenting, just like children. Finally, it promotes everyone’s involvement, by having the writing placed in four to six different directions, so that people feel that it’s their turn to read a part of it out-loud.

With this project I’ve learnt how tools and processes can be borrowed from one subject to the next, and reused in other contexts if adequate. After my research, which included interviewing people with different backgrounds about their tools and methods (a nurse, a copywriter, a fashion designer and a film maker + a few of my design colleges), my main question became:

How can the design process – out of the design context and language – help us work collaboratively?
This was how this project was born.

Francisca

Paul Crump is a Graphic Designer based in London and a recent graduate from the BA Graphic and Media Design course at the London College of Communication.

Paul is a self-proclaimed ‘versatile perfectionist’ with a keen eye for detail and he produces clean, well structured design and graphics. Every element of his work is well informed and carefully thought through and he strives to challenge existing formats in an attempt to make them more engaging and eye-catching to the viewer.

During his time at university he also worked with Alexander McQueen and joined WhyNotAssociates as an intern straight after completing the BA course.

It (WhyNotAssociates) was a great experience working in a multi-disciplinary studio, any questions you had they were happy to help and let you work in the way that suits you best. The feedback given was very helpful to feed into my own practice.

At the moment I’m working on the identity for the textile designer Finchittida Finch who recently graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and Design.

I can vouch for his meticulous and strong work ethic and this has been recently rewarded with a First Class Honours degree and features on both the Creative Review and Grafik Magazine’s ‘Great Graduates’. Paul is pushing on with this momentum and has big plans around the corner:

In the future I would like to experience working in New York. It’s a place I love visiting and has a completely different atmosphere to London. A job at Pentagram would be amazing. Just working alongside some of the designers there would be a dream come true.

Paul has also recently setup partnerships with two other recent graduates as part of DIVIDEBYTHREE in order to push their work further as part of a team.

To find out more behind the projects featured check out www.paul-crump.com.
Twitter: @paul_crump

Rich.

New large illustration piece in the same theme of work I exhibited as part of my degree show.
“Nothing is more real than nothing” is a quote taken from Samuel Beckett’s 1951 novel ‘Malone Dies’.

‘Nothing is more real than nothing’
Limited run
70x100cm
by Rich Sheehan

Full passage: ”I don’t like those gull’s eyes. They remind me of an old shipwreck, I forget which. I know it is a small thing. But I am easily frightened now. I know those little phrases that seem so innocuous and, once you let them in, pollute the whole of speech. Nothing is more real than nothing. They rise up out of the pit and know no rest until they drag you down into its dark. But I am on my guard now.”

Take a closer look below:

You can check out more of my work in the art, design and illustration sections on SickManSick in the categories menu.

Rich.

My name is Kyle Platts and i’m an illustrator based in South London. My influences are anthropology, hot rods, nature, bad skin and psychedelia.

In an effort to keep busy, I do a weekly comic for mint magazine. This is a constant exercise for me as it forces me to think about text and image as well as original compositions.

Here is a selection of current work from my portfolio, enjoy.

More work to come.

Kyle

I went down to the MA Publishing student’s exhibition at The Book Club in East London last Wednesday- ‘Publishing Challenge’ showcased new self-published books and magazines from the students at LCC.

The work on display was excellent and the night also coincided with the launch of the ABC Book Project.

There were some very interesting presentations, highlighting the highs and lows of making the work on display, including the painstakingly hand screen printed cover for each copy and this was followed by an auction of the final ABC book- the book, signed by the illustrators went for £75 and this will go towards the other great fundraising work ABC has been doing with the British Red Cross.

Keep up to date for more news on the ongoing project here, ABC Project.

Rich.

Next Wednesday is an exhibition by MA Publishing students from LCC- a celebration of the all things printed and bound.

As part of this will be the launch of the ABC Book Project which I was involved in earlier this year. I was one of 26 illustrators each contributing an illustration of a designated letter of the alphabet with a short written paragraph/poem to accompany it.

Really excited to see the finished article so please come down to The Book Club and check out the event!

From the LCC website:

Date: Wednesday 20 July 2011
Time: 6.30pm onwards
Venue: The Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4RH

Are you a designer, illustrator, photographer or photojournalist who has created a book or magazine?

If so, LCC MA Publishing students – the New Publishers 2011 group – invite you to participate in an exhibition and Pecha Kucha night to celebrate new self-published printed books and magazines.

If you’d like to take part contact newpublishers2011@gmail.com or visit www.publishingchallenge.com for more info.

Rich.

The Private View was last night for the LCC Graphic & Media Design: Illustration degree show at LCC. It was packed out and I hope everyone enjoyed it! It runs until next Friday 8th July and a full post is to come on the show and about this new work.

I’m exhibiting four different framed pieces including a new illustration print.
Here is a preview of that new one, packed full of detail and referencing dreams, nightmares, western and eastern mythology and folk tales. I have produced a limited number for sale in the original black and white and four other colourways; orange, pink, green and blue on heavyweight 250gsm Parchmarque paper.

Thank you to those who picked up a print last night-

A new online store is in the works and hopefully will be ready to go soon, in the mean time drop me an email- rich@sickmansick.co.uk for more info about the show and the prints.

Rich.

Actress Kacey Barnfield (Resident Evil: Afterlife, Neil’s sister in ‘The Inbetweeners’) asked me to design and build her a very simple but elegant website.

http://kacey-barnfield.com

It’s minimal design is governed by the fact that it’s purpose is to present information on Kacey, and her various projects, as efficiently as possible. As is often the case, the main headaches were technical ones (cross browser compatibility etc).

Enjoy,

Cormac.