designfeedr

I recently had a chat with the lively Scott “I am Scotty” Jackson. Scott’s a professional illustrator of colorful characters living in the United Kingdom. I talked about what makes Scott tick, how he feels about the scene, his thoughts on freelancing with abroad clients and more. Enjoy!

1. Hey Scott, nice to have you. Can you give the readers a short introduction?
I’m a designer/illustrator who lives and works in the United Kingdom and seem to spend most of my time designing characters of one kind or another. Surely not a job for a grown man.

2. When I look at your illustration work you seem to be able to produce the popular Japanese inspired cute style but also have pieces which have a more local feel to them. Is this duality a conscious decision on your part or something you just rolled into?
I think it’s a bit of both. It’s very important for an illustrator to have their own defined style but I have worked for a number of years at in-house roles and there is a great need to be very flexible when it comes to style. One day I could be working on specifications for a new product prototype and the next I may be asked to ghost the illustration style of a colleague far removed from my own.

In general life I have always been a bit of a Jack of all trades and I don’t like the idea of being a one trick pony. What I’m trying to say is I think I am the product of my past and it shows in my work.

3. I’m always curious what inspires cute character illustrators? Do you look at colleagues for inspiration or do you have less obvious source for feeding the creative furnace?
I’ve always been inspired by Japanese and American mascots that you’d find on packaging and I’m also a massive fan of the surf clothing label Mambo and the stable of artists they had a few years ago.

One of my most loved design books is a copy of Mambo’s “Still Life Through Franchise” and I’m very proud of the fact that Reg Mombassa who must be my favorite artist signed and doodled in it for me.

I’m hugely into character design and illustration and if I didn’t do it for a living then I would have it as a hobby so I am constantly checking out other designers work and I have a bookmark list of design portals that I check every day and I’m happy to list designfeedr amongst them.

I get a huge amount of inspiration from my contemporaries and I feel very lucky to have access via the web to such an amazingly rich source of influences which simply didn’t exist a number of years ago.

4. We often see character illustrators who’ve made a bit of name for them selves move into getting their work on apparel, prints, buttons and even toy lines. What makes this expansion so compelling for illustrators of this kind? Do you have any such plans?
I think the ultimate goal in a characters evolution is to be released from the constraints of a 2D world and to be applied to something more tactile which in a way is breathing life into a character, be it by applying it to a product, animation, t-shirt or the ever popular vinyl toys. In the past I used to make designs and illustrations for a lot of licensed products so I’m pretty used to seeing my work on all manner of things from lunch boxes to clothing and bed spreads. the most obscure thing was a toweling, hooded bath robe for a dog.

One feather in my cap was a range of little PVC characters that clipped onto your zipper called Zipper Pals. I designed them from the ground up a few years ago and apparently they sell around 14 million a year around the world.
Note to self: Next time agree on a royalty deal.

5. You told me that you’re planning to migrate to Australia, that’s a long way from home. Why the drastic change?
I’ve always had a thing about Australia since being a kid. I remember sitting in front of the TV being completely captivated watching Rolf Harris painting his outback murals.
A few years ago my now wife Claire an I were lucky enough to spend a few months traveling there in another love of mine, a 1973 VW Kombi called Cilla. We even secretly got married in Sydney.

I then discovered Vegemite and became even more smitten by the place. We’re in the process of applying for a Visa at the moment. If there is anyone out there who fancies employing and shipping over a slightly affected pommie designer, feel free to make my day.

6. How do you think clients respond when a freelancer they do regular business with leaves the country? Do you think you’ll be able to hang on to most of them?
I hope so. Almost all my clients are in other countries to myself already and one of the good things about what I do is that it’s not location sensitive in any way. The main thing for me is to have a reliable internet connection.
Since the internet came along and especially in the past few years there has been an emergence of the “location independent professional” with sites like locationindependant.com and anywired.com springing up to inform this new kind of remote worker. Although it must be wildly impractical, you must admit the idea of the beach being your workplace does sound nice.

7. What’s your take on the current character illustration scene? Is it friendly amongst the illustrators or much more cut-throat than the rainbow colored cuties might suggest?
I love the current scene and I really hope it’s popularity continues. There is so much talent out there and I don’t think a day goes by without me seeing something that makes me say WOW out loud.

I’ve gotten to know quite a number of other character designers and illustrators through sites like mojizu albeit in a long distance way and without exception they are all lovely people. I don’t think designing cute little characters for a living would appeal to egomaniacs or people that take themselves too seriously. Then again I may be wrong, I’ve never seen two of them in the same place at the same time. They may fight like cat and dog. That would be something worth seeing!

8. Anything you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t gotten the chance for yet?
Is there ever! I’m a complete make-a-holic and I don’t think a day goes by without me thinking about some project or another.

There are a few things I’d like to do. I have always wanted to design a t-shirt for Mambo, do a little animation and the obligatory vinyl toys.

There are one or two little things that I’m working on at the moment that I’ve wanted to do for a while. One being an Illustrator tutorial for yours truly and I’m also working on a flat-pack paper toy that I hope to make free to download via my site. I’ve always enjoyed sculpture and wood carving and I’m going to be getting the chain saw training and certificates to enable me to do some pretty big pieces.

Designfeedr thanks Scott for his time and wishes him the best of luck in Aussie land. Should you want more Scott Jackson character love then check out his site. If you’d love to know more about the process that happens in Scott’s head when he’s doing his craft then check back soon for the tutorial he is currently writing up for Designfeedr. As always eye candy below!