Computerlove™

December 26th, 2008

Let's Talk, HelloVon

London-based illustrator Von produces work that is emotive and technically complex. Influenced by the worlds of music, fashion, and design his work combines traditional and digital mark making techniques. In addition to commercial work for clients like American Express, Nike, and The New York Times Von has been hard at work on pieces for an upcoming solo show next year at Cerasoli-LeBasse in Los Angeles. I recently had the chance to talk with Von, here's how our conversation played out.
-Matthew Newton

What first attracted you to art and how did you refine those interests to get where you are today?

I suspect my story is pretty much the same as many in the industry in that drawing and painting has been my one constant favourite thing to do since I was a child. After university I carried on trying to find my feet creatively whilst working a normal job before getting in as a junior designer at a small design studio. It was there that I picked up on how to and not to do a lot of things which provided a firm apprenticeship in the day-to-day running of a small creative business. After around a year I left there and I set up studio HelloVon at the start of 2006 and took it from there. Managing your own career from promotion and finances to actually getting the work done is always going to be a huge learning curve but I've been lucky enough to manage ok so far.

The scope of your work is diverse—typography, illustration, and painting. Do you favor any one medium over the other?

I see it all as one really. Whilst my painting—and drawing-based work can have a very different atmosphere and evoke quite different reactions they are essentially created with the same method of mark making and I couldn't pick one over the other.

In seeing all three mediums as one, is your approach always the same then?

The thought process that goes into constructing the shapes to build up the content and composition is pretty much always the same. It is that, I would hope, that gives a coherence or consistent language to the work overall.

Your biography mentions that you are heavily influenced by music, fashion, and design. Can you explain how these elements inform your ideas?

Music is a huge influence on me and my work in general. It is stating the blindingly obvious but sounds conjure all kinds of imagery, for me a lot of it very abstract, and over the years I've noticed it finding its way into my work more and more. I guess it manifests itself most regularly in the fluid marks I use with the bubbles and brush strokes. Sometimes it can be a lot easier to imagine a mood or atmosphere in sound than images and the challenge of then translating that into a visual that works is something I relish chasing. Equally, lyrics are a very rich source of inspiration for images as they can be so specifically emotive yet ambiguous at the same time leaving your imagination to pluck from them what it will.

As a commercial artist, graphic design and product design is as appealing to me as any kind of fine art. Like many people a huge section of my bookshelf is dedicated to old Penguin books purely for the covers alone. Aside from it's intended use I don't really make a huge distinction between commercial and fine art that I like in terms of holding one above the other. Design is just composition/balance in one form or another and a well designed image, whether it be from a fine art gallery or commercial editorial design, is what appeals to me most—especially when it is combined with a strong element of craft.

In terms of fashion, I'm not a huge follower of particular designers or trends in the sense that my own personal fashion is very average. My girlfriend is the one that knows designers inside out. I get inspiration from fashion more by looking through shoots in various magazines—the styling, atmosphere, etc. It's a much more anonymous experience for me but nevertheless inspiring. Having said that someone I would highlight that I recently came across is Martin Margiela.

Looking at your drawings, I would imagine the process is time-consuming. Do you work from photographs, memories, or elements altogether different?

With a lot of commercial jobs there is often a portrait involved and so I will be provided photographic reference to work from. With personal work it is a combination of my own photography, found reference, memories, and so on.

Your paintings seem to be an extension of your drawings, but somewhat softer around the edges. Does working in a different medium change the way you are able to capture a subject?

With each medium you have to find your own way of controlling and manipulating it. As mentioned before, in terms of the shapes and thinking involved in the painting, it is pretty much the same as drawing. However, ink by nature is very different in the way it touches the paper, how it can be applied, and consequently the final result it gives. Ink and brush will always give a softer, friendlier feel than pencil or graphite, and most of the time jobs definitely stand out as working better in one medium than the other.

Artists who draw and paint don't always create their own typography as well. The type you create appears handcrafted, but is it also fully functional?

The typefaces are all hand-drawn. But as to whether they functions fully as a typeface in the everyday sense, I'm not sure. I know very little about type theory and have a huge respect for people in the design field that can produce such beautiful work time and time again with typography in the traditional sense. When it comes to laying out the typography I have done, I don't treat the compositional method much differently—aside from the legibility factor of course—from any other image I make. I love doing it and will be doing more. But I think a lot of professional designers would have a thing or two to say about my name and the word typographer appearing in the same sentence.

What are your thoughts on the way so many designers/artists are viewed as art stars?

It stands to reason that the people that produce work that is of an extremely high quality, innovative, unique—regardless of their industry—will be recognized for their hard work, raise to the top of the game, and be revered for doing so. More often than not blood, sweat, and tears have gone into those people being in the position they are in and they've earned it.

What are you currently working on that has you excited?

The biggest thing, and most overwhelming, would be preparing for my LA solo show next summer, which I'm incredibly excited about.

When you think about the future, what do you hope to look back on and feel a sense of accomplishment about?

To have achieved all of my goals and to not be bored by my own work.

Related links: www.hellovon.com www.hellovon.com/shopvon.htm www.flickr.com/photos/hellovon www.hellovonblog.blogspot.com www.cerasoli-lebasse.com/site

Posted by: mnewton