Practitioner interview part 1

Meeting my practitioner – Ian Morris

I travelled to Manchester to go and visit illustrator Ian Morris at his studios. I have covered how I got in contact with Morris in my previous blog. Unfortunately, on the day he let me knew he wouldn’t be in his studios that day so we rearranged to meet in a coffee shop in Manchester instead. After sending lots of emails back and forth on the day we agreed on a place and time to meet.

I had written down loads of questions I wanted to asked him about his practice, how he generates income, his opinion of agencies and where he seeks his inspiration and motivation. We ended up talking for about 2 hours! I recorded the whole interview on my phone but with it being so long, I shall type up the best bits!

What qualifications do you have?

“So I did my BA in illustration at Salford Uni, because I’m at Manchester you see so it was easy for me to go there, and then I went and did my MA last year at Manchester School of Art. So it was a massive contrast between the art school environment in Manchester and the three years prior where I was in Salford”

I saw you do some lecturing, where do you do that and how did you get into it?

“So I do guest lecturing, so they’ll schedule me in for a certain period of time, so I’ve been doing it this last month at Huddersfield University so it’s been quite an interesting experience because that was the first bit of tutoring I’ve really done since I was at Uni because it’s quite different from being a student where you’ve got to approach people in a different manor and figure out how to get the best out of them as well.”

Okay, so you do that and you balance it with freelance work?

“Yeah, so that comes from working with design agencies if they want to being in a freelance illustrator on a project that their working on. I’m trying at the moment to get a bit more editorial work, and then the next one is publishing because that’s what I really want to get into for children’s books. So I’m going to London Book Fair next week and I’m doing a networking event so they’ll be plenty of art directors and it’s done through the AOI so it’s not quite an expensive event.

That’s why organisations like the AOI are really good to be members of because you find out all about these different events and it keeps you more informed about what’s happening and what going on. You’ll find opportunities will pop up and you’ll think Oh I want to do that and you’ll meet people, that’s how a lot of work comes about, its not much being fantastic its about how you present yourself and put yourself out there and speak to people. Another thing I’d always recommend is keeping a good relationship with your tutor as well, because opportunities can come through them. For example, the tutoring for my only came through my old tutor at Manchester School of Art, I just sent them an email saying I’m looking to get some experience and then, by fate, Huddersfield were looking for someone, so it’s always good to keep in contact with people, even if it’s a tutor, just be a bit pally with them.”

So does the majority of your work come from networking?

"Yeah, I think if your not putting yourself out there in life, your not really going to get those opportunities. So for instance, I don’t know whether to tell this story or not, do you know who Chris Riddell is? He was children’s laurate about two years ago I think it was and he’s also won the Kate Greenaway medal, he’s won that three times. The first illustrator to have done that I’m pretty sure and a few year ago, this is an example of putting myself out there, he was doing a master class at Brian Arts Festival so I thought I’d go down and listen because at the same time I was doing my FMP so Final Major Project, in third year. So like you’re coming here talking to me, I thought I’ll go there, listen to what he says and then I did some research for my uni project and then we got talking, I gave him a drawing just to remember me by and then I finished my masters and a few weeks later I got an email from my tutor saying “Just to let you know we’ve got Chris Riddell coming in to do a talk, you’re more than welcome to come down” so I thought I’d go down, it was very much the same as what I’d heard in Brian but I thought if I could have a chat with him, tell him what happened, I thought he might still know me. Obviously he’s a busy guy, there was a massive que of people waiting to have stuff signed by him, he had just done, RK Rowling’s Tales of Beedle and Bard fully illustrated and he was showing us his artwork, and then I waited until everyone had left, you’ve got the have a bit of patience, and went and spoke to him and he did remember me and when I was one my masters I made these newspapers on this project where I was from in Manchester and I sent them off to him a few weeks before this event after happen so, I just told him I’ve sent you some work and he was a bit nonchalant about it, I couldn’t tell whether he was interested in what I was saying or not so I didn’t think anymore of it. I went off to my studio about a week later and outside there was this little package with his own sketchbooks sketched in with a letter saying I really admired your work, and if your were to include a few more drawings of children illustrations in your portfolio , because that’s what publishers are looking for, they want to know that you can draw believable children, he said if you did that, you can send it off to me again and I can recommend you to my agent. This is where is goes into unchartered territory because I sent them off to him, and I didn’t even get anything to say he’d received my work. That’s the downside of freelance, you cant get put off by it just keep going. Other things will pop up like other jobs, other publishings and like I said the idea of being out there is helpful. Currently their an author that has got in touch with me, a children’s book author, and this came about through the lady who’s next door to me in the studios who’s a friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing, got talking and she’s sent over a transcript and she’s going to be there at the book fair this week so another chance to chat and that’s how you get work.

Would you recommend working in a studio? You get the network through it don’t you?

Yeah, it’s a fine line, obviously, I was the same as in being undecided but a few year ago I’d out my name down to have a look round and after I’d finished my BA I received a message are you still interested in looking around, so I said yeah sure if you’ve got anywhere available let me know. So yeah from there I got a studio space straight after. For where it is and what you get it’s good value for money because all your heating, water, parking and all that stuff in the centre of Manchester is all included and like you said it’s that environment where your surrounded by different creative people even though your all off in your own studios you have communal areas where you talk, ask questions, and then we also do studio open evenings where the public come down and have a look what were doing so we had a few people last year in May who were from the BBC, so you get that tariff coming your way as well, its good for publicity, and I think this year the studio is part of something called Manifest which is a festival that goes on over a period of time in July and several studio spaces across Manchester are opening up their doors to let people come in and because it’s done through Manifest they can market it more, push the social campaign as well. You think you’ll work from home and it’ll save you some money, it’s obviously more convenient because your not traveling and you can wake up, do whatever you want to do and go to sleep and I think there might be some point where I give up my studio and do that. That won’t be until I’m living in my own house though. Overall, I would recommend it to be in the space because you can engage with people, show them your work and they’ll be like “Oh I know someone”, and they’ll push it, it just gets your name out there more, that more the idea. There all like minded people as well, you all bounce ideas of each other too. Even though they’re not the same practice they’ll have experience and they’ll know people. So the children books came from my neighbour Abbie a textile designer who also works in London, she's got great experience and works with a lot of top clients so it’s always good to pick their brains. Don’t feel cheeky, like you’ve got great motivational skills, you’ve come all the way to Manchester, your proactive as well and have got in touch with me so your already there it then pushing it into a space where your getting other people to see your work.