Lunchbreath

Today, pixelpoodle talks to Toby, a Chicago-based product designer and illustrator. His Flickr gallery contains over 200 cartoons & illustrations riddled with clever observations & approaches to society.

What prompted you to move into illustration? How did you go about pursuing it?
I learned technical illustration in design school, fairly traditional, markers and pastel renderings of snowmobiles and blow dryers, that sort of thing. When I got out on my own I started figuring out ways to do all my work in Photoshop so I wouldn’t have to buy supplies, and basically I’ve been stuck on it ever since. I’ve been doing a good deal of product illustration for about ten years, but the cartoon-ey, freeform stuff only about a year and a half.

Where can we see some of your work?
Most of my work is dumped onto Flickr and I cartoon blog regularly for Core77 along with FueledbyCoffee, a friend and very talented designer. I currently have a pile of projects, some posters for Core, some informational toons for a swedish youth employment action group, a kids book that’s been brewing for awhile. The whole point of the cartoons for me is to have an ongoing project I can do in small doses while I figure out my own style, and I’m only beginning to get to the point of liking my own angle enough to do larger projects.

Your works cover a wide range of subjects from political issues to everyday situations, where do you draw inspiration from?
My basic rule is that if i don’t care about it i don’t draw it. So basically I draw whatever’s bugging me that particular day. Sometimes it’s very specific to my life, my annoyances with grammar and domestic pet peeves, other times just a reaction to what I’m reading or seeing in the news. It’s cathartic.

Do you aspire to send out a message or make a statement in your works?
Not as a whole, but I do like to try to convey a conflicted stance on many things. So even if I’m being really aggressive on a topic, I like to include a footnote or a wee little character who makes fun of that opinion.

Most of your pieces have quite a bit of textual content, do you start with an idea and create something around that theme or vice versa, do your doodles drive your imagination?
Half and half. Sometimes I just want to draw a thing, other times it’s a verbal piece. I’d like to start building an audience for more written work, with supporting illustrations, but the images so easily go viral that it’s hard to know where to push a more text heavy piece that just looks like everyone else’s blogs.

What is your typical workflow when working on a design?
I scribble on notecards until i’m laughing at it, then i surf the web to see if it’s been done, or if there’s some better information i can pull to improve the idea. I’ll photograph my sketch and dump it in a blank photoshop file with any images i pulled off the web for inspiration—forms, color schemes, typography, whatever, and basically chop away at it until I like it. It’s a mess but it works.

Which art mediums and software packages do you use in the creation process?
Photoshop is the only software I touch for creation, sometimes I do print setup in Illustrator. I use an iMac with a Wacom Cintiq, best investment I’ve ever made.

Who are some of your favorite artists?
Big list but my favorites aren’t super obscure. In no particular order, I’d say Jay Ryan, Chris Ware, Shel Silverstein (for his travelogues as much as his kids books) Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson and Edward Gorey. Additionally I try to channel some authors who are skilled at overtly subjective non-fiction, like Bill Bryson, David Sedaris and David Foster Wallace.

Can you offer any advice to those pursuing a career in illustration or design?
Yeah, just do it. Start now. I should have started this years ago. Put stuff on flickr or tumblr and get feedback, try new things and don’t do things for other people unless you’re dating them or it fits your style. Otherwise you really lose your way.

Thank you for your time.
Thanks!