Nachgereicht. Das Interview mit James. Dem Designer des “Use it or lose it” Winners!

Hey James. Just a short biography, please.
I grew up in the “old west“ united states (Idaho, Wyoming) and grew up in a family in which every member was involved in art in one way or another. I started drawing and sculpting at an early age since my father was an artist and made part of his living seling bronze wildlife sculptures. Everytime I would complain that I was bored he would put some clay in front of me and tell me to make something. At first I would make sculptures and paintings of wildlife and landscapes, however thanks to movies and magazines and later my travels I became much more interested in a more free style of art. After my studies I sent my resume all around the USA and took the first job that offered, in Chicago where i live now with my wife.

And what is the history behind the „Use it“ design?
During the day I work at a graphic design firm, our (firm) president is very open-minded and full of ideas to motivate the employees, so along came the idea to ask me to create a shirt design for a special event in which we would all spend a day learning how to be more creative and find a way to extend our educations. This idea generated that shirt design…“use it or lose it“

Where are you now located? Tell us about your current business and projects.
I live in Chicago for almost 3 years now, like I mentioned before, I work at a design firm. When I can find free time i try to work on shirt designs and a few paintings here and there. On my busride to work every day (if I am not sleeping) I try to draw atleast 1 character to post on my blog. I try to make use of my time on a bus since before I moved to Chicago my life was spent in cars, ever since the move I no longer own a car.

Well, what would you suggest to a newbie, who just starting his or her career as a designer?
Look for motivation, I didn’t start to find any success until I found a way to start to actually have a passion for something that I do for a living, for some that is easy to find, for some like me it took a while.

Who are your favorite designers and artists around the world? Why?
Thanks to the internet and sites like flickr I am happy to connect with and follow so many great artists that all work hard everyday to make it big, all that excitement really gets me stoked to work on new projects. I don’t want to single out any of them out but they know who they are.

Some of the more well known artists I enjoy are:
Tim Biskup
Joe Ledbetter
-always been a fan of Jamie Hewlett, most recently his work on the Olympic video
somehow during an interview (even one I can do at my own pase) the names of so many artists slip my mind…ask me in a few days, I’ll remember them and slap myself that I couldn’t think of it right now.

What do you think about communities these days?
It depends on what kind of community, I think in every type they can be great to be a part of until there is a crisis and everyone turns on each other. When it comes to websites it is hard for someone like me to keep up with everything that is happening since I am at work until 19:00 every day, and when I come home I sometimes lose that energy to searh through the endless forums and posts.

Do you work on Mac or PC? Why did you choose this platform?
I work on Mac. When I was in school and for the larger part of my days as a graphic designer I would use a PC because I grew up with it, and I could afford it during school.I recently switched to mac after my exposure in school and then career as I found out how much more efficient my work can be and decided that efficiency is worth the money.

Do you play videogames?
Yes I do, although since I finished school and have been working so much I rarely play, but that need to shoot aliens with a machine gun will never die in me. (strangely, no I don’t like Halo)

What are your hobbies?
Raquetball, fishing, snowboarding, crafts of all kinds, trying interesting foods I find at different ethnic stores around chicago. Rollerblading, I used to paint warhammer pieces (for those who know what that is, I was pretty efficient painting regiments at once)

What is THE place on earth you would like to visit?
Right now it is Cambodia. In my University days I spent 4 months in China and my curiosity and love for all things across the Asian continent is peaked. I hope I can scratch up enough money so my wife and I can travel to the temples at Angkor Wat. Anyone want to join us or live somewhere nearï?Š?

How many hours do you work, and what is stress for you?
I work about 9 hours a day at work, then 2 hours are my bus ride, then I work atleast 3-4 hours each night on freelance or contest projects. Stress is when I don’t have anything to work on and all the ideas are gone….or stress is like right now when it is already when I should be asleep and I can’t remember the names of artists that I have enjoyed most of my life.

Latest movie you liked?
Right off the top of my head it is still Cloverfield, mainly because it finally fulfilled my idea of a monster movie and put me right in the action like I was a part of it and only knew what those people knew. Kind of like having a bad dream but knowing you are dreaming, you can experience something frightening with no consequences.

What’s your favorite sites? Why?
Flickr is near the top of my list because I can constantly see who has created something new, they can update me, and I can update them and find a lot of inspiration in it all.
A Better Tomorrow of course because they picked my shirt design;)
www.thejcw.blogspot.com because If I don’t shamelessly promote myself then who will?
Im also a fan of BloodSweatVector and Soulpancake, and of course facebook.

Any plans for the future?
For now I simply want to keep working hard both at work and at home on my side projects and just try to produce more work, get better at it and hopefully have more people know about „theJCW“