Today’s 6Q interview features my friend, the amazing illustrator Kim Rosen. Kim studied advertising and design and then worked as a designer for several years before becoming an illustrator. Knowing Kim personally I can tell you that she’s has a quiet, peaceful demeanor, she’s very smart, considerate and she cares a lot about her work and her clients, which include; Time, Starbucks, American Express, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and many more. Kim has also been recognized by the Society of Illustrators in NY and LA, 3×3, American Illustration, the Altpick Awards and others. I hope you enjoy the interview.

1. What made you want to become an illustrator?

Well, I have drawn pictures all of my life and while I was working as a Graphic Designer at an Advertising agency, I saw some Illustration portfolios. When I saw those portfolios I knew immediately that that was what I wanted to do. Illustration involves everything that I love about design (composition, problem solving, storytelling etc.) but executed through drawings and that made complete sense to me. To be able to capture an emotion, tell a story and solve a clients needs was/is what made me want to become an Illustrator.

2. Did you ever consider something else besides illustration?

Nope, at the time Illustration seemed like the perfect fit for me and my personality. I knew the types of clients I would be targeting and I understood the competitive nature of the field since I worked in the commercial art world prior to becoming an Illustrator.

3. What influences your style of illustration?

I am influenced by everyday situations and personal emotions. I love observing people and catching subtle expressions and sometimes not so subtle expressions. Interactions between people are fascinating to me as well. The way people move and go about their daily lives, whether it’s at the grocery store, a bar or even dancing, I try to capture an inkling of what I see in their personalities.

4. Describe your processes.

When I get a job for a client, I start with a list of words or phrases that might spark some ideas for sketches. I narrow down my ideas to 2 or 3 concrete concepts. I often look for reference or take my own images for reference and I start drawing. I normally draw really tight line drawings for sketches and I end up using those line drawings for the final art. I finish an image in a variety of ways, but mainly I use my light table to create layers using pastels which I then scan into the computer along with found textures or painted acrylic textures which I compile digitally in Photoshop.

5. What is your favorite illustration you have done, and what do you like about it?

Hmmm… that’s a tough one. I am my own worst critic. I guess if I had to pick a job that I thought was perfect for me and my style, I would say the posters I created for Starbucks’ Hot Java Cool Jazz event. Starbucks has been sponsoring a high school jazz band event in Seattle for the past few years and asked me to draw all of the students in each of the five competing bands. I had so much fun drawing all of the teens with their instruments. The folks at Starbucks allowed me to capture the humor and awkwardness and overall moodiness of the teenagers and it was a blast.

6. What would be a dream project for you?

I would love to illustrate book covers for Fiction books. It would be great to illustrate a series for the Young-Adult crowd. I would also love to illustrate a movie poster. I can think of a million dream projects, but I’ll stop there. All projects are exciting to me because they are all different, that’s the beauty of being an Illustrator.

Thank you so much Kim,for taking the time to do the interview. I really enjoyed it and look forward seeing new work.

You can see a lot more of Kim’s work on her website and see a bit of her process on her blog.

This is the first in what I hope will become a series of six question interviews on Farmidable. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I hope you enjoy. 

I’ve posted about Sam Wolfe Connelly’s work in the past. He is a young and very talented illustrator living in Savanna, GA, who’s work has been featured in the Society of Illustrators NYC, NewYorkTimes.com, Creative Quarterly, CMYK Magazine and more.

Q1:  What made you want to become an illustrator?

I’ve always loved drawing, especially narratives, so when it came time to choose a major in college, illustration seemed like the obvious choice. I really have fallen in love with it since ‘deciding’ my major. If i had to pick an exact moment though, it was when I saw Sam Weber‘s cover of the 2008 Communication Arts Illustration annual (which was a portrait of a bloody vampire) and thought to myself ‘I need to be an illustrator’.

Q2. Did you ever consider something else besides illustration?

Right now I’m trying to invest my energy in the fine art field too. As much as I love illustration, I really like having my own voice heard through galleries too,; it helps me from feeling to stifled. In fact, I have an upcoming solo show this fall in San Francisco with the new Spoke Art Gallery.

Q3. What influences your style of illustration?

Well having just gotten out of school, I had a lot of anxiety about creating a unique style and trying to branch away from my own illustrative influences, but as of right now, I’m pretty comfortable with where my art is going. These days I usually spend a lot of time on my tumblr, collecting photographs that help me generate more ideas for my own ‘world’. I feel like using photography as a creative jumping off point really helps in not generalizing my work and allows for style to come more naturally.

Q4. Describe your processes.

My process generally fluctuates depending on the type of job I’m working on. Some, especially the ones with tighter deadlines, are more digital heavy than others, while some are all traditional. What’s usually always the same though, is beginning with a solid drawing in graphite on paper. Sometimes I take this straight into photoshop, while other times I’ll lay down washes of acrylic/colored pencil, and build it up to get a nicely glazed look. I hate painting though. I’d say nearly all of my pieces are drawing-heavy.

Q5. What is your favorite illustration you have done, and what do you like about it?

This is terrible, but all my illustrations are kind of dead to me. By the time I finish one, I try and focus on the next, because I’m usually sick of looking at it. So, in all honesty, I couldn’t tell you which is my favorite.

Q6. What would be a dream project for you?

To do a huge collaboration with the most talented illustrators I know. That, and to illustrate a Pokemon card.

Thank you so much for agreeing to do the interview I really enjoyed it and wish you all the best. Please keep us updated on your endevers.

Readers can view Sam’s portfolio here and purchase a limited edition print at 1200 Posters shown above.

One of the best parts of going to a book store is looking at the covers. A book cover needs to be simple, intelligent and needs to give the viewer an idea of what’s inside. Once the book is opened the typeface, spacing and use of imagery all need to contribute and add to the content. It can be quite a daunting task, but that’s what design is about. Jason Akejandro, in my opinion is on of the best book designers in the business. He currently works at Princeton University Press and works as a freelancer under the name Archetype.

Anatomy  of a Computer Virus, written by Scott Mitchell and directed and animated by Patrick Clair, is probably one of the scariest computer virus videos I’ve seen. After watching the video you realize that computer systems will never be completely secure. As computer software gets smarter so do viruses. Eventually computers will all get smarter than us anyway and wage war on humans. Maybe they’ll start making their own viruses to control us. I probably shouldn’t say that. The computers could be reading this and I don’t want to give them any ideas. I need to stop thinking about this.

Over the past few years I’ve started paying more attention to food and it’s design. Maybe it’s because of all the cooking networks. Maybe it’s because Meg, my wife, is such a “foodie”. Anyway I figure food is a fun thing to post about. Last night Meg and I had simple deconstructed BLTs. She split a head of romaine lettuce, sprinkled it with salt, pepper and a little lemon oil and bacon on the grill and cooked it for about 10 minutes. She put that on a plate with tomato, cheese and a homemade yogurt dressing. She even made the sourdough bread from scratch. The meal not only looked amazing but the simple flavors of the tomato acid, salty bacon and cool on the tongue dressing became a party in my mouth. Not like a dance party though, more like a dinner party brimming with passionate conversation. I’m sure we’ll be having it again. Oh and for dessert we sprinkled the left over bacon on chocolate ice cream. If you’ve never done it I highly recommend.

One of the great parts of Farmidable is people sending their work in. Thanks to Kevin Davis for sending me a link to his illustration blog. Kevin is currently studying illustration but already has a lot of great pieces. Including this fantastic bird pattern.

Over the past month and half I’ve received some great submissions to the site. One these is Elaine Fong. I’m so glad she sent me a link to her work. Elaine is a graphic designer and art maker who absolutely loves color and isn’t afraid to play. A lot of her work is autobiographical, which is great. My favorite project on her beautifully designed site site is called Sleeping Colors and is an ongoing info-graph analyzing the colors she sees when she sleeps. Of course I’m a fan of her clean modern aesthetic as well. You can visit her site here.

Aside from having a great website design, ReachLife Ministries has an interesting talk by Shai Linne on Christianity and the Arts. Even if you’re not yet of the Christian persuasion, or into hip hop I think you’ll gain some artistic insight out of it.  Check out the site and the talk here.

Techno Tuesdays at work often has a lot of Justice thrown in. My co-worker Justin sent me a link to the new Justice video for the song Civilization directed by Edouard Salier. It’s an amazing video that takes place in what at first resembles a Planet of Apes type setting with gigantic roman like sculptures and desert canons. Just when you think you’re figuring it out the whole world starts to tilt and Buffalo start appearing and running all over. The video is a stylized masterpiece that makes a pretty good song when it first starts into a really good song.

My wife Meg just posted some photos and our process for our modern nursery remodel. It was a lot of work but also very rewarding. Meg and I are blessed to share similar opinions on modern design which makes working on any room in the house fun because I’m not working on something I don’t like. Check her blog to see what we did.