Fabric

FABRICJ a c k H u d s o n

D a v i d R i c h a r d s o nH u m a n E m p i r eS o p h i e C o l l e y

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DavidRichardson

SophieColley

PeterGamlen

HumanEmpire

JackHudson

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Hello and welcome to the first edition of Fabric Magazine. With file-sharing becoming one of the worlds most rapid developments, the exploration of inspiration comes to us much quicker; we find the need to shift though mountains of waste to uncover that tiny piece of spark that enlights an idea. Here we are in an constantly updated society but it seems that too many of our every day objects are just there to be thrown away. Sometimes you do find that spark that makes you question everything you believe in, and here in Fabric Magazine, we intend to keep those sparks coming

thick & fast.

What model camera do you always have on you? I love my yashica T5, it’s what’s always closest to me. But I broke it in Denmark last week, the Danes love to party and at around 6am it flew outta my hand and cracked against the wall. Everything went slow, it was like in some gangster film, my buddy had just been shot. I could almost see blood around it against the wall. So i’m using my true love more, the contax g2 What kind of music listen to when editing? It always changes, at the moment.. Scott Walker, John Cale, New Order, Talking Heads, Gun Club and Prince. Anything and everything. I just listen to what I fancy. Editing’s the least creative part in my photos. I don’t waste time with digital non-

R I C HARD S ON“ T H E L A S T P H O T O I T O O K I S O F A G R O T E S Q U E S T R I P P E R

W I T H B R E A S T S L I K E I S L A N D S S T I C K I N G A C A N D L E S O M E W H E R E W H I L S T H E R I N N O C E N T L I T T L E P I N K P R I N C E S S

B A G L A Y B E H I N D ”



hat is your process to get to the final image from the moment you capture the picture? I shoot it and then get it processed and finally, scanned. I then make a few adjustments with col-our corrections and if needed cropping. How many pictures do you take a day?Depends on the day. I haven’t taken one photo last 3 days but other days I can go through 5 rolls of film. What was the first photo exhibit that changed your life? It was an exhibition by the artist Kandinski, but there were great exhibits recently that I loved. One called Exposure at Tate, that was amazing, best exhibit I’ve ever been to. What’s the best thing about your work? The adventures to take the photos. I put my-self into them just to get photos sometimes. Maybe that’s the wrong way around, but taking one photo, if all of you is involved in that intense observation. It can make you even closer than that moment, it’s not observing, it’s merging yourself between the time and the space of that moment. What was your last adventure? I had a damn weird dream last night! That had a mix of sci- fi Giger and Hitchcock. Can you suggest something, anything for whoever reading this to do? Immerse yourself in your friends, lovers and world What is your opinion on digital photo-graphs? Well I think they are amazing for reportage. They make news so much faster now, which is a great thing and it was a revolutionary step. For art they are a step backwards somehow, they just don’t look as pleasing to the eye or heart. For trickery they are great as they can be very smooth images, but I don’t care for that, true beauty is something with a texture, something that you want to touch. I also feel saddened that personal inspirations to me like Terry Richardson and Hedi Slimane’s work has dramatically gone down in quality since they started using more digital. I think it can make peo-

I think the way that us humans are constantly changing every second physically and mentally is something that should be appreciated and to keep your mind as open as possible to people and what life throws at you. Is photography the only thing you do for a living or is it your living at all? Luckily it is what I love doing and just about the only thing people would pay me to do! My plan this year is to finally get my own website and an agent. All of the jobs I’ve had have been music related, but I’m working on more fashion based shoots now. I’m still going to continue my lifestyle work and shoot whatever moves me, because when I get those photos back, there really isn’t a better feeling. Strange to be in that photography mode though. I saw a friend recently who asked about the photos I’d taken at a party the week before and I remember the party and maybe taking a few shots, It turned out I’d shot 2 rolls but those few shots are my favourites from it. I guess for those I wasn’t in a photography mindset, something deep-er than that. Alex Clapworthy was introduced to you with the words, “David Richardson, the most mother [freakin’] rock and roll pho-tographer in London”. Is rock and roll how you would describe your work? It’s taken a while to find my own style, a lot of experimenting and a lot of dead cameras. A lot of my mates are musicians or adventurers, so I end up on adventures with them and the most uninhib-ited people and best light is at dawn.. My friend pointed out that a lot of my best pictures are the ones where I don’t almost end up killing myself so I’m taking that on board! So no more lessons in how to almost get beaten up by 10 Somalis for taking an unwanted picture or searching for that legendary angle that has felled many a photogra-pher before. A lot of my best work is scarred by necessity. I brought a tonne of ancient fast film and it’s gradu-ally got worse and worse, now it’s pretty useless. I think the last photo from it worked best, it’s of a grotesque stripper with breasts like islands sticking a candle somewhere whilst her innocent little pink princess bag lay behind, it added to the trashy ele-ment of it all. But I love grain, just like I love some valve distortion. For the record Alex is a legend! There should be more people like him in the record industry. Good people with balls and great taste! Pictures. Music is a fantastic idea, music and photography.

W ou’re also in a band, would you say that there are many similarities to making music and “making” photos?Not anymore, Lee is busy with Id&ego design and I’m shooting too much. I still write but I don’t know if I’m getting worse or my ears are getting better.. But I guess they both work on harmony and composition, the melody and rhythm are your subject. There’s got to be a lot of soul and I think space is always good. Your work very often has a romantic edge, even in some of the more “rock and roll” pieces. Would you agree with this and is it something you seek to bring out in your work?Thank you. Some people see that. I wasn’t aware at first and thought that maybe that meant that it was cheesy, cause when I think of romantic movies I feel queasy, but then there’s always a Manhattan to change your mind. Romance is not just beam-ing faces and sweaty panting. It’s past all that. In a photography sense what appeals to me is the ex-pressions and body language that people give out when they’re not aware of anything else in the world. When they’re probably not even aware of anybody but themselves and are lost there. You shoot in exclusively analogue these days, why is that?Digital is just not good enough. The colours, high-lights and tonal depth are still are way behind. Also noise is disgusting and I love grain! When you’ve taken a photo that you love digitally and you know it could be better if it was film, well why do that to yourself ? I know people who spend hours in photo-shop emulating a film look. I’d rather be out there shooting with a camera and one that I would not be afraid of breaking because it means so much to me rather than because it cost a grand or so. I’ve used a friend’s P65 back and it’s still not as good as 120. Then there’s that elusive quality that film has, it is more real than life and even more beautiful.

Y

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As well as covering live performers and events you also compose shoots. Can you describe your pro-cess? Do you already have in mind what shots you will take and how they will look? Sometimes. It’s good to build a narrative, a story for your subject. But it’s all about them to me. I am so bored of fashion that is full of mangled robot

poses and angry pouting. There’s nothing there. I want to get the most out of the person in the most natural way possible. Have fun, I say. Describe the perfect photo shoot or photo op-portunity. The sexy funk singer Betty Davis around mid 70s with an early 80s freaky Prince. I couldn’t

imagine anything better, maybe throw young Keith Richards and Grace Kelly in the mix too. That would be something special. Photography is about a story outside of the photograph...don’t be scared of shooting what you’re interested in....

GO OUT AND DIG FOR THE GOLD.

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H U D S O N

A T T H E A G E O F 2 1 , N O T M A N Y I L L U S T R A T O R S C A N S A Y T H A T T H E Y ’ V E G O T C L I E N T S S U C H A S G O O G L E , T H E T E L E G R A P H & T H E B I G I S S U E

U N D E R T H E I R B E L T ; J A C K H U D S O N H O W E V E R , C A N .

What made you want to go into illustration, and have you even found yourself swaying into other design subjects? I didn’t really know what I wanted to go into before starting university; all I knew after pursuing a foundation course in art was that I wanted to go into something creative. Over my second and third year at university I started work on small illustration jobs such as posters for club nights and album artwork, it was nice to see my work ‘out there’ and around Bris-tol. From there on I’ve just got more and more in-volved with working on different projects and en-joyed doing so. Illustration can be very broad and I’ve found myself swaying into animation, working on music videos, 3D work, all sorts really.

How have your inspiration changes over the course of your career and how has it influenced your work? My inspirations haven’t changed, but more ex-panded I would say, I feel that I now have a wider range of knowledge coming from all areas. An ex-ample of this is my third year project. The scout adventure tale was inspired by Japanese print art-ist Kuniyoshi and his mythical creatures, 1980’s adventure films such as the Goonies and makeshift rafts. This still happens now when working on pro-jects, it’s great to take inspiration from a range of different sources. What are your favourite methods of creating work - your illustration are rich in detail and lay-ers, it’s very difficult to depict the actual process behind it?

The process usually begins with a series of small thumbnail drawings to work out the composition of the illustration. I then sketch out characters, objects and other elements of the piece, ink them in using black Indian ink or sometimes paint them using gouache. Scan these images all in and sit composing for hours layering up textures and col-ours in photoshop. This process can sometimes vary depending on time constraints when working for clients but I al-ways sketch out my designs before heading straight to the computer. How does working for a massive client like Google Chrome or The Sunday Times differ to a smaller brand like Nobrow, for instance? The difference here mainly lies in the time con-straints. Most of the editorial work I do is very fast


most, to a day. For instance the poster I produced for Google Chrome’s second year anniversary was produced in a week, I got the call on the Sunday and then presented them with the full design on the following Monday after a series of back and fourth phone calls and amendments. When working for Nobrow I had about a month to produced the piece, so I had a lot of time to think about the content and the composition. Also I suppose a big difference in these two clients is that you are more able to experiment with some-thing like Nobrow, where as Google really liked my ‘Behind the Scenes and Everything Else Inbe-tween’ piece, so wanted a similar asthetic to the commissioned poster. How did you go about finding work, espe-cially when you first graduated? I entered a couple of graduate showcase events such as Computer Arts Magazine and itsnicethat.com, and was lucky enough to get selected. I think that it also helped to have some experience with dealing with clients already whilst at Uni. How-ever this isn’t entirely necessarily and if someone likes your work they will get in touch with you no matter what really. The Sky Larkin ‘Kaleide’ album that I designed in my third year was also released around the time of my graduation, which I believe got my work out there into the public eye and it was also nominated for the best vinyl art of 2010, which was very ex-citing! Any work coming up we should know about? I’ve recently had a very busy couple of weeks working on editorials, a few of which being for

sometime next week. Also a project with a big cli-ent that is all under wraps unfortunately until I get full confirmation that the projects all going ahead. Apart from that I’m going to begin work on my first small book for a newly started risograph company called Yoke Books next week, which will be enjoyable. Any advice for all the budding illustrators out there? The most important bits of advice I had was to ‘make time to make work’ after you leave univer-sity. It sounds surprisingly simple but it’s so true, if you work long hours you may slip into a trap of not producing any work and lack motivation, but it’s a tricky balance to achieve. Also when you leave University try to have a portfolio online that is cohesive and that you are proud of. Clients want to look at a portfolio that is consistent so they know that they can trust you. Where as if you have lots of sketches and unfin-ished work on your website/blog it doesn’t look as professional. And finally always look busy online, this will eventually pay off and get you some at-tention. Finally, is there any new methods or pro-cess’s you are keen to explore in the future? Notably the video you did for Tigers That Talked is fantastic, and it’s what introduced me to you; is that an area you could see your-self being involved with more often? I’d definitely like to do more animation, but obviously my work is a lot brighter now so I’d like to produce something more colourful than what I have previously worked on. I’m also really inter-ested in film and moving image so I’m looking to explore that along with 3D work, a bit ofexplore that along with 3D work, a bit of everything really to broaden my spectrum.

' I f y o u w o r k l o n g h o u r s y o u m a y s l i p i n t o a t r a p o f n o t p r o d u c i n g a n y w o r k a n d l a c k m o t i v a t i o n , b u t i t ' s a t r i c k y b a l a n c e t o a c h i e v e '


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Illustrator and Designer Jack Hudson was born and raised in Birmingham and now freelance’s in the city of Bristol, England. Jack is inspired by adventure and when he is not sat at his desk cre-ating pencil and gouache drawings, he is either: drinking coffee, playing/watching gigs or cycling around town looking for nice trinkets to hoard. He’s always looking for new and exciting pro-jects to pursue, so if you would like to commission him or ask him anything at all, please email Jack at: [email protected]

Client List

Google ChromeThe Sunday TelegraphThe Oprah MagazineWitchita Recordings

The Skinny MagazineThe Big IssueNobrow Press

YCNAnorak

Cent

Exhibitions

Dec 2010 - ‘Fresh Produce’ - Graffiti Gone Global, Miami

Oct 2010 - ‘The Toy Shop Exhibition’ - The Art Corner, Manchester

Nov 2010 - ‘Best Vinyl Art 2010’- Touring Euro-pean Exhibition (Sky Larkin - Kaleide artwork)

Nov 2010 - ‘Clinic Collective Presents Talons Al-bum launch’ - Amersham Arms, London

Nov 2010 - ‘Oscar Kirk’s Diary’ - Anorak Maga-zine- Museum of London Docklands

Sep 2010 - ‘Computer Arts Magazine, Graduate Showcase- Oct 2010 - Cafe 1001, London

Aug 2010 - ‘Turn Up The Colour’ - Analogue Books, Edinburgh

Mar 2010 - ‘Across the Way’ - Here Gallery, BristolDec 2009 - ‘Secret Service’ - Rotopol Press, Kas-

sel, GermanyNov 2009 - ‘In Sequence’ - LCB Surf Store, Brick

Lane, London


G A M L E N“ I H A V E D E V O U R E D A N D O B S E S S I V E L Y W A T C H E D C O U N T L E S S F I L M S . I H A V E G O N E T H R O U G H O B S E S S I V E P E R I O D S O F G E N R E , O F D I R E C T O R S , O F A C T O R S , L O V I N G O N E F I L M ,

A N D T R Y I N G T O F I N D O T H E R S L I K E I T ”

Firstly, you could briefly describe what you do? I draw! I draw as a means of engaging with both myself and the world. Putting pencil and brush to paper is the most direct and enjoyable way for me to channel my thoughts and ideas, be they sim-ple absent-minded doodles, or carefully composed scenes. Your style seems influenced by vintage comics and art deco alike. What inspires you about those aesthetics or what do you look to for inspiration? As a child I adored Tintin, and the verve of Herge’s art and stories still inspire me today. They are very carefully considered, but still wonderfully engaging and dynamic. I have a wide ranging fascination with the first half of the 20th Century. It was a time when applied art was really that

the commercial art styles of the interwar period are truly beautiful, and have stood the test of time, because the were specifically desgined and a mod-ern day thoughtless and artless montage of photos advertising Sealife in Brighton is not going to be an art object 80 years from now, the way a London Zoo lithographic poster from the 30s is today. It was everyday, but it was considered. Ordinary things like newspaper strips and cartoons, lettering styles on the grocery store, cars, clothes – looking at it now, it all seems to have so much more soul and substance than the equivalent produce of today. It is cheering that there seems to be an increase in the amount of younger designers and consumers who want products of substance, quality and style, and I hope that the wider public will re-engage with the notion that the ordinary need not be thoughtless and ugly.


I have a wide ranging fascination with the first half of the 20th Century. It was a time when applied art was really that – the commercial art styles of the interwar period are truly beautiful, and have stood the test of time, because the were specifically desgined and considered – a modern day thoughtless and artless montage of photos ad-vertising Sealife in Brighton is not going to be an art object 80 years from now, the way a London Zoo lithographic poster from the 30s is today. It was everyday, but it was considered. Ordinary ‘low brow’ things like newspaper strips and cartoons, lettering styles on the grocery store, cars, clothes – looking at it now, it all seems to have so much more soul and substance than the equivalent pro-duce of today. It is cheering that there seems to be an increase in the amount of younger designers

and consumers who want products of substance, quality and style, and i hope that the wider public will re-engage with the notion that the ordinary need not be thoughtless and ugly. When it comes to Art Deco, I find the extremely stylised expression of optimism about man’s ca-pability and ambition to be very romantic, and stands a frozen moment in time, before the second world war, as a design movement saying “look how amazing we are, look at what we can build, look how much thought and effort we can put into our creations”, before the ‘new’ become terrifying in the form of the atomic bomb. Your illustrations have a fantastic sense of place and back story, like a film set! Have you watched any films that have informed your sense of space and environment? Hundreds! More so than any other art form, I have devoured and obsessively watched count-less films. I have gone through obsessive periods of genre, of directors, of actors, loving one film, and trying to find others like it. I am fascinated by stories, and storytelling, but I don’t think in terms of panels like a comic artist, but in terms of cam-era shots and mise-en-scène. Sometimes I feel it restricts me, and the way I draw, and think about drawing, can become too literal. Some of the re-cent work i’ve been making has been a lot more imaginative and playful though. I greatly enjoy evoking the surroundings of a specific moment; trying to convey a happening.

Firstly, you could briefly describe what you do? I draw! I draw as a means of engaging with both myself and the world. Putting pencil and brush to paper is the most direct and enjoyable way for me to channel my thoughts and ideas, be they sim-ple absent-minded doodles, or carefully composed scenes.

Your style seems influenced by vintage comics and art deco alike. What inspires you about those aesthetics or what do you look to for inspiration? As a child I adored Tintin, and the verve of Herge’s art and stories still inspire me today. They are very carefully considered, but still wonderfully engaging and dynamic. I have a wide ranging fas-

Your style seems influenced by vintage comics and art deco alike. What inspires you about those aesthetics or what do you look to for inspiration? As a child I adored Tintin, and the verve of Herge’s art and stories still inspire me today. They are very carefully considered, but still wonderfully engaging and dynamic.


COLLEY‘ A N O T H E R P E R S O N S R U B B I S H I S A N O T H E R ’ S T R E A S U R E ’

We step in and out of daydreams, books and television screens escaping into parallel worlds. My practice aims to explore the universal through encoding an amalgamation of the personal. Objects recycled, found, aclaimed, inherited act as my muse. Placement and location of these objects dic-tate these universal narratives through creating spaces where fictions can exist however are ulti-mately constrained by reality. Gravity creates a tension within, a time-less freeze-frame that we can experience, not just as a purely physical form but also as an essence of mortality designed to evoke an emotion in human consciousness. Everyone may experience feelings of loss, depression or anxiety from time to time however ultimately we all dream, crave and long to escape these feelings of sadness.

Moments of escape could manifest through many things, listening to that song you haven’t heard for a while or a venture to your favourite child-hood spot. Escapism is key to our existence, as without it we will ultimately crash. Obviously a student budget must be kept low, however within my last project I discovered that even with a zero budget it is possible to think big. I was able to still find a magical location, an unwanted boat and free-friendly labour. This has inspired me to think more ambitiously about projects and has renewed my faith in good old-fashioned people power. ‘She’ is situated at Alice Holt Forest in Farnham. This particular piece encompasses our inner youth through old clothing representing remnants of past days, memories and aspirations. These are precious moments of escape; flight freedom that sail through are minds and

eventuate into spiralling down to earth - back to reality. And I’m about to graduate; I do feel anxious about tumbling into the real world. However I also feel liberated, I’ll never be constricted by explaining again, never limited by the thought of having to compile an artist statement at the end of each triumph. Yes, we can understand something together but sometimes it becomes less precious, less mysterious every time you spell it out. Words are wonder full however objects leave a little more to be desired. My next project consists of me travelling around the world with my Grandmas Chest of drawers; I will explore the spiritual qualities within mirrors and the influence of the full moon. Locations will consist of her childhood home in Northern India as well as her resting place, Heston in the Wirral.


h u m a n

e m p i r eS C R A P I N G B Y O N J U S T F I V E H U N D R E D P O U N D S A M O N T H , S L E E P I N G O N Y O U R G I R L F R I E N D S

F L O O R A N D W O R K I N G F O R D R U G S , L E E & D E V A F R O M I D & E G O A R E R E A L L Y

L I V I N G T H E R O C K ‘ N ’ R O L L D E S I G N E R S D R E A M

I saw that you did an exhibition of amazing original Swiss posters between the period of 1955 and 1966-why did you select this particu-lar period? Seeing some of the works as well, it seems to have some sort of influence or in-spiration for you as well? Yes – classic Swiss design from the 50s and 60s have a great impact in my design work. I had a Swiss professor while attending college that was always impressed by reduced simple and bold de-signs. Since then I started to collect Swiss books and posters. I think the illustration and design from this period has something that is extremely missing in today’s design and advertising. Swiss design often makes you smile and feel good be-cause of the warm and bright colors, humor, etc. People especially needed this after the war in the 50s and still do today with the economy crises. Can you walk us through a typical day at your offices? First we check our emails, which usually takes at least an hour to answer all of them. I usually start out by working on a cover design, Wiebke visits the shops around this time. 10 minutes will go by, the phone will ring and I’ll have to do other things. Then we have lunch at a nice and not too expen-sive restaurant in our neighborhood. After lunch I do illustrations for anything from a band, club or a magazine and then switch to do a record cov-er or go the short distance to our shop where we

I do illustrations for anything from a band, club or a magazine and then switch to do a record cov-er or go the short distance to our shop where we have a small photo studio and a workshop where we can produce artwork or interior decoration for our stores.Our work is very spontaneous and we don’t plan too much (in detail) when we start with an art piece. This makes the process very time-consuming. We don’t know exactly what will be the result when starting something because it is very important for us to experiment and try out new ideas and ap-proaches. The artwork often changes several times during the process of making. In the past several years, we (like many others) have tried to integrate hand built or hand drawn stuff often incorporat-ing this with the use of our photo studio and wood workshop. Sometimes we have to throw away the result because it doesn’t look good with all the ele-ments combined, even if one of the components is a nice object or something.What do you think makes for successful de-sign- or what’s your philosophy behind your approach to creating work in general? Some years ago I thought having good design skills would be enough, but I was wrong. Besides having the skill to be a good designer, the most important thi ing is that you have the ability to touch the emotions of the “consumer”. When I look at hip and stylish design, fashion magazines or corporate


label designs I often have the sense that there are a lot of designers and photographers with impres-sive skills but in the end seldom have a concept that really surprises or touches me. I am often re-ally surprised that every (lifestyle) magazine looks the same (for example).In today’s design books, I often see just a combina-tion of hip styles, but what about the content and the message and what about humor or something else? The message seems to get overshadowed by execution. I really loved the illustrations you did for the magazine “Neuland,” they have such a playful, iconic feel to them that calls to mind everything from the experimental composi-tional organization and symbolism of Miro


‘ I t ’ s g o o d t o b u i l d a n a r r a t i v e , a s t o r y f o r

y o u r s u b j e c t . I a m s o b o r e d o f

f a s h i o n t h a t i s f u l l o fm a n g l e d r o b o t

p o s e s ’

to 1970’s children’s books- can you expand upon your thought process with these works? I was really influenced by the aesthetics of the seventies (my childhood). I still have a clear mem-ory of the colors and style of furniture my mom would decorate our apartment with at this time. If I see those colors and décor from this period I in-stantly have a warm and good feeling. They make me happy. I’ve noticed that a lot of people feel this way. Another influence of mine is the magazine Neuland presenting a new region of Germany in every issue. The current issue is about lower Ba-varia. If you think of lower Bavaria you think of folk art, traditional stuff, and the clear basic colors white, red, blue and green, which are often used in Germany’s traditional folk art s etc.


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