Author: Jakub

  • In conversation: The Smails

    In conversation: The Smails

    Christopher Smail is a freelance arts journalist and editor living in Edinburgh. Christopher’s sister, Katy, is an illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York.

    When we met Christopher a couple of weeks ago and he told us about his sister, we thought it would be interesting to witness a conversation between these two siblings and find out more about their childhood and creative upbringing.

    Hey sis, what are you working on at the moment?

    At the moment I am working on some stock designs for my wedding stationary business, a job for seventeen magazine, a new print design and ideas for a new series of botanical inspired artworks.

    Cool, you recently finished a collaboration with the Danish kids clothing line Soft Gallery. What was that like?

    It was really wonderful because we have a very compatible aesthetic. They approached me because they liked my style, so felt comfortable to give me quite a bit of freedom with my ideas. For each design they gave me that season’s theme and colour palette and I kind of daydreamed from there.

    I appreciated that their style is very soft and dreamy, very artistic for a commercial project. So it was lovely.

    Where do you think your drawing talent comes from? There aren’t many people who draw in our bfamily?

    I’m not sure. Auntie Elizabeth was always very good at drawing. I remember sitting with her when I was little, just making her draw difficult things like crocodiles because I just thought it was so enchanting that she could do that.

    Other then that there are a lot of creative thinkers in our family. Mum is a very artistic person and you and our other brothers do creative things in writing, design and photography. I wasn’t actually very good at drawing when I was little, but like with anything in life, if you love it and practise and learn from the tricky bits you will grow and get better.

    I wonder how many other people in our family might have found drawing if they had had the time, space and encouragement to nurture the skill?

    Yeah that’s an interesting point. The further you go back in time, the harder it would have been for our relatives to do anything creative.

    Exactly. It just might not have been an option.

    Too busy being blacksmiths and pushing babies around in old-fashioned prams to draw probably.

    God that sounds bleak.

    Do you think our childhood influences your work?

    Yes. Definitely the purple hills, tangled woods, grey skies and gothic buildings of Edinburgh and the countryside where we grew up. Spending weekends making dens in the garden, running around by rivers and through botanic gardens.

    And it is interesting, the longer I live in a city the more drawn I am to drawing the wildflowers and botanicals that surrounded us as children. It is so therapeutic for me.

    What are some of your fondest memories of art school in Scotland?

    So many. Edinburgh is a wonderful place to study, just the right size and so inspiring. I made so many life long friends in those four years and felt so happy living with my three best friends. We would collaborate a lot, always be bouncing ideas off of each other. I really miss living in such a creative community.

    And we had so much fun! Lots of parties and dancing and birthday breakfasts and cosy coffee shops.

    Was your exchange in America, at Rhode Island School of Design important in your development as an
    artist?

    Yes very. As much as I loved ECA, it was a very relaxed, work it out yourself approach to learning and I was just this burning ball of ambition and motivation. I really wanted to be in a stricter working environment where I could be pushed.

    RISD certainly gave me that; the teaching was wonderful, the schedule was intense and it really accelerated my development. I think the American work ethic kind of chimed with me.

    And now you’re a citizen of the Republic of Brooklyn. What are your top drawing spots in the city?

    My apartment! The Brooklyn Botanical gardens and my friend Ariel Dearie’s flower studio. Right now I am looking for a studio to call my own.

    What’s your process when working at your desk? Do you have music on? A herbal tea perhaps?

    I go through phrases, Lately I have been listening to a lot of BBC Radio 4 online. It helps when I feel homesick! I love women’s hour, I like to feel like I am absorbing knowledge by osmosis whilst working on something else.

    And yes, usually a cup of herbal tea and Rosey the cat batting at my pencils as I sit amongst a messy sea of paper flowers.

    Ok a list of the biggest influences of your work, in different mediums? 

    Artists & Paintings: Ellsworth Kelly’s plant drawings, Matisse, Edward Gorey, Henry Darger and Egon Schiele.

    Books & authors: Nabokov, Les Enfants Terribles, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Anais Nin, Isadora Duncan’s memoirs, Patti Smith, Tess of the D’Ubervilles and Sylvia Plath.

    For music I most like to draw to: Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton and Vashti
    Bunyan.

     www.whatktdoes.com

    www.whitecoffeemagazine.com/tag/christopher-smail

  • Giveaway: Girls on Film Book

    Giveaway: Girls on Film Book

    Last week we received lots of copies of the brand new Girls on Film book! The book compiles the best work that has appeared in Girls on Film zine over the past two years and a half, featuring photographs by over 70 emerging photographers, including names like Michal Pudelka, Lukasz Wierzbowski and Charlie Rubin.

    We’re giving away one copy of this limited edition book. All you need to do is sign up for the newsletter using the form below and we’ll choose a random winner from our subscriber list by the end of the month.

    This giveaway is now closed. Thank you all for signing up.  

  • So It Goes Magazine

    So It Goes Magazine

    So It Goes is a biannual arts and culture magazine that has been conceived to be a a meeting place for a global network of photographers, journalists and other creatives. It is also creative agency that extends the magazine’s network and commitment to unique storytelling into branded film content, documentaries, featurettes and short films. 

    The debut issue was launched just a few weeks ago and we talked to James Wright, co-editor and founder of So It Goes, about his background and the idea of starting a magazine/creative agency.

    www.soitgoescreative.com

    Could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background?

    I’m the Creative Director and Editor of So it Goes magazine. After having studied politics at Bristol University in the UK, I went on to work for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign in (rural…) Virginia, followed by 2 years in the New York film industry working for Bob Berney. Needless to say, my career in publishing was something of a segue…

    After my visa expired, I came back to the UK and co-founded the lifestyle brand Fourth & Main. F&M was a brand comprising two parts: a capsule menswear collection and a biannual arts and culture publication called Fourth & Main Journal. The title profiled a range of young talent across the arts and ran as a free title for three issues. Earlier this year, we felt the magazine deserved to be given a life force of its own as a paid publication, hence the new company and the birth of So it Goes magazine…

    How did you meet your co-editors?

    I’ve known my co-editors Josh Bullock and Lewis Carpenter for 15 years; we were all at school together and rather fortuitously all found ourselves in similar fields at a time when we were all looking for a new creative adventure. I’d worked with Josh at F&M and knew that our shared interests (and work ethic!) would make an excellent foundation for the new company.

    How did you come up with the idea of So It Goes as a creative agency and a magazine?

    Both Josh and my first love is cinema. At Fourth & Main we made 18 short films together, ranging from a video for the Sundance Film Festival, a docu-short with artist Alex Prager and a fashion editorial with James Bond’s new ‘Q’, Ben Whishaw. With So it Goes magazine, we saw the opportunity to pursue our film work inan even more active sense. The magazine affords us wonderful access to an incredibly diverse range of stories and storytellers. We decided that one arm of the business should feed the other – a story we’re researching, or an actor we’re shooting can and should be complemented by video work that we workshop, produce, edit and disseminate ourselves.

    We also saw the creative agency as an outlet to talk with brands who are looking to diversify their advertising by developing an innovative and forward-thinking approach to content curation.

    To those ends, we hope to bridge our passion for filmmaking with commercial considerations.

    What differentiates So It Goes from other arts and culture magazines that have been launched in the last couple of years?

    So it Goes was born out of shared desire to launch an independent magazine title that was at once intelligent, but not alienating. We strongly believed there was a market that wasn’t being catered for. When we looked at the newsstand, we didn’t see many publications that balanced well-shot and well-produced photo shoots (of primarily acting or musical talent) with long-form cultural or political commentary. It seemed like there was a hinterland between the two. Many people have said that you have to hone in on a target demographic, whether it be food, travel, politics or fashion, but we believed there was a cross-cultural niche to be filled. As a result, we devised a chapterised format for the magazine – ‘The Actors’, ‘The Directors’ ‘The Musicians’, ‘The Artists’, ‘The Collection’, ‘The Places’ and ‘The Writers’. From the beginning, we were seeking to bring about a return to long-form journalism. Whatever the current predilection for throwaway, bite-size commentary, we still believed there was an appetite for well-written pieces that are given the word count to cut to the heart of an issue or story.

    As a result, there’s a truly broad and dynamic range of content from photo shoots with young acting talent like Felicity Jones; interviews with the auteur of modern Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson and the linchpin of cult British cinema Michael Winterbottom; an original piece of non-fiction from the actor James Franco; an augmented reality spread with artist/rapper Yung Jake; long-form articles that address the future of modern espionage and many many more.

    For finding recommendations of similar bands to the ones mentioned by James in the interview, don’t forget to check music discovery platform www.bandnext.com

  • Travel: North Berwick

    Travel: North Berwick

    Yesterday we spent the day in North Berwick, a seaside town 30 minutes away from Edinburgh. We packed our camera, took the train and enjoyed a few hours walking around its beaches and streets, discovering the seabirds of the area and having a delicious meal at the Lobster Shack. We liked it so much that we’re already planning another visit in a couple of weeks!

  • Wonderland – A Short Documentary on Creative Commerce

    What it is like to work in the creative industry? This short documentary from design and production studio Eskimo explores how creative mixes with the corporate world. The documentary directed by Terry Rayment and Hunter Richards looks at the different challenges that creatives are faced with in the industry and how they retain their artistic integrity while working for large corporate companies. 

    Here’s a short quote from Wilson Brown, who once was told that no one can survive just by making music: ‘If you’re committed, you just make work, and get better and better at your craft. When you’re good enough at your craft, people start to recognise that and they start to ask to do the craft for them. And that’s the transition when it becomes a profession’

    Director Ag Rojas also says: ‘You want be proud of everything you do and when you get going in commercials, you realise that it’s just not going to be the case. You do need to separate that element from your mind’.

    www.letsgoeskimo.com

    Wonderland | A Short Form Doc on Creative Commerce from Eskimo on Vimeo.