Illustrator Interview: Simon Williams /drinkmilk / Crayola

Simon Williams/ drinkmilk designed the cover art for “Birdsongs, Beesongs” volume C, and here follows a short email-interview with the artist
. Williams a.k.a
. Crayola is also a musician, and will release both a solo-album and an album by his band Sarandon this year.  The image below is his cover-art for his own solo-cd, released on Odd Box records 2010. The logo for the Odd Box label is also Williams’ creation

. All illustrations shown in this presentation is made by drinkmilk/Williams.

1. Can you give me a short presentation of yourself and your art?

I have been drawing and designing seriously since the 1980s when I trained as a Screen Printer
.
Currently I work as a Freelance Graphic Designer specialising in artwork for the music industry.
I also perform in the band Sarandon.

2
. What are you working on right now?

I’m currently finishing off writing the new Sarandon album ready for recording in the late summer

.

3. What are your favourite tools?

I couldn’t live without my Wacom tablet.

4. How do you begin / conceptualise a project?

If it’s a poster I’m designing then it’s simply a case starting to draw and seeing what happens.
If it’s a record cover or suchlike I will either be given a brief by the customer or I will work with any titles I’m given.

5. Who / what are your greatest Visual Inspirations?

I don’t have any particular inspirational figures.

6. Is music or other forms of art an inspiration? If so, what do you listen to?

Of course music is very important.
I suppose I listen to a wide range of things – anybody reading my blogs will know kind of where I come from musically.
A short list of favourites would include:
bIG fLAME, The Shrubs, Faust, Genesis, Gary Numan, Adam & The Ants, Status Quo, The Cannanes, The June Brides, DeSalvo, Dawson, The Dog Faced Hermans, The Nightingales, Woflhounds, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Napalm Death, The Ex, The Fall, Julian Cope, Thee Headcoats/Mighty Caesars/Etc.

7. Describe an average working day.

I have a day job that I do 9 to 5, so if I have any design work to do I will get up at around 4:30 to 5am and work before the children wake up.
Then it’s off to work, get home and play with the kids, put them to bed, eat food and watch TV.

8. What are your future plans? Any exciting things you are looking forward to?

As I mentioned above there is a new Sarandon album in progress.
Other than that I take one day at a time.

9. How would you like to end this interview?

I don’t really understand that question. Sorry.

You can learn more about Simon Williams/Crayola/drinkmilk from these websites:

http://drink-milk.net
http://sarandon.net
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarandon/6894447258
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crayola/119240587555?ref=ts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Williams_%28musician%29

(Some questions are stolen with permission from Jamie Ball’s interview series on his Visual journal).