Ben O’Brien (AKA Ben The Illustrator) is a UK based illustrator, designer, animator and music video director. Working along side his wife Fi, the pair are currently running their brand “Wish you were here” from Ben’s website: http://www.bentheillustrator.com
Ben’s stunning use of bold colour and clean graphic style makes him one of the most in demand artists working today. His uniqe style has been seen across the globe having worked for major companies including Honda, Sony, Domino Records, Smart cars and Vice Magazine.
Ben recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk to Pejhy about music, otters, and babies. Read on>
What was your first paid illustration job and how did you get it?
I was already working in animation, and I’d done quite a few ‘free’ illustration jobs, just odd bits for indie magazines and flyers for bands and DJs, but then the animation studio I was working at signed with an agent, they were an illustration agency but had started to represent animators and animation studios too. Anyway, I managed toshow them some illustration work and I got lucky when they decided to represent me for illustration work too, I was really winging it back then, so little experience, so little idea. My first paid job was illustrating a corporate brochure for the BBC and the digital radio industry (this was the early days of digital radio in a way). It wasn’t the coolest job ever, it was very corporate, very restricted and all very organised, and it really dropped me in at the deep end as far as illustrating for clients, but I learnt a lot, in the long run it was good to start off with such a refined brief working to super tight schedules with very formal clients. I’m now represented by a much more enjoyable agency, and I feel blessed to have them bringing in the commissioned paid work, generally with much more creative clients and exciting projects.
Do you listen to music when you work? If so what’s been keeping you going recently?
All the time, I struggle to work well in silence! We only just recently started using Spotify in our studio (I work with my wife, Fi, luckily we totally share music taste!). Our current favourites are Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Speech DeBelle, Pegz, Liam Finn and a whole lot of old hiphop, as always.
How long has it taken you to develop your style to where it is today and what has inspired it?
I’ve always liked playing with bold colours and taking real things, nature, cities etc, and quirking them up a bit, but I’ve only really concentrated on seriously developing my work over the last 8 years or so. I left college in ’99 graduating from an animation degree, then I worked in animation for a few years, but it was always the pure drawn work that I liked (and I was a really second-rate animator!) so when I started getting a few illustration jobs I felt the need to move away from animation and focus on my illustration work and define my style. I’ve taken my inspiration mostly from being out and about, crazy creative cities like Tokyo, NYC and Melbourne where you can just see colour used in such cool ways, art, architecture, music, clothing and also the more natural world, mountains, forests, fields, beaches, anywhere that makes you feel good. That’s the key, I’m trying to take the feeling that I get from being in a good place, and put it into a picture, share it with people.
How does commissioned work differ from private work? How is the work process different?
Freedom. Private work, whether it’s a doodle for the heck of it, or a design for an art print, I have creative freedom. Fi and I plan some things with our prints, so I might have to use a certain colour palette or create a certain mood, depending on what’s going to sell well and be enjoyed by the public (Fi manages our homewares brand ‘Wish You Were Here’, selling art prints and home design products) So essentially I have full creative freedom on that, I can just muck about a bit, doodle, sit and draw things in my own time, then when I’ve got the image right on paper and in my head I can take it into Illustrator and artwork it, it’s pure enjoyment. Client work can sometimes be a completely different thing, you’re focused by their brief and the media it’s for, sometimes we have to approach it with much more of a ‘design business’ head on. Occasionally I can just illustrate a cool picture and that’s enough, but if it’s for advertising especially, you’re part of a bigger team, along with their art directors, copywriters, all sorts of people, and you can be restricted by the client’s branding, their company ethos etc etc. But I love both, they’re both good processes. The personal work helps me to develop my style, to try anything I want, for mine and Fi’s enjoyment, the commissioned work gives us a chance to be a part of the design industry, illustrating work which serves a purpose, part of a larger team.
What’s the story behind your character “Speakerdog”?
He started purely as a doodle, I’d been doing a lot of character-based commercial work in a certain style, and I’d started to tire a little of it (this was around 6 years ago, when I was still finding my way), then I just doodled a couple of characters in a completely different style, one of them was Speakerdog. I started playing with him, painting on canvasses and developing him as a character with a purpose and a personality. In time people started picking up on him and I started using him as a way into different projects, exhibitions, products like tees and posters. I’d always illustrated him in dreamily perfect landscapes, so he appeared to me to be a bit of a mascot for good environmentalism and good times. A few years ago I was getting into paper toys, mostly Shin Tanaka’s work, and I thought I’d try my hand at it too, so I developed a Speakerdog paper toy, since then it’s all rolled on pretty smoothly! Fi now manages the Speakerdog Paper Toys, we’ve got hundreds of custom designs by hundreds of artists, it’s a blast, we do it all for free so people just download the paper toy templates and break out the glue stick, plus we’ve got his own shop for posters and custom hand-drawn paper toys and all sorts of good stuff. I totally recommend focusing on personal projects like that; it can open so many doors in the professional world.
Check it all out on: www.speakerdog.com.
Speakerdog certainly seems to enjoy travelling, if you could go anywhere in the world right now where would it be?
Paris. It’s not quite a far off land or anything, but it’s such a neat city, we love it, plus I think there’s a Takeshi Murakami exhibition on right now! If I could, I’d grab our little dog, Doze, get Fi in the car and head straight to Paris for some good food, some design shopping, check out some new graf and hit that Takeshi Murakami show!
Animals and nature are both reoccurring themes in your work, if you could have any pet, no matter how impractical, what would it be?
Haha, pygmy goats and loads of them, they’re so neat with their cool climbing skills. Actually, more impractical but just as cool… sea otters.
Who are your favourite artists or illustrators working today?
Oh heck, so many! S.Britt is ace (http://www.sbritt.com), really inspiring and Toru Fukuda (http://torufukuda.jp), always makes me smile, that’s probably my top two, but then there’s Simon Wild (great colours http://www.simonwild.com), C86/Matt Lyon (nice and fresh http://www.c8six.com), Stephen Chan (really sticks to his guns with a strong personal style http://www.stephen-chan.co.uk), Chris Malbon (part of McFaul design studio but does amazing stuff like this too www.sosaturdays.co.uk), anything bold, super fresh and popping with strong colours.
Do you have any exhibitions planned in the near future?
No solo exhibitions, we’ve got a baby due in January so we’ve had to cut back on a lot of plans! We’re doing a group show in London in December, can’t announce details yet but we know it’s going to be ace!
To see view more of Ben’s work or to check up on that secret exhibition check out his sites: http://www.speakerdog.com and http://www.wywh.co.uk
