• Blue Q – http://www.blueq-blog.com/interview-with-nate-williams/
• Ecojot – http://designerjots.blogspot.com/2009/12/nate-williams-q.html

Here are some of the resources I mention on the show:

• Illustration Mundo
• n8w.com
• Alexander Blue
• Evernote
• “Blink”
• Twitter

Gata Flora
Numero #9
tapa: Sofia Coppola
Año 03 / Marzo. Abril. Mayo 2009
100 Pag $ 15
Sumario

NOTAS
Detrás: Sofia Coppola / La eterna adolescente
Los desvelos de Cupido
Cuestión de género
Norah Borges / La hermana
Yo, etcétera
Sin tetas no hay paraíso
Tamara de Lempicka / Cenizas en el volcán
FILBA / El Woodstock de las letras

VISUAL
Moda I: Las vírgenes suicidas
Porfolio: Amy Cutler / Heroínas domésticas
Moda II: Portarretratos

ENTREVISTAS
Nicola Costantino / Obrera del arte
Nate Williams / El hombre ilustrado
Loli Molina / Honrar la música
Esteban Menis / Honesto

PAJAROS EN LA CABEZA
Bestiaria / Doñas Juanas
Crónicas neoyorquinas / Cenas machas
Filósofo Prêt-à-Porter / Opus nigrum
Diarios de viaje: San Pablo / La belle époque paulina
El Ciudadano / Ven a mi crisis suburbana

BLOG
Fernanda Cohen

What makes you choose to draw your type by hand?

Reason 1 - Hand rendering gives a word a tone ..it tells the viewer how to interpret it on a subliminal level.  Like a horror movie with music.. if you didn’t have the creepy music when someone walked into the basement … it wouldn’t be scary

Reason 2 - When I was a child I had a learning disability.. When I would try to read a book, my eyes would jump all over the page .. This forced me to see letters as forms/objects rather than the words they represented

When you are hand drawing type, do you think about drawing the word itself, or do you articulate individual letters?

I would say word .. most of my hand lettering is part of a bigger family .. I think if I focused on making each letter very unique .. it would be almost too stylized and distracting .. but there are always exceptions

When drawing a word, is the meaning and context always important, or just how it looks?

both .. sometimes the word can look conceptually like something the word is about .. and other times it just sets a mood .. how to interpret the word, happy, sad, energetic, etc

How important to you is the interplay of text and image?

very important .. I like mixing lettering with imagery.. I think they balance each other out .. imagery is very organic and letter forms are very mechanical .. each can provide information the other cannot.

Do you think fonts are improved if they are hand drawn?

It all depends what your objectives are .. there isn’t one solution for everything.

Why is there more hand lettering in design today?

Probably because it’s a response to the high-tech boom in the 90’s where everything was slick and highly polished. Now the pendulum has swung the other way .. Eventually it will return to the middle and both the  ”high-tech” look and “hand drawn” look will just be another tool for designers and illustrators to achieve specific objectives.

As the world becomes smaller because of globalization, people crave things and experiences that are not from a template.. things that make them feel like their life is special and they are a unique … I think that is why the following are on the rise.. hand drawn type, non chain restaurants, limited edition silk-screens, local beers, local coffee shops, handmade books, self published music/writing, etc ..

• Why did you decide to start a blog?
• How has blogging effected your work as an artist/designer?
• What are your favorite artist/design blogs? Why?
• Why do you think blogs have now become so popular with artists/designers?
• What has been the most positive and inspirational aspect of having a blog for you?

Nate Williams was asked to contribute to the Insights section on the Design Interact website. Insights is a Q&A section that features someone in the design industry philosophizing about some aspect of the industry that’s important to them. Design Interact is the premiere source of information and inspiration for the interactive media industry and is part of the Commarts network.

http://www.commarts.com/insights/importance-experience.html

Does any culture or artist inspire you to create art works?

By living in a new environment it forces you to beware of your surroundings and not live life on “auto-pilot” .. to do things out of desire instead of routine. Children have such a great state of mind. They think simple things are exciting, they are emotionally honest and they are extremely curious. When you move to a culture that is much different than your own culture you can achieve this state of mind as an adult. Mundane things become interesting because they are done differently than what you are accustomed to and everyday becomes filled with memorable experiences.

In your opinion, what is the definition of creativity?

I think of “creativity” as a mixture of curiosity and appreciation for what’s around you. It’s a way to view the world. A creative person looks at something and wants to know how it works? Why it is the way it is? What is its history? Are there other things like it? Etc. We don’t always have the answer when we want to know .. so we start to think of possible explanations .. in the process we not only answer our initial question but we think of possibilities that can be applied to other things …

Latest art work “Winning with broken hearts and land mines” how do you design the vision of the theme?

I was watching the news/propaganda channel, CNN, and I just found it strange that they brand tragedy like they are selling a product. They repeat the same title over and over and have a consistent visual identity for each tragedy. Then I thought about the way the IRAQ war was presented/sold to the world. The latest sound bite you hear in the US media is “win the hearts and minds of the people” which is very hypocritical to say after invading a country against the will of world under false pretenses, commit horrible acts like the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, imprisoning detainees indefinitely at Guantanamo bay without representation, and in short destabilizing this region and world. So in that piece of artwork I wanted to illustrate the discrepancy between the message and the reality. There is nothing more contradictory than a cute face on a bomb.

When you are painting /drawing the figures, will you put emphasis on faces to show their expression?

I am fascinated with the various forms of communication. Facial expressions and other types of body language is very interesting. I like the idea of using many channels of communication in my work. To say one thing in one channel .. but something contradictory in another channel. For example, I will have a very serious topic, such as war, but will visually create it in cute animals and soft pastel colors. People pick up on the discrepancy between the harsh subject matter and the cute execution which makes them explore the piece more, because the intended message is not super clear so they have to think to make the connection between the two and come up with their own conclusion. A lot of the time what people see in my work is more about wha’s in their brain and how they feel about an issue. Similar to a Rorschach Test .. my artwork is just a tool to explore yourself.

On November, you had a show in SID LEE COLLECTIVE, could you share some interesting experience about it?

The Sid Lee collective, a brain child of the advertising agency SID LEE, invited me to Montreal, Canada for an entire week. I created images on 25 huge blackboards around their offices, met some great people from SID LEE, explored Montreal, had a amazing art show, gave a lecture about my work to local illustrators, sold some silkscreen prints and met a ton of people at EXPOZINE (Montreal’s Annual Small Press, Comic and Zine Fair) I am very grateful to Sid Lee for providing with such an amazing experience .. a very cool agency.

Vintage-Something old that will cost a lot.

Tell us about the cover piece you have done for this issue and the elements used.

I think of humans as balloons on strings .. we struggle with the conflict between our animal instincts and the logical rules we make .. I am sure someone said this 1000s of years ago .. but we still haven’t seemed to figure out a good balance.

How old are you and how many years have you spent away from home?

I just turned 33. I moved out the house when I was 18 or 19. Moved out of the state when I was 23 .. and moved out of the country when I was 29

Why the fascination in South America? Do any other cultures hold the same fascination for you …and if so do you think their influence will come through in your work also?

Latin America just feels good .. I dig the people, food, music .. but really .. it’s just a feeling .. .. I feel like the Latin culture is very similar to how I am .. placing emphasis on experiences, family friends, enjoying life and not taking it too seriously .. humans aren’t perfect .. we do stupid things .. but it’s okay .. it’s a learning process and life is good.

Where do you draw your inspiration from …how has this changed over the years since you began design?

being in interesting environments is my number one inspiration .. this hasn’t really changed .. when I was kid I would take the subway all over San Francisco bay area .. skateboard in old army bases and drain pipes .. go to china town in San Francisco .. then end up in some suburb that had good handrails at an elementary school .. now .. I am just wandering around latin America .. trying new food .. looking at funny characters .. etc

Are you in limbo between South America and the States or do you do much of your work on commission through online portals and digital delivery? Tell us more about the work flow being based so far from what is probably your main market and how this works / hinders you.

No .. it’s very easy with the internet. I have an internet phone .. so calling me from the states isn’t even long distance .. So a client talks to my rep .. she works out a deal .. a client calls me .. we discuss ideas .. send a few emails back an forth .. I post rough sketches on the internet .. they phone or email me feedback .. I incorporate the feedback .. and post the highrez image to download .. they download it .. my rep sends them an invoice .. they pay my rep .. my rep sends a check to my bank .. I spend the money on books, eating out, music, going to movies, traveling, stuff with my wife .. and the process starts all over again.

The Nate technique … your work appears very raw and hand constructed. How much hand is involved in the hand / computer balance to your artwork?

After working as an art director for Microsoft’s Xbox .. I was so tired of seeing super rendered cgi graphics .. I craved the imperfections.. I liked mistakes.. I liked accidental textures.. but at the same time I realized how powerful the computer was .. so It’s about 50/50 .. I create textures and line drawing by hand .. India ink, sharpie markers .. mixing oil and water, salt, baking soda and vinegar .. etc… and then I scan these elements into the computer and resize them .. put them in new compositions and color them ..

What are your current materials of choice to work with and how has this changed over time? Why do you think this is?

Well .. I used to paint huge 24 foot by 12 foot paintings

http://www.n8w.com/newweb/photos-artsource-photo.php

but it made it a little hard to be nomadic with huge canvases and 5 gallon buckets of paint .. so I have converted to India ink, sharpie markers and copy machines .. with a wife and a kid .. I am less nomadic so I started painting again

http://www.n8w.com/gallery/color/p/

What sort of work gets you really enthused?

Music has the greatest impact on me .. I will listen to one song straight for 3 days and walk around the city and have a bazillion thoughts .. as far as visual art .. I like to make art more than look at art .. I like good concepts .. it doesn’t even have to be art .. just a good idea .. like a product .. or a comedy idea .. or a more efficient way to do something .. etc

What do enjoy in the down time … you obviously paint and create a lot of the time – and travel is a passion – what are your passions aside from the obvious?

walking my dog and listening to music is the best .. well next too good food, sex and the ocean .. I walk for hours .. I walk all over the city .. I go to places I never go .. take trains, buses .. etc .. I like learning about history .. mainly from listening to history podcasts .. I like Brazilian jui jitsui and working out .. I like to drink beer .. meet people .. see something that makes me laugh .. I like watching anything about animals and crime shows .. I like thinking of product ideas .. sitting on my balcony and people watching

Complete this line: A little known Nate Williams fact is….

I wet the bed until he was 14 .. I am color blind .. I love women with skinny waists and big hips/butts .. I just had a baby boy .. I studied sculpture in college .. had a learning disability while growing up ..

You have a strong web background also – has this computer based design been dropped by the wayside for the more hand oriented work or do you still do much web stuff?

No .. actually it really helps for other projects I do .. http://www.illustrationmundo.com , http://www.moodybuddha.com .. etc .. but I just think of it as a tool rather than a career .. it’s just a means .. before it was an end .. cause that was what paid the bills

Tell us about the fun you had doing Alexander Blue and the reaction you have had from the kids  also the differences in doing this kind of work to the usual?

I created the alter ego Alexander Blue .. so I could do another style of illustration .. but no confuse Nate Williams clients .. I think every illustrator realizes you must have a strong consistent style .. but struggles with committing to one style .. so this is how I deal with the struggle .. just created other personalities for other styles .. problem solved ..

Any chance of hitting our shores any time in the near future? We’d love to have you down at the Wooden Toy gallery sometime and there’s always a couch spare!

I really want to .. I have been to Australia once and loved it .. whenever I travel I always meet Germans and Aussies .. and always hit it off. When I was in Chile .. I met some rad Aussies named John and Julia who ended up staying with me for a month in Buenos Aires .. so if you see this John and Julia .. HELLO!!

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