Gary Fernández

Entrevista a Gary Fernandez, ilustrador español que ha colaborado con la nueva campaña de Evan's - Navidad 2010/2011.

Spanish illustrator Gary Fernández’s work has been a major part of the evans Christmas windows campaign this year, he spends his time trying to come up with new worlds full of details, beauty and imagination. He creates environments inspired by the things he loves, the worlds he believes should exist and his life experiences. Gary Fernández believes in the idea of illustration as a tool for showing the hidden beauty of the ordinary things. So we decided to find out a little bit more about him, what inspires him and what’s on his Christmas list this year . . .

Tell us a bit about yourself. . . I’m 29 and live in the USA. I’ve been drawing since I was a child, but began to be seriously interested in illustration while working in the design team of the Spanish magazine Vanidad in 2003/2004. I then started working as a freelance illustrator for clients like Nokia, Zune Originals, Volkswagen, Lucky Strike, Camel and Coca Cola, to name a few.

Sum your style up in 3 words. . . Impossible, Orchestrated and Rhythmic.

You’ve recently been commissioned to work on our Christmas scheme and the Evans window displays are looking amazing. How long did the project take? We started at the beginning of August and finished at the end of September. The design process took me about four weeks.

Talk us through the design process and where did you get your inspiration from? After studying the briefing, doing some research and a few rough sketches, I came up with some first ideas. Those ideas are developed until I can get something more clear in terms of elements and composition. At that point I started working the final visuals and the color.

I wanted to do something amusing, as well as elegant and sophisticated and graphically very strong. I first had in mind Christmas decoration, ballet and all these pine cones I always find during my dog walks in the park. So I mixed all these up and the result was a range of new characters I called the pine cone girls. In some way I wanted them to be floating and ‘dancing’ in the compositions evoking the decorative figurines in a Christmas tree. Also I always had in mind to transmit a feeling of movement through the visuals.

How did you get your first job and work your way up to where you are now? I got the first commission while I was working in a regular job in the design team of a fashion magazine in Madrid. I guess I was very lucky. It was a huge Christmas advertising campaign for the major mobile phone operator in Spain. Quickly I began receiving more jobs. I still remember how great it was to see my work everywhere for first time. On TV, billboards, press, internet . . . It was the first great feeling!

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an illustrator? I think this job it’s about hard work, patience, self confidence and passion. If you miss any of these ingredients the result doesn’t ‘taste’ good.

What’s on your Xmas Wish list? Hmmm, I haven’t thought about until now . . . probably tons of books!

What will 2011 bring for you? Hopefully more projects as beautiful as this one, and great experiences, and more ideas!!

Source: http://blog.evans.co.uk/2010/11/11/interview-with-gary-fernandez/
http://www.garyfernandez.net/