Interview with illustrator Jo Holdaway
Editorial illustration for The Ride magazine.
Personal piece available as a canvas print.
Self portrait.
Painting for Room to Read art exhibition in Amsterdam.
Foulplay – inspired by real events whilst living in a caravan park!
Painting – private commission.
Editorial – The Future of Gaming for KLM magazine.It’s exciting to showcase the work of Jo Holdaway – her work is so fresh, clean and inspiring! Now living in the Victorian seaside town called Weston-super-Mare, about 20 miles south of Bristol in South West England, Jo’s work has spread across the globe.Her work has been featured on the front of the Holland Times and in London’s cycling journal The Ride. With some hard work and talent, she’s been able to combine her two loves of creating and travelling. See more of Jo’s illustration work on her website.
It’s exciting to showcase the work of Jo Holdaway – her work is so fresh, clean and inspiring! Now living in the Victorian seaside town called Weston-super-Mare, about 20 miles south of Bristol in South West England, Jo’s work has spread across the globe.
Her work has been featured on the front of the Holland Times and in London’s cycling journal The Ride. With some hard work and talent, she’s been able to combine her two loves of creating and travelling. See more of Jo’s illustration work on her website.
How have you got to where you are today?
After 9/11, I was made redundant from my first design job and was absolutely gutted. I’d been working in London for just under 2 years and felt like I was on the road to a great career in moving image design and tv graphics. When it all came to an abrupt halt, the design industry was on pretty shaky ground.
I moved back to my parents house, got a job part time teaching graphics at the college where I’d previously studied and in my spare time I started scanning old photo’s and using Illustrator to make them into graphic illustrations. To make them a bit different as opposed to just printing them out, I began transferring the outlines onto large planks planks of wood and made the digital images into paintings which people thought were pretty cool. A little art and craft shop in a boutique area of Bristol really liked them, so I began selling paintings, cards and prints through them.
However, I was also training to become an art teacher, so my own productivity slowed down as the teaching took off. After 3 years teaching art, photography and graphics, I was itching to do more of my own work. My other half and I moved to Amsterdam – with no jobs, no place to live – and after a few months I had my first painting commission.
Things really spiraled from there… I was asked to take part in an art exhibition in central Amsterdam, painted signs for bars and got my first piece of commercial work – an editorial illustration for a very cool London cycling magazine called The Ride.
I worked quickly to get my website together and since then have done all sorts of work from private commissions. The biggest to date was a painted portrait of Michael Jackson that now lives on a wall in Toronto! I’ve also illustrated for Smart car and packaging for an organic skincare company, Pai. I’m also quite proud that one of my illustrations made it to the front page of the Holland Times newspaper!
In a few words, describe yourself…
Very content!
What are you spending your time on at the moment?
I’m illustrating/designing an album cover for a band which is great! Always nice when you have a lot of creative freedom on a project like that.
Last month I did a 3 page editorial illustration for KLM’s inflight magazine. The piece was about the future of gaming and was an interesting concept – and a little challenging for someone who’s really not game savvy! I think I did a good job though, as I read an article soon after which described the reality of games being controlled through the player wearing highly advanced contact lenses – the exact idea I had depicted in my illustration!
Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?
Not really – at college I used to go for an hours walk every day and found I came up with my best ideas then. I still do like getting out for a bit of fresh air away from the computer – and having a 4 month old puppy helps!
Having a creative fiance (copywriter and art director) really helps me throw initial ideas around. He is a great help with feedback if I’ve been looking at something for far too long and need a second opinion!
What or who inspires you?
Travelling. Seeing new places gives you such a visual and mental rush of energy and creativity. I take a lot of photos that end up becoming my visual bank of inspiration. Having said that, everyday objects can have just as much impact – my local charity shop gets some wonderful donations from old 1950’s biscuit tins with beautiful typography to chintzy teapots! I’m always inspired by a good ‘find’!
What are you most proud of?
Having a good work/life balance! I am lucky to be able to travel pretty frequently, I go camping as much as possible in the summer and try to catch up with friends who are becoming increasingly busy with family life. I illustrate between working as the studio manager for a market research facility which also puts me in contact with some pretty interesting people!
When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I went through a lot of ‘when I grow up I want to be…’ ideas from a nurse (my Aunty was a nurse and gave me an old uniform for dressing up in)… to police woman… but I’ve no idea why! All I ever used to do was draw and make things – so I guess it was inevitable!
