Joe Crocker is a young Freelance Illustrator. Originally from The New Forest, Joe currently works and lives in Brighton. He studied illustration at Brighton University and graduated in 2008.
On seeing Joe’s brilliant blog we knew immediately he’d be perfect for a Small Press Book. He is one of the most prolific illustrators we have ever come across, check out a tiny sample of his process work below and you’ll see what we mean.
We talked to him about his book ‘Vendoin’:
“When I was first asked by Nobrow to do a small press book it was made very clear that the concept could be unusual and I was given a lot of creative freedom. As it was a screen printed book there had to be a certain structure in terms of the use of colour and order of the pages. The narrative, concept and design of the book was tailored to this structure.”
“I approached the project by building a bank of drawings, when I draw I use dip pen, ink and my fingers like brushes. I used this bank as a source for the artwork for Vendoin, scanning different elements and developing the design of the book on Photoshop, simply using blocks of colour to sit under the line work.”
We loved the fact that Joe concocted his own language to tell his story. We have no idea what any of it means, but we love it!
“The language in the book is a result of me using writing as a way of warming up for drawing, there was a lot of this in my bank of drawings for Vendoin. I picked out words and phrases to create a language to accompany the images so the layouts were like that of a children’s picture book.”
“I used the opportunity to do a small press book as a way of doing something that wasn’t restricted by having to appeal to a particular target audience and fit into a certain bracket for mass appeal, I had a lot of fun doing this book.”
We had fun printing it too. Joe’s book is now sold out.