Graduates 2010: Jack Hudson

Illustrator and designer Jack Hudson is today’s pick of this year’s graduates. Jack was born and grew up in Birmingham before moving to Bristol to study illustration at the University of the West of England.

Inspired by 1960’s sci-fi and horror posters, renaissance patterns and Studio Ghibli films Jack has already notched up several commissions including editorial and various music related projects including album artwork and music video’s. Alongside this he’s keen to illustrate and create his own stories that include some weird and unusual characters that often contain an element of humour in some way, shape or form.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

When I was growing up I was either down the field’s making hay base’s, acting out silly versions of my favourite TV advertisements with my brother or drawing bad versions of classic cartoon characters but I never really had my mind set on a career choice from a young age. I remember at one point wanting to be a fireman after hearing some of my grandad’s heroic tales but that’s about it. I was always into pursuing many different activities as a kid, which probably explains why I want to do so much within my illustration and design work nowadays.

In reflection, how bad was your work in the first year?

Pretty bad, I was moving out from my house in Bristol the other day and happened to come across some old sketchbooks, which made me cringe slightly, me and a close group
of friends in the class used to produce sketchbook pages for the sake of it rather than using the sketchbook as a tool to gather ideas, it was a weird time. Hopefully I have got the hang of it more now, and I did come up with some fairly decent ideas in my first year that I still want to use today, which is a good thing I suppose.

If you could show a piece of your folio to one person, what piece would you choose, and who would you show it to?

I would show my ‘Behind the Scenes and Everything else Inbetween’ print to two of my favourite director’s Michel Gondry and Wes Anderson, as it features characters
from their film’s and is inspired by their work. Hopefully the piece would get a laugh out of them or even a faint smile, either would make my day!

If you had your own studio, who would you share it with and why?

First I would employ David Attenborough to sit beside me and tell me all about the secrets of the deep, then I would employ a fast paced shredder metal band when work deadlines are tight and I can get a job done quicker and finally I’d share the studio with a small Spanish guitar player that also cooks 24 hour tapas everyday to keep me alive when times are hard… what a dream combination that would be.

If you’ve got any left, what will you spend the last of your student loan on?

None left unfortunately, but if I did, I would buy a double bass. Wait a minute, as if I would have enough money to buy a double bass from the remainders of a loan, oh what the hell I would try and get one anyway.

Where will we find you in 12 months?

I’m not sure exactly, but I’m excited to see what the future holds, I’m going to carry on with my freelance work that I have been producing over the past couple years, playing live music and trying to get involved with more video and live action projects to test and challenge the way I work.