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| Wednesday, 09 December 2009 22:15 |
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Ian Houghton is an avid skier and winner of the CoreUPT design contest. TJ Schiller chose Ian's design as his '10/'11 pro model ski. Recently, I was able to talk a little bit with Ian about the contest, his future, and his thoughts on art. 
G: Ian, it's good to meet you. How's life going right now? I: Hey Geoff, nice to hear from you too. Life's pretty good at the moment. I'm 6 months away from graduating University with a Bachelor's degree in International Studies, and I'm getting a positive response from my freelance design website which I launched in July. The plan is to take my business on the road and travel back to Canada for a while after I graduate; we don't get great snow down here. G: That's cool man. I traveled out to Australia and skied at Perisher this last August. There wasn't a lot of snow, but the terrain was really fun. Do you have some work lined up in Canada, or are you planning on looking for freelance jobs? I: Glad to hear you enjoyed Australia! I haven't got a job lined up yet; I've worked two previous seasons - one as a lifty, and the second as the terrain park supervisor at Panorama, BC. I'm heading out in Summer (June) with my girlfriend and we want to work in Vancouver initially, then figure out which mountain would be best for the winter. In terms of design, I'm just going to keep freelancing. Maybe I'll get lucky and encounter some opportunities for full or part-time employment. For winter, I'm hoping I can find something based on my park credentials from last season. It's fun work, and the digging keeps you fit. G: Sounds like you have some great experience working at resorts in addition to your design abilities. Good luck with the move! You recently came up with the winning design for the TJ Schiller pro model ski design contest. Are you pretty stoked about that? I: It's a dream come true to get a design on a pair of skis really, the prizes are all gravy on top of that. It's going to be exciting if I see someone skiing a pair at a resort. I'm looking forward to trying out the CoreUPT skis too, I've been hearing good things about their manufacturing process this year and the graphics on the current TJ Pros are killer. The best part about winning the contest was the shout-out I got from TJ and the team. After the announcement, my website's traffic went up by about 800%, and I've been contacted by a number of people interested in hiring me. The publicity allowed me to get in a couple of local papers which come out over the next couple of weeks, so hopefully I'll be getting some work closer to home as well. You can't buy promotion like that! In the long run, I'd like to get more ski design work, because it combines the two areas I'm most passionate about. I: Ironically, out of the three designs that I entered, the one that TJ
picked probably had the least planning involved. That's not to say it
didn't take work, because I
spent a long time refining it until I was happy with the composition.
I used part of a portfolio piece (which is under 'personal work' on my
site) I
came up with a while back as the base image for the ski, then
experimented with colour schemes, paper textures, composition -
seriously, I tried a lot of different positions for the character on
the ski, and ended up deciding that it didn't work as a full piece due
to the pose I drew, hence the fragmented final product - and some
beautiful watercolour brushes available on Bittbox. It's hard to reach
a point where you can say 'it's finished', because there's always more
you can add, but less is quite frequently more. It's knowing when to
stop and when to keep going that's difficult to figure out. I'm really
happy with how it came out though. G: The design looks sick. Is there any story behind the samurai guy in the image? I: Thanks for the compliment! In the original illustration I was trying to
get a similar vibe to the faded propaganda posters that were all over
China during the heyday of the CCP before the economic reforms. That's
the reasoning behind the use of the aged paper textures and the limited
use of colour (because these posters were pumped out in their
thousands). It actually came out as a kind of alt-universe Japanese
propaganda poster from the future, hence the samurai imagery juxtaposed
with the power armour. I did the original illustration on a rainy
Saturday with a hangover, which I find is actually a great state of
mind to do personal pieces in. You don't really want to get up and go
anywhere, and everything feels a bit fuzzy and surreal. It's really
comforting to just sit down and draw in that situation. I: Because I entered a few different designs to the competition, I was using that crest as a way to differentiate my work from everyone else's. I wanted to make sure that the judges knew which pieces were done by me. I also used the elements of the crest in the first design I entered (http://www.ankhou.com/portfolio/tj-schiller-ski-design-1). The 'skio ergo sum' (butchered Latin - 'I ski therefore I am') was a silly little slogan I came up with, I hoped it might get a smile or two and help me out! G: Dang, I never saw that first one-- it's dope too, but completely different from the winning design. I like that whale! Are there any particular aspects of your life that influence your illustration and graphic design style? I: I've always loved vector illustration - the inherently clean nature of it, and the ability to reproduce an image at any different size. It removes so many constraints from art. My mother's an artist and illustrator as well though, and one of my favourite mediums that she's used in the past is watercolour, which is kind of the opposite of vector illustration. It's messy, it bleeds, and is inherently a little bit unpredictable. I guess I like combining the aspects from both of these, but I also enjoy working in vector alone. Vector illustration kind of mirrors my favourite method of drawing, which is just with a thin black pen and some quality paper. I'm not sure I could highlight one particular aspect that influences the way I work more than anything else, because I tend to find inspiration in so many different places. The most frustrating part is finding inspiration when you're sat in front of that blank page, but that's all part of seizing the moment when you get an idea that you think is really cool. G: Well said. I think that style of combining vector illustration and watercolor washes is definitely present in your winning ski design. Do you have any other art pieces in the works right now that we can look forward to seeing on your site? G: That sounds exciting. Well, thanks for taking the time to talk about your art and the recent contest. Again, congratulations! Do you have any advice for aspiring graphic designers and illustrators in the skiing community? I: I'm afraid I can't condense a few things I try and keep in mind at all times into one motto, but as for advice to live by: never think that you've stopped learning more, ALWAYS second-guess what you're convinced are your best ideas (but don't be afraid to do something bold), and don't half-arse things. It's been a real pleasure Geoff, thanks for the chat. -Be sure to check out more of Ian's designs and portfolio at www.ankhou.com |
