A while back I was looking for some news about Alex Solis and also came across these really talented illustrators who create t-shirts designs that are full of humor and cuteness. Pandemic is a duo – Eddy and Mishan – which has collaborated with LaFraise, Shirt Woot!, A Better Tomorrow and Loviu.com. All sites I am sure you are familiar with. It is time you met Eddy as well, so here is a short interview he was nice enough to give us. You can find their entire graphic portfolio here.
Tell our readers a little about yourself: where are you from, where do you reside and what is your main profession?
Hi, I am Eddy_cz, I am from Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic and I live constantly in home town. I'm still a student, so my time is derived from it and I study advertising and marketing, but soon I will complete in high school.
And I want to be a designer.
Why did you decide to become an illustrator?
Because I love of making people smile with my illustrations and love of making designs for T-shirts too.
It's awesome feeling to watch how someone wear my work on own shirt.
Which was your first professional design and who did you do it for?
My first professional design I created for www.shirt.woot.com. It was a design called The Battle of the Bottle.
http://www.pandemic.cz/uploaded/shared/lode.png
I hope that will soon be on sale.
How do you approach a project ? Do you work 100% digital or is there paper involved?
Yes, I always create a quick sketch on paper then make detailed sketch and finally I create it in digital form by using the tablet.
Because I like manual work. I did a sample about process of my design The tradition of ALIENs:
http://s4.postimage.org/wfea7wrm8/tady2.gif
Oana: How would you describe your style?
Pandemic: My style is based on my own idea, because I think that great idea is in the first place.
I prefer comics and more cheerful style but sometimes I want to create more complex out of my routine, because I want learned something new.
What do you think makes your style of illustration distinctive?
That's a tough question :). I think that is hand made work and cartoon facial expressions. And recently I noticed that my characters I draw with naked socks 🙂
What's one source of inspiration that never failed you?
Still I can't find my main source of inspiration. I take inspiration from everything around me.
Have you experience any bad cases of designer's-block? How did you surpass it?
Yes, I get this very often, when people don't like or don't get my design. Immediately try to learn from this mistake and create an image that might enjoy it.
This is the best way for me.
Is there anything that you’ve never quite been able to depict?
Fortunately I managed to overcome all obstacles but once it took me several hours, maybe days to overcome the problem.
I try to solve every problem because I can't continue with another projects.
As far as your work is concerned, which would you say is your favorite design and why?
My favorite design is There is no escape, because it is my best idea. Zombie cherry is that tries to pass the worm which got to a healthy cherry.
From a distance it looks like an ordinary cherries but close to see what's going on. This is simple graphics and idea and I prefer this way. My fans also liked this joke.
http://www.pandemic.cz/uploaded/shared/Nahled-na-mintees.jpg
I think that is a terrible situation which everybody faces in their life:)
How much of popular culture do you absorb in your works?Can you give us some examples?
I think that topic does not appear much in my designs. But I found some. There they are:
http://www.pandemic.cz/uploaded/shared/800×400-mintees.png
http://www.pandemic.cz/uploaded/shared/shirtwoot.jpg
What are you working on right now?
I create new designs for e-shop with tees and I prepare for final exams in the school.
What would you say are some of the most important lessons you have learned and are learning from designing?
For the author of designs it is important to find a target group for which the form. Our humor and graphic's style are not for everyone.
I think that a good idea is more than good graphics. But it is too difficult bring some new idea, when it is so much designers.
Second lesson is find own style in graphics. Contests like on Threadless.com helped me a lot to form my ideas and graphic's style. You gain there very good feed back of another artists and fans of page.
Artists you admire?
There are many artists that I admire, but I love the most work of four very popular designers authors, all of them find their own style of graphics and have a unique style of humor that makes me laugh.
There they are: Alexmdc, Naolito, Glennz and Walmazan.
Other passions other than designing?
My greatest hobby is to spend time with my girlfriend:) A another hobby is playing videogames and I love every kind of sport.
I would like to try all of them.
Thank you Eddy, keep up the great job!
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