Elephant Magazine

Picked up a copy of this magazine "Elephant" yesterday a hefty quarterly magazine about Arts and Visual Culture and its a bit of a hefty price, but plenty of content for your money.

This is issue number six (how have I missed it?)

Interesting Q and A style interviews with illustrator Christine Berrie well known for her drawings of collections of banal objects and shopfronts it was interesting to note, "...I often find that my personal projects and my commissions overlap. Many of my clients approach me after seeing my personal projects and require something similar."

Printmaker and illustrator Jonathan Gibbs who runs illustration at Edinburgh is interviewed too. He is a printmaker - mainly wood engravings. "What is the most important thing you learned at university? One had to find a path from disparate influences and varied tutorial advice. For me drawing was the dominant element." Jonathan Gibbs is represented by CIA (see the side bar link).

There are other interviews with illustrator Si Scott: "I'm not anti computer at all, I just love creating things by hand."

and Japanese illustrator Nomoco, as well as a fascinating interview with designer Coralie Beckford- Smith about her design work for Penguin's cloth bound covers. The main thing I find linking these studio section interviews is the importance of drawing and craft!

The magazine has a real variety of work and depth of coverage. As well as these articles that are directly about illustrators, there is also a section about Tokyo based artists, and an article about the position of women in design, some interesting figurative painting too. All in all a good read available from Magma and all good bookstores it says here...

(All works copyright the named artists and designers)