“Growing up in Glasgow was quite good”, she tells me, and “I wouldn’t have wanted to live anywhere else. I grew up in rough places but I had a really happy childhood, you learn to appreciate things when you move to other places.”
I asked her when she realised she wanted to become a graphic designer, “Quite late I guess compared to some people; I think I was about 16. I had studied a few courses including Communications and Media and the whole time I can remember thinking 'I want this to look like this'. I was more focused on the layout than anything else so after that I knew that’s what I wanted to do, graphic design. When I went into it I didn't really know what it was about, I didn't even know what typography was and that's like one of the main things in graphic design, it’s now my favourite thing.”
Having often been branded a ‘teacher’s pet’ myself I wanted
to know if Jade put herself in that category too, “Erm, not really, I was
always quite smart at school. Quiet in class but outside of class I was quite
loud and obnoxious. In first year I was quite smart and quiet and then when it
got to about second year, I got in with the wrong crowd and started smoking
during lunch breaks. I was still smarter than them, I was in top classes but I
wish I had gone into school more instead of thinking 'I can't be bothered'. For
all of my exams I got As, despite the fact that I wasn't in for most of that
year. So I did well but I left when I was 15 and went to college which I regret
because doing your exams in school is probably easier than college but at the
same time that's when I found out I wanted to be a graphic designer.”
“I think it's important to still try and do your best at
school because when you get older it is a lot harder. Most people should stay
and stick it at school even until fifth year at least because it does make it a
lot easier trying to get into uni.”
The obvious question for me to ask was ‘What logo do you
wish you’d designed?’ “That's a hard one, the obvious choice would be the Nike
logo but that was designed by a student who literally just did a tick for a
competition and they basically thought 'oh, that's an awesome logo' and it
became their whole brand identity. I don't think there's just one logo I wish
I'd designed because there's just so many that are just so great, I can't just
choose one.”
Everyone idolises someone in their profession, Jade says “I
quite like a lot of illustrators at the moment and handwritten letters which is
like handwritten typography. Someone called Alison Carmichael and another lady
called Johanna Basford, their stuff is all handwritten styles. They do so many
adverts, you'd probably recognise some of their stuff. Johanna Basford did the
Christmas one for Buchanan Galleries with all of the Christmas decorations and
candy canes and stuff, it's really nice, I didn't actually realise it was her
until I went onto her website. I'm quite into that at the moment and they're
probably the people that I aspire to be like. It's good to be good at
typography and graphic design but to have a particular niche like that; it's
quite in demand at the moment."
Without coming across too negative I asked Jade if she ever
wishes she had gone down a different profession, “Yeah, probably every day” she
nods, to my surprise, “because it's quite stressful and a lot of people don't
understand. For example, if you meet someone for the first time and they say, '
what do you do?' and you say 'oh I'm a graphic designer' so they're like 'right,
okay!' because they don't really understand what it is that you do. People tend
to think it's just sitting on a computer all day or drawing a quick logo but
it's not. There are times where you're designing something that you think is
just no good , other times where you do something and you think it's amazing,
and then two weeks later you think 'no, it's not good'. I think it's quite good
to be like that though because if you always think that your work's great then
there's not going to be any room for improvements. I do wish I'd chosen a
different profession sometimes but at the same time I can't imagine myself
doing anything else.”
“Hopefully with a fancy kitchen from Dwell!” she giggles as
to where she sees herself in five years’ time. However, on the more serious
note, she says, “I'd quite like to move to Manchester because they've got a lot
of really good design studios that are quite young and professional, London as
well but I think Manchester more so because it's not as busy. Hopefully I'll
just be in a small design studio but one that's really good.”
Throughout her college years Jade maintained her part-time
job, gaining more responsibilities and often working the equivalent of four
full days a week. All this while studying extremely hard yet still managing to
be a typical student; partying through the night and living (or should I say
mudding) it up at festivals such as Sonisphere and Download.
Since the interview Jade has bagged herself a full-time job
in graphic design starting someday very soon, while continuing to do her own
freelance work under the name iambiko. I wish Jade the very best of luck with her new job and I'm sure it won't be long until she's partying hard in Manchester.
Check out Jade's website iambiko.com
1 comments:
Nice interview :)
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