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All images courtesy of Will Sweeney
| As an Illustrator, Will Sweeney has been a prominent figure where he creates his own distinctive style of drawing. Graduated from the prestigious Royal College of Art in ’98, he began working as a freelance illustrator in editorial works for the likes of Sleazenation, Trace, Hip Hop Connection and The Face. In 1999 he began producing work for Silas and Maria, including catalogue design and Illustration, a multitude of T-shirt designs and posters. He also started working for a wide range of other clothing companies including Levi-Strauss, Stussy and Gimme Five.
2003 saw the launch of the book ‘Where is Silas’ to which he contributed 15 pages of drawings. His signature style, of course can be seen in a veggie-filled Tales From Greenfuzz series of comics and its attendant toys, plus his Concept label, Alakazam, which range from graphics tees, prints and accessories.We recently had the opportunity to do an interview with Will, asked him about various topics and find out more about the person behind the drawings. Interview with Will Sweeney. Being raised in an art oriented family, did you always know that you will end up taking this kind of path of a career? WS: No – I wanted to make it in a band till I was about 17, but it sort of became apparent to me that this wouldn’t happen overnight and I had better do something productive in the meantime…so I went to art college as many great musicians have done in the past…Whilst studying in Liverpool I became more confident in my drawing skills and decided to try and get into the Royal College of Art to do an MA. I got in and once I was there, met people who inspired me to really focus on my work and it became an obsession.
The early days of Silas & Maria was a different entity altogether and you’re an integral part of that. What was it like back then? WS: Oh the good old days! Yes it was interesting and inspiring, it felt great to be a part of that group of people and to be involved in something that was definitely very English – for years many people in the UK were following US alternative culture, indie bands, grunge bands, skate culture..hip hop. |
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Silas was kind of defiantly English in a way, Russell Waterman (co-founder of Silas) is like an encyclopedia of underground culture, politics and ideas, and being a bit older than most of the other people involved with Silas, he grew up with much of the culture that inspired our work; punk, post punk, UK skate culture, football gangs/casuals etc, so the themes and writing behind T-shirt collections, catalogues, toys etc had a kind of informed authority which we could apply our work to.
I was also really inspired by the other artists, who I really looked up to – Fergus Purcell, James Jarvis, Ben Sansbury & Lizzie Finn, their styles were very diverse but cohesive and it added up to a fantastic group of artists. I didn’t realise how big the following for Silas was until we went to Japan for The ‘Where Is Silas‘ show at Parco museum. Your professional work spans from being an illustrator, graphic designer, art director and even entrepreneur. But what do you consider yourself primarily as? WS: I don’t consider myself a graphic designer or an entrepreneur, I’m an art director in only the most rudimentary sense…I suppose I’m an artist, I used to be more of an illustrator – working more to a brief for other people. Now I tend to illustrate my own ideas! You’ve seemed to have built a close relation with fellow artist, Susumu Mukai in your projects. How did the relation develop? WS: We met at The RCA, Su was a fairly mysterious figure then (he still is to some extent) he would rarely come into college but the glimpses that I had of his work
convinced me that he was into similar surrealistic themes as I was, our tutor encouraged us to produce a small exhibition together, along with another guy, Tomi Oladipo. We produced a strange narrative drawing show based in a fantastical theme park called Frownland, I asked a friend of mine to make overproof rum punch for the opening, and everyone got wasted, so it seemed a great success… |
