Jeffrey Bowman, one half of The Wizard Hat, is one of the dopest illustrators out there today. He was featured on Super Duper awhile back, and was nice enough to answer some questions.

Favorite cereal?

Coco pops, though I tend not to eat cereal at all anymore, I am all about toast!

What was your first exposure to the art world?

There are several first exposures I guess through my early school art classes when I was exposed to the usual suspects, then through college I got a little bit more exposed to better art but I think the first exposure that I think of as my real entrance into the world of illustration and art world was my first week at university I got handed the first Neasden Control Centre book ‘NCC’. This was where I think my journey began, and what an amazing book it still is to this day!

You’ve spent the last two years as a freelance illustrator. Describe some of the hardships and perks of being a freelancer?

I think the hardships have defiantly been the lack of money, and the one to many freebies, but on the flip side without them I would’nt have got some of the more bigger jobs I’ve recently picked up, so that’s got both sides to it. I guess especially now the money thing is quite prominent focus in everyday life so its inevitable, that’s a hardship of freelance. A definite positive thing to come from freelancing is the focus and development of my work, I’ve really been able to explore what I do and how I do it through a balance of client work and self initiated, something you can’t balance working in a company.

Style is a word thrown around a lot in the art-verse. How did you find your style?

I think through a lot of different processes, many hours of just doing, trying, experimenting, but also many hours in the library looking at the history of design and illustration, trying to understand what I’m doing now and why. It’s in constant development and then re-development from one project to the next, but I think it’s also about having consistencies within my work such as the line work and form etc which gives it its overall style.

What has been your most defining moment as illustrator? Does a certain project stand out?

I think i am constantly having defining moments, as long as the progression onto the next project or the next good email arrives the last moment will be re-defined again. But to pick one it would be the email from Todd Francis at Element asking me to do a Tee for them… that’s made everything worth it, that was on my To-do list from day one I think!

What things besides other illustrators and designs inspire your work? Movies? Music? People?

Music inevitably, it feel like it goes hand in hand with illustration and design. I also get really into watching people who dress well, like indie fashion, it’s not something i can pull off myself but something that inspires me for some reason, I’ve never known why!

You’ve made a handful of zines. What was the first zine you made about?

I made a zine called Pump in 2007 with Andy J.Miller (my fellow wizard), Robert Loeber and House of Burvo back in uni, it was a celebration of our love for the world of design, illustration, music and fashion, we did two issues and it was super fun!

You are one of the founding members of The Wizard Hat. How did this project start and where do you see it going?

It started about 8 months ago or a little less, Andy J.Miller and myself had just done some work together and then got talking, we always sort of found our paths after uni crossing especially with what we were both into, then decided to say we were going to make a zine, I put it in a mail out i was doing for my recent site updates then i got an email from Computer Arts Projects asking to see some pics for an article they were doing, so two days later we made it, printed it, photographed it and launched it the day the article came out! It’s not stopped since, we have progressed from a zine into a fully functioning illustration house now doing other projects, exhibitions and many other things. We are trying to push the zine though with each issue to a new place. Issue 03 has a audio CD with music written by John Ringhofer, something we didn’t think we would ever be able to make happen! So who knows, more work, more issues, more exhibitions, and mostly more magic!

What are your plans for the future?

Hopefully start moving into other areas of illustration I have been thinking about, maybe a solo show, and I’ll probably continue to chase the mythical 25th hour of the day!

Posted in Interviews by Corey Thompson