Stanley Chow creates vibrant, graphic illustrated portraits. Readers of The New Yorker will be familiar with Chow’s illustrations of pop stars and politicians, which have populated the magazine’s pages for the past four years. It’s no surprise that Chow began his visual career as a poster designer; that populist graphic sensibility thoroughly flavors of his work. His illustrations have a modern retro feel, influenced by Chow’s earlier career as a DJ, playing “mainly 70s funk and soul.”

Chow lives and works in Manchester, UK, where he makes his Illustrator-based illustrations with “me and my mouse.” In addition to contributing to a host of popular magazines, he continues to make posters for everything from DJs to the city of Manchester, illustrates books, and recently created artwork for a giant McDonald’s billboard on Piccadilly Circus in London.

MY LIFE:
I was born in Manchester, and live in Manchester, UK.

Both my parents have now passed away… they very much encouraged me to follow my ambitions, which is quite rare for Chinese immigrants of that generation. I didn’t really have toys when I was young, so to amuse myself when my parents were working, they gave me the paper they wrapped the food in, and a pen… and I just drew.

I went to Manchester Metropolitan University to do an Art Foundation Course, then went to Swindon School of Art. I left art school in 1995—I was getting work whilst I was at Swindon. I also spent a bit of time at L’Ecole Emile Cohl in Lyon, France as an exchange student. It’s nothing to be proud of, but I actually failed my course at art school, but the head of the course decided to give me a pass, as he said it would look bad for the art school if they failed me!

I worked in my parents’ Chinese takeaway since I was 14. In my early 20s when I had had enough of the catering industry, I tried to pursue an illustration career… my pursuit was funded by also working as a DJ in Manchester City Centre three or four nights a week. I was mainly playing 70s funk and soul and movie soundtracks. They were good times, but also rather unproductive times, considering I was trying to forge a career in illustration.

I got my first agent in 1997 (The Northern Art Collection based in Manchester—now defunct). In 1999 I was “poached” by the Central Illustration Agency (London) and in 2001 I was picked up by Bernstein & Andriulli (New York). It wasn’t until I was about 30 (2004) when I can properly say I was a full-time freelance illustrator.

I’m now married to Rebecca Lupton, who is a photographer. We have two kids, Winnie and Pearl, ages six and three.

MY WORKSPACE:
I have a studio in Manchester City Centre, 20 minutes walk from my house. It’s quite large with enough space to walk around in moments of contemplation. I have a record player, a few antique chairs. It’s also basically a dumping ground for posters and prints which my wife won’t allow in the house and also my vinyl toy collection. It’s very much a home from home.

HOW I MAKE MY ILLUSTRATIONS:
I mainly work on my trusty Mac. 99% of the time I use Adobe Illustrator and 1% Photoshop. There was a time I used to sketch my ideas on paper, scan my ideas into the computer and trace around the sketch… now I just dive straight into the computer. A lot of people assume I use a Wacom pad or something similar, but it’s just me and a mouse.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK:
My big break was the work I did with the White Stripes. Around 2005 I was disillusioned with my art and I felt I needed to find a new direction. I decided gig posters could be a new avenue I could go down. The White Stripes were playing in town, and it inspired me to do a “bootleg” poster. I posted the image on MySpace and thought nothing of it. Eighteen or so months later, when people had started to forget about MySpace, I received a phone call from the White Stripes management at two in the morning. I initially thought they were going to sue me for the poster. Instead they asked me to design the limited edition USB stick release of their album Icky Thump. This received a Grammy nomination in 2008 for best Limited Edition Packaging for a record. Things started changing since that happened. I worked on a campaign for Volkswagen pretty much on the back of that and also my first commission for The New Yorker came very soon after.

MY INFLUENCES:
The biggest influence on me was a trip to Paris when I was 11. Beneath the Eiffel Tower there were hundreds of street artists, mostly doing portraits and caricatures of the tourists. “That is what I want to do when I grow up,” I thought to myself. Also seeing the Mona Lisa in Le Louvre. The room that painting is in, you couldn’t move because there were so many people trying to capture a glimpse of it. Again I distinctly remember thinking to myself…”I’ll have some of that—portraits it is!”

Panini soccer stickers play a big part in influencing my work. I have a few completed sticker albums over the years. It was always my aim to create work as iconic and simple as a Panini sticker.

MY MOST ADMIRED CREATIVE PERSON:
Andy Votel: He’s a graphic designer, DJ, musician, record producer and also runs his own record label. He basically just throws everything at what he loves doing, which is music and design x 100.  I’m amazed he’s not burnt out. He literally pours his heart and soul into everything he does. I really don’t know how he has the time to fit everything in, considering he also has two kids as well. We spent a lot of time hanging out when we were younger and he’s been a massive inspiration, from introducing me to great records, blowing my mind with his design skills and also the music he makes, but most all just showing me that if you have belief in yourself you can practically do anything you want. Some of my proudest career moments have been helping Andy out with illustrations and designs for his record label… I just wish he needed my help more often.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF WORKING ALONE:
I’ve never really seen working on my own as ever being a challenge. It’s part and parcel of being a freelance illustrator. I much prefer solitude to anything else in my working environment.

MY CREATIVE INSPIRATION:
Nowadays it’s Instagram. I’m bit of an Instagram addict. It’s just a very quick and easy way to see new work wherever you are. I think I probably follow too many people though. But sometimes it can be pretty disheartening when you realize there are so many amazing artists out there who are so much better than you’ll ever be.

A MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENT FROM THE PAST YEAR:
Last year, I was asked by Lego to do a lecture and a series of workshops for their designers at their HQ in Denmark. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I agreed. The workshop was mainly about teaching the designers how to simplify things (primarily characteristics in people) whilst keeping as much content as possible, then applying the things I taught them and designing their own mini figure. The mini figures they designed were actually produced and displayed in an exhibition a few months after. I even got my own mini figure. This was easily the highlight of last 12 months.

In terms of an illustration assignment, it’s work I did for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Manchester. Last year it was the Year of the Horse and this year it was the goat. Being from Manchester and also of Chinese origin, it’s a very proud moment seeing your illustrations cover an entire city. I’m probably better known for my work in the U.S. than in Manchester, so it’s really lovely to be recognized by your own community and doing work for the city.

DREAM ASSIGNMENT:
To illustrate a cover for Time or The New Yorker magazine. Another dream assignment is to design an official movie poster. I’ve been asked to pitch on a couple of movie posters over the past few years, but none have made it to final release. I guess it’s a case of you gotta keep trying and something might happen.

MY FAVORITE ART DIRECTOR:
It’s a rare thing that I get much art direction nowadays. The majority of the assignments I get, the art director tells me roughly what they want, and usually I’ll arrive at what they want first time, without doing a sketch/rough beforehand. Having said that, I do like working with Chris Curry and Wyatt Mitchell from The New Yorker. They’ll tell me initially what they want, and also give me a synopsis of the article the illustration will accompany. I’ll do something for them, they’ll spot something they don’t like and ask me to change it, then they’ll make me make more changes, and then more changes, basically trying to push an illustration to its limits to make it look better. As frustrating it can sometimes be making so many changes, 99.9% of the time they are right. Since starting working regularly for The New Yorker about four years ago, my style has evolved for the better and much of that is down to working with them. I have to admit, I was a little taken back initially with the way they art directed in the early days, but it’s definitely appreciated now. Sometimes art directors just see more than the artist does.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS:
Robert M Ball:. I love his work because it’s so versatile. He works in comic art, editorial, advertising…you name it. He has slightly differing styles that work for differing illustration disciplines and his compositional skills are second to none. There is a dynamism to some of his compositions that makes me green with envy. He’s really raised the bar recently with his official Game of Thrones illustrations. http://beautifuldeath.com

Jonas Bergstrand: Like Robert Ball, his work is so versatile, so compositionaly aware, and it has so much style. It oozes class. What he does definitely harkens back to the 60s but at the same time it’s individual. Everything he does is just flawless. If there were an illustrator I could be, it would be Jonas.

WHAT I DO BESIDES EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION:
I don’t really see myself as traditional editorial illustrator. I make myself available for anything. In my pre-Adobe Illustrator years I was a fashion illustrator and storyboard artist. I’ve illustrated a handful of children’s books. More recently I’ve directed an animation, I’ve provided artwork for apps, I designed the McDonald’s billboard on Piccadilly Circus (London’s equivalent of Times Square) which hopefully will be up for another three years, and I’m also currently working on ideas for a series of books.

HOW I STAY CURRENT:
There’s nothing that I consciously do to stay current. My work has naturally evolved over the years, and it’s quite organic in that I will just keep on illustrating things, people, topics that I love, but also trying to better myself with every new illustration I do. Just spending so much time on Instagram probably keeps me current too; I think it passively influences creative decisions I make, but then again, just keeping your eyes open and watching the world around you evolve will have that influence, too.

HOW I PROMOTE MYSELF:
I remember having to send hundreds of samples of my work to different publishing companies and ad agencies by post… and not receiving a reply back from anyone. Then I got an agent in the late 90s which naturally meant I stopped having to do that, as my agent did it for me. But around 2008, when the global economic crisis started, things changed a bit. The agencies that I was with started to struggle to find work, too. So I decided that I had to market myself. Thankfully social media existed. It seemed a lot of people were initially wary of social media. I just embraced it. Firstly it was a MySpace account, then Flickr, then Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram. I just saw this as free advertising. But it was Tumblr for me that really made the difference. After posting on Tumblr for a few months, I somehow quickly gathered around 20,000 followers. This coincided with enquiries from literally every magazine you could think of. I now post stuff on Instagram and Facebook nearly every day, and I have been doing so for the past three years. This seems to have worked for me, as well as the push I get from my agents, now that they have started to embrace social media too.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT:
I think for starters, the type of work you put in your portfolio has to be the kind of work you love doing, not the work you think that will get you work. People will eventually see through it. Secondly, you have to treat illustration like a job—it’s not a hobby (even though it is). You can’t just be brilliant at drawing pictures and expect work to fall into your lap. “Marketing” is important however you choose to do it; you need to make yourself known. A rubbish illustrator who shouts about himself will get more work than the genius who says nothing.

See more Stanley Chow illustrations, new work, and updates here:
Stanley Chow website
Instagram
Tumblr
Twitter
Facebook