Spotlight: Cardiff based illustrator Gareth Brown
Cardiff based illustrator Gareth Brown creates illustrations, animations and GIF’s for a wide range of clients, with a focus on fast-paced conceptual projects for editorial.
In our latest spotlight feature we find out more about what inspires his playful ideas, bold colours and a satirical sense of humour.
Can you give a brief background of your career to date and overview of your current artistic practice?
I’ve been working as a freelance illustrator for just over a year, along with working as a graphic designer for around 9 years (give or take a few months due to redundancies!!). My work is mainly done on Photoshop – including my animations as I like the clunkiness of frame-by-frame animation, and I use a Wacom graphics tablet to draw straight on the screen. A lot of my ideas come from my sketchbooks, which I keep in pretty much every room of the house!
Where did you study and when did you graduate?
I studied at Bath Spa University, and graduated in 2010 – this seems like a long time ago now!
Where do you live? What do you like most about your city?
I live in Cardiff, I might be a bit biased because it’s my hometown, but it’s a great city. It’s full of green spaces, everything is packed in closely together, and the creative community is big considering the city’s size.
How would you describe your work in 5 words?
Cheerful, satirical, relatable, quirky, tongue-in-cheek (is that one word?!)
How are you keeping busy / coping with lockdown?
It’s been a hectic time, I’ve managed to move into my first home with my partner and we’re expecting a baby in September. It seems like everything is happening in 2020! I’ve also been having fun with a personal project where I am documenting the everyday activities of life in lockdown, from shopping to receiving post, its helped bring a bit of humour to my time in lockdown. Hopefully it’s given a few other people a laugh too!
What has been your favourite illustration project (personal or client work) over the last 12 months and why?
I enjoyed creating a protest poster for the Art of Activism exhibition, which was curated by theprintspace & The Guardian, and raising money and awareness for Friends of the Earth. It was a really nice surprise to have my work included for such an important cause. 
What does a typical day look like for you at the moment?
It’s a fairly condensed working day on the illustration side of things as I’m currently working full time as well. I try to make the most of the time that I have by planning emails during my lunch break, keeping my eye on emails throughout the day, and making a list of what I want to get out of each evening. Once I eat my dinner I’m straight to the computer and working until it’s time to sleep. It sounds pretty intense, but it’s something that I enjoy doing regardless of if it’s my job or not.
What’s next for you? Where do you hope to take your art in the next 3-5 years?
I’d love to work on a lot more client projects, editorial in particular, and be able to build up a really strong body of work that could help me make a living solely from my illustrations.