Recognising and figuring out the illustration path you want to go down and work in is no easy thing but reading the focused and determined Dominique Bryon’s experiences should really help add clarity to your own quest.

Your work is a lovely mix of graphic, geometric and textural elements – how did you develop this style?

I feel that visual style or language shouldn’t be arbitrary or based on trends, and that usually when you feel comfortable working in a particular way it’s because it makes some sort of sense to you, linked to your personality.

I tried working in lots of different ways through college and uni as I didn’t really know how I wanted to work, so it was really a process of experimenting, and then getting to a point where I was able to look back over a lot of different projects and pick out the common thread. Whether I worked with paint, collage, or photography, I always seemed to have an affinity for using big bold shapes, precise composition, high contrast, etc,. So realising that those aspects were naturally my visual language, I could then cut out all the noise and focus on those exclusively. I think you could explore these qualities in various mediums (and I intend to do so!) but working digitally seems to be the most efficient way for the work I’m doing at the moment.

What inspired you to develop this style?

I do think it was a natural progression rather than a choice after seeing a particular piece of work or artist. That being said, I do love mid century art and graphic design, people like Alvin Lustig, Paul Rand and Mark Rothko.

The minimalist approach where all you need is one or two shapes to say something is very efficient and makes a lot of sense to me. There’s that famous quote by Abram Games – “maximum meaning, minimum means” which always sticks in my mind.

The geometric shapes and layouts you create are a clever use of composition. Does that take a lot of planning? Is there much trial and error to your images?

In a word, yes! I tend to have a very vague idea in my head of what might be an interesting composition, maybe just a couple of abstract shapes, and then I’ll quickly do some thumbnail sketches to get it down on paper. Then it’s usually a lot of trial and error, moving shapes and lines around in Illustrator, sort of like how you would with a collage.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes you have to make it work, whether just to push yourself out of your comfort zone or because a client has given you an unusual format to work in. I usually like work the best when you’ve had to challenge your preconceptions of what a person/object/subject ‘should’ look like and you have to get really creative with the design.

You combine your simple animation cycles into your work so well – is this something that you always wanted to do or did this come from working in animation itself?

I’ve only done a couple of basic animated GIFs of my own work. Most of my work that’s been animated has been done by friends or animators much more talented than myself! They are fun to do though, and I would like to try and do more when time allows as it’s always great to expand your skill set and explore how your work can be used in different ways.

I know youve worked in animation – how involved in the process are you? For example – do you handle storyboards, to designs, to assets, to animations or more as part of a team?

I’ve done a bit of design work over the past year or so that has been used in animations but I’m not an animator myself. So far it’s mostly been the case of working remotely, designing to a storyboard or animatic, if supplied, and creating the designs or assets to send off to the animators. Sometimes I’ve had more say in the overall design, colours, style etc, and other times we’ve sat down together and roughly storyboarded things out if they need something more specific. But it’s always team work, and hopefully as long as we’re all on the same page about what we’re trying to achieve from the get-go, it usually works out pretty well, whether we’re in the same room, or in different countries!

Your work has a very storytelling feel, from the poses of characters and scenes you create. Illustration has this great quality to capture moments and tell stories – is this a feeling that inspires what goes into your scenes when you produce them?

Yes, I think that is the challenge of illustration, to be able to describe a feeling, tell a story or shed light on a concept in an interesting and clear way. As I tend to take a more minimal approach to illustration it can be a tricky balance to describe a person, for example, doing a particular task or what their relationship is to someone else, without loading it with detail.

This is something I’ve actively tried to work on over the past couple of years. Working in quite a flat geometric style, it can be hard to illustrate a sense of movement, so I did a project on different sports where I tried to capture that moment in time, with an imagined before and after, and describe a sense of movement and speed just through the poses and composition.

Do you find inspiration from your surroundings? Have you always been based in Manchester?

I hail from Stockport south of Manchester originally, but have been working in the city centre for around 4 years. I think you can’t help but be inspired by your surroundings, and Manchester is a very vibrant, cosmopolitan city, with lots of phenomenal art and music, that is constantly evolving and changing, so it sort of sets the tone when you’re out and about every day.

I do also believe in looking outside of your surroundings and line of work for inspiration, so I try not to spend too much time looking at the work of other illustrators, and make time for other things I enjoy; watching films, reading (I like my sci fi), adding to my vinyl collection, etc. Indulging your other interests can help broaden your horizons and learn new things that ultimately feed back in to your work.

How do you find the creative community in Manchester? Has it helped you develop your work into what it is today?

There is a great creative community in Manchester and lots of friendly and talented artists and designers that I’ve met over the years. It has definitely helped develop my work, not only through some of the opportunities, exhibitions and word-of-mouth recommendations I’ve had, but also through being part of a group of people that are all very supportive and help each other out. Freelancing can be very solitary so it’s good to know other people are in the same boat.

Do you have further plans with your work? How do you see your illustration work and how it can work on broader subjects? Is that something you’re keen to work in or are you more just enjoying drawing what you enjoy?

I definitely hope to keep developing my work, and it would be great to get it to a place where I could see it working in editorial, advertising, book covers etc. The ideal would be to be able to work across a variety of media and subjects at a consistent standard, and not be too constrained by only working in one way or on one type of thing. I get bored very quickly so variety is very appealing to me!

You’ve recently started a project illustrating people in different jobs, which I think is going to be great. Do you try and do as many personal projects as time allows? How important do you think personal projects are?

I basically have a full-time job as well as any freelance illustration I’m working on, so free time is very scarce! But yes I do like to work on as many personal projects as possible as it’s not only a chance to work on something you enjoy (if that’s not happening elsewhere), but its also the only time you have real control over where your work is going and a chance to develop. I try to use personal projects to tackle any weaknesses in my skill set, so the recent project illustrating people in different jobs is really just a chance to practice my people-drawing, and experiment and take risks without a deadline or anyone to answer to. It’s always time well spent as it’s when my work improves the most.

Is there anywhere you’d like to push your work to, any place you’d like to try working in?

I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, so if time allowed, I’d like to see how my work and style would translate into different mediums. It would be fun to do some more printing again, or really play around with collage and do things that are a more hands on. We had a great pottery class when I was at college and I’d love to try that again if I could work out how to apply it in my work, it was so much fun!

Lastly, what’s the one thing everyone should do today?

Take a break! Get away from the computer, that project or problem you’re dealing with, and truly forget about it all for half an hour. Speaking for myself, but I sense this is a common trait in the creative community, whenever I have some free time I feel almost guilty if I’m not creating new work. I expect this probably stems from social media and the illusion that everyone else seems to be working on new projects and sharing new work constantly. But truthfully I always have the best ideas or solutions when I’m not working, and always feel a lot more objective and inspired when I start again. So I would suggest everyone take break from the stress of whatever you’re doing, and from social media, and get out of the loop for a while.

A big thanks to Dominique for her time. Check out more of her work over on her site and follow her over on Twitter.