Tommy Parker is an illustrator I’ve known about for some time now. His bold use of colour and conceptual, playful ideas really come together superbly with his iconic and perfectly crafted compositions. So I jumped at the chance to learn more about his path to illustrative greatness.

Welcome to Thunder Chunky Tommy. During my research I noticed your earlier work was a bit different from now, which seems to be a common journey for most illustrators. How long did it take you to find your feet?

When I started out, I was just doing my own thing at my own pace and didn’t have a regular workload coming in. This was perfect for finding my voice as an illustrator and was a great starting point as I wasn’t happy with how my work looked when I left education.

As I steadily got more paid work, I found the quick turnaround times and briefs would also shape my style as I couldn’t afford to be fucking about with different methods. So the less I thought about how it looked, and whether this was going to be my style, comparing it to other illustrator’s work (which is a dangerous path to go down, by the way), the more natural the work turned out. It was odd but fulfilling.

I’d say this journey started at the end of my time at Plymouth University (2014) and is still an ongoing one. I’ll very quickly get bored of doing similar sort of angles and like to shake it up a bit. At the moment I’m trying to brush up on my perspectives and colour palettes after a sloppy couple of years. The clients may not like some routes you take but I think it’s important to try it and see.

Did going to uni guide you on your illustrative voice – to stick to one or to use many? Was uni essential for your career as it is now?

I tried multiple directions when I was at university. Warping the proportions of characters and angles, limited colour palettes, different mark making techniques, terrible children’s books, even worse apps. I tried the lot.

Obviously this made for a very diverse portfolio when I left Plymouth which some clients didn’t like but, in hindsight, I’m glad I did it. I found out what I enjoyed to do and that’s what I’m all about.

The tutors are also there to help pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, with their wealth of experience and knowledge. But at the end of the day, it’s up to you what you take onboard.

I wouldn’t say it’s essential to go to further education (it costs a bomb after all) but it gave me a solid three years of discovering what I liked in the world of illustration, and what I didn’t.

You say it’s not essential but have you seen that people who study illustration seem to have any advantages over people who sidestep into the industry from another discipline?

I wouldn’t say everyone who receives further education necessarily always has an advantage. I know many illustrators who haven’t gone to university and have gone on to be very successful which goes to show you don’t need a degree. Saying that, I think the main reason to go is to spend a lot of time discovering what you want to do. It’s great for people who are unsure where they want to take their work and having three straight years of self discovery can really help.

If you don’t go to university, I imagine there’s a lot to juggle around if you need to work a full time job but still find the time to enjoy life and progress your illustration career. University just offers focus and guidance that some may struggle to find outside of education.

I think sidestepping into illustration from a different industry can be done very well but you just have to be careful. You’re going to lack the experience other illustrators have and may be unaware of how the industry works. This could lead to terrible scenarios of undercutting the market and devaluing the industry as a whole.

Speaking of devaluing, I have seen a lot of issues with underpaid or free work being a bigger issue than usual at the moment. Do you have any experience with this?

I think the underpayment / free work issue stems from various routes.

Firstly, it’s students, graduates and new kids on the block not necessarily knowing the correct rate to charge. I have to admit, I sometimes struggle, which is why I let my representative, Luke, handle that side of things. I think it should be talked about more openly and illustrators need to be aware of resources and organisations such as the AOI and SOI that can help with the pricing aspect of the industry, either over the phone or email.

Secondly, I think it’s also big brands taking advantage of their popularity and paying illustrator’s in exposure rather than hard-earned cash. Exposure won’t pay the bills. Ever. There is a sense of achievement being approached by a big brand for a job but having you work for free is just wrong. Imagine if Coca-Cola asked a plumber to fix their boiler but they’d pay them in ‘exposure’. Phoning the AOI would be my first point of contact and see what they recommend as a course of action.

I think there are only a handful of circumstances you should work for free… charity work, for something you truly want to do (it’s your choice at the end of the day), and your own projects..

From personal experience, I’ve only done a couple jobs that have been underpaid and free.

My first one was for Onnset Records where I charged a very low fee and involved making four vinyl covers. I knew it was terrible pay at the time but I still wanted to do it. I mean, how often do you get to work on a niche market like vinyls? My second one was creating a piece for Brothers and Sisters, a small local exhibition where half of the sales went to ACLU. They gave me free reign on what I wanted to draw celebrating love, equality and hope. Both of these jobs were fun opportunities and I’m glad I did them. I was aware of what I was and wasn’t getting but it was my choice to do them.

I think a really good thing would be to try and get to illustration talks and workshops perhaps. Feed the knowledge that way, what do you think?

Talks are great – especially from organisations like the AOI and the House of Illustration – but two things will always get in the way.

Firstly, they aren’t tailored to your personal needs. They’ll generally be quite broad to cover the needs of the many and so you’re receiving a diluted version of the guidance you want.

Secondly, unless you live in London, talks are very limited. Illustration isn’t a common profession so there’s a lack of consistent events to go to. To my knowledge, the AOI has only ever done one talk in Bristol, which isn’t a lot when you consider how many creatives there are here – both student and professional.

Do you find the illustration community offers support or help to each other? Is that a way to get experience you may have missed from uni/college?

I wouldn’t say I missed out on it. Whether you go to university or not, you’re still part of the illustration community. You definitely get a lot more support from university as you have tutors and fellow students in the same room as you – not just some random person from Twitter.

Saying that, the illustration community is a good one – both in the digital and physical realm – even if you don’t go to college or art school. It doesn’t come with the pretentious snobbiness you often find from the design community. Everyone is there to help, offer their advice and share their experiences.

So after you left uni how did you find the transition into actual work? Did you go straight into it or did you have to juggle with a part time job?

I spent about a month being unemployed and managed to scrape my way into a junior design role at a ‘customer engagement agency’ (a stupid, buzz-word way of saying ‘marketing agency’) by applying for a junior art director role. I didn’t mind it – I did it for a year before moving to Atomic Smash to be their designer for a couple of years. I started off doing the odd illustration commission a month whilst I working at these jobs and then it just started to snowball from about May 2016, when I started working with Synergy.

I’m actually pretty fresh to the illustration-only work life (full-time since the end of June) and it’s great. When I was working at Atomic Smash, I would wake up at 5:30, do some freelance illustration stuff for a couple hours, do a 9-5 day, and then cycle home to do more drawing. Some days were easier than others and I can’t say I recommend it unless you have a partner who is supportive (luckily my girlfriend was) and a positive mentality. It can get horribly busy and stressful!

You mentioned your work snowballed when you signed up to Synergy – bringing up the the age old argument about the advantages of having an agent. Did they approach you or you them? Do you have any agent advice that could help others get signed up?

They approached me which was strange, if I’m honest (I think it was via Instagram since I followed their profile). Obviously I’m glad they did but I can’t say I was actively looking for representation. We just got talking, did a 3 month trial to see how things went and the relationship just carried on.

I think researching agencies is important. You don’t want to be bothering a children’s book agent with the prospects of looking for editorial work. Also, taking a look at their existing illustrators will give you an idea if you’ll fit. You don’t want to be mimicking anyone’s style but you also want to feel part of the family.

Watch out for the bad agencies out there as well. There are many that will take advantage of artists and are clearly only in it for the money.

Thankfully, Synergy care about their illustrators and they’re great people to work with and I can honestly say I haven’t had any issues with them. Luke is a great guy and it’s nice catching up with him every few months to just chat over a coffee. And also hearing his email count soar (the guy gets like 70 emails an hour, no exaggeration!).

For the most part your work is of a conceptual nature. Is that your preferred way of solving an illustration brief?

I really like the conceptual briefs because I love the problem-solving aspect of it. Coming up with a visual solution to a client’s brief can be seriously challenging but that’s what makes it rewarding.

Drawing general scenes can be fun but I can’t say illustrating backgrounds is a strength of mine (another thing I’m trying to get better at) and can sometimes lack the appeal that the more metaphorical briefs have.

Your work has a lovely blend of humour, ideas and current affairs. Do you find the brief guides these topics in your work or do you actively try to work them in?

Each project is different and depending on the subject and article, I’ll try and make it fit the needs of the brief. But most of the time, it’ll be a light-hearted approach.

I’m not great at doing things too seriously – I guess that comes down to my own personality. I just want people to have a bit more fun in their lives so if I can influence that even a little bit, I’m happy.

Do you do many personal projects on important issues to you and if you could have a dream brief given to you – what would it be? Where would you like to go with your illustration?

Not yet. I was thinking about doing something to do with climate change – perhaps an infographic. Since the Trump administration has come in and fucked the environmental policies, I think it needs more awareness than ever.

I’ve also been thinking about doing some minimal animations (more GIFs than animated shorts) to add a bit more charisma to my work.

Lastly – whats the one thing people should do today?

Talk to other illustrators. Ask for help and critiques, grab a pint. There’s a whole illustration community out there, and most of them are nice people, where they work in solitude in front of computers so it’s good for everyone to communicate in some manner and learn from each other.

I really am so grateful for Tommy to spend his time answering my questions and had a nice email chat with him over all this stuff. He can be found on his website or check his awesome work out on Twitter and Instagram and via his agents website.