"I used to stack shelves in a supermarket" John Holkroft make illustrations for Nike, Spotify, BBC, Wall Street and other famous brands. Also, he has Instagram page, where everything is explained

From the very beginning of his career, in 1996, British artist John Holkroft, was inspired by David Cutter, Edward Hopper and Ian Pollock. The screen printing of 50s was base of his author’s artistic style which was improved about two decades. Today, John is in demand by famous worldwide companies and his Instagram count thousand of followers.

— When I saw your instagram page for the first time, I thought: “If i would ever could not describe something for my mate, I would show him John’s illustrations”. Making this illustrations, did you set yourself a challenge?

— Yes, if this is not a commissioned work, I always aim to convey the main idea briefly and clearly.

— All things, that you illustrate on instagram page are shared in the society of different cultures. May be it is one of the reasons why your illustrations are understood from the first sight. But what you think, the difference between speech and visual describing of something? and what is better?

— Primarily the job of the illustrator is to create a visual image to go along side text to help the reader understand it better. Readers can also read the text because the illustration intrigued them. So illustration and text work together but they also work independently.

Consumerism vs climate change. A piece about the fight against climate change.

Virus in the works.

Make racism history.

Do you know who you love?

— How do you choose the topic of illustration?

— If it's a commission that is already provided for you. Anything else is a self promotional illustration designed to generate work, however the topics are up to me so I choose topics that are typical of editorial work, something that a lot of people with relate to, usually current affairs or social issues.

— How does the process looks like?

— Starts with a commission, could be: eg "illustrate a cover about world food shortage" then I turn to my sketch pad until I have a strong concept, then I produce the final art.

— You are one of those artists whose career saw the transition from drawing on paper to drawing on a computer. How did it happen with you?

— I used to paint acrylics which could take days and post off my art which took another day. In 2000 I decided to go digital, it was quick, you could make changes and send it over email taking seconds.

Illustration about self belief.

Illustration about job offers being abruptly withdrawn.

Just a few more should do it.

— On your web site noted that your clients are Guardian, Times, BBC, Nike, Spotify, Honda… WOW! And it is not the end of the list. What did you draw for them?

— If you go on my website you can see past works, however I don't upload everything I do for commissions because sometimes the work isn't the best it can be because I have found the bigger the client, the more interference I get from clients, editors, board members etc. The work becomes compromised and in the end I can't put it in my portfolio. Doing work for Spotify wasn't quite as cool as it sounds. They were doing a 90s country music competition and wanted me to do some 90s assets for the website that would get animated.

— Are there topics that you want to return to more often than others and illustrate them again and again?

— Yes, I will keep illustrating about anything to do with climate change, mental health, ocean plastic, corporate greed and other injustices.

— What are you working on now?

— Other than the commissions I'm not able to discuss, I'm currently doing an illustration about mental wellbeing.

Dealing with personal fears.

Your supermarket knows rather a lot about you.

Illustration about misinformation.

Illustration about press intrusion of public figures.

— At the end of our communication, I would like to ask you two questions relating to the same things but I will ask you to answer separately. Where illustration education should be got nowadays? And who is better teacher on creating illustration nowadays?

— If I'm totally honest I believe there isn't enough work for the amount of people wanting to become illustrators. I get contacted by students asking for advice and I tell them to get a second career and do illustration on the side. If you are very lucky you may be able to earn a living, however a huge proportion don't and have to take other jobs. I used to stack shelves in a supermarket. I've done ok until early 2022 when work for me dried up, I haven't had many jobs at all since. So in answer to your question I think illustration courses should to honest with their students and stop giving them false hope, but prepare them for what they are about to face.

I am self taught. I studied Graphic Design at college 30 years ago and only fell into illustration because technology was going through a huge change in the early 90s and I missed the boat on a digital career in design. Some of my tutors were practicing designers and so in answer to your question: teachers who are illustrators are the best to teach illustration, however you really only start learning when you do the job.

Interview: Sergey Gutakovsky

Editor: Sergey Fomkin

2023