Intervista a GIANLUCA FOLI' Interview with Gianluca Foli by Youthless fanzine What do you expect from this year's Picnic Festival? Hot aside, the good company and cheerfulness of the previous edition.
How has evolved over the years, your passion for design? You always knew it would become your profession or you wanted to do at some point in your life? I always knew and I was always afraid. But it is my way of being, of living life. Not if they do not, when there is already born, such as the heart, the liver or stomach. We grow together, you find out day by day, year by year. Maybe you can decide whether to take root and become a professional but the way you perceive the world is and will always remain tied to the way in which you can play.
Your first book is entitled "The Bear by the sword" which was released in 2008, how would you define it for those who do not read it? What about the story and how did the collaboration with Davide Cali (author of the story, NDP)? A great parable about responsibility and the consequences of our actions. Read it to remember the great, the children read to learn. The collaboration with David was born in a totally random and funny. That 's the story: I knew David's work as an author and illustrator, but he did not know mine. When ZOOlibri said they had found the right illustrator for his book the bear, immediately went to see my site. Five minutes later he wrote to ZOOlibri "What he has to do with my book?" Then we met and after work he understood the reason for their choice.
When you draw, what inspires you? How are your pictures? Follow a working method? I have not had a classical education when excluding studies institute of art in my country. I found myself having to decide what value the design must have for me and what I find in it. I looked around, freely, from cave paintings to the Renaissance, Expressionism, Age Modern, up to the most popular comics and those intellectuals of Italy, France and Japan. I did not want to look like anyone in particular. Then I started my journey, following the intuition, the quiet of a mountain wind, a strong emotion, a competition with myself, a pleasure, a need .. everything can become design. It is a unique feature that comes directly from the stomach to the paper via a form that is my only grammar. Each color is inspired and each brushstroke is a desire. I follow the instinct and the stiffness of steps such as the wave of drafts, the selection, review and final.
Besides illustrating, writing lyrics? If not, do you think that one day you do? No, not yet. I'd like to write some stories and illustrations, but I still do not feel ready. There will be no way and time to do it.
How do you define a style in the field of design? From the outside there is someone who lists in a certain way or not? Never the case that the ranking of a musical genre? I'll tell you that every time someone tries to give me a label or a particular genre but with bad results. I am an illustrator with a solid and recognizable style that has influences and a general understanding of how personal which fills a space. That 's what happens in modern music, where the contamination is so high that no longer has a gender-specific roots and ends with time for a new one. It is still not my case but I will work hard for this in the coming years.
In 2008 you won the order: American illustrations, 2008, Applied Arts, 2008, White Rave CJBook 2008 and 2008. How to get to win all these awards? How much work is behind these results? What are you most proud and why? Let me clarify before answering that AI el'Applied of Arts are annual and therefore the selection is already in itself a recognition of their work. The annual is a double-edged sword: if you do not make you get angry a lot and if you take it seem normal.! Ahha!
Seriously, the work is beginning to acquire some 'initial visibility, it was hard and still not be lowered. There are many sacrifices behind, both economic and personal. Many frustrations and dead spots where I threatened to run aground. In recent years the greatest pride is to be reached this starting point, with my work, my research and my honesty.
they all come from collaborations with Mondadori and Feltrinelli or with major magazines such as Rolling Stone USA? 030 illustrator, un libro realizzato da Davide Longaretti, raccoglieva alcuni dei maggiori (o migliori) illustratori under 30 in Italia. Ebbe un gran successo e come tutte le cose fatte bene, i sui frutti furono contatti nuovi tra cui Feltrinelli e successivamente, dopo il primo lavoro con loro, arrivò la Mondadori. Per l’America invece i contatti più importanti li trova il mio agente.
In cosa consiste poi il tuo lavoro di illustratore editoriale per LA Times o per il Boston Globe? In America le agenzie di rappresentanza sono una vera e propria istituzione. Hanno contatti con le maggiori testate editoriali e pubblicitarie. Ho lavorato per molte riviste e quotidiani americani tra cui appunto LA Times and Boston Globe. To accompany their articles or columns, simply.
Hit your many collaborations around the world, we can also imagine how good a globetrotter? Do you like traveling and learning new customs and traditions? What is the journey we've done and that you have left in your heart? But no. I do not travel to almost never work. There is the internet! Every time I go to find foreign customers or agents who come to Rome on holiday. I prefer to go to pull the plug, fill the eyes of new stimuli and to return the load. When I can, work and finances permitting I move to Italy with pleasure. The foreign almost always leave it for the periods summer. The journey that I carry in my heart is the first foreign flight to the Netherlands. I was 20, a group of friends and a great desire to discover the world.
And the role that music plays in your life? If plays a role. ... Obvious. Fundamental! Almost always work with background music of all genres but mainly with electronic incursions (Squarepusher, Lali Puna, Tujiko Noriko, Board of Canada to name a few).
The music helps me remember what to leave in a composition. When I draw freely, I like to try to create between the viewer and my piece the same bond that creates the evocative music. Just a few notes and listen to the mind back past and forgotten memories associated with a period. Sweet nostalgia takes us back to love, to a departure, for a job. In this music it was really great teacher.
What are you working on now? I prepare to face my third book with ZOOlibri and is a book of fiction based on a classic Goethe. A side dish of this, many other small personal projects which will be released in September.
Have you ever abandoned projects or ideas that are still in the drawer? If so, never out of them over to complete them? Yes .. projects
lost 'n' found I have many but I have one in particular su cui giro intorno da un paio d’anni e che ancora non sono riuscito ad affrontare. Credo di non essere ancora maturo per lui. Si cresce con cautela…
