In short
Creativity and staying original in the age of AI, plus how childhood freedom, analog practice, and collaboration shape an illustrator’s work.
Guest backgrounds
Jimmy Terrell is a graphic artist and editorial illustrator from the North East. He studied graphic design at Liverpool, worked briefly in a Newcastle bread factory, and became an editorial illustrator after a friend (Rich Turley) helped him move into London and Mixmag/Guardian-adjacent work. He’s known for analog/hand processes like collage and screen printing, and for collaborating with animators and other specialists.
Key claims
Kids need freedom to explore and take risks; social media can replace that. AI tools can accelerate copying, so showing process and leaning into physical, analog methods helps protect originality. Editorial illustration is declining partly due to budgets and art directors doing their own work.
Notable examples
“Willie” telling the time without a watch; stealing glass as a child; bread-factory conveyor-belt work; a mate using Midjourney to recreate Jimmy’s style; fashion and Miami residencies; house/rave culture trips to Manchester’s Hacienda.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VONostalgic Reflections on Childhood
1:50 to 2:28
A discussion about growing up creatively before the digital age, with personal anecdotes.
“This episode is sponsored by Adobe Acrobat Studio.”
Regional Connections and Family Stories
2:28 to 7:54
Dialogue about family origins and cultural identity in the North East of England.
“Well, this is where I tell you, dear Jimmy, that my mam is from Durham.”
The Importance of Creative Freedom
7:54 to 14:00
Exploration of how childhood freedom influences creativity and personal growth.
“We were launching Northern Design Festival's typeface yesterday and chatting to the F37 team.”
The Impact of Childhood Experiences on Creativity
14:00 to 14:40
Explore how childhood adventures shape artistic perspectives.
“But like, I think it did feed into my general aesthetic, you know, where I've ended up.”
Long-Form Content vs. Short-Form Media
14:40 to 15:27
Discuss the benefits of long-form content in a fast-paced media world.
“Stuff like this, I think that's why long form podcasts work as well.”
Lessons from Growing Up and Play
15:27 to 17:00
Learn how unstructured play contributes to personal development.
“why there is pressures on kids to kind of stay in social media groups and maybe not leave the house or whatever because of the worries that are put into parents' heads.”
Nostalgic Childhood Memories and Local Characters
17:00 to 19:24
Share nostalgic stories about memorable characters from youth.
“You know, the comic, well, Willie, it's a bit like the Bruins, it was like a little character, I looked a bit like that, you know, a bit kind of, a bit scandy, a naughty scandy boy, basically.”
From Graphic Designer to Illustrator
19:24 to 22:28
Discover the journey from graphic design to becoming a successful illustrator.
“come on come on there's another bit in Manchester yeah well in in South uh South Cheshire yeah it was the Fratellis.”
The Importance of Connections in Career Growth
22:28 to 25:39
Understand how networking impacts career opportunities in creative fields.
“There's a little breakery near to here called Prime Bake where all of the kids, when they left school, they all sort of like did a bit of a stint there and there was an ongoing local joke.”
Humorous Tales of Young Adulthood
25:39 to 27:34
Enjoy light-hearted stories of college life and survival tactics.
“I've interviewed a ton of people, And the thing that always stands out is there'll be someone that they knew in their network and they've built this network.”
Show all 25 chapters
Culinary Origins and Creative Necessities
27:34 to 28:01
Explore how creativity is often born from necessity and historical context.
The Origins of Fashion and Utility
28:01 to 29:15
Explore how fashion originates from necessity and utilitarian roots.
“And then it ended up becoming, whether it's a kagool or a parka or a t-shirt or all of these things have got, it starts off as a very pragmatic and practical reason.”
Cultural Influences in Fashion
29:16 to 31:00
Discuss the cultural exchanges that shape modern fashion trends.
Personal Style and Youth Culture
31:01 to 32:36
Reflect on personal style and youth cultural experiences in the past.
“I was always a bit of a soul boy, but I got heavily into for me Sins acid jazz.”
The Importance of Research in Creative Work
33:59 to 35:50
Understand the value of thorough research in driving creativity and projects.
“I was like, oh, remember when I got that book for that project and never even opened the book, you know?”
Balancing Work and Life in Creativity
35:51 to 37:38
Examine the struggle between work dedication and finding personal balance.
“I've got better with it, definitely, you know.”
Navigating Changes in the Creative Industry
37:39 to 39:26
Discuss the evolving landscape of illustration and design in the era of AI.
“until you've kind of been burnt out a little bit.”
The Impact of AI on Artistic Techniques
39:27 to 42:00
Explore how AI is changing the way artists create and share their work.
“One of my mates sent us a video and it's this guy in Sao Paulo and he's making a YouTube video and he's talking.”
Exploring AI's Impact on Art
42:00 to 43:12
Learn how AI is changing the landscape of artistic creation and expression.
“You know, I've always done it and you've become renowned for your technique, your style.”
Navigating Distractions and the Flow State
43:12 to 45:18
Discover the importance of managing distractions to achieve creative flow.
“So what you're saying is that we're kind of like, are you going religious here in terms of like, we're being controlled.”
Upcoming Projects and Artistic Freedom
45:18 to 46:44
Hear about exciting future projects that blend commercial work with creative freedom.
Influences Beyond the Art World
46:44 to 48:35
Understand how diverse influences shape creative decisions beyond traditional art.
“so Is the Miami stuff the self-initiated stuff?”
The Power of Collaboration in the Digital Age
48:35 to 50:39
Learn how the internet fosters collaboration and connections among creatives.
“And do you think like, because you've worked hard, right?”
Reflection on Art and AI Balance
50:39 to 51:46
Explore the balance between traditional artistry and AI in creative expression.
“and thankfully they've been into my stuff as well.”
Nostalgia and Artistic Growth
51:46 to 53:11
Reflect on the evolution of creativity and the unique experiences of past generations.
“because now you can just crash everything together you know you can see like mix gucci with you know London underground signs or something like that and it'll just give you, you know.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:06Katy Cowan:Right, so apparently there used to be a man in the North East who could tell you the time to the minute without ever wearing a watch. That's a real thing, folks. That happened. And I only know this because of the conversation you're about to hear, which I'm still slightly unpicking in my head, if I'm totally honest. I'm Katie, this is the Creative Boone Podcast and my guest this week is Jimmy Terrell, graphic artist, illustrator and a very good talker which always helps. We got into loads, rave culture, Geordie accents and yes I do my own but I'm allowed to because my mum's from Durham so there or mam as somebody native from that part of the world will tell you.
0:45Katy Cowan:We go on about what it was like being a creative kid before phones existed when we just had to sort of use our imagination. There's stuff in here about working in a bread factory which was not something I expected to have in common with Jimmy at all. We talk about stolen glass that I'm not even going to try and explain because you'll just have to get there with us and there's a story involving a grown man chasing children across the field that I kind of need someone else to hear so I can stop carrying it around on my own. It's pretty traumatizing. The thread running through it all though is something I think a lot of you will recognize.
1:21Katy Cowan:It's this question of how you keep making things, properly making stuff with your hands, with your brain, slowly, in a moment when it doesn't really feel like it wants you to, if that makes sense. Jimmy's not preachy about it, he's just figured something out, I think, and he's quite generous about sharing where he's got to. And hey, if you were born in the 1970s, you're going to find this episode especially nostalgic. and fun. But before we get into it, here's a quick word from our sponsor.
1:58Katy Cowan:This episode is sponsored by Adobe Acrobat Studio. And if you still think of Acrobat as just a PDF tool, this might change your mind. Acrobat Studio is now a fully AI powered workspace. You can chat with your documents, pull insights from multiple files at once, collaborate with your team in shared PDF spaces, and even turn a doc straight into a branded design via Adobe Express, all in one place. Find out more at the link in the show notes.
2:28Katy Cowan:Well, this is where I tell you, dear Jimmy, that my mam is from Durham. Ah, there you go, man. One half of my family are from Durham. So, like, the main inside of the family, you know? We're all miners, yeah. I'm from you. I'm from Baker. you know from biker grove not the grove because it doesn't really exist but you know does it not from that area they all did that yesterday you know that that's what fascinated me i was at northern design festival jimmy i'm just the launch of uh their typeface with f37 and they were um they were all like posing for the camera and they were going to jump up and one of them went who must have been in their early 20s let's all jump up and shout biker grove i'm like what where did That was like when I was a teenager.
3:11You know what? Maybe for them, that's like us watching different strokes or something, like a vintage programme in a way. You know what I mean? Probably watching it on YouTube. It's some sort of parody watching in a way, you know? But yeah, they're not about it. It's weird.
3:26Katy Cowan:Well, you were saying before we... Spooky. Sproogie. Sproogie. Oh, my God. I know. We all cried, didn't we, when poor... What was he called? The character? It was Anton Deck, wasn't it? PJ and Duncan. PJ and Duncan yes you know what I was at a party once in London this guy comes up and he's like hi there I could hear the Georgie accent you're a Georgie right yeah and I went I'm a Georgie but I'm a he says do you know PJ and Duncan yeah also known as Anton Deck yeah I was like not personally you know I think you think like me me Sierra PJ and Duncan while living the same street you know what I mean next to each other it's just a tiny little village where everybody knows each other.
4:09Exactly, you know. It's mad.
4:11Katy Cowan:Honestly, like when you start, I don't know if it's just a Northeastern thing, but they're obsessed with family. Obsessed with family. Big time. My great-grandmother grew up on the same street as my great-grandfather, and then their children, is it? Then ended up getting married. This is starting to sound a little bit Alabama. It's getting a little bit inbred, yeah. sorry to all the people from alabama that's no no sorry all the intelligentsia of alabama sorry about that no worse than anywhere else my my um my nana and her sister married my granddad and my great uncle so two brothers married two sisters there's no there's no inbreeding there it's just like you know i don't know if you've got any sisters marrying but um yeah it means that we've got a really close family in that sense you know yeah all a good-looking family don't have a good looking but we're all right we're all right so who so like who's great fun is it all the durham is it the way are they called the wayside no no um like once you start getting past a certain area in the northeast you move from geordies to mackams basically durham's durham's they're kind of pit yakas you call them pit yakas they're kind of like ex uh ex mining mining stock you know what I mean?
5:30But like, my mum said it all from Baker, so that's their like pure Geordies. And then the other side, south of the river, is their kind of the Yaka crew, you know?
5:40Katy Cowan:This is so adorable, you're saying my mum, because that's, you know, it's just so close to me. It's what I grew up with. But they're all nuts. They're all absolute characters. Is that a thing? It's a bit weird at the minute. Everybody's kind of like this, there's a lot of full working class stuff coming up. Everybody's, the new thing is to be working class, you know what in a working class designer. I fought through the ghetto to get here. But I think like, you know, I think working class communities, there's a strong family bond there because you've got no else, you know what I mean? You've got to just stick together and like get through it.
6:11And I think humour is a massive part of that, you know, being able to take the piss out of each other and just have a laugh about everything is, it's a coping mechanism in a way, you know? So I think that's probably where your family is getting it from as well, you know?
6:23Katy Cowan:Probably. Unless your family were the lords of the manor in Durham. Well, no. Oh, well, is there something going on here? Well, no, my mum said her father was the only chap in the street who would come back from the pit, come back from work with clean hands, carrying a briefcase and wearing a suit, because he was one of the land surveyors. He didn't go down the pit, so my mum always liked to sort of say that they were posh. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I can remember their terraced house on the main road into Durham, like the back of my hand. There's a picture of me when I'm 18 months old out the back, holding a hose pipe and shouting into it.
7:01So you used to come up here when you were a kid?
7:04Katy Cowan:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then my nana and my grandpa and my auntie Veronica all moved down to Stoke where my dad grew up and everybody came together. So I was really lucky. I had a super nice childhood where my grandparents were all in the same little town. It was magical. Oh, nice, man. Wow. Yeah, but if I get a whiff of coal, it just takes me back to Durham. Yeah, yeah. But Durham's posh now, man. I mean, people go on holiday to Durham, you know. And there's a lot of Americans when they're going up to Edinburgh, they'll stop at like Durham and Newcastle and it's like, hey man, Durham. So beautiful.
7:39So gorgeous. Edinburgh, you know.
7:42Katy Cowan:The castle on the river. It's so delightful and magical. The ye olde castle. It's like Harry Potter. Hogwarts, we're here. You know, we do have a lot of American listeners. I just want to sort of chime in. Sorry, guys. It's the Britishness in us. We like to take the piss. We like to have a laugh. I'm zipping up now. Well, no, I love it. I love it. We were launching Northern Design Festival's typeface yesterday and chatting to the F37 team. And we were sort of saying, you know, what does it mean to be Northern? And some of them aren't Northern at all. And I said, well, you'll have to pass a test or something.
8:20Katy Cowan:and one of them piped up and said, well, I can do a Northern accent. And I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's cultural appropriation. She was very good. We let her do it anyway because it was good fun and obviously we were joking. At least you didn't try and do a Georgie accent. You know what I mean? Well, the Georgies are a completely different breed. Of course they are. We are going to need some subtitles for this whole thing because there'll be someone in America and they'll be thinking, what the hell is he saying? I've got to send you this thing. There was a TV show called castle in in america and it there's a guy on it being a geordie but he's not english it's the most incredible thing i've ever seen so you imagine like a new york american pretending to be a geordie and it's just like scottish irish welsh mixed with a bit of i don't know australian and you're like wow this is this is what people think that what are you know i mean it's kind of it's a bit awkward but um if i if i was to i mean we'll get on to all the kind of industry work stuff in a minute.
9:20Yeah, we're just talking a load of nonsense at the minute.
9:23Katy Cowan:Well, this is why my podcast's, you know, a bit different. But if somebody wanted to learn how to speak Geordie, you know, what would you recommend? What's the kind of telltale sign? It's kind of weird because there's almost a three Geordie accents. So there's like how I speak. This is a middle Geordie. Then there's a posh Geordie, which is a Gosforth and Jesmyn. So this kind of speak a bit like that. what I was saying before, Sebastian, you know, Sebastian and, and kind of, um, Benji. And then there's like old Newcastle, which is like, oh, you're a bugger, man. Up and down like that, you know?
9:59Oh, that's a bit Durham, you know? Yes. The new Newcastle accent's a bit like that. Don't talk to me like that. Like, yeah, man. That's like the Ruggie kind of chav, chav version of the Geordie accent.
10:10Katy Cowan:I just love it all. I just love that this beautiful island and all that kind of mad. All the Americans are switching off now because they're like, one, One Geordie accent was hard enough to listen to, not four. I like the whole kind of pooper scooper. What is that? I'm allowed to say this because my family are from that part of the world. So I'm allowed to take the mic, I think. But is pooper scooper a thing? Oh, like for dogs to scoop the pooper. Well, just if you want to learn how to speak the language of your county, darling. Yes, of course. of course um i would just say like you know everything's very kind of bouncy and kind of rhythmic everything kind of goes up you know and doing and yeah it's um it's a very strange accent but we'll get away with it there's no trick the elocution lessons obviously didn't work for me you know well my mum had that my mam rather had those yeah because she was a teacher so she she had to because the children couldn't understand her but um she she tells me all sorts of stories like she had her she had her hen do in durham and back in those days in the sort of mid 70s they went around like friday's evenings i don't know if you know this but friday evenings were men's men's night and the women weren't allowed to go out which my mom said was brilliant because it was great fun because you could still go out and you'd just get you know lots of attention and it was great fun and back then she was um and we're clearly quite happy about that and she'd go around with a cap because she was the bride-to-be and the tradition was you put a penny in the cap and then whichever bloke put the penny in could give the bride-to-be a kiss on the cheek.
11:45Katy Cowan:Wow. That's like, and I actually think it's a bit of an odd tradition, but there's something quite sweet about, well, I don't know. It's of its time. Very of its time. Like a respectful thing maybe, but maybe meant in good faith. there's still a lot of pubs up here that have like snugs what you call snugs so that was where the women went to drink and then the guys were in a separate place you know it seems bonkers but and now it's sort of looked on as a kind of eee remember them days sort of thing you know with a kind of a bit of affection the romantic kind of yeah but it's good where we're segregated from each other from each other you know from sex you know it's crazy they don't realise do they how good they've got it the young ones of today they don't realise how bad it used to be I don't know man they've got they've got social media so I'd rather have just the bliss of getting on a bus whenever you want when you were seven years old and going wherever you want and you got called in at the end of the day sort of thing no phones no no kind of pressure you know do you know that's a really interesting point because I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I wonder if people of our generation that was something that really helped in our success because you are a successful creative these days jimmy these days you've been for a very long time but you know it do you think that that freedom that childhood where you were allowed to take risks very early on do you think that helped yeah i do and i think like you know um i think i well firstly i had like a mom and dad neither who were were um no they weren't not not in the arts but they weren't creative anyway anyway my dad was it was a fame and mom was a a cleaner and then she became like she went back to college and became like a cute fit teacher like an aerobics instructor but they they really like pushed me you know because i think they realized i was only good at one thing you know it's crap and everything else so it was like the art thing was like just plow that but that idea of complete freedom and just being able to go out and explore and it doesn't have to be like that's what i'm trying when students ask is now about like you know should i be studying any specific graphic design you know books or magazines or whatever I think you just got to take it all in man everything's you know and and that's whether that's me going down the coast of Whitley Bay and like seeing a weird smashed bit of pavement that I remember and the weird kind of happy accident like you know I wish I had used I had a camera then because I could have took so many like just all the abandoned you know fairground raids and stuff like that that all went into the all seeped into the um into the membrane you know and kind of that I'm not sure if I would have had that freedom if if you know you were stuck in a bedroom on TikTok or whatever, not to diss anybody on that, that's their thing.
14:24But like, I think it did feed into my general aesthetic, you know, where I've ended up.
14:29Katy Cowan:Well, it's a dying art, isn't it? Because everybody's addicted to short form videos now and it's rotting people's brains, children's brains, and it's a worry. It is a big concern. But I think that's why this is cool, though. Stuff like this, I think that's why long form podcasts work as well. It's kind of weird, isn't it? You've got that kind of dichotomy between the long form stuff and then the, you know, know the instantaneous kind of um dopamine you know if of tiktok so but i think this is a healthy thing it's healthy and don't you think it's weird when you see things on on social media ironically teaching you how to do the thing that we just did all the time when we were kids anyway yeah exactly it's like you know um you know like go out and explore and and you know live your life by like breathing and walking you know i mean it's like it's not what we're doing for you that's how we and look at the clouds and, you know, pick out things that you can see for hours.
15:23But that, for a lot of kids, and I understand in a lot of ways why there is pressures on kids to kind of stay in social media groups and maybe not leave the house or whatever because of the worries that are put into parents' heads. But, oh man, you know, it's so refreshing when you see, if you look at like the Danes, you know, in Copenhagen and stuff like that, they let their kids, the whole thing is if they're playing in parks and stuff, you've got to let the kids fall off the monkey bars you know you're gonna let because that's how you learn you know and i think this idea of helicopter parents and stuff it is a real thing you know and i think um the more freedom you have as a kid especially as a young artist um the better you know what um
16:04Katy Cowan:because we were just let loose i mean it's crazy to think that my mum especially during the summer holidays would just say here's a backpack there's some water off you go come back when it gets dark and that would be like at nine o 'clock in the morning and we'd go off all day on our bikes. We'd be like the Goonies. Yeah, total Goonies, total Goonies. And dangerous, loads of dangerous shit. Loads of things that you probably, I probably couldn't admit on this podcast. No. But man, just, you know, character building and, you know, things that. I got nicked as a kid for stealing some glass from an allotment when I was about 10.
16:38And the cop I was driving around, he was saying, you're going to the police station. And I was like, oh, please don't tell me mum and dad. and he just let her out, me and me and me, you know what I mean, we're cuddling each other and just, and I look back at that now and it's just like, wow, do kids still get in that sort of trouble? I don't know.
16:54Katy Cowan:Did you have jet blonde, like really blonde hair? Yeah, yeah. I can picture you. Yeah, big time. Were you quite skinny or did you have like chubby little cheeks? You know, the comic, well, Willie, it's a bit like the Bruins, it was like a little character, I looked a bit like that, you know, a bit kind of, a bit scandy, a naughty scandy boy, basically. we just used to build dens and like climb trees and and just get up to but there was always like some local characters did you have a like a local character that you always had to run away from there was a couple of geezers this is bad to say but like a couple of a couple of guys on our state who were like um maybe they were like um they were a bit too old to be knocking around with us that makes sense yeah i don't know if you've seen it one of my favorite movies of all time is a movie by Shane Meadows called A Room for Romeo Brass.
17:43And it's Paddy Constine. He plays like this guy on the estate who is nothing wrong with these kids because he basically doesn't connect with people his own age. We had a couple of those sort of guys who were nice enough people, you know what I mean? But it was just like, I look back now when it was a bit strange, you know.
17:59Katy Cowan:They didn't try and do anything with you, did they? No, no, not at all, not at all. There was one guy called Willie and he always knew the time, but he didn't have a watch on. So you'd say like, Willie, what's the time? Nine o 'clock. and it was dead on nine. Is he some sort of tame savant? Maybe they were from the future. Don't say that. Willie from the future. The DeLorean was parked around the corner. Yeah, probably. Why not? I mean, God, we just used to use our imaginations. We used to have like a guy called Vanderman. Oh, wow. What was he doing? Well, he lived on these two fields. It was weird.
18:34Katy Cowan:It was like the Manchester Metropolitan Campus in a town where I grew up. it's gone now it's all a new build estate um and there were these four houses in the middle that i think were private and we used to go on and just play games we were causing no problem but he would come out or the woman would come out and she'd shout her husband and this guy would come from nowhere in this like little car and he'd try and grab you what and yeah he'd like tell you not as innocent as willy well no and he'd try and find out where you lived and but it's one of my fondest memories where I got trapped all the all I was the only girl knocking around with all these lads and they managed to get out of the the hedge and onto the other side of the path and they were all going come on Katie but he put his car in the only escape route and I was the last one behind and he was coming around the back of his car to get me and I just went oh they were all going Katie come on come on there's another bit in Manchester yeah well in in South uh South Cheshire yeah it was the Fratellis.
19:38Katy Cowan:Fratellis. 100%. 100%. But I managed to get out and then, do you remember you went through that phase when you were about nine and you thought if you ran with your hands like that, you'd get really fast. Like we were talking about it the other day because I've moved back out towards home. Sprinters do do it though. You see him both and all that. It's aerodynamics, isn't it? Oh, it's just so good and we shared that memory. You obviously escaped. Do you remember Randa Man? And he's like, yeah, of course I do and that time we almost lost you. why was he called Randa Man what was that I have no idea he's not Randy Man might have been he was evil he was evil he was just really angry and like he wasn't even official and he couldn't like he didn't have any authority as far as I knew to kick us off this field yeah he was like pretend parky sort of dude do you know what I mean yeah just a parky on the park used to chase his fault just because he was bored very very odd what a memory so I think it did yeah the kids are missing out on all of these They're missing out on all these kind of perverts.
20:40Willie with the clock.
20:41Katy Cowan:It's a safer world. It probably is. But would you, you've crafted this independent business for yourself. Would you call yourself a graphic designer or would you call yourself a graphic artist? Has it changed? You know what, Kate? It's a bit of a weird one because I don't want to sound like, hey, I don't fit into any, you know. I'm kind of like, the weird thing is, when I was at college, I studied graph design at Liverpool and my best mate, who is still my best mate now, a guy called Rich Turley, who's an incredible graph designer. He's creative director of Interview Magazine and stuff in New York.
21:21And we studied, we were at Liverpool together and he basically, we schmooed this job of doing the student magazine and he basically did all the layouts and stuff and I've done the illustrations, but I was on a graphic design course. I wasn't studying illustration. And through that, we won like the Guardian Award to go down to the Guardian and have two weeks work experience there and Richard done all these layouts and stuff and he ended up getting hired by them and I was stuck in the corner like doing these illustrations and people were just like, because I've never switched on Photoshop. I've never switched on Illustrator any of those things at college.
21:58All my stuff, I've always been obsessed with analog stuff, whether it's faxing or screen printing or basic collage hand collage so that's how I ended up becoming an illustrator because I ended up back in this bread factory in Newcastle and Rich then when left the Guardian and went away for Mixmag and then he got me back he got me down in London I got us out of this bread the bread factory job and from that I became an illustrator you know so editorial illustrator doing all the illustrations for the mag so which meant I was kind of an illustrator but i had a graphic edge on there still typography and stuff but not in the classic sense of grids and shit i'm awful with that uh british smashing things up and breaking them and
22:39Katy Cowan:putting them back together you know and it's a very kind of distinctive style that you've got i mean style god that word it really it upsets you creatives doesn't it having a style well this is what i'm saying i i think i have got a style but i um i'm i'm wary of it you know what i mean i don't want to end up repeating myself so this is why i try and branch out it's kind of weird though because i i i have got good at one thing you know i think you've had some discussions on here whether it's best to be a jack of all trade or to nail one thing i think i've nailed one thing but i'm always exploring um whether it's kind of subject matter or that's kind of where i flip it a little bit and and i love collaborating with people so you know whether i kind of animate you know what mean but i love to work with animators i love to work with people who can do the things that i can't and that's the bit that you know yeah i it's like honestly your portfolio is very impressive um but i i just have to pick up on the the working in a bread factory because i did that a little bit how long did you last i was there um three and a half months and then the call came through from richard to to come to london but i literally my job was like you know the baps are like bread rollers or whatever there was a conveyor belt used to come to us and i used to just have to split the doors up like that the door and so half the time there wasn't even a door on it so i just stood there like 30 you know shifts with this dude next to us it was there would be in there 30 years doing the same thing and i was like oh my god oh that wasn't a moment in my life to kind of just escape you know and um and richard god bless him he's he um he made me the man i am you know Oh, well, we're all the better for it.
24:22Katy Cowan:There's a little breakery near to here called Prime Bake where all of the kids, when they left school, they all sort of like did a bit of a stint there and there was an ongoing local joke. It said a lot about you, how long you lasted. So I lasted two and a half days. Oh, wow. That's a very short period. Do you want to know how long my full stack developer software engineer husband lasted? Go on. Two hours. Oh, wow. he's got he's got he's got ambition that lad he was like fuck this shit
24:56you know what though the weird thing is like the dude i was next to who'd been there for like 30 years doing it he was a happy man man you know and he had he had like four kids and you don't you don't know the pressures and other people you know what i mean and he was like you know he's got his headphones on he's listening to good music so i ain't judging but like for me I was just so frustrated that my best mate was working for Mixmag, you know, and it was all of this shit that I was into music-wise and stuff.
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25:23Katy Cowan:So when he got his gig, man, it was like, next I just put everything into it, you know. This is why it's so important, kids go to university, because that's a big discussion at the moment, isn't it, about how expensive it is and whether you need to. But it's the connections you make, isn't it? Absolutely. I've interviewed a ton of people, And the thing that always stands out is there'll be someone that they knew in their network and they've built this network. And it tends to be sort of a very similar bunch of people who've grown and done good things together and they help each other out along the way.
25:59Katy Cowan:And it's so important. It's just whether people need to get into these days, what is it, 60, 70, 80K debt? I was the very last year of grants, basically, and I was on a full grant, you know. Me too, me too. And that was a pittance, you know. I still had to apply for, like, what was it? The poor grant or something like that, where you got extra money. I blew all my money on records, basically. So I was left eating. I blew all mine on skunk. Same thing, really, you know what I mean? You put something to the head, you know? It does, it does. Yeah, and you end up eating minceau sandwiches for the rest of the year, you know?
26:37Katy Cowan:Or ketchup and buttered sandwiches. Oh, man. We used to, me and Rich Turley found a snail on the street one time and fried it up. It was dead. It just, you know. You eat it? It was beautiful. Hey, you're French, you know. Come on. Do you know, someone said to me once, how do you get people to say these things on the podcast? I'm like, I don't know, maybe it's the cute little innocent face. There's probably, yeah, there's probably a lot of snail lovers who are going to be chasing after me now. But we were hungry, man. I've never tried snails. No way, no hell on earth am I going to have a snail.
27:12Katy Cowan:I mean, it's no different to being in France and having, you know, the scagot. You know how that happened? Why the French eat frogs' legs and snails and stuff? It was the siege of Paris, basically. So they ended up getting kind of, I think the Germans, it was like pre, not like, you know, the First World War, before that maybe Napoleonic times, and they were trapped in Paris and they ended up eating the zoo, the Paris zoo, the whole zoo got ate and you ended up eating sort of frogs legs you know like snails and stuff like that that's where that culinary lineage come from I mean I'm sure there's some French people are going to disagree with this but look into it there's actually there's a full BBC podcast on it wow the they used to like hang up like zebras and kangaroos and stuff in the window of the meat shops in Paris in the siege no jeez I thought that was nonsense as well but I'll send you the podcast is that kind of stuff that fascinates you what happens when things you know when the sort of delicate veneer of uh order and uh yeah you know what i you know what i really love i love finding like the origins how most origins come from from necessity in a way especially with like i've worked quite a lot you know brands and fashion brands and stuff like that and you you work out that everything kind of started off as a utilitarian, you know, it started off as a needs must thing.
28:39And then it ended up becoming, whether it's a kagool or a parka or a t-shirt or all of these things have got, it starts off as a very pragmatic and practical reason. And then, you know, as artists, it ends up getting spun out into different stuff, you know. But yeah, that in a sense is to tie back into that food thing is like, you know, with the French, you say well what do we do now but now you go to michelin star restaurants and they're serving those exact things you know probably not kangaroo but um definitely frog's legs and snails i love i
29:10Katy Cowan:love doing those sorts of things as well and i'm particularly interested in fashion at the moment and learning about different styles of um you know different items different jackets why why is that barber jacket in that way you know why why are those sort of um specific aviators the way that they are you know where do they come from a lot a lot of the fashions now it sort of goes back to what was made during world war ii yeah big time if you think of all the kind of you know the stone island stuff the cp jackets you know with the kind of goggles and stuff on top it all came out um you know uh like i guess you know like missions at night times and all like fishermen's jackets and stuff like that barber you know the with the waxing yeah you know people people send stuff to get re-waxed and it's like that that's not you know you know that's not a trouble if you're living in like knightsbridge you know the waxing thing if you're in a field in like you know cumberland doesn't make fair dues but like um i don't know it's just the whole thing's fascinating do you like do you like dressing up do you like do you make an effort with your appearance i mean you look like you do i like i like my club i'm not like a you know obsessive um you know i've got a few mates who are like you know that sort of the whole stone island thing they have to have the new thing and it's all kind of football kind of not job culture but it's a bit like you know it's a train spot isn't it at the end of the day all that sort of stuff the CP brands and it's kind of weird how that's an Italian brand that's like echoes British fashion and British people are obsessed with it but when you go back and look at the origins of it a lot of the stuff is actually based on British army so it's kind of like ping pong like cultural ping pong in a way but I don't know like a lad on the terraces probably doesn't doesn't have a deep dive on that, but it's interesting, those kind of weird subcultures.
30:56Katy Cowan:We want to be long though, don't we? We just want to be part of it. Yeah, tribes. What tribe were you in in your teenage years? I was always a bit of a soul boy, but I got heavily into for me Sins acid jazz. So I used to wear like caps on backwards, like brand new heavies and, you know, J.S. Peterson and Bar Rumba and all this. And then I started raving. and then that was, that kind of got bummed to the side, you know, just a full on house kid, house detective. Oh God, wasn't it a good era? Yeah. Oh my God. So when I studied in Liverpool, that was like the height of cream. That's when cream had like kicked off, you know, and like we used to travel across to Manchester and go to Hacienda.
31:37Like the real last days of the Hacienda were just getting dodgy, you know.
31:41Katy Cowan:Well, yeah. The gun detectors and, you know, the metal detectors at the door. Oh God, I remember. And the whole thing was shaking. I always used to go to the boardwalk across the road. That was more my thing at the time. And then I got into house music much later on. But yeah, I mean, God, cream. Did you used to wear little bra tops and tiny little hot pants as well? I mean, that was my thing. That's weird that we both wore the same thing. Exactly the same thing. No, I was too skinny for that. Too skinny. Too skinny. Because back then it was like, you know, it was the muscle. You had to be muscly and stuff.
32:18they'd wear like tight tops and stuff. So I used to wear like rugby shirts with 10 t-shirts on underneath, you know, to make yourself bulk up a little bit.
32:26Katy Cowan:Yeah, because we were just dancing for 10 hours, weren't we? Oh man. In the best shape of my life. And eating snails, you know. Eating snails. One snail a day and some tomato ketchup sandwiches. Drinking water.
32:39What are you telling me here, Katie? Drinking water. Nothing.
32:44Katy Cowan:Come on. If you've listened to any of the podcasts, I've revealed far too much about myself. It's a terrible thing. Nah, it's fair to use.
32:56Katy Cowan:Today's episode is sponsored by Adobe Acrobat Studio. And honestly, if you spend a significant chunk of your week dealing with documents, hear me out. Most of us have a complicated relationship with them. They pile up, they're scattered across platforms and reading through a 20-page contract or client brief to find one specific thing is nobody's idea of a good time. Acrobat Studio is genuinely trying to fix that. The AI assistant means you can literally ask your documents questions, get a summary, pull out key points, interrogate a file, without having to really read every word. PDF Spaces lets you group all your relevant files together, PDFs, Word docs, web pages, so your whole team can work from the same place without the endless back and forth.
33:39Katy Cowan:And there's a direct integration with Adobe Express, so if you need to turn a document into a presentation or a social asset, you can do it without leaving the platform it's one of those tools that quietly removes a lot of friction from your day head to the link in the show notes to find out more when you work on projects do you find that that's the most interesting bit the actual initial research why am i doing this what what can i get out of this yeah man i mean all of my money guns back into into research you know i mean like the amount of books I've got, I've got like three levels and I had a dig round at the end.
34:18I was like, oh, remember when I got that book for that project and never even opened the book, you know? I'm terrible for that. Like Amazon lovers, you know? Or even like vintage stuff.
34:27Katy Cowan:You're not supposed to admit that you use Amazon. Gosh, not in the creative industry. Well, that's sometimes where the best books are, I've got to admit, man. Well, it depends. If you're using the second hand aspect, then that's fine. You're helping someone else, aren't you? Yeah, that's the one I use all the time. Yeah, of course. yes yes we'll leave it there listen and i get what you mean with bezos and all that um especially at the minute you know uh that the the trump documentary that he's just done for melania oh my god i've just i've never just seen the clips but the idea that this guy who was like owns the washington post is now doing you know gimme um you know like basically like it's just it's just a sort of and documentally that just loves her up you know what I mean or loves the Trump the whole Trump brand up you know so it's kind of dark but yeah I'm going to stick onto the vintage part of Amazon definitely there's a really nice thing online as well called Bookshop I think it's bookshop.org and it like basically is it brings together all the other independent book retailers so that you can search for it and it's a nice way to support your local bookshop but you know i buy loads of fox farm and i buy loads of air books and more charity sort of books sometimes sometimes amazon is the this is the only place sometimes if you want that book man it's the only place you know exactly exactly but if there's a choice between buying from oxfam and amazon you know i'll wait a couple extra days you know well it's sometimes it's like anything isn't it sometimes you'll drive to town and park up and most of the time you walk there you know yeah needs needs must I guess like when you do something like you do in your field do you find that I don't know like forgive me if I'm like making assumptions here but I I get the feeling that you're slightly type a like me you love the work you've really put in the the effort and the slog yeah have you managed to sort of build a life that doesn't necessarily completely revolve around work?
36:35I've got better with it, definitely, you know. I got married a year and a half ago. Congratulations. And my wife was, she, and she's a graft as well. She works at Newcastle United. She's one of the main marketing people there. Is that how you met her? No, no, no. I met her online, like on a posh version of Tinder, basically.
36:57Katy Cowan:Nice. Like a creatives version. but she's from up here as well, but she worked for Google, so she was traveling up and down, up and down the motorway, and she just didn't want to do it anymore, you know, and this position came up. So the two have got very busy occupations, but we've managed to get a good balance, I think, you know, and when I was, you know, I think sometimes you have to do, like, you know, I'm not saying I'm still doing all night, there's some stuff anymore, but I'm glad I did them, put it that way, you know what I mean, because it teaches you what you don't want to be. But also that graft has got me some of the biggest commissions I've ever had, you know, just by putting those extra hours in.
37:37So I think you don't really learn the balance until you've kind of been burnt out a little bit. Does that make sense?
37:44Katy Cowan:Yeah, definitely. But you've also got to, not necessarily always, but you kind of got to go through that pain to get yourself established. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Build your reputation. So the projects are still coming in then? yeah yeah big time yeah um and i've kind of uh when going back to the idea of like not really fitting into a box in terms of being a graph designer in the sense that i can't really use a computer um i i also kind of do like you know residencies and artists more kind of fine art based um commissions and residencies i've got one coming up in miami i did i did a residency in talk to you a couple of years ago and went out there and just sort of created art around the this place called Biotop so um it's kind of um not fitting into the box in that idea means I'm not really repeating things maybe the style might still be there but like I like to just kind of broaden it out on what I'm using that style for whether that's projections or installations or working with like I say fashion brands and stuff like that and then the odd editorial editorial Notorious kind of not happening anymore, really.
38:51I don't know. I think it's basically, yeah, man.
38:54Katy Cowan:Publishing. Yeah, publishing. And I think like... It's dying, isn't it? I don't know whether that's AI or whatever, but like actually, because I used to do a lot of stuff for The Guardian, I've noticed now, like just the art directors are doing their own stuff, you know, which is fair enough, you know. But I think it's... Budgets, isn't it? It's all down to money. Yeah. And like, you know, but I think maybe that was a part of me, life you know that i actually really enjoy but i've moved on from now you know i mean i actually really enjoy i love i love traveling i love meeting new people you know so uh yeah but it's all different sorts of stuff coming in so i feel blessed you know yeah you're lucky because they're saying there's there's a rumor going around that there was a golden age of illustration yeah and it's sort of over well the weird thing is i think at the minute is with the ai stuff is I had the weirdest thing that happened the other day.
39:48One of my mates sent us a video and it's this guy in Sao Paulo and he's making a YouTube video and he's talking. He's a bit of dad. And then he just goes, Jimmy Terrell, mid journey. And I'm like, my name's been mentioned on this video, you know. And it was a half an hour long video of him teaching how to do my work in mid journey.
40:09Katy Cowan:Oh my goodness me. Yeah, yeah. And some of it was actually I read to be honest with you. Some of it was crap. but I was like, oh shit. So this is why now I'm kind of, I'm really doubling down on like the exhibition stuff, showing process, showing me screen printing, the whole, you know, the whole analogue aesthetic, how, why, why we physically, and this is why I love kind of meeting people and having people in the studio and collaborating with people in my, because I feel as though if I don't, I mean, there must be so many good, illustrators who are digital illustrators that I get are kind of it must be really hard for them now and I chose this by chance this way of working but in some ways it's it's kind of it's not future proofness because I think there'll still be ways of getting around it if people really want to copy work you know it's going so bonkers like everything is moving so fast the tools keep getting better and better and better and what you can do with them is just insane um I'm keeping obviously up with everything and seeing what's happening um and we run a little private community here on creative beam and people bring up discussions one chap the other day was like okay i wasn't had my head in the sand a little bit the other day but then somebody showed me a client came to me and showed me cat you know uh some he builds 3d worlds and the client with ai made a character inside his own 3D worlds which was actually pretty good like 91 % he said was almost there and his client came to him and god loved them for going to them going to this person but he said can you do something like this and I think he said it was just like a train slamming him in the face because he suddenly realized that his whole career was potentially derailed and what was he going to do so from your point of view you you're pretty much all right because you just do it the way you do it and You know, I've always done it and you've become renowned for your technique, your style.
42:08But then I was even thinking that day with video generation, are artists going to be able to just kind of prompt in, show me working in the studio, screen printing, you know, the next whatever album cover. And it will literally have them screen printing it, you know, within two years or something like that. That's a possibility, you know.
42:27Katy Cowan:Next six months, mate. Jesus. yeah like you can you can do a 3d version of yourself and and goodness like i mean i'll probably even sound behind and by the time this comes out i'll sound like i'm ancient you know you can do and it'll just keep getting better and better i mean this podcast is it's not real we don't exist me and you we're not even here do you sometimes have sort of a daydream and think i I wonder if we're living in an actual reality or we're living in an illusion, a kind of virtual reality. And I'm just like sort of a kind of games character, which some like people in any way I'm going down.
43:08Katy Cowan:Maybe I should have not touched those drugs in the nineties. Yeah. So what you're saying is that we're kind of like, are you going religious here in terms of like, we're being controlled. I left Catholicism when I was 14 years old, my love.
43:29Katy Cowan:That's all in the past. If it is that, then I'm glad to be here. It's all right. Yeah. Oh, so you take the, oh, I can't remember now. I'm going to be such a dork saying this. There's going to be someone eating their cereal. They're just going to go, not this question again. Red pill or the blue pill. You just carry on, would you? You just crack on. Just crack on, man. I mean, if you're enjoying life, then I can't control any of that, you know? No. So I had a bit of a moment yesterday. I just had like the news on in the background with all this Iranian stuff happening at the minute. And I was doing some collage stuff and I was like, why am I not, this is crap what I'm doing?
44:11And it was because I was completely distracted by just this death loop, you know, the sadness, you know? And as soon as I switched it off and just put some great music on, I was back in I was back in you know I was back in the flow state
44:23Katy Cowan:Did you feel a bit guilty though because you're I felt a little bit guilty because I should you know I should know this stuff and I feel like but I don't I've got no control and I can't I can't I'm not in control of Trump and who he's bombing or whatever No and as a designer as an artist you should be you should be knowledgeable about the world and what's happening on current affairs and stuff like that but not just have stuff on constantly I think is not healthy you know checking at five o 'clock for half an hour an hour something like that well there's a lot there's a lot going on there's a lot happening and ai and the news and the constant changes and the oh god it's just too much and i don't think it does any harm to just look after you yeah honestly as soon as i put music on i didn't think about anything else other than what i was doing you know i mean true flow state and i think i just had some old kind of jeff mills some underground resistance kind of like repetitive techno you know but that's what music gets me into the zone you know a little bit of tribal techno does no one any harm good man good man well I didn't I wasn't expecting this I'm very impressed Jimmy you and I are fast friends what's next then what you what you hope like are you going to just keep keep getting your head down keep doing your thing you try not to worry too much I suppose we're not in control are we so no we're not in control anyway yeah I've got like I say I've got this I've got a couple of I've got a fashion project coming up which is I think this could be like the most interesting thing I've ever done to be honest with you I've had to sign like an NDA and stuff about it in the last couple of days damn it is it a big brand big fashion brand it is yeah it is and it's they've hopefully give us quite a lot of freedom to do what I want you know but we'll see but it's they're very cool people I just met them a couple of days ago so that's happening and then I've got this residency coming up in Miami going across there for a month yeah and just bits and bobs that come in that kind of keep the wolves from the door you know that nobody ever discusses but it's kind of you need you need to have those commercial jobs to allow you the freedom to do the stuff that you want you know whether that's self-initiated stuff or gallery work or whatever you know so Is the Miami stuff the self-initiated stuff?
46:48It's a bit of teaching across there, but then that's going to be leading for me to work with this kind of master screen print technician, you know, across there. I haven't even come up with the concept of what I'm doing there yet, because it's not until October, but that'll be in the works, you know. And yeah, I love just jumping around from different things, you know.
47:11Katy Cowan:Can I come to the Miami residency? Yeah, of course, man. Standard. Yeah, because I might be over that part of the world around October. Are you really? Yeah. Ah, cool. I might be doing something down in Mexico. Ah, nice. What, Creative Boom? Yeah, yeah. Or just a holiday? Ah, nice. Creative Boom, but I've always wanted to go to Miami. Yeah, man. Same here. That was my thing. It was just the art deco and the hotels and the streamline, everything. I know it's a bit, I think part of it's a bit edgy, and it's a city that's kind of built on narco a little bit, you know what I mean? But it's still, it just looks like a fun place, man.
47:49You know, and it's beautiful.
47:50Katy Cowan:Are you a fan of Bourdain? Love Anthony Bourdain. Yeah, so I love... Such a shame, man. Oh, God, tragic. I've kind of got round of him being passed now. For a long time, I couldn't watch his show, you know, because it was such a gut. And I watched the documentary, and obviously within the documentary, he passes, you know, so it's like so I didn't watch but every city I go to I always have to check in with Bourdain first to see where he's at you know same I was about to say that's what you've got to do you've got to see where he went in Miami and some of them are like you know I went to Lisbon last year and it was like some of them are just like little street places sandwich places but they're always good man you know some of them are like Michelin star and then it's like the real street food places are great as well you know he's a very influential guy that's what I'm getting back to with like not being just being influenced by artists when when um when students ask is which graphic designers are you into it's much more about like you know which chefs i'm into which you know who's the best who's your favorite footballer you know i mean it's kind of i don't know it's one of the one of the things of like you know people to have a meal with you know be like diego maradona and like barney bubbles you know i mean mixing these people together and kind of just having a wild one we're coming on to that next we're gonna do a little spark episode later in the week so yeah That'll like, you know, encourage people to stay tuned.
49:12Katy Cowan:That's brilliant. But yeah, you're right. And do you think like, because you've worked hard, right? And you've achieved a lot and you've built this reputation and this successful business through doing what you love. And it's really like, you must just be made up. But the fact that you're now at this stage, there's a lot of people have like midlife crises, don't they? I hate that kind of whole term. I think there's a sort of opportunity for reinvention and starting again but I feel like what you've built you're just building on but you're finding new ways to explore and develop it and that's one of the beautiful things that you know being an artist allows you to do I guess it does it does and I think um it's kind of weird as well I think you know maybe we kind of slag off like internet culture whatever but I think you know the internet is a lot this may even sound old but to the way I'm talking about it but like just in terms of like collaborating with people you know people that have met online like yourself probably would have never met you if it hadn't been for just you know weird connections like with Luke Tong and stuff like that you know I've done quite a lot of stuff with Birmingham Design Festival so through that I met like Neeson Control Centre who I've done like collabs with done Anthony Burrell, Richard Turley, Julian House, I did stuff for Chanel with, Browley Armado, all these people whose work I really respect and thankfully they've been into my stuff as well.
50:46So maybe that sort of stuff didn't go on back in the day, you know, in the 90s, the amount of like different connects and collabs that you could do. It's opened it up, you know. And, you know, maybe the next generation of people coming through, it's even more so, you know.
51:00Katy Cowan:Yeah, maybe so. It's kind of refreshing, you know. It is. It's just like such a, but it's a lovely, it's a lovely age to be, isn't it, Jimmy? That's what I'm getting at. Yeah, I think growing up in the 90s was a sweet spot to be in because it was innocent, but it was still, you still had to graft and you still had to get through stuff. But, you know, the kind of, God, this sounds so old. The internet was really being born in terms of a creative way of living, you know. so um i'm glad i kind of i look at ai now and i think like it's a really weird balance that you've got to get but i'm glad that i had i sort of got some that i had some semblance of taste before ai hit in a sense does that make sense i don't know yeah no it does yeah completely because now you can just crash everything together you know you can see like mix gucci with you know London underground signs or something like that and it'll just give you, you know.
52:00Well, you had to do the graft back in the day if you wanted that to happen, you know.
52:04Katy Cowan:Well, if you wanted a den in a field, you had to build it. Absolutely, mate. And steal the, what did you steal again? The glass. The glass from the allotment, you know. Why were you, why did you take that glass? Your best mate at the time said, do you fancy nicking into that allotment? I said, I sort of jumped over and this is how much into art I was. I was like, let's nick that glass and I'm going to frame him some movie posters up this is when i was 11 and uh and basically this guy just jumped over the fence and got where just had but hold me like that and just like carry on like hovering and it was a copper car parked outside and he just shoved up in the back of this copper car and that's when we both started crying fear goonies did you ever steal anything ever again no of course It's not.
52:50Katy Cowan:Well, if you saw Jimmy's face just now. I forgot. Is this not, there's no visuals on this? I might take out a few clips for socials, but if I'm honest, I did the video stuff last season and it was so exhausting to do it all. I thought, I can't be arsed to do that again. I get you. I get you. I get you. I get you. Well, thank you so much for joining us this week. It's just been a real. It's been really cool, man. Yeah, it's been nice. and I'll see you on Thursday for some more fun and games. What's happening on Thursday? Well, Jimmy, we're going to record that bit now, but to the dear listener, they will just think that we magically came back together again.
53:30Katy Cowan:Here's what I prepared earlier. Yes, exactly. Thanks so much. Nice one, mate. See you later.
53:41Katy Cowan:Well, that was good, wasn't it? Very nostalgic. I'm just going to say it. um the bit I keep turning over is probably the analog stuff actually not in an everything was better back then kind of way but you know Jimmy's far too smart for that and so are you but more in the sense of there's something you only get from making a mess with your hands and waiting to see what it becomes there's food for thought isn't it we'll be back on Thursday with The Spark when we meet Jimmy again for more fun and chaos until then have a brilliant week
54:17Katy Cowan:thanks to adobe acrobat studio for sponsoring this episode head to the link in the show notes to find out more
From the publisher
Jimmy Turrell joins host Katy Cowan for a sprawling, funny and unexpectedly moving conversation about creativity, working-class roots, growing up in the North East, and staying human in an increasingly artificial world. From childhood adventures that sound straight out of The Goonies to surviving bread factory shifts and discovering rave culture in the '90s, Jimmy reflects on the freedom and chaos that shaped his imagination long before social media arrived.
The celebrated graphic artist and illustrator also opens up about carving out a creative career without ever really fitting neatly into one box. He shares how his analogue, hands-on process accidentally future-proofed his work in the age of AI, why collaboration has become more important than ever, and how learning to embrace uncertainty can lead to your best work. Along the way, Katy and Jimmy dive into publishing, burnout, music, fashion, working-class identity, and the pressures creatives face as technology rapidly reshapes the industry.
There's also plenty of laughter. Expect Geordie accents, stories from Newcastle and Liverpool in the '90s, conversations about creativity versus commerce, and a refreshingly honest discussion about what it really takes to build a lasting creative life. Beneath all the humour lies something bigger: a conversation about originality, resilience, curiosity, and protecting your creative spirit as the world keeps changing around you.
