To celebrate illustration-led fashion label Lazy Oaf’s new concept space at Pick Me Up, called A Fun Project, we asked founder and head designer Gemma Shiel about the five things the studio couldn’t live without.
Keeping it weird since 2001, Gemma Shiel began Lazy Oaf screen-printing in her dad’s garage. Now it’s an internationally successful brand, known for its nineties nostalgia, cartoon-influenced prints and surreal lookbooks. To coincide with Pick Me Up, which runs at Somerset House until 3 May, Lazy Oaf has teamed up with a selection of its favourite illustrators – Kyle Platts, Jack Sachs, Jiro Bevis and Dominic Kesterton, Alexander Medel Calderón and Yoko Honda – to create a collection inspired by just four words: apathetic, fun, ugly but nice (or A FUN project). We caught up with Shiel to quiz her about the five studio essentials that get the team in the mood to draw.
Things
In my studio I have a lot of tat, most of which doesn’t get dusted. I normally end up drawing objects that surround me because that means I can just stay sitting. Luckily for me, Lazy Oaf is all about cartoon and youth nostalgia, so requires me to have a heavy eBay addiction.
Sketchbook and stationery
I love a new sketchbook. I like to choose one way too small for my needs so I can fill it quicker. I always have it in my bag and never seem to use it until I am actually back in my studio. Oh, actually sometimes I use it for a shopping list. Each time I start designing I like to break into my pen collection and perhaps even treat myself to some newbies. I spend a good few hours just testing out nibs, maybe working in some pattern here and there.
Tea (and copious amounts of it)
I am sure every designer agrees. Gazing into space while the kettle boils is key creative time… and a massive distraction spent mostly thinking about lunch.
Piles of books
I love collecting old teen annuals and books that will one day hope to inspire a collection. I spend ages flicking through these and quite often will sit down and draw from the strange images, or it least use them to lean on while I draw something else.
Snacks
Designing for me means a lot of trips to the fridge just to check the stock situation. I seem to have snack amnesia and forget that I have just consumed a pack of chipsticks five minutes before I start on the pack of wafer-thin ham. Fortunately I count this as inspiration as Lazy Oaf often uses food prints on it’s clothing… strange that.
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