|
|
Interview with Chairman Ting:
At Make, one of the most exciting aspects of our new brand is our commissioned illustration by Vancouver’s Chairman Ting. This Internationally acclaimed artist with his own unique style of illustration that he describes as “chaotic joy,” is one of Vancouver’s top creatives. Since we have the pleasure of working with his art everyday, we decided we needed to know more about the man and the inspiration behind “The Granville Island Joy Parade.”
|
|
|
|
What inspires you to create? Were you always an artistic person, and did it come naturally for you? As a person I’ve always had a very short attention span and I’m easily distracted. I always found myself doodling from a very young age. My inspiration is joy and happiness. My pet bunny Bella gives me a lot of joy and laughter as she roams around free like a cat. So my inspiration really comes from small nuances of everyday life. In school, I constantly doodled and was always good at art, but failed at everything else. Coming from a traditional Chinese family, my parents always pushed me to be a doctor or a lawyer but I never had the grades. Eventually, I was able to get my own way and got to pursue an education in the arts.
I went to the Ontario College of Art and Design and eventually we were all forced to choose either the art or design stream. I knew that choosing the art stream would mean I might become a starving artist so I picked the design stream and quickly fell in love with advertising. I love the fast pace and being able to work in different mediums such as TV, billboards, print and interactive. That brought me to my work as Art Director at Rethink.
Eventually I began to ask myself why I was spending so much time making other people and companies famous and thought, “why don’t I spend more time working on making my own stuff famous!”
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
How do you balance creativity at work as A.D., and your own art?
Rethink is recognizing the work and profile I am creating through Chairman Ting and have given me afternoons to focus on my art. Between the two I am very busy, and since I am very passionate about my art I don’t really have much of a life outside of work. My fiancé is a big part of this, she handles the business full time and coordinates all the projects.
How do you describe your style of art? I would say my art is “chaotic joy”. Its about abundance and I embrace joy and happiness. In the world it seems there is a lot of negativity and it’s easy to be dark. My style is about being true and if it makes you happy then embrace it. The Joy Parade is an array of fun and happiness.
In your art, have you always focused on illustration? Illustration has always been my core strength. These days in advertising, everyone is doing everything now so you can’t just work in one area. Everything is being compacted. It's good to stay focused on one area and I can do that in my art. I’ve always enjoyed illustration.
|
|
|
 |
|
What is your favorite or the most challenging of all your previous work? The project that stuck out for me is my Adidas work. The project was creating a one-of-a-kind shoe as well as a one-of-a-kind fixed gear bike. It was all done by hand. I am really proud of it. We had a lot of success with this in Hong Kong, which is a very difficult place to thrive in, everyone is very critical and it’s all about money. The work we did got a lot of attention and at the opening and we had a lot of local celebrities come out and had a few magazine interviews which was great for exposure. I call it my “Rock Star” moment and I really relished in it. After the show the head of Adidas marketing for greater China was so impressed that he flew us to Shanghai for another art show and they ended up buying the entire collection of our photography and illustration pieces. Doors kept opening from there on.
I worked alongside Alex Beim from Tangible Interaction who created many of the interactive exhibits for the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. Our show wasn’t passive, people were able to get involved by using the digital graffiti wall, and people in Hong Kong were blown away by that.
Who inspires you to create? My Dad. When I was young he taught me to draw Tarzan. I loved drawing the cartoons and comics. Music is also a big inspiration for me. Right now I am listening to Phantogram, Tame Impala and Camera Obscura.
Which is your favorite of all the Joy Parade Characters? I really love the kid with the “hand hat” - Make is all about making with your hands and being hands-on. I also really love the bunny sitting at the table busy making stuff but you can’t really see what he’s up to. Also, the little girl on the bicycle, she’s cool looking and fun. For the colours I wanted to keep it colourful but because the piece has got so many crazy characters it couldn’t be too colourful so I kept the palate fairly limited. That way the colours don’t compete with the characters.
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
What do you think of our new store? I really love the new store, its very cool. It’s big and spacious and has a nice energy. It’s a really great feeling, where you want to stay and spend some time. Embroidery is cool, there is so much you can do and we’ve worked with Stacy here at Rethink in the past.
What projects do you have coming up, and where can we find more of your work? All my new work is on ChairmanTing.com and our Flickr site. I have a lot of projects coming up, a CD for a local band called Jive Talk, an ipad application which will be an interactive storybook for children which I’m really excited about. And, there’s also more adidas work later this year.
Make would like to thank Chairman Ting for “The Granville Island Joy Parade,” we are very proud of our illustration. Visit Make and see our custom line of one-of-a-kind Joy Parade items available for purchase.
|
|
