Georgia Jackson is a graphic designer/illustrator, currently based in York, North Yorkshire. Her work is colourful, fun and lively, which has developed over her time studying at the University of Lincoln.
Hi Georgia, thank you for being the first to take part in this project. Please can you give me a small description, of you, and what you do? How did you first become interested in the media industry?
Since I can remember I have always had an interest in creative subjects, then going in to A-Levels I realised that media studies was where I wanted to progress further, but I still needed to narrow this down more, as I wasn’t exactly sure where in media I wanted to be. I studied media production at the University of Lincoln. This was a great course for me as it covered a wide range of media areas, such as script, TV production, radio and a few more. This is where I realised that design and illustration was the best for me, so I kept my focus on that! Now after uni I may be in a completely different job role, working in a service station, but I have not lost my passion for the subject and it’s still something I do for myself to keep busy, and to help out any of my friends or family that need something doing for their own projects, such as logos, cards, invitations etc!
So, as we are currently in a world-wide pandemic, which means for many people, using their creative outlets to keep busy, I wanted to ask how you were keeping yourself busy, during this tricky time?
I have been keeping myself busy by constantly trying to create work. I have had my Instagram up for a while now, but it got slightly neglected for a long time, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to get focused, and produce some more work. I have wrote a long list of potential projects and I just keep going through them when I can.
Your most recent Instagram posts have included some fan art, where did you get this idea, and if people also wanted to do the same thing, where they would go to submit?
I was just browsing through instagram and saw someone had posted one of their own designs with the #6fanartchallenge, so I looked through the hashtag and saw thousands of other artists doing the same and thought it was a really interesting and fun project to have ago at. So if anyone wanted to give it a try then just create your work and post on instagram with the same tag so people who have also taken part in the challenge can see your style, who you decided to create, and so on!
Are there any prominent themes existing throughout your work? If so, what are these?
At the moment there is not really any set theme to the work that I have been doing, just whatever comes to my mind at the time when I sit down to get a piece done. However I do find myself having to stop drawing plants or flowers!
I love your designs, they’re very quirky and fun, but I wondered who, if anyone, influences this style of work?
I have not got any particular artist that influences my work, but I do follow a lot of illustration accounts that are full of different artists sharing their work, such as Dribbble on Instagram. That way I get a wide mix of different work and style that might spark inspiration for a project of my own.
Are there any aspirations of where you want to take your work further?
I would love to be able to get more of a following on social media with my work, and then hopefully, start printing and selling some of my work at a crafts market or something similar.
Do you feel that University was beneficial for your career? Developing your artistic style? And learning more about your practice?
I do believe that university has helped me move on with my illustrating and design work, before uni I had different interests across media. It was not until a design and communication workshop that I had in my first year, where I realised that this is really what I enjoyed doing. From then, in the last two years I was able to refine my skill and knowledge of the subject, how to work on different software etc…
If so, would you have any advice for future students thinking about following the same path as yourself?
Try everything! Do not be scared of creating something different that is not your usual style. You might not like the end result but you will have learnt something new along the way that will be transferable in the future!
If you want to check out some of Georgia’s design and illustration work, and give a follow visit here.
Tyler Bishop-Harris 