Artist Interview with Scott Flynn, Owner and Operator of www.taiwerica.net .
1. How would you describe yourself as an artist? Graphic designer, fine artist, commercial artist, other (if other, what title would you give yourself?)
That's a tough question. I almost don't even think of myself as an artist. A lot of people in my family are artists and they are all much more talented than me, so I always felt they were the artists and I was the athlete or dancer or whatever other hobby I had. Maybe I just don't like to label myself as any one thing. I guess I would say I'm an illustrator, because I'm usually trying to illustrate some kind of joke or idea that I have in my mind.
2. Were you always artistic? If yes, where did it start, if no, explain how you got started.
I wasn't very artistic growing up. I enjoyed drawing when I was in grade school, but it wasn't my passion. My brother was such a good artist, so I didn't really want to compete with him. I got into breakdancing in high school and college and that was a way for me to express my creative side. Several years after college, as I got older, I realized I wouldn't be able to do the physical things that I used to do, so I wanted to learn a new skill that I could use for the rest of my life. First I only had the idea to sell T-shirts, but didn't know how to make any kind of design, so I asked my mom and brother if they could help me with the designs. They tried to help, but it was too difficult to explain to them the exact design that I wanted. Finally, I decided to learn myself. I figured out that adobe illustrator would be the best tool for me to learn in order to make the designs. I went online and watched all the tutorial videos and read all the articles I could find until I started learning all the tricks to making a good design.
3. How did you develop your artistic style?
At first, since I was just making designs for T-shirts, I felt it was better to just make simple designs with not much color. But I found out the new printing technologies allow you to put full color designs on clothes, so I started making my designs much more colorful. I really like a lot of vector illustrations that I've seen online. So I just try to steal little things from every design I see until I have my own design. I tried a lot of different styles at first, but I think I've finally developed a style that I can say is me.
4. You are primarily a t-shirt designer, is there any other aspects of art you are into?
Before I started doing design, I didn't really care about any kind of art. After developing my skill, I've learned to appreciate art much more. Maybe some people don't think of it as art, but I think CGI in movies and in videogames is beautiful and takes so many very talented artists to create. I would love to learn how to make computer 3D models, but it's mindboggling to me. I don't even know where to start. I imagine it's like making a design on illustrator and then making the same design from the back and the sides. It takes me too long just to make a 2D design.
5. What lead you to designing t-shirts?
Originally, I was always looking for souvenirs to buy and bring back to my family back home and it was difficult to find anything related to Taiwan. There’s are so many crazy things that I see here that make me think, "that could be put on a t-shirt," so I decided to just do it myself.
6. What tools do you have in your arsenal for designing? Pen and paper, computer software, colored pencils?
Usually I just find a few photos online or I'll take photos of things that I think are a good representation of what I have in my mind and then I use illustrator to trace the basic shapes and get the colors. Then I gradually adjust and add more and more detail. Some details are easier to fix with photoshop, so I use that occassionally. If I want to see how the shirt would look on a realistic T-shirt, I use a t-shirt template software made by GoMedia for photoshop.
7. Where do you come up the inspiration for the designs and ideas for your t-shirts?
Almost everyday I see something in Taiwan that makes me say "What the hell?" Sometimes I get frustrated by a lot of cultural differences like chaotic traffic or religious customs or communication troubles. I found the best way to deal with my frustrations is to make a joke out of it by exaggerating it like crazy. One example is people burn fake money on certain holidays because they think it makes ghosts happy. It creates pretty bad air pollution and I don't even believe in ghosts, so I made a design of real money burning and wrote, "Ghosts are not stupid. Burn real money."
http://www.taiwerica.net/Ghost_money.html
8. You are the owner of Taiwerica, what lead you to open your own business?
One thing I love about living in Taiwan is for an English speaking westerner there are so many opportunities. It's incredibly easy to find an English teaching job and earn a good amount of money and still have a lot of free time. After teaching English for a few years, I started thinking about what else I could do in Taiwan. I had a decent amount of money saved up and I had plenty of free time, so I decided to open a store which was several months after starting my website. I thought I would be able to sell more shirts if I had a store where people could see and try on the shirts. I found a small room in a small department store for a pretty cheap rent, so I signed a 6 months lease with them. I'm glad I only did 6 months instead of 1 year because the location turned about to be pretty terrible. The area was a great shopping district outside where there are a lot of food vendors and cheap goods and tons of people go there everyday, but the problem was my store was on the second floor of a mall that people would only come in to take a rest or eat a snack. Business was too slow, so I closed the store and am back to just selling online. I'm still glad I had the experience and got some good exposure.
9. How do you feel your t-shirts are received in Taiwan compared to the United States?
I like the reactions I get from both Taiwanese and Americans. Taiwanese enjoy the designs because they can relate to and understand the images and jokes. Americans and other foreigners in Taiwan also love a lot of the designs because they share similar feelings and perspectives with me. Americans in America think it's pretty crazy that I design T-shirts in Taiwan and I love the reaction when I tell people that. Americans don't understand most of the designs, but occasionally I'll make a design that anyone can understand so I get a lot of "likes" on facebook for those. I love getting "likes" on facebook. I have a few loyal Taiwanese fans who pretty much like every design I post. I also appreciate it when people I don't even know will "like" a design. It lets me know that people aren't just being nice because they're my friend. The internet is a very impersonal thing so there's no real reason to be nice just to be polite, so if a stranger likes something I do on the internet, I know they really like it.
10. Where do you see yourself as an artist/designer in the next 5 years?
When I first got the idea to sell t-shirts, I thought after a few years I'd already be sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas all day. It's going a lot slower than I originally predicted, but someday, I hope I can at least drink one pina colada on a beach. There are a lot of things I want to do. I've thought about writing a cartoon based on my designs. I would need a lot of animators to help me with that though. I've tried a little animation with Flash, but it's so time consuming.
I also have some ideas for some movies that I would like to get Christopher Nolan or M. Night Shyamalan to direct. I've been working on my stand-up comedy too. I have a show coming up Dec. 10th in Taipei. I hope all these other things that I do will help drive my T-shirt sales up and I can be like Dave Chapelle said in his show, "I'm RIIIICH, Bitch!"
2. Were you always artistic? If yes, where did it start, if no, explain how you got started.
I wasn't very artistic growing up. I enjoyed drawing when I was in grade school, but it wasn't my passion. My brother was such a good artist, so I didn't really want to compete with him. I got into breakdancing in high school and college and that was a way for me to express my creative side. Several years after college, as I got older, I realized I wouldn't be able to do the physical things that I used to do, so I wanted to learn a new skill that I could use for the rest of my life. First I only had the idea to sell T-shirts, but didn't know how to make any kind of design, so I asked my mom and brother if they could help me with the designs. They tried to help, but it was too difficult to explain to them the exact design that I wanted. Finally, I decided to learn myself. I figured out that adobe illustrator would be the best tool for me to learn in order to make the designs. I went online and watched all the tutorial videos and read all the articles I could find until I started learning all the tricks to making a good design.
3. How did you develop your artistic style?
At first, since I was just making designs for T-shirts, I felt it was better to just make simple designs with not much color. But I found out the new printing technologies allow you to put full color designs on clothes, so I started making my designs much more colorful. I really like a lot of vector illustrations that I've seen online. So I just try to steal little things from every design I see until I have my own design. I tried a lot of different styles at first, but I think I've finally developed a style that I can say is me.
4. You are primarily a t-shirt designer, is there any other aspects of art you are into?
Before I started doing design, I didn't really care about any kind of art. After developing my skill, I've learned to appreciate art much more. Maybe some people don't think of it as art, but I think CGI in movies and in videogames is beautiful and takes so many very talented artists to create. I would love to learn how to make computer 3D models, but it's mindboggling to me. I don't even know where to start. I imagine it's like making a design on illustrator and then making the same design from the back and the sides. It takes me too long just to make a 2D design.
5. What lead you to designing t-shirts?
Originally, I was always looking for souvenirs to buy and bring back to my family back home and it was difficult to find anything related to Taiwan. There’s are so many crazy things that I see here that make me think, "that could be put on a t-shirt," so I decided to just do it myself.
6. What tools do you have in your arsenal for designing? Pen and paper, computer software, colored pencils?
Usually I just find a few photos online or I'll take photos of things that I think are a good representation of what I have in my mind and then I use illustrator to trace the basic shapes and get the colors. Then I gradually adjust and add more and more detail. Some details are easier to fix with photoshop, so I use that occassionally. If I want to see how the shirt would look on a realistic T-shirt, I use a t-shirt template software made by GoMedia for photoshop.
7. Where do you come up the inspiration for the designs and ideas for your t-shirts?
Almost everyday I see something in Taiwan that makes me say "What the hell?" Sometimes I get frustrated by a lot of cultural differences like chaotic traffic or religious customs or communication troubles. I found the best way to deal with my frustrations is to make a joke out of it by exaggerating it like crazy. One example is people burn fake money on certain holidays because they think it makes ghosts happy. It creates pretty bad air pollution and I don't even believe in ghosts, so I made a design of real money burning and wrote, "Ghosts are not stupid. Burn real money."
http://www.taiwerica.net/Ghost_money.html
8. You are the owner of Taiwerica, what lead you to open your own business?
One thing I love about living in Taiwan is for an English speaking westerner there are so many opportunities. It's incredibly easy to find an English teaching job and earn a good amount of money and still have a lot of free time. After teaching English for a few years, I started thinking about what else I could do in Taiwan. I had a decent amount of money saved up and I had plenty of free time, so I decided to open a store which was several months after starting my website. I thought I would be able to sell more shirts if I had a store where people could see and try on the shirts. I found a small room in a small department store for a pretty cheap rent, so I signed a 6 months lease with them. I'm glad I only did 6 months instead of 1 year because the location turned about to be pretty terrible. The area was a great shopping district outside where there are a lot of food vendors and cheap goods and tons of people go there everyday, but the problem was my store was on the second floor of a mall that people would only come in to take a rest or eat a snack. Business was too slow, so I closed the store and am back to just selling online. I'm still glad I had the experience and got some good exposure.
9. How do you feel your t-shirts are received in Taiwan compared to the United States?
I like the reactions I get from both Taiwanese and Americans. Taiwanese enjoy the designs because they can relate to and understand the images and jokes. Americans and other foreigners in Taiwan also love a lot of the designs because they share similar feelings and perspectives with me. Americans in America think it's pretty crazy that I design T-shirts in Taiwan and I love the reaction when I tell people that. Americans don't understand most of the designs, but occasionally I'll make a design that anyone can understand so I get a lot of "likes" on facebook for those. I love getting "likes" on facebook. I have a few loyal Taiwanese fans who pretty much like every design I post. I also appreciate it when people I don't even know will "like" a design. It lets me know that people aren't just being nice because they're my friend. The internet is a very impersonal thing so there's no real reason to be nice just to be polite, so if a stranger likes something I do on the internet, I know they really like it.
10. Where do you see yourself as an artist/designer in the next 5 years?
When I first got the idea to sell t-shirts, I thought after a few years I'd already be sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas all day. It's going a lot slower than I originally predicted, but someday, I hope I can at least drink one pina colada on a beach. There are a lot of things I want to do. I've thought about writing a cartoon based on my designs. I would need a lot of animators to help me with that though. I've tried a little animation with Flash, but it's so time consuming.
I also have some ideas for some movies that I would like to get Christopher Nolan or M. Night Shyamalan to direct. I've been working on my stand-up comedy too. I have a show coming up Dec. 10th in Taipei. I hope all these other things that I do will help drive my T-shirt sales up and I can be like Dave Chapelle said in his show, "I'm RIIIICH, Bitch!"
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