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Q&A with Nate Kitch
I’m Nate Kitch and I’m an illustrator from the UK. My work centres around collage based imagery and I have worked for a variety of international clients. In October 2013 I won an award with the Association of Illustrators for my work inspired by the case studies of Oliver Sacks’ psychological patients.
Tools
The majority of my work will start with mark-making and cutting textures, people or patterns from books or magazines. This then gets scanned into Photoshop where I really get to work and explore my image making, I absolutely love using photoshop and don’t know where I would be without it; when I was studying 2 or so years ago it was the catalyst to my creative process. I enjoy how even when I make a bizarre mistake it usually turns into something I adore and I add it to my list of ‘techniques’, I never learnt to use photoshop the ‘proper way' (most of us don’t) so I’m always learning new things or simply “Doing it wrong” as my Photographer friend Sam always says.
Ideal work environment
The best place for me to work is right at my desk, I’m surrounded by all my tools, inspiration and a good source of coffee. I do like the studio environment and I often miss being able to bounce ideas off other creatives, or break through a block by helping someone else out while your brain ticks over in the background. Sometimes I’ll take my Macbook and go work in a Library or Coffee house just for a change of scene, plus you get the added bonus of people-watching, something me and my partner Lizzie shamefully indulge in. I do however love working on my own too, shutting off and listening to some music I can get my self enveloped in what I’m doing and when you reach that feeling in your creative process it is just grand.
Inspiration
Sometimes inspiration comes from nowhere, it just jumps out at you, but I believe when it does that, it’s because you are recalling from your back catalogue of great things you have exposed yourself too. It’s important to be inspired as often as you can, I always check the latest design blogs such as Creative Bloq, Grain Edit, Ape on the Moon or even simply Behance. To see fresh inspiring work really gets you motivated and to see work that’s so current is an extra incentive to get at your desk and start producing more. I also take inspiration from abstract art, in particular geometric abstraction, which is what I wrote my dissertation on whist studying. The movements such as the Bauhaus and Russian avant-garde throw up so much visual stimulation; colour, form, structure, it’s all there and definitely influences me strongly in the work I create. Otherwise film and music offer me plenty too, I listen to a lot of Jazz like Davis and Ayler because I enjoy how the openness to the songs often transition into my image-making; the lack of boundaries in Jazz is a great way for me to push through creative block whilst also treating my ears to something special.
And of course there is Moz.
Admire most
Jan Tschichold, El lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Josef Albers, Sol LeWitt.
Paul Blow, Jonny Hannah, Peter Lloyd, Anna Kovecses.