Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with fashion designer Masha Ma


Masha Ma, discount AW 2011, illustrated by Holly Exley

Womenswear label Masha Ma, described as “semi-couture”, features fabulously chic and powerful silhouettes with a contemporary yet elegant feel. The stunning structural tailoring is shown beautifully through dramatic styling and inspirational photography.  

Masha completed her MA in Womenswear at Central Saint Martins in 2008, where her collection was selected to be shown at London Fashion Week and went on to be bought by B Store. She then went on to win the ‘Mouse Ji Best International Innovation’ Award at 2009′s China Contemporary Design Contest. 

This year she will also be presenting her collection at the Palais du Louvre during Paris Fashion Week in October. And with publications such as Vogue, Elle, Pop, Harper’s Bazaar, AnOther Magazine, Cosmopolitan, L’Officiel and even French Playboy featuring the label it seems well on it’s way to global success. 
I caught up with Masha during her busy schedule… 


Images from Masha Ma AW 2010/11, Resort, courtesy of Masha Ma

I love your latest collection, there are some stunning silhouettes and the styling and photography is beautiful! What was your inspiration?  
The collection was inspired by Nancy Sinatra’s song, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The garments had prints with bullets on them and safety pins as embellishments all in combination with soft feminine fabrics.  

How would you describe your design principles to anyone who wasn’t familiar with your work?  
Chic, modern arrogance, semi-couture with designs that are bold yet intricate and focus on the unraveling of the female form.  

You must be excited for your London Fashion Week debut as well as your up coming collection presentation at the Louvre. How has the preparation been?  
It is an incredibly exciting time now and even though it has been so busy, my team and myself are having a great time working towards it.  

What shows are you looking forward to seeing at London Fashion Week?
We’re so busy with our own show, I don’t think I will have time to see any other shows.  

Is music important in your studio? What’s been on the stereo recently?  
Our studio has a very eclectic sound coming out of it; with so many different people working together we have all sorts of different music playing all the time. From Lady Gaga to Nouvelle Vague and Rachmaninov, we’ve got all areas covered.  


Masha Ma, SS 2010, Illustrated by Aniela Murphy

What advice would you give to anyone with the dream of pursuing a career in fashion?  
Stay focused, work hard and don’t forget to have fun. 

Are there any blogs you read religiously? Or any you find interesting or inspiring?  
I try to read as many blogs as possible; it is such an amazing new media you just can’t ignore. It would be hard to pick a favourite but I have been reading Amelia’s magazine for quite a while! 

And finally, what’s your next goal?   
Right now all the focus lies in creating the new SS11 collection. I guess my immediate goal would be, successfully getting through our London Fashion Week show and our trip to Paris. 

Categories ,Aniela Murphy, ,Another Magazine, ,b Store, ,Central Saint Martins, ,China Contemporary Design Contest, ,Cosmopolitan, ,couture, ,Elle, ,Harper’s Bazaar, ,Holly Exley, ,Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, ,L’Officiel, ,Lady Gaga, ,London Fashion Week, ,ma, ,Masha Ma, ,Nancy Sinatra, ,Nouvelle Vague, ,Palais du Louvre, ,paris, ,Paris Fashion Week, ,photography, ,Playboy, ,pop, ,Rachmaninov, ,vogue, ,Womenswear

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pet Portraits: Your Furry Friends Illustrated for Christmas

irkafirka unicycle
Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, approved I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, diagnosis how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.
For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, decease I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, order how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, pills and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, decease I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, view how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, viagra dosage I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, information pills how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, sickness and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, viagra I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (and let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, information pills I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

**************************************************************************
Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (and let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, ambulance I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

**************************************************************************
Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
Daria H cat
Pet Portrait by Daria Hlazatova.

I think it’s fair to say that pet portraits have a slightly naff reputation. A quick google reveals the existence of reams of *traditional* pet portraitists who offer tacky artwork fit only for those with very little concept of style. And yet I know full well that there are lots of people out there who have both pets and good taste. Who then to cater for them? A portrait of a much loved pet is the perfect gift – especially for those who dote on their animals.

Back when I had time to create my own handmade artwork I liked to paint our cats Orlando and Grace. Nowadays I work with a constantly shifting team of very talented illustrators, visit this site many of whom are deeply attached to their own pets and much enamoured with animals as subjects. Amongst these I felt certain to find pet portraitists who could create personalised paintings with a bit of spirit – for pet portraits can also be fun, more about as epitomised by Daria’s offering. What follows is the pick of my discoveries: all of whom offer a unique piece of art for an incredibly good price. There’s still time to commission one of these illustrators for a one-of-a-kind Christmas present, and not only will you receive the perfect gift for a pet lover, but you will also be supporting the artistic community. Rather that than buy mass produced tat on the high street? No?

Gemma Randall toby milly
Toby and Milly by Gemma Randall.

Gemma Randall
Gemma was hot off the mark with her Christmas offering: she accepts commissions for intricate artworks of your best friend, all framed and wrapped for a total of £96, and she even offers two different styles – Contemporary and Classic. Find out more information here.

Molly & Fred Karina Yarv
Molly & Fred by Karina Yarv.

Karina Yarv
Saint Petersburg based Amelia’s Magazine contributor Karina Yarv offers both people and pet portraits in her inimitable bold style. She works fast and will produce either a computer created image or one made in black ink and a few colours. Prices start from £43 – find out more information here.

Mavis the Cat Kayleigh Bluck
Mavis the Cat by Kayleigh Bluck.

Kayleigh Bluck
Kayleigh Bluck offers a personalised gift via Etsy. She works predominantly in watercolour and coloured pencil and needs only three days to complete her gorgeous artworks, which will be done from an emailed photograph straight onto watercolour paper. A bargain at just £25. More info about creating this particular portrait here!

Piers and Fulton by Daria H
Piers and Fulton by Daria Hlazatova.

Daria Hlazatova
Daria is another of our far flung illustrators – this time hailing from the Ukraine. She creates lovely bright scenes and all she needs are: a photo, a name and a little bit of information about your furry friend. The price is £50, and you would need to contact her by email to discuss further details.

Piers+Fulton by Holly Exley
My parents’ new rescue cats frolic in the snow. Piers+Fulton by Holly Exley.

Holly Exley
Holly has created a Facebook event for her special Christmas pet portrait offer. This has already prompted a huge response, so I’d advise you to get in there quick – she’s creating beautiful watercolour A4 paintings for just £15, which is ridiculously cheap.

stephanie thieullent tabitha
Tabitha by Stephanie Thieullent.

Stephanie Thieullent
Stephanie is predominantly a digital designer who offers people portraits as well as pet portraits, but she can also work in ink to order. A simple postcard starts at just £15, and prices go up to £130 for an A2 portrait, so there’s a wide variety to choose from. Just click here.

It does rather seem that most of my friends and families are cat lovers… but these illustrators would love to tackle anything from cats and dogs…. to rabbits and hamsters. Just wonderful, I am sure you will agree. Why not get in touch with your favourite illustrator and commission them now before they get too busy to accept any more?

Categories ,Cat Portrait, ,cats, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Dog Portrait, ,Dogs, ,Gemma Randall, ,Holly Exley, ,illustrations, ,Karina Yarv, ,Kayleigh Bluck, ,Pet Portraits, ,Russian, ,Stéphanie Thieullent

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Amelia’s Magazine | Pet Portraits: Your Furry Friends Illustrated for Christmas

irkafirka unicycle
Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, approved I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, diagnosis how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.
For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, decease I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, order how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, pills and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, decease I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, view how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the Technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/photos/irkafirka/] picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, viagra dosage I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, information pills how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, sickness and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (even if my favourite was a retweet)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, viagra I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (and let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, information pills I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

**************************************************************************
Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (and let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
irkafirka manflu goblin

Intrigued by a side project by one of our contributors, ambulance I decided to get to the bottom of this irkafirka business…

irkafirka: illustrated tweets. “Anything you say may be taken down and coloured in.” What a great idea, how did the project start?
My old friend Chris challenged me to draw a Twitter-inspired doodle a day and post it. My initial reaction was “I don’t have time for this” but the seed was planted, and I decided it wouldn’t do any harm to try it once. The response was instant and we were both hooked.

irkafirka batman joker

Who is irkafirka and why the name?
irkafirka is Nick Hilditch (illustrator, that’s me) and Chris Bell (curator). The name is a Hungarian word meaning doodle. I lived in Budapest for 7 years and speak Hungarian poorly, but its a beautiful word, and I filed it away years ago for future use. Everything about irkafirka came together very spontaneously – the concept, the name, the little dog logo. Everything about it feels right to us.

How did you two hook up and how long have you been in business?
Chris and I have been friends since school, although our lives took us in different directions. It was only through Twitter that we re-ignited our teenage delusions of grandeur. The business relationship is informal – we didn’t start out to make money from the project, we did it for the sheer fun of it. Now it consumes so much of our time and we have such a big audience, we’d love to take it to the next level, but as yet, the means to monetise our success alludes us. One goal we set was to get an irkafirka book published, but we want to get this right rather than rushing into it. We’d love to talk to any interested publishers.

irkafirka horse

How does the technical side work?
Here’s Chris on the technical side: “It’s a clunky-chunk of social-webbery. The website is built on the Fullscreen template for WordPress. Illustrations are taken from TwitPic and posted along with a picture of the original tweet. The illustrations are automatically cross-posted to our Tumblr page. Each new post updates the RSS feed, which populates the iPhone and Nokia apps automatically. We then add a link to the post on the Facebook page, which also carries other miscellaneous nonsense including a gallery of the 200 most recent illustrations, which are pulled from our Flickr picture stream. We also have various pictures on show in cities around the country using the crazy magic of augmented reality. We use Layar and a back-end system run over in Belgium by our dear friends at Hoppala. Best of all, apart from hosting the website everything we use is totally free. We are a pair of cheapskates…”

irkafirka squirrel

How do you decide what tweets to illustrate?
This is the hardest part. The truth is, the vast majority of tweets are utterly banal. It really is just a case of using any means possible to find great visuals, and when I see a tweet I can illustrate I jump straight on it. We look for recommendations from our audience of over 1700 followers, we browse other people’s lists, we search keywords. We do have rules the most important of which is rule 6, “If we stop enjoying it, we’ll stop.” I believe that when a creator is enjoying their work that will come across in the end product, so I’m really just looking for things that amuse me. We also ask that people recommend vivid tweeters to us using the #firkafursday tag, every Thursday. This way, we’ve built up a watch list which occasionally yields results – it’s no guarantee of getting your tweet illustrated, but it almost certainly improves the odds.

irkafirka swedish moon

If you were to chose anything from my recent tweets to illustrate, what would it be? (go on, do me an illustration… or does that count as a suggestion and will therefore be ignored. pretend I didn’t say anything… it’s all subliminal…)
I had a skim through your recent timeline. As is often the case, most of your tweets are either parts of conversations with little meaning out of context, or links. We’re all for wilfully taking things out of context. To this day, one of my personal favourites is “The oven’s broken. I’ll have to get the bloke out”. A very important part of what we do is the element of surprise – we don’t like the subject to know they’re going to get firked. You can commission an illustration, but technically, a commission wouldn’t be an irkafirka. It would simply be a work by the artists behind irkafirka. And it wouldn’t be free.

You try to post daily but of course real life gets in the way… when is an irkafirka more important – what would prompt you to miss a favourite film in favour of an illustration?
irkafirka has become a compulsion for me. If I miss a day, I feel more pressure to make sure I deliver something the next. On a day when I’m busy and can’t see when I’ll be able to produce something, I’m agitated. Usually we try and let our followers know when it’s a rule 5 day (that’s the rule that let’s us off the hook due to other commitments), but I never like to rule it out. My wife has been incredibly patient. A favourite film is a good example of something I wouldn’t miss, though. I’m a bit of an old school cineaste.

irkafirka unicycle

Nick: you used to live in Hungary. Why on earth did you come back to the UK, and what do you miss most about Hungary?
I loved living in Hungary, and I haven’t ruled out moving back. I miss my friends there, the long hot summers and the bableves (bean soup). I came back because I was finding it increasingly difficult to find relevant work. My wife is Hungarian, so we go back as often as possible. People often say “yours is a job you could do from anywhere” which is true to some extent, but to find the work you usually need to get out there and meet the clients. The dream is that one day my work will be so much in demand, I’ll be able to live where I want. So start demanding, demanders.

You also jacked in a career at a digital agency to become a freelance artist. What prompted this move and has it been a success? What’s the best job you’ve worked on so far, and has Irkafirka got you any jobs?
Working at a digital agency was interesting, and I got to work on a lot of great brands. I even helped them win 2 BAFTAs. However, I was there for over 4 years and the work was beginning to feel repetitious. I also wanted to develop my own IP so that I’d have work would that generate an income for me. I didn’t quit because of irkafirka, but it did give me confidence in my own work and helped me build up a portfolio that wasn’t exclusively comprised of other people’s brands. irkafirkas are drawn quickly, in a single sitting, with little or no advance planning, so they’re frequently full of mistakes, but as with great music, I like to think that this is compensated for by the energy put into them. When showing my portfolio, it is the work that generates the most interest. As irkafirka is a significant part of my portfolio, I like to think it’s played a part in all the work I’ve picked up since I started freelancing. The only paid work that’s resulted directly from irkafirka is a side-project for Nokia where we draw illustrations based on comments from the official Nokia blog. It’s too early to say whether it’s been a success, but I certainly don’t regret it, and it’s very hard to imagine going back.

How can someone get hold of an irkafirka print, and which ones would you recommend as christmas presses for specific members of the family?
Selling prints wasn’t initially part of the plan, but the demand was there, so we set up a shop at Zazzle. They’re most frequently bought by the subject, so the market is fairly limited, but we’re looking for ways to make irkafirka-based products with a broader appeal in the new year. The images that make it into the shop are added on the basis that somebody expressed an interest in buying them, rather than because we necessarily think they’re the best works. However, based on what’s there already, here’s my handy irkafirka shopping list that’s surely better than the tired recommendations you’ll find on Amazon.

For your Mum: @BangsandaBun
For your Dad: @BruceandSimon
For your Grandparent: @Whatleydude
For your dirty uncle: @bennycrime
If you find something on irkafirka that isn’t in the shop, and you’d like to buy a copy, just let us know and we’ll upload it. Happy Christmas!

**************************************************************************
Alas, I broke the rules, so I have yet to inspire my own illustrated tweet… although I’m fairly sure that a quick glance through tweets produced in the 24 hours previous to Nick completing this Q&A could have turned up a few goodies (let’s just gloss over the fact that the best was a retweet, okay?)

Best go put the hob on in the kitchen so I can spread them around a bit. (Hob to keep me warm, bloody arctic down there)

RT @PennyRed I am a tiny protesting icicle. A protesticle.

have not left house for nearly three days. or seen anyone. I am a hermit.

pah! I wouldn’t miss it that much, I just went out for food supplies and my face nearly fell off – staying put now

I live in hope that one day I will be deemed worthy…
Daria H cat
Pet Portrait by Daria Hlazatova.

I think it’s fair to say that pet portraits have a slightly naff reputation. A quick google reveals the existence of reams of *traditional* pet portraitists who offer tacky artwork fit only for those with very little concept of style. And yet I know full well that there are lots of people out there who have both pets and good taste. Who then to cater for them? A portrait of a much loved pet is the perfect gift – especially for those who dote on their animals.

Back when I had time to create my own handmade artwork I liked to paint our cats Orlando and Grace. Nowadays I work with a constantly shifting team of very talented illustrators, visit this site many of whom are deeply attached to their own pets and much enamoured with animals as subjects. Amongst these I felt certain to find pet portraitists who could create personalised paintings with a bit of spirit – for pet portraits can also be fun, more about as epitomised by Daria’s offering. What follows is the pick of my discoveries: all of whom offer a unique piece of art for an incredibly good price. There’s still time to commission one of these illustrators for a one-of-a-kind Christmas present, and not only will you receive the perfect gift for a pet lover, but you will also be supporting the artistic community. Rather that than buy mass produced tat on the high street? No?

Gemma Randall toby milly
Toby and Milly by Gemma Randall.

Gemma Randall
Gemma was hot off the mark with her Christmas offering: she accepts commissions for intricate artworks of your best friend, all framed and wrapped for a total of £96, and she even offers two different styles – Contemporary and Classic. Find out more information here.

Molly & Fred Karina Yarv
Molly & Fred by Karina Yarv.

Karina Yarv
Saint Petersburg based Amelia’s Magazine contributor Karina Yarv offers both people and pet portraits in her inimitable bold style. She works fast and will produce either a computer created image or one made in black ink and a few colours. Prices start from £43 – find out more information here.

Mavis the Cat Kayleigh Bluck
Mavis the Cat by Kayleigh Bluck.

Kayleigh Bluck
Kayleigh Bluck offers a personalised gift via Etsy. She works predominantly in watercolour and coloured pencil and needs only three days to complete her gorgeous artworks, which will be done from an emailed photograph straight onto watercolour paper. A bargain at just £25. More info about creating this particular portrait here!

Piers and Fulton by Daria H
Piers and Fulton by Daria Hlazatova.

Daria Hlazatova
Daria is another of our far flung illustrators – this time hailing from the Ukraine. She creates lovely bright scenes and all she needs are: a photo, a name and a little bit of information about your furry friend. The price is £50, and you would need to contact her by email to discuss further details.

Piers+Fulton by Holly Exley
My parents’ new rescue cats frolic in the snow. Piers+Fulton by Holly Exley.

Holly Exley
Holly has created a Facebook event for her special Christmas pet portrait offer. This has already prompted a huge response, so I’d advise you to get in there quick – she’s creating beautiful watercolour A4 paintings for just £15, which is ridiculously cheap.

stephanie thieullent tabitha
Tabitha by Stephanie Thieullent.

Stephanie Thieullent
Stephanie is predominantly a digital designer who offers people portraits as well as pet portraits, but she can also work in ink to order. A simple postcard starts at just £15, and prices go up to £130 for an A2 portrait, so there’s a wide variety to choose from. Just click here.

It does rather seem that most of my friends and families are cat lovers… but these illustrators would love to tackle anything from cats and dogs…. to rabbits and hamsters. Just wonderful, I am sure you will agree. Why not get in touch with your favourite illustrator and commission them now before they get too busy to accept any more?

Categories ,Cat Portrait, ,cats, ,Daria Hlazatova, ,Dog Portrait, ,Dogs, ,Gemma Randall, ,Holly Exley, ,illustrations, ,Karina Yarv, ,Kayleigh Bluck, ,Pet Portraits, ,Russian, ,Stéphanie Thieullent

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Amelia’s Magazine | Secret Garden Party 2010: Friday Review

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, sales Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, cheapest and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, find failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, decease Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Derek Ogbourne’s Hope and Glory

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, health and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, search Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Derek Ogbourne’s Hope and Glory

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, and and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, viagra buy failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

SGP 2010-Collosillyum
Hay bales for seating in the Collosillyum area. Photography by Amelia Gregory.

If Latitude is a well planned amble between the South Bank, buy information pills ICA, store Royal Opera House and Somerset House with added sheep, then Secret Garden Party is the biggest most eccentric three day party in the grounds of a country mansion you could never dream of. Two more diverse festivals you could not imagine.

SGP 2010-Blimp
The Party Blimp – accessible only by boat.

Music is just one of the elements that make up the Secret Garden Party experience, surely the only festival where the main acts are liable to be upstaged by a death-defying wheelchair race or a mud wrestling fight. Because the stages are not the central focus there is always space to sit down or to dance, and the natural layout of the main stage in particular means that there’s always space to see the bands properly – which makes for a far more comfortable viewing experience than at most festivals. Despite a distinct lack of well known bands the quality of music on the line up is never low, and as usual I discovered lots of great new music.

SGP 2010-couple by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-frog by Amelia Gregory

My favourite Secret Garden Party stage is built into the side of a huge tree. This year there were giant eyeballs sewn into the back and the front was made up to look like the prow of a ship, complete with a naked female figurehead. Shortly before the prow had been swung into destruction by inebriated climbing mammals Animal Kingdom took to the good ship Where the Wild Things Are with a beatific set of melodic songs that have gleaned comparisons to Radiohead, Sigur Ros and Coldplay.

SGP 2010-Animal Kingdom by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-girls bust by Amelia Gregory
Animal Kingdom by Holly Exley
Animal Kingdom by Holly Exley.

Over in the geodesic rave dome – AKA the Remix Bubble – the Lake District’s finest Burn the Negative were proving to a small but highly motivated crowd (including security on balloons) that danceable indie electro doesn’t just come out of the big cities.

Alexis-West-Burn-the-Negative
Burn the Negative by Alexis West.

Secret Garden Party has expanded massively since I first came in 2004, and the more idiosyncratic attractions are now linked to the main arena by a floating bridge that caused much swaying hilarity on every crossing. As a mid afternoon treat I decided to get my toes nibbled by some miniature carp from Turkey.

SGP 2010-Fish Therapy
Yes that’s me. White legs! Photography by Tim Adey.

The Doctor Fish has been used for centuries to cure skin ailments, and they were particularly excited by my friend Jemima’s Psoriasis. It was a very soothing experience, and my skin felt notably softer afterwards. This is the first time this particular species of fish have been imported into the UK and entrepreneur Keon Petre hopes to open a range of fish nibbling franchises.

SGP 2010-Emma Ware by Amelia Gregory
Emma Ware.

A huge pink tent housed stalls from a carefully picked range of artists and designers including Spitalfields based illustrator Dan Hillier and jeweller Emma Ware, who makes gorgeous contemporary pieces from recycled inner tubes. Expect to hear more about her designs on this blog soon.

Abi Daker - Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan by Abigail Daker.

Fionn Regan was the perfect treat for a sunny day, following in the traditional mould of talented Irish folk singers with added 80s McEnroe hair band action. Never a bad thing in my book.

SGP 10-baby by Amelia Gregory
Steve Mason by Katherine Tromans
Steve Mason by Katherine Tromans.

I knew there was a reason I felt immediately warm towards main stage act Steve Mason despite having no clue who he was – turns out he was one half of the excellent Beta Band. And anyone who twitters about Ian Tomlinson is even better in my books. Musicians with a conscience – we need more of them.

emma_block_marina_&_the_diamonds
Marina and the Diamonds by Emma Block.

I’ve been a big fan of hot tip Marina and the Diamonds for some time now, but we missed most of her set whilst enjoying the most wonderful three course dinner at the Soulf Fire restaurant, housed in three yurts (read my full review here). Instead we caught the last few songs, which still gave me ample time to admire her vermillion lips and whippet thin waist: I can now confirm that she is every bit as sexy in the flesh as she comes across on record.

SGP 2010-Marina and the Diamonds by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-Marina and the Diamonds by Amelia Gregory

Afterwards we were treated to some nefarious circus fun from Down Under – including pubic angle-grinding, sword swallowing and weights hooked into eyelids. Tasteful.

SGP 2010-angle grinder circus by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-circus by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-circus eyeball lift by Amelia Gregory

I featured the Infadels way back in issue 04 of Amelia’s Magazine in 2005, and they’ve been steadily plugging away ever since. I haven’t heard any recent albums but they seemed quite happy to play lots of the old tunes, which perfectly suited the late night party crowd.

infadels by harriet gray
Infadels by Harriet Gray.

Most amusingly they seem to have acquired a female joint lead vocalist on one of their most famous tunes. Maybe all ageing bands will one day invite drunk negligee-wearing teenagers on board to spice things up. Oh hang on, it’s already become a trend… (see Saturday’s blog…)

SGP 2010-Infadels by Amelia Gregory

Abby-Wright-The-Delays
The Delays by Abby Wright.

Last up on Where the Wild Things Are at gone 1am the glitter-covered Delays played a fantastically energetic set to a shockingly small crowd. “Let’s see some shoulder action,” they pleaded. “It’s not a festival without it.” Several people obligingly mounted their friends with rapidity. I hope one day this vastly underrated band finds the success they deserve. Catch our recent interview with them here.

SGP 10-aliens by Amelia Gregory
SGP 10-robot mime by Amelia Gregory

Remember, there’s more where this came from – you can read about Saturday’s events here.

Categories ,Abby Wright, ,Abigail Daker, ,Alexis West, ,Animal Kingdom, ,Beta Band, ,bikes, ,Burn the Negative, ,Dan Hillier, ,Delays, ,Emma Block, ,Emma Ware, ,Fionn Regan, ,Fish Therapy, ,Harriet Gray, ,Holly Exley, ,Infadels, ,Katherine Tromans, ,Marina and The Diamonds, ,Secret Garden Party, ,Soul Fire Restaurant, ,Steve Mason, ,Tim Adey, ,Where the Wild Things Are

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Amelia’s Magazine | Secret Garden Party 2010: Friday Review

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, sales Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, cheapest and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, find failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, decease Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Derek Ogbourne’s Hope and Glory

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, health and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

The world is full of misscommunication. History lessons are full of lessons that wars could have been stopped if only communication had been clearer. Frank Selby tackles this problem in his drawing “Stop the next next War War”.

Hidden in a mini industrial estate just off Curtain Road, search Payne Shurvell opens their inaugural exhibition “A Bright and Guilty Place” in an old light factory. The gallery directors introduce thirteen artists’ -who are either unrepresented or have yet to show in London- unique approaches to the subject of mapping and place. The word introduction is mentioned as the gallery presents an idea of each individual’s practice – rather than claiming to represent their overture in it’s entirety. What is successful about this show is that it does not feel as if the curators have placed a theme on the artists rather they have found 13 separate practices that uniquely represent mapping and place.

Derek Ogbourne’s Hope and Glory

Ideas touch upon psycho-geography, and and that endless human drive to find our place in the world – either through art or religion these questions are perennial.
Art offers a respite from the ever distance shortening communication provided by the internet. Maps provide a way of documenting economic prowess, viagra buy failure or entrapment as represented by Dan Hays replication of page 62 of the London A-Z focusing on the financial capital of London Canary Wharf.

Maps can also be used to document the trails of immigration, notably failed attempts or the endless drift of those people designated as unwanted. Lucy Wood demonstrates the paths of Mexicans who have attempted to cross the border and in worse cases died trying.

Andrew Curtis plays with ideas of suburbia with his eary prints of houses with trees printed over them…

Ideas of place are explored with Ian W’s print of the studios Jasper Johns inhabited during his time in New York – What makes a house a home? What makes a home important is it who lives there – is there added interest in Jasper Johns house because it belonged to Jasper Johns? What therefore could his house add to the conversation regarding his work?

Anika explores polish shop fronts through these exquisite models and her wonderful drawings.

Adrian McNeil’s sinister photographs tackle tricky ideas on immigration through the arrival of non native plants and their impact upon the ecosystem of their new destination. Making apparent the underlying sense of threat that immigration is all too often portrayed in the media as.

This is a fascinating exhibition introducing artists at the beginning of their careers. Amelia’s Magazine throughly recommends a visit to Hewitt Street before July 24th.

SGP 2010-Collosillyum
Hay bales for seating in the Collosillyum area. Photography by Amelia Gregory.

If Latitude is a well planned amble between the South Bank, buy information pills ICA, store Royal Opera House and Somerset House with added sheep, then Secret Garden Party is the biggest most eccentric three day party in the grounds of a country mansion you could never dream of. Two more diverse festivals you could not imagine.

SGP 2010-Blimp
The Party Blimp – accessible only by boat.

Music is just one of the elements that make up the Secret Garden Party experience, surely the only festival where the main acts are liable to be upstaged by a death-defying wheelchair race or a mud wrestling fight. Because the stages are not the central focus there is always space to sit down or to dance, and the natural layout of the main stage in particular means that there’s always space to see the bands properly – which makes for a far more comfortable viewing experience than at most festivals. Despite a distinct lack of well known bands the quality of music on the line up is never low, and as usual I discovered lots of great new music.

SGP 2010-couple by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-frog by Amelia Gregory

My favourite Secret Garden Party stage is built into the side of a huge tree. This year there were giant eyeballs sewn into the back and the front was made up to look like the prow of a ship, complete with a naked female figurehead. Shortly before the prow had been swung into destruction by inebriated climbing mammals Animal Kingdom took to the good ship Where the Wild Things Are with a beatific set of melodic songs that have gleaned comparisons to Radiohead, Sigur Ros and Coldplay.

SGP 2010-Animal Kingdom by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-girls bust by Amelia Gregory
Animal Kingdom by Holly Exley
Animal Kingdom by Holly Exley.

Over in the geodesic rave dome – AKA the Remix Bubble – the Lake District’s finest Burn the Negative were proving to a small but highly motivated crowd (including security on balloons) that danceable indie electro doesn’t just come out of the big cities.

Alexis-West-Burn-the-Negative
Burn the Negative by Alexis West.

Secret Garden Party has expanded massively since I first came in 2004, and the more idiosyncratic attractions are now linked to the main arena by a floating bridge that caused much swaying hilarity on every crossing. As a mid afternoon treat I decided to get my toes nibbled by some miniature carp from Turkey.

SGP 2010-Fish Therapy
Yes that’s me. White legs! Photography by Tim Adey.

The Doctor Fish has been used for centuries to cure skin ailments, and they were particularly excited by my friend Jemima’s Psoriasis. It was a very soothing experience, and my skin felt notably softer afterwards. This is the first time this particular species of fish have been imported into the UK and entrepreneur Keon Petre hopes to open a range of fish nibbling franchises.

SGP 2010-Emma Ware by Amelia Gregory
Emma Ware.

A huge pink tent housed stalls from a carefully picked range of artists and designers including Spitalfields based illustrator Dan Hillier and jeweller Emma Ware, who makes gorgeous contemporary pieces from recycled inner tubes. Expect to hear more about her designs on this blog soon.

Abi Daker - Fionn Regan
Fionn Regan by Abigail Daker.

Fionn Regan was the perfect treat for a sunny day, following in the traditional mould of talented Irish folk singers with added 80s McEnroe hair band action. Never a bad thing in my book.

SGP 10-baby by Amelia Gregory
Steve Mason by Katherine Tromans
Steve Mason by Katherine Tromans.

I knew there was a reason I felt immediately warm towards main stage act Steve Mason despite having no clue who he was – turns out he was one half of the excellent Beta Band. And anyone who twitters about Ian Tomlinson is even better in my books. Musicians with a conscience – we need more of them.

emma_block_marina_&_the_diamonds
Marina and the Diamonds by Emma Block.

I’ve been a big fan of hot tip Marina and the Diamonds for some time now, but we missed most of her set whilst enjoying the most wonderful three course dinner at the Soulf Fire restaurant, housed in three yurts (read my full review here). Instead we caught the last few songs, which still gave me ample time to admire her vermillion lips and whippet thin waist: I can now confirm that she is every bit as sexy in the flesh as she comes across on record.

SGP 2010-Marina and the Diamonds by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-Marina and the Diamonds by Amelia Gregory

Afterwards we were treated to some nefarious circus fun from Down Under – including pubic angle-grinding, sword swallowing and weights hooked into eyelids. Tasteful.

SGP 2010-angle grinder circus by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-circus by Amelia Gregory
SGP 2010-circus eyeball lift by Amelia Gregory

I featured the Infadels way back in issue 04 of Amelia’s Magazine in 2005, and they’ve been steadily plugging away ever since. I haven’t heard any recent albums but they seemed quite happy to play lots of the old tunes, which perfectly suited the late night party crowd.

infadels by harriet gray
Infadels by Harriet Gray.

Most amusingly they seem to have acquired a female joint lead vocalist on one of their most famous tunes. Maybe all ageing bands will one day invite drunk negligee-wearing teenagers on board to spice things up. Oh hang on, it’s already become a trend… (see Saturday’s blog…)

SGP 2010-Infadels by Amelia Gregory

Abby-Wright-The-Delays
The Delays by Abby Wright.

Last up on Where the Wild Things Are at gone 1am the glitter-covered Delays played a fantastically energetic set to a shockingly small crowd. “Let’s see some shoulder action,” they pleaded. “It’s not a festival without it.” Several people obligingly mounted their friends with rapidity. I hope one day this vastly underrated band finds the success they deserve. Catch our recent interview with them here.

SGP 10-aliens by Amelia Gregory
SGP 10-robot mime by Amelia Gregory

Remember, there’s more where this came from – you can read about Saturday’s events here.

Categories ,Abby Wright, ,Abigail Daker, ,Alexis West, ,Animal Kingdom, ,Beta Band, ,bikes, ,Burn the Negative, ,Dan Hillier, ,Delays, ,Emma Block, ,Emma Ware, ,Fionn Regan, ,Fish Therapy, ,Harriet Gray, ,Holly Exley, ,Infadels, ,Katherine Tromans, ,Marina and The Diamonds, ,Secret Garden Party, ,Soul Fire Restaurant, ,Steve Mason, ,Tim Adey, ,Where the Wild Things Are

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