On July 16, 2011 I took to Twitter and I
came across DerwentPencils and I tweeted: "Maybe you can help me. I am looking for
someone to draw a project for me. A character in fact. Let me know if you can
help." Well, from this tweet I got quite a few responses and one person
showed an immediate interest- Dan Miller at: Losttimedesign.com. The rest, as they say is history. Over the next couple
of weeks Dan and I swapped emails that detailed my vision for the character
from the colors, posture, facial features, clothes selection, eye and foot
wear. I changed my mind a few times-OK a lot, but the character had to be right
on the money! Dan nailed it and he exceeded my time line and my
expectations.
Well, It has been almost a year and Nygel's Nerd
Nation is growing. Dan and I are still plugging away at ideas for the Nation.
It's been a rather busy year, but I finally got to interview Dan. I hope you
enjoy finding out a little bit about the man behind the character!!
- Shanna: How did you
come in contact with Shanna and the Nerd Nation?
Dan: I
answered a call for help with the project she put out on Twitter
- Shanna: What need did she have?
Dan: To create and bring
to life a character to be the face of Nerd Nation
- Shanna: What motivated you to take on the
project?
Dan: I love to create
characters and bring them to life, and this seemed like a really fun project to
be involved with and from the brief and ideas Shanna had had, I knew what we
created would be really cool.
- Shanna: Where did you get the inspiration to draw the character and was
the description provided helpful?
Dan: The descriptives were the main
inspiration, but I did do a little bit of research to see how 'nerds'
were portrayed previously, and then started to sketch out
ideas.
- Shanna: How would you describe Nygel's overall look?
Dan: I think it is fair to say
"Casual smart" - I think he is a pretty well dress little dude.
- Shanna: How did you manage to mesh the
thoughts of Shanna's vision of this nerd and your artistic
abilities?
Dan: To start with I looked at Shanna's ideas
and descriptions, and the very helpful examples she sent through. I then worked
up a few sketches of different styles that I thought might work for
this project - it was then very much a collaborative project, where I would
work on him a bit, email it across and then work with Shanna's feedback to try
and make Nygel as close to what was in her mind as possible.
- Shanna: How would you rate your overall experience in working
with Shanna in creating the face to the Nerd Nation?
Dan: She has been really great to work with,
Shanna has had so many ideas, and even though the project is so close to her
and she has a very good idea where she wanted it to go, she let me have the
freedom to do what I do and create something we are both really proud of. My
perfect type of client.
- Shanna: Were there any special challenges during the process? Any
frustrations?
Dan: Not really, I think it all ran pretty
smoothly once we had the initial style and ideas in place. I think in the end
we were both working from the same page so it worked well.
- Shanna: Dan, if a perspective client wanted to reach your studio, how
would they do so? And are there any other forms of social media that they might
find you?
- Shanna: Are you currently working with any other clients or any other
projects with Shanna and the Nation?
Dan: We are talking about a few more
characters to add to Nerd Nation. As for other projects - I have been doing
quite a bit of work for other agencies working on visualizations of
ideas, as part of advertising campaigns. I have also been working on graphics
for some 'promos' on tv programmes here in the UK. Plus the usual logo and
graphic design work.
- Shanna: Do your friends know about Nygel?
Dan: I have mentioned the work, they will
know a lot more when I get my official tee shirt!
- Shanna: Nygel's Nerd Nation is still a pretty much
unknown, how do youfeel about it's perspective success and how do you feel that
you had a major part in it?
Dan: I think it
really could grow, it is still very early on in it's life but with the right
care, right promotion and a strong understanding about what it is it offers, I
think it could really have legs.
- Shanna: Describe your overall artistic style.
Dan: Varied, I have had the opportunity to
work on lots of different projects and in many different styles. I love to use
colour and play around with ideas. I get bored as well so always experimenting.
This has actually been really good for me, meaning I don't get put in to one
box.
- Shanna: Did this project take you out of your comfort zone?
Dan: Not really, I had to get into a
different comfortable position. I really love character/mascot design but I had
not done it for a while, so I would not say out of my comfort zone, but back
into a different one.
- Shanna: What confidence did you have that you could produce the
character?
Dan: I was really confident I could, it is
something I have had experience with, and with all details and
examples Shanna gave me on what she wanted - I was pretty sure we could do it.
- Shanna: You live in the UK, Shanna lives in the Unites
Stated, was this your first international client? Would you welcome
more international clients or was this a special case?
Dan: This actually was my first
international client. I would LOVE to work with more, especially from the US. I
think there is such a huge exciting market to get in to.
- Shanna: Having never met, did you have any feelings of apprehension
doing business internationally?
Dan: No, I was really excited about it. In
this day and age I don't think there are international barriers anymore. We
both understood there was a time difference (which would really be
the only issue in this case) and we worked round it. I can see that there could
be difficulties if the cultures involved were totally different but I
think the UK/US relationship worked really well.
- Shanna: How long did this project take?
Dan: It is still going on - but for the
first Nygel - I think in all it probably took about a week (spread
out)
Well, that is a wrap for now! Dan, I
appreciate all your hard work and dedication to this very special project. I
could have never gotten it done without you! You are truly a gifted artist, and
designer. I look forward to working with you on our other projects. If you ever
need anything- recommendation-anything, drop a line! Thank you again!
I also have to thank Derwent Pencils for
retweeting my request for help. You guys got the ball rolling! I hope you like
the final Nygel!