Jimi Crayon is a man of many talents. Making his name in the art and illustration world, he has since begun to set his sights on world domination via music video directing, most recently responsible for Devlin’s latest flick. This is of course in between drawing on walls in Nandos with Example, and lending his DJ skills to parties with Mr Hudson. I caught up with Jimi in his flat a few weeks ago to find out where he’s from, how he got here and where he plans to go next.
Right first off who is Jimi Crayon?
Umm well thats me, Jimi Crayon, I am Jimi Crayon I’m an artist and now a director.
I want to talk about when you were younger, the beginnings of it all, how you got into art. Was it through canvas or graffiti or what way?
Nah man I got into it as I was always good at art really, that was the one thing that I was good at, and my dad can draw really well. So right from the age of like, 3, I started drawing and I’ve got pictures in my mums house that I drew when I was really really young, I’ve got one of the Mona Lisa and animals and stuff and they are really good.
Did you used to like trace pictures and copy pictures and stuff then?
Yeah yeah I just copied pictures, I’ve got a wicked one of an elephant like charcoal smudgy one, quite photographic and you know I’ve got ones of Mona Lisa which was when I was like 4 or 5, and its quite decent like, its pretty decent but now I just draw silly things. Back then I just copied pictures.
So did you from doing that when you were young to going through to how you are now do you ever go through the graff stage like in your teenage years and stuff?
Yeah, um the first piece, I went to New York when I was 10, and when I came back I did my first piece that was on my bedroom wall that said New York. After that I kinda left it for a little while and when I was bit older, like 14/15, I used to just go out tagging with a couple of mates, and then I bumped into my mate at art foundation when I was 17, I hadn’t seen him since I was 11 playing football at the park. He was doing graffiti and stuff so I just hooked up with him when I was 17 thats when I started properly.
So how have your influences changed since that New York trip when you were 10? Do you still draw from the same stuff or do you look up to different artists and styles now?
Yeah definitely when I was 10 and went to New York I was hooked and obsessed with US culture, you know what I mean? I loved football and always played football, but at school I’d also play basket ball and had a base ball knit and all that stuff. Just obsessed with everything American, so in terms of graffiti I like Subway art and letter pieces do you know what I mean?
Yeah
But then it would never really like transfer to my style cos I was never really like an all out like letter writer do you know what I mean? So when I got into graffiti I quickly moved away from letters and into characters and thats what I do so when I paint with my mates I’d always be painting the characters and they’d be painting the letters. Then as I got older and left that kiddy like obsession with America behind, I got my taste in art and it was sort of like Banksy and Keith Haring and people like that. So it definitely changed, it went from being obsessed with clean cut stuff and doing characters which were quite clean cut to then liking scribbling over walls like Keith Haring with loads of outlines of stuff or just going really messy.
I have a few influences, very clean and also very messy and I guess when I draw I try and put them together.
So how do you make the progression from leaving school to being, where you are now? Did you go to university?
For 7 months
So how do you make the progression from that 7 months to now, and making it a full time job and a career and being able to make money off it?
I think it was sort of out of desperation really. I went to university in Brighton so I didn’t leave as thats where I grew up. I didn’t leave Brighton to go to university, I stayed there and I was just smoking loads of weed and just not trying very hard so I dropped out. I was just like fuck right what am I going to do? I got a bit down and I worked at a graffiti shop called Rare Kind which was really good as there was this dude Daz who was from London and he was a really good graffiti artist. We had a shop and a gallery, so I’d meet loads of cool hip-hop heads like Task Force and Skinny Man and people like that. It gave me a route, so when I did think ‘fuck what am I going do?’ I had this one route, and I remember actually I just spoke to my dad who’s an editor and I was just like, look you know ‘have you got any links in illustration or art?’ and he was like not really, but I do commute from Brighton to London with this one dude called Ben Cox and he’s an agent at CIA (Central Illustrators Agency).
So I was like alright cool you know? And that was like the first time I’d properly been grown up about something and said can I meet him? I went and met this dude, I was 19/20 and met this guy in the pub and he pretty much signed me from talking.
Really?
Yeah, he didn’t see any of my work and he put me forward for a Sony Playstation job which we didn’t get but I smashed the pitch. I got signed to CIA when I was that age so that was kind of lucky, but I like to think I put myself out there anyway and when I got signed to CIA man it was just a case of like look these are the other artists that are signed to CIA so Peter Blake who did all the Beetles covers, some Paul Weller covers, Stephen Bliss who did all the Grand Theft Auto shit so they were my peers if you know what I mean. That finally like gave me confidence. So I’m in amongst all these people who are making loads of money doing loads of cool things and thats when I started to properly put all the effort in. if you know what I mean?
I just worked hard really and just got what I could, and then from that time to now, if I’m honest I just want to do more glamourous things. Doing illustration or graphic design is wicked, but I was never so keen that you’d just be in your studio and you get a job in and you do it from your studio. No one would physically see it, just back and forth emails once you completed the work. You get some money, but again it could be some advert for some cereal or some shit and does anyone really care? So thats why I love music videos cos I love going to meet these cool people who are rappers and singers and are doing amazing stuff.
How do you get back into being a director then? Was it something you always wanted to do or is it a new thing? How did you make that transition and what prompted you to do so?
Its only been just over a year that I’ve made that transition, but what happened was about 2 years ago I met this dude called Andy Soup who’s a really good director and he just got in touch cos he needed someone to make backdrops for a music video. When I went to meet him I was getting talking to him about music video direction and it kind of sparked something off in my head.
I remembered when I was really young you know like 11 or 12, and that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to make music videos. It must have just gone out of the window, like out of my head and I completely forgot about it and never tried to pursue it at all. I just did art and then when I met him I was like ‘fuck!’ you know what I mean? Like of course thats what I really want to do.
So I just chatted to him and did the back drops for his video. It was great and I said do you think this is something I could do and he was like, well you talk shit and your quite cocky so thats perfect, yeah go for it! He properly helped me out man do you know what I mean? He gave me the confidence to do it, and then its hard man. I’ve got a bit of fame in what I do in the art world, and the ideas cross over but thats about it. It really is like starting again, I have to do what ever videos I can get which is hard cos I don’t want to do that. I wanna do Odd Future videos right now. [Laughs] You know, Kanye West and stuff. But it will come man.
You recently took part in Nandos, X-Peri-Mental which aims to give opportunities to 12 to 18 year olds to get involved in art and other disciplines. How successful was it and is that something you’re quite passionate about? Passing on your skills and your knowledge onto younger generations, onto these young teenagers and that sort of thing, to excite their passion for art and what you love to do?
Yeah 100% man definitely. Its something that when you’re a bit older and you’ve absolutely smashed what you do and you’ve got loads of money, hopefully things cause less problems. Then I think something like teaching kids would be easier cos obviously you feel like you’ve kind of reached that level where you’re safe yourself, so you can pass on knowledge when your like me and you’re still like you know struggling through things, good days bad days its kind of more difficult. When the opportunity comes up then I love it, and as I said as I get more successful thats something I want to do more and more, because it is its great man and its one of the best things you can do. Its a wicked feeling to have like a bunch of kids that are kinda like, you know, shouting amongst themselves and causing a bit of a ruckus, to turn it around and have them listen to you or say ‘thanks mate that was wicked’ and inspire something in them. Its like the best thing you can do its just like giving your mates some advice when he feels down and him going ‘nice one like you helped me out there’.
Whats coming up for you in the foreseeable future? What have you got planned? expansion of videos, less art stuff?
I’ve always been a big dreamer, and thats one that funnily enough I’m trying to sort of cut back on. That and just really concentrate on whats in front of me, so what I’m trying to do now is just not take on as much work, make sure that the work I am doing is stuff I really want to do you know, and not just do it for the money. So yeah stage by stage man but I mean but you know I can’t deny that film is…
Where you want to be?
…Yeah thats what I want to do right now you know and if I can make it really super creative or really artistic then I will, cos I have to play to my strengths. But yeah, film is where I wanna be.
