We are delighted to announce that we now exclusively represent the exceedingly talented Jean-Pierre Le Roux. Having started his career as a Character Animator on feature films, Jean-Pierre found his niche in the world of illustration. After years in the industry Jean-Pierre has built up an impressive portfolio having worked with an extensive roster of international clients and agencies, his typographical work being particularly popular with brands around the world. Below is a small insight into Jean-Pierre and how he works. 

You began your career as a character animator on feature films. What made you make the change from animator to illustrator?

Since I was young, I have always loved illustration. From an early age I enjoyed pausing my favourite cartoons and trying to draw the characters instead of doing my homework. I guess you could say my love for watching cartoons is what drew me into character animation. As my career progressed I started experimenting with 3d software and I tried to incorporate these skills and my love for illustration into my work.

How do you think your experience working as an animator has helped you as an illustrator?

My illustration style is very colourful and cartoon-esque. The fundamentals of animation are bold movement and shape, both of which are prominent in my work. Knowing how to draw and find personality in any character work also comes from my background in animation, at the start of my career I spent hours learning the fundamentals of drawing.           

We love your modern tribes collection - What was the inspiration behind this and how did you go about creating it?

This was a really fun one, which happened by accident, really. It started out as a simple album cover for a playlist mix I put together. I was updating my portfolio and had a really cool idea, which was inspired by the lyrics of Arcade Fire's "Suburban War" track. I thought about music and how people are often separated into "tribes".  It influences their style, personality and even people's perceptions of them, similar to the early ages of tribal culture. My goal in this project was to create these different characters and the results were really awesome!

What's your favourite piece in your portfolio and why?

It would have to be the "F##K off" piece. It happened as an experiment one day and is really such an expressive piece of work. I feel like I really "nailed" the feeling of flipping the bird. One finger can only say so much but it never really gets that frustration out. 

To see more of Jean-Pierre's work, click here.