Interview with Adam Koford

We’re introducing a new category to the blog today; Interviews. From today we will be searching the internet high & low looking for experienced artists that would like to share their knowledge. Whether it be the social struggle in their youth or a guide on baking a designer friendly cake.  What better person to start off with than Adam Koford. His illustration work speaks wonders for itself. We won’t tell you more because he’s done that for us. If you would like us to have a look at your portfolio & consider you for an interviewee, email  us @ contact[at]keepinspiring.me or alternatively get in touch with us via Twitter; @theDesignZine™.

Q) Who are you and where are you from Mr. Koford?

A) I am a cartoonist. I’ve grew up in Southern California and have lived in Florida as well. Now I live in Utah, where I work for Disney’s Avalanche Software as a story artist. We make video games.

Q) Please give us a brief introduction into your illustration background.

A) I have been drawing as long as anyone who knows me can remember. I’ve taken lots of classes and workshops, but for the most part I am self taught. I’ve been freelancing for around ten years, working on everything from greeting cards to coloring books to magazine illustrations. For the past two years I’ve been creating a webcomic called The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats six days a week.

Q) Your comic strip Hobotopia consists of two hobo lolcats, where did this idea originate from?

A) It’s a long story, so here’s the short version: in 2005 I started drawing hoboes based on the names in John Hodgman’s first book. When I had drawn all 700+, I wanted to draw some more. At around the same time, lolcats started bubbling up from the underbelly of the internet, so I married the two ideas.

Q) When you come up with an idea for a comic strip is it usually a Eureka moment or an idea which is modified several times?

A) Sometimes it’s a eureka moment, but most of the time it’s a slow cumulative process going on in the back of my mind throughout the day. That said, every idea is modified in-between the time I first think it up and the time I actually get around to drawing it. Sometimes that’s several hours.

Q) We’ve noticed that a lot of your comics have meme puns, what’s your source of inspiration?

A) I have a very full rss feed reader, but I try to stay receptive to ideas from anywhere and everywhere, not just things on the internet. I also take requests from readers from time to time.

Q) Could you describe a typical ‘start to finish’ workflow when working on a comic strip?

A) 90% of the time, it’s the last thing I do each day, and I usually post comics late at night. That way I have time to work on an idea throughout the day, or time to scramble after I’ve done whatever else is on my schedule. All of the comics are first penciled, then lettered and drawn in ink on paper. I use PITT pens by Faber-Castell, sizes B and S. From there I scan them and rarely tweak anything.

Q) What are the pros & cons of being a cartoonist & how does it influence your daily life?

A) I don’t know the cons, aside from the obvious financial ones. It’s a lot of work and a lot of hustle to find a way to make money doing it, but I wouldn’t want to do anything else. I love drawing too much. Even if I wasn’t able to make a living at it, I’d still do it. As for my daily life, there really hasn’t been a time when I haven’t drawn. It’s just as much a part of the way I communicate as writing or speaking.

Q) Thank you for taking part in the interview. As a final goodbye, do you have any tips for aspiring illustrators and cartoonists?

A) If you love it, keep doing it. If you still love it after doing it for a long time for relatively little money and relatively little acclaim, you’ll be a lot happier and more fulfilled than most people.

We would like to thank Adam Koford for taking the time out to have the interview with us. If we’ve helped you gain an interest in his comic, you should check it out at the blog where he updates it everyday. You can also find him on other social networking places such as Twitter, Flickr & his Portfolio.

Tags: Chromeo, Joe Henfiled

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