Andreas Samuelsson is a visual artist based in Göteborg, Sweden. He graduated in 2004 from Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm and has been working as a freelance artist ever since. His graphic images have graced magazines, posters, textile designs, wallpapers, ad campaigns, galleries, and now a Poketo t-shirt!

You have a way of putting mundane objects together to create a compelling illustration. How did you come to this method of storytelling?

I like to collect various things and put them together. My patterns are like a diary of objects I’ve seen and found during my life. It’s also very fun to put unique objects together. I like to cross forms and colors to see what happens.

What do you use for reference or inspiration?

I get the most inspiration from my childhood, memories of my youth, or life in general. Sometimes I try to look back and remember things I’ve seen, and draw them from memory. I also enjoy to draw old things but with a modern twist. I like to listen to jazz music when I work, it makes me calm–my favorite album at the moment is Keith Jarrett – My Song (1978). Besides that, freestyle swimming or riding my bike gives me energy. When I’m not working, I play and collect Japanese arcade games, watch movies, or hang out with my girlfriend, Anna.

How do you come up with your bright, energetic color schemes?

I really enjoy working with basic colors. Very often, the color schemes comes by itself or from the client.

How do graphic design and illustration relate to you?

I started as a graphic designer 10 years ago and became an illustrator in 2004. I use a lot of typography in my work, which comes from my days as a graphic designer. I could be called a “graphic illustrator” because I spend lots of time doing hand-drawn type. I felt a bit tied up as a graphic designer because there were too many rules and perfectionism. I feel more free as an illustrator.

Take us on a tour of Göteborg and tell us about your favorite spots.

I swim a lot, so I go to Valhallabadet as often as I can, they have a very nice mosaic with typical ’50s style inside the building. My studio is located in a very nice area called Majorna, which is where our apartment is also located. There are record shops, interesting buildings, and parks in this area. The local people are also very friendly! Slottsskogen, Botaniska and Röda Sten are also nice places that I enjoy.

Could you tell us the inspiration behind your t-shirt design?

I made this pattern to celebrate all types of junk food and objects related to it. I’m a big fan of everyday objects, packages and various products, so this pattern was based on some of my favorites.

Andreas’ shirt is available at poketo.com, along with the entire fall collection, and you can view more of his awesome work at andreassamuelsson.com.

Kyle Hughes-Odgers is based in Perth, Australia, and uses a wide range of materials to create his art–primarily acrylics, watercolors, and spraypaints in muted, earthy tones. Kyle gained notoriety as a street artist in Australia, and his work has made forays into galleries as well.

Kyle has exhibited fine art throughout Australia, in the U.S and Europe, and his street art and installations have been seen all over Australia, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and New York. Now his dynamic work can be seen on a Poketo t-shirt collaboration, just in time for our new Fall line of brand new shirts!

What do you like about creating street art vs. creating gallery art?

I like street art because it changes how you look at a city, and it offers a platform to make tiny or large-scale work in unexpected places. All the textures from years of paint, rain and sun building up onto a wall or surface are amazing to work with and hard to replicate in a gallery. I like making gallery art for exploring detail, playing with narrative, and story-telling. It is also a great place to showcase specific ideas and images in a more intimate environment.

How did you get started creating street murals? What is it about street art culture that drew you into it?

I started early on because I had no idea how the gallery world ran, and it was such an immediate way of getting an audience for my work. I like the idea of people looking at art rather than advertising as well. I started to meet other like-minded artists, and plans and projects started getting more ambitious and larger in scale.

What are the most common themes and motifs you like to explore in your work?

I really like texture and narrative-based works. I try to make paintings based on my own experiences or stories I have been told or overheard. Shown through characters, buildings, spirits, handmade objects and layers of pattern which build up the melancholy folk world in which my stories are told. For my last solo show, I enjoyed making work around themes of chaos, survival, communication and community.

You are involved in many large-scale projects…is there a size limit for you? What’s your dream mural project?

I hope there isn’t a size limit. Every time I paint something large-scale I always feel inspired to paint something bigger next time. I like painting large-scale projects because it is so different from the works I create in my studio. It’s nice to paint all day using tiny brushes then spend the next week on a scissor-lift or huge ladder painting a building. I would quite like to paint 10 stories or more and maybe an airplane, anything really. If anyone wants a passenger jet painted send me an email, I’m super keen.

Take us on a tour around Perth and tell us about some of your favorite spots.

I live just outside the city. I usually get coffee in the mornings on Beaufort Street, which has lots of café’s, bars, and people. It’s nice and close to my house and studio. William Street is probably my favorite street in Perth. It’s got a good mix of creative businesses, rad independent shops, studios, galleries, graffiti and street art. I’ll always pop into see my mates at Last Chance Studio and The Butcher Shop if I’m strolling past. I also like heading to the coast in summer to cool down when it’s a million degrees.

Could you tell us the story behind your t-shirt design?

Whenever I travel, I get to a point where I feel like I could sleep on anything. Sleeping up a ladder on a table in an unfamiliar city, but still having a nice sleep with interesting dreams. That’s what I based this design around.

To see more of Kyle’s work, swing by creepy.headtank.com.

Eveline Tarunadjaja is a native Indonesian who eventually made her way to Melbourne, Australia, where she currently lives and works. Drawing was once a procrastination device, but Eveline has turned it a full-fledged art career. She often depicts scenes of loneliness, nostalgia, and love through her art. Her trademark has become intricate details and textures, particularly with her brand of beautiful, cascading hair. Eveline was part of the Australian Series with her wallet, and we are so happy to work with her again on a t-shirt and pullover for our new Fall line of apparel.

Who would you say are your greatest inspirations, artists or otherwise?

At the moment, I’m really inspired by Vania Zouravliov and Yamamoto Takato. Their works are quite intense, erotic and dark, and each one is beautifully crafted with details that make my jaw dropped every time I see it.

What is your creative process like, from conceptualization to execution? What do you do to get ideas flowing?

I usually do anything else but drawing to get ideas flowing, like watch a film, read a book, hang out with friends, or just walk around in haze around the city. Sometimes I get silly obsessions here and there of random things like mushrooms or goldfish, which turns into inspiration. Once I have a slight idea of what to draw, I try to sketch it down on paper. If that turns out well, I’ll continue with whatever finishing that it needs–whether it be colouring, or just black and white ink drawing.

We love how textured your artwork is. What are your favorite textures or surfaces to draw?

I found hair and dotted patterns to be relaxing and frustrating at the same time, but my favorite would be fish scales.

What are some of the reasons why you love Melbourne? If you could live anywhere else, where would you live?

Melbourne has a creative feel to it. There are many independent galleries, great art communities, and a lot cute cafes to go to draw at. I love it because I’m surrounded by good people who I adore.

It sounds cliche, but I could probably live in New York. I found the vibrancy and the randomness of the place quite interesting. Or maybe Barcelona, because I’m a little bit obsessed with anything to do with Spain at the moment.

The girls you draw seem very thoughtful, with a hint of melancholy. Would you say that they are reflections of yourself?

Not intentionally, I don’t think I’m anything like the girls I draw. Meaning, I’m not very thoughtful and definitely not melancholy… haha. Perhaps they’re all like my hidden split personalities that I never knew existed.

You might remember this drawing from Eveline’s wallet design

Could you tell us your story behind your t-shirt design?

I was inspired by old houses and the patterns you see in window grills and fences. I imagined a smoke genie coming out of the chimney and textures of smoke.

Many thanks to Eveline for collaborating with us throughout the years. Her t-shirt, pullover, and wallet designs are now available on Poketo!

More from Eveline at evolpad.livejournal.com

Poketo welcomes Julia Sonmi Heglund! She is a force to be reckoned with. Her art is grotesque, bizarre, beautiful, but she also loves dogs, likes spaghetti, and has a wedding in the works! In celebration of her newest t-shirt and wallet release, we conducted an interview with her. So take a peek inside the mysterious mind of Julia Heglund!

Can you tell us a little bit about you t-shirt and wallet design?
My t-shirt is a play between real and fake animals, but also is able to utilize geometry and angles, which I love so much, through the interpretation of the paper cranes. Friendship bracelets are so nostalgic and precious, and can also make for fun design elements because of their crazy color schemes and patterns.

A unique characteristic of Madison, Wisconsin that is hard to find elsewhere is ________________.
There’s apparently a taxidermy museum underneath a funeral home here. The Oscar Mayer plant is also here, so it’s not uncommon to see a caravan of weinermobiles during rush hour.

What would your ideal Sunday afternoon consist of?
Fixing a nice dinner that we can enjoy in the sun, and going grocery shopping. I really like grocery shopping with my fiancé. Finding good deals and dreaming about the upcoming week’s meals… (I really like food). Though, once I went to the grocery store and found odd piñata versions of myself, instead.

What is one thing that non-graphic designers/ illustrators should know about your profession?
The amount of money you can make for a piece of art can really vary, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Many of your pieces (i.e. Unseeing, Sherbert Pal, and Axis of Weevil) are grotesquely decapitated in one way or another, but then reveal beautifully colored innards.  Can you explain the themes around these pieces?  What do the bright colors represent?
The first design I did in this style was Sherbert Pal a few years ago. Sometimes I get random imagery in my head that I think might translate well on paper (or on a computer). I thought this combination of rendered imagery versus graphic colored rings ended up working well, so I experimented with it a bit more. Any meaning for the bright colors would be one I’m making up on the spot! It just helps to balance the outside image, and to hopefully create intrigue.

What is one thing you can express through your art that you can’t otherwise?
I guess a side to my sense of humor. I couldn’t really verbally articulate how a mashup of Fred Flintstone and Tweety Bird could be amusing.

Was there a particular piece of creative work from your childhood that you still remember and are proud of?
Absolutely. It’s a drawing of a rabbit parade with rabbits of all trades. I drew it in 1990 (age 7), and very distinctly remember drawing it on my kitchen table during the evening. It ended up making its rounds and being xeroxed and mailed to all our relatives.

A lot of your pieces take us to another world—some grotesque, some bizarre, some too beautiful to exist in real life.  How are all of these environments related to each other, and are they attempts at escaping reality? or confronting it?
It’s sort of confronting it. Showing other ways in which familiar objects can be viewed alone or in conjunction with other objects. I just hope to conjure some response from the viewer, even if it’s usually confusion.

Lastly, are there any upcoming projects in the works that you can share with us?
T-shirts and album art here and there. I’m trying not to invest in too many lengthy projects right now since I have a June 5th wedding to plan!!

Julia and Angie discover they are identical wallets twins at Comic-Con 2008!i

Thanks for the interview Julia! We hope you have a beautiful wedding!

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Check out her Poketo t-shirt and wallet here.
Visit Julia’s official website here.