55_Art Source.qxp_49/51 06/03/2024 09:57 Page 1
Art Source
Roamin’ Saxton
Growing up, it was always Ian Saxton’s instinct to draw anything which sparked an interest, be it a passing train, a building or an animal, which he would commit to memory and then re-imagine it on a sketch pad. Always destined for a career in an artistic field, PG follows his creative pathway which has spanned greeting cards, plush toys, graphics with more to come in his renaissance as a freelance illustrator.
“It was clear at school that I was always going to go down a visual arts or design route. For a while I had a notion that I may become an architect, but the mathematical side of architecture and the length of the courses put me off that option. So, after doing A levels in Art and Printmaking I signed up for a general foundation course at Blackburn college. I then chose to pursue graphic design at Newcastle Upon Tyne Polytechnic, as it was a very open course. My first job after leaving poly was, funnily enough, for a large architectural company in Manchester called Building Design Partnership. I was part of a team which produced presentation boards and brochures, logos and sign systems for buildings. I left BDP in 1991 and decided to try my hand at freelance illustration. I was fortunate that I knew someone at The Chase design group in Manchester and so started doing some work for them. I picked up a few more clients and eventually joined the New Division illustration agency. I would describe my work at New Division as early 20th century poster style with the Cassandra railway posters and Russian constructivism inspirations for me. It was all manual gouache and acrylic artwork back then, with lots of ‘stippling’. Towards the end of the nineties it was becoming clear that I had been somewhat left behind by the digital revolution that was reshaping the old world of drawing boards and type setting. So, in 2000 I bought an Imac and set about the torturous task of teaching myself Photoshop and Illustrator from a couple of educational DVDs. It was at this time that I responded to an ad in the local paper which simply read ‘Artists wanted’. It turned out to be for Hambledon Studios, a leading wholesale card publisher and thus I entered the world of greeting cards. Hambledon was a great place to work. We sometimes had workshops and were encouraged to try out new styles and subject matter. I mainly worked in traditional styles, but also moved into cute.
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Above left: Ian Saxton is very happy with the way his freelance work is going. Above: A traditional wildlife depiction by Ian. Left: A cute approach from Ian. Below left: Ian was full of the joys of Spring when he created this design. Below right: Some contemporary styling and colour palette from Ian. Bottom middle: A quirky festive design from Ian.
All good things must come to an end and Hambledon closed in 2013. I was then shipped over to the Hallmark ‘mothership’ in Bradford. The wholesale part of Hallmark continued to shrink, and so I moved to the Tesco team within Hallmark and really enjoyed three years with them. I was a general designer for Tesco, but my illustration led me to the ‘ideation’ team, or for non-Hallmark speakers, the illustration studio. I spent two years with the Hallmark illustration team and looking back, it was like going back to university. As well as working with really brilliant people, we also had special ‘creative days’, when we would go off to Bradford College and make use of its facilities for screen printing, laser etching, wood block typesetting, lino-cutting etc. I left Hallmark in 2020 and had a three year break from illustration and worked for 8th Wonder, a Wigan-based plush toy design company. I never fully lost touch with the greeting cards world though as I spent a lot of my time working on seasonal plush for Clintons. After three years I decided to leave and dived back into the world of freelance illustration. Within the first couple of weeks I contacted Hannah at Creative Sparrow which has led to a steady flow of sales and commissions. I am currently developing some more signature looks and a lot of my inspiration at the moment comes from the ‘naive’ painters of the St Ives School, such as Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson, and mid 20th century British artists such as Eric Ravilious and Paul Nash. Being freelance in 2024 is a lot more comfortable than it was back in the 1990s. No more running to the post office to catch the last post or forking out for couriers to send things to London for the next morning. I can now just press a button and off it goes! I am coming up to my first anniversary of going freelance again and I’m looking forward to another year of creative evolution.” l Ian Saxton is represented for licensing and commissions by Creative Sparrow.
If you are an artist, photographer or verse writer and would like to be considered to appear in Art Source, please contact PG’s Jakki Brown on jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk. This is an editorial feature and as such is free of charge. PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE 55