The Blue Q Interview with Nate Williams
Art Star on Dec 09 2009 at 10:49 am | Filed under: Designers, The Process
We are proud to present a little tete-a-tete with one of our designers, Nate Williams.
In New Product Development we had been looking at one of Nate’s pieces for a while. We do 2 product releases a year. There is process of deciding who we work with….we look at a lot of artists, a lot of designers, figure in all the styles, see how they all work together….. The moment finally jelled with Nate.
Here’s what he did with his super cute handy tote, See You Around.
And here’s the shopper, printed on silver, Black and Red All Over.
Art Star: Did you know about Blue Q before we called?
Nate Williams: ohhhhhhhhh yes … I think I first discovered Blue Q from the Dirty Girl Franchise.
AS: So, did you think we were going to ask you to make a lotion?
N8W: As famous as I am for making lotion … I thought you guys needed a company mascot … I was sure you wanted to put me on a boulevard somewhere in the Midwest dressed as a farm animal waving a bell.
AS: No! We’ve loved you and your work from a far for a while. I tried to order that Urban Outfitters pillow you did online, but it sold out in record time. You are one of the most prolific designers we’ve ever come across (see bottom of interview for links). Mitch (Blue Q Art Director) once wrote to me in an email, about you (in response to one of your many links) “There is a lot of creativity on this round planet.”
N8W: wow … that is a huge honor coming from you guys … I love your design and sense of humor.
AS: How do you find time to do everything that you DO do? Seriously!
N8W: I don’t know … I think I am a curious person and that forces me into action … I really like making things and thinking of new ideas. I try to overlap things I want to do .. for example if I want to take photographs of Typography on the street … but I need to take care of my 3 year old son Milo … I make it fun for both of us … I will put him on the back of my bike and tell him we are looking for “Letters” … we’ll ride around the city and he will point letters out to me … he has fun, I have fun, it’s exercise … he learns something … I learn something.
AS: And everyone’s starring at you wondering why a 3 year old knows what letters are but his father doesn’t. I love that.
We’re a very curious company too – and we love trying things out…hoping that they will come to a happy, wonderful, profitable end. Sometimes that works!! Sometimes…not. In one release, a few years back, we introduced car fresheners and underwear. You will see what’s missing on our website to know what didn’t work. But, hell. You never know if you don’t try. And we are thorough, believe me. But you can’t anticipate everything. On the back of our Blue Q business cards it reads “a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow”.
Not to sound too too interviewy here – but what has been your biggest artistic success and your biggest failure?
N8W: hha .. maybe you could combine those ideas and come out with underwear fresheners .. who doesn’t want fresh underwear??? .. underwear for that special ambulance ride … The ad could be a guy on a stretcher with the paramedics by his side and everyone is giving a thumbs up … with sparkles coming from his underwear.
I think my biggest artistic success … is being able to quit my corporate job and earn a living making pictures … and limiting my diet to rice and potatoes.
I think my biggest failure is when I tried to start Moodybuddha lamps … very cool lamps with a ton of interest all over the world .. we were seriously getting inquires daily from shops that wanted to carry them .. but I couldn’t figure out the logistics of getting the product to market .. it was like I needed business Viagra.
AS: Someone already beat us to it: http://www.flat-d.com/flatdreusable.html But I say, that’s ok. It’s for the best. But imagine the graphics you could put on those things!
I always loved those lamps. We spend many many many hours over here talking logistics on a regular basis. There are spreadsheets and projections and budgets…. profitability, warehousing, importing, selling and that’s not even the fun part of finding the art, showing the product at tradeshows, bragging about the finished good. That’s why good partnerships between idea people/art people/and business people are a must. And who knows…. We’ve revisited many ideas from the past….
People must come to you all the time for advice about being able to quit corporate and go off on their own. What do you say?
N8W: It’s okay .. sometimes people beat you to the punch .. I wrote a children’s book called “Short Poems for Short People” .. but I later discovered Edgar Fawcett wrote a book with the same title in 1872 … I was a mere 173 years late 
I completely agree on partnerships. It really allows you to focus on the part you enjoy most … I love the brainstorming process … so if you guys ever need an extra brain … or storm … let me know 
Yes … people definitely want to quit their corporate jobs … I honestly think it’s a lot easier than people think … assuming they aren’t in debt and have a skill that can be down remotely. There is a great site called freelanceswitch.com that is all about this topic … I refer people to that site … or tell them to call me and so we can talk about their unique situation.
AS: I refer to you all the time because you are prolific. And it takes time to build up a repertoire. Doesn’t happen easily or quickly. And, coming from a client point of view, it’s great to see that someone like you also works because you NEED to work, create because you NEED to create. Not everything is made for a client – besides, we don’t always want to see how you work with Coca-Cola. We want to see how you work for you. And you do that. Enough smoke blowing. We will work again, I am sure. We still have stuff we need to make. With people we like.
Your Black and Red All Over Shopper rocks with that silver. Have you seen it in person yet???
N8W: 
You are tooooooooooooo kind … I AGREE.. personal work is huge .. I think the best work comes by accidental discoveries and apart from making art .. just taking time to enjoy life and have experiences that will later fill your art with interesting things. I started a little zine called Hola Amiga for this very purpose http://www.n8w.com/newweb/hola-amiga.php… I haven’t created one in a while .. but it’s long overdue.
No I haven’t seen it yet …. living in Buenos Aires … makes it hard to receive anything … unless someone brings it on a plane … otherwise some guy between Buenos Aires and the States will end up using it. South/Central American Postal service is like mail roulette … sometimes you receive things … sometimes you don’t
NATE WILLIAMS Illustration and Hand Lettering
WWW http://www.n8w.com
RSS http://feeds2.feedburner.com/n8w
TWITTER http://twitter.com/n8w
Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/n8w/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/n8wn8w
-
Eric
-
irvin
