Gavin Strange: How He Rolls
This ‘more serious’ side included a crash course in film editing using Final Cut Studio. “You know, I didn’t know about non-linear editing,” he says. “I didn’t know it existed, so that was one of my first forays into it. We were confident that we could learn it because if it’s something that you love, I think you can learn.”
Soon after, Strange started posting the videos on MySpace and YouTube as well as on his JamFactory and Xynthetic websites, and began developing a following. The grass-roots effort not only called attention to the skaters, but also to the design and filmmaking talents of the group and to Strange and his unique visual style.
Toy Story
In part due to Xynthetic’s growing fanbase in a hot trendy area, Strange’s whimsical illustrated characters (such as his Pop Cling board graphics, for example) are fast being noticed by the designer toy market, a growing youth trend that started in the Far East in the 1990s. According to one manufacturer, designer toys have their own culture, rivalries, and heroes, and many toy artists have gained celebrity status and followings around the world.
Several top companies have already tapped Strange for products — a Hong Kong manufacturer called CrazyLabel asked him to create his own designer toy, and he’s been invited to submit designs to Kidrobot for a limited-edition vinyl toy based on a character called Dunny. And artist Tony Shiau invited Strange to be one of 30 artists in the world to hand-decorate a blank Budweiser BUD vinyl toy for a show in Florida. He’s even invited the world to play with his toys electronically: “I’ve started an online project called ‘Pillboy’,” Strange says. “People can download the Illustrator artwork for this monster I’ve made, and they can modify, add and edit it to make their very own Pillboy character and submit it to my online gallery.”
Silver Workhorse of Doom
In 2006, Strange moved to the U.K.’s creative community in Bristol, splitting his time between web design and illustration under the JamFactory label, and his burgeoning collaborative Xynthetic projects. He works exclusively on his MacBook Pro, which he’s dubbed ‘The Silver Workhorse of Doom.’
”I use my MacBook Pro for absolutely everything,” Strange says. “The fact I can take it anywhere I like, but it’s as powerful as a desktop, is the winner for me. I eat, sleep and breathe ’geek’ so having a machine which means I can geek it up wherever the hell I am...rad! My whole career and work life is online, so being able to get online anytime anywhere and access all my files on my MacBook Pro is the best thing ever.”
Strange creates most of his static design projects using Adobe Illustrator CS3 and a Wacom drawing tablet. “I’d say I’m most comfortable working in Illustrator. I can work so much faster and smoother in that than anything else,” he says. For his web design work, he uses Adobe Photoshop CS3, Adobe Flash CS3, and Rapidweaver, a website-building application made exclusively for the Mac by a company whose corporate identity Strange designed. To store and organize all his digital images, Strange uses iPhoto. “I use it to keep all my photography and images of my work,” he says.
A sample monster - Dee’s Monster.
New projects are coming in faster than he ever imagined, but a feature-length Xynthetic film is in the works, with expected release in 2008. “We’re taking it to another level now, and hopefully it can become something bigger,” says Strange. “It’s the best job in the world to do whatever you want to do and be creative,” he adds.