Jason hill is one of the greatest iconographers in the business today. Check out more of his work ///here///
Tell us a little about yourself and what steps you took to get here:
I had a knack from a young age with perspective drawing and simplifying complex ideas with iconography, so I was encouraged from a young age to pursue art. By the time I was in high school in the mid-eighties, I started designing my own fanzines. That branched off to Tshirt designs, skateboard and graffiti art. By college I was designing concert posters and record covers for my own and friends’ rock bands. I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1994 and freelanced for Nike and bunch of different ad agencies for about eight years. I got really tired of the rain, so I moved down to sunny Phoenix, Arizona and started by own art / design / illustration business, Jason Hill Design in 2004. Since then I’ve created an number of solo exhibitions including “Retro-Futurism,” ” Visions of a Modern Oasis,” “Polynesian Pop!,” and “Icons of Phoenix.” I’ve also illustrated a national billboard campaign for Johnnie Walker, Designed and illustrated a TV commercial for the new light-rail in Phoenix and illustrated for magazines like Vibe, Fast Company and Monocle…
What’s your go-to source of inspiration outside of art or music?
I love riding my bike around town snapping pictures. You see the world in different way on a bike- in fact, David Byrne just wrote a book about it!
What are some of your influences?
Movies, books & magazines, ephemera, Dali, Mucha, Warhol, Oscar Niemeyer, Bucky Fuller, Seymour Chwast, Heinz Edelmann, Art Chantry, R. Crumb, Dan Clowes, the Beatles, etc.
What’s your personal favorite piece of work you’ve created?
Well, my most recognized image is the “Phoenix” poster, so I guess it would have to be that one. That image has been replicated in print hundreds of thousands of times…
What blogs or magazines do you turn to for creative inspiration.
What ’s your all-time favorite piece of art or design. (*not created by you)
My all-time favorite is the movie Yellow Submarine, or the Beatles albums
What’s your current creative obsession.
Fumetti foto comix- I’m creating a book of them.
Tell us a little about your fascination with architecture.
My depictions of architecture are a reaction to the mall-like transformation of the American landscape. We have been erasing a true sense of place by creating all these weird suburban landscapes connected to the same ten businesses in big brown boxes surrounded with giant parking lots. It’s sad, really. But things are beginning to swing the other way, with old downtowns being revitalized, re-purposing of old buildings, movement towards self-sufficiency, solar energy, community gardens and “edible estates.” Of course, it’s the designers and artists who are leading the charge…
Thanks Jason. Keep on Keepin’ on.
-the AG-