She/her | #illustration #design
Hey Alex, How are you?
Hello! I'm good thanks, I've eaten my weight in chocolate over the Christmas break and I'm ready to get back to creating.
For those that don’t know, who is Alex Francis?
I'm an illustrator and graphic designer based in Manchester who loves mixing colourful and playful illustrations with clean design. I originally studied Fine Art with a specialism in hyper-realistic charcoal drawings that were the size of walls. After I graduated I thought what the heck am I going to do with this skill? I wanted to use my drawing skills in a useful way so I hopped over to Shillington in Manchester to study graphic design. I met some life long friends whilst studying and a career I really love.
You worked at Flow Creative, how was this?
It was amazing working with such talented animators like Jordan, Winston, and Inês. They showed me how much animation brings illustrations to life and they always made my work look ten times better. Now I've got the animation bug!
You recently went freelance, what influenced this decision?
A friend once told me that every 2 years you should push yourself, especially in your career. It was a scary decision - in a global pandemic - but it made me move out of my comfort zone and be okay with taking risks. Now I'm doing so much more art directing, storyboarding even bits of animation. It opened up lots of opportunities I didn't think id ever be able to take.
Your art style is beautiful and unique, how would you describe it?
Thank you! I'd describe it as colourful and playful with a bit of textured squeezed in whenever possible. I love experimenting with my style and I'm still learning what my style is. Being both a designer and an illustrator, it's helpful that I can be flexible with what style will suit the brief.
What is next for Alex Francis?
Learning, growing, and experimenting. I want to keep pushing myself in every aspect of my work, there are so many areas and aspects of design and I want to try all of them. It's been a tough year for a lot of people but I plan to keep putting one foot in front of the other and see how far I can go. Id also really like to visit my friend in Lisbon and use fewer exclamation marks in emails.
