Nobrow Visit

Mark McClure Monday, 21 September 2010

We dropped by the Nobrow HQ on Great Eastern Street, East London - to check out their set up and ask them a few questions about the things that keep them on the right side of the tracks. Co-founder Alex Spiro took some precious time out of his "personal work day" to give us some snippets..

Who & what is Nobrow?

Sam and I started Nobrow in 2008, we used to work together and were both at in a stage in our repective careers where we needed change. Sam was an avid screen printer and I was a bit of a mad collector, comic book fanatic – so we set up this little publishing/screen printing set up.

What are the aims behind what you do?

To represent illustration in all its forms, to place a renewed focus on craft and quality.

What are some of your influences / inspirations – both as an artist & a publisher ?

As a publisher, I have to say RAW, Blab!, Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly and a little known Japanese publishing company called PIE books. As an artist, Hans Memling, Pieter Breughel, Heironymous Bosch, Chris Ware, Charles Burns, Blexbolex, Lee Elias, I can go on for years…

You are all artists yourselves.. do you ever miss doing so much of your own work ?

Yes we do miss it, time is dear these days. We try to alternate and spend one day each week doing our own thing, today is one of those days actually.

What defines your artist selection ?

We don’t have criteria, we just work with the people we like and respect as artists – it is also important that they are friendly and easy to work with. Often the best artists are also the most modest people…

How do you decide upon a project to pursue ?

We throw ideas at eachother constantly, some stick, most don’t. Sam and I are very close friends, so we don’t pull our punches and are very critical of one another’s ideas – but that’s what helps the process of distillation and what leads to the better projects.

What’s the process for creating the narrative of the publications Is it a collaborative thing – or do you let the artists control the storytelling process ?

Some are translations, some are written in collaboration with writers, some are artist initiated, but whatever the narrative, the aesthetic must always be on a par with the conceptual, we would never sacrifice aesthetic values for pure concept – it’s not what we’re about.

How hands on is everybody – who gets the most ink & paint on their jeans ?

We all do our parts, printing, design, pr, sales, when it’s a small office everyone has to pitch in.

How important is the “small press” almost DIY / handmade ethic behind what you do ?

The small press is of great importance to us, it keeps us grounded with artistic printing processes and feeds into everything else that we do.

Tell us about your famous toy collection

I love Japanese toys, I love the way they make things that no one else would even begin to consider taking past the drawing board – octopus disco men, Isaac Hayes inspired turban wearing superheroes, giant fire breathing turtles, et al. I would live there if I could and if it wasn’t so far from my family…

Future Plans for Nobrow ?

Do more toys, but they are very expensive to produce and a big financial risk, so probably more books, maybe some children’s books too.

The Nobrow gallery, store & press can be found at 62 Great Eastern Street, London, EC2A 3QR. For more information about their wares, exhibitions or just to check them out go to www.nobrow.net