Work
News
Features
Opinion
Nicer Tuesdays
Ones to Watch
Review of the Year
Forward Thinking
The Next Generation
Double Click
In Conversation
It's Nice That Podcast
About
Contact
Partnership Opportunities
Newsletters
Terms & Conditions
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Matt Alagiah
Jenny Brewer
Lucy Bourton
Liz Gorny
Elfie Thomas
Olivia Hingley
About Extra Nice
Login to your account
Become a supporter
Extra Search
Account
Inspired by the Far Side comics and Aardman studio’s early experimental works, the Berlin-based animator and illustrator has a penchant for character development.
Over the many lockdowns, creative inspiration was seldom readily at hand. Staying inside for 23 hours of the day pushed many into a slump and creative blocks were rife. For a period, the only time anyone was allowed outside was for their mandated daily walk. It was these very snippets of time outside where animator Joe Taylor began to have moments of imaginative flair. “Me and my girlfriend went for many slow walks around Berlin in the parks and along the canal,” Joe begins, “we spent more time observing the plants and birds, and nature in general.” Paying attention to the “patterns and forms in nature”, Joe now sees these walks as having instigated his new main source of inspiration. “It may not be very obvious looking at my work, but I think it’s a big influence on how I draw, in an organic way, letting shapes evolve rather than keeping consistency from frame to frame.”
And certainly, while Joe’s style may err toward the organic, more natural side of things, his themes and subject matter adhere to a much more surreal, absurdist design. Joe sees this element of his work as being founded in the illustrations he loved as a child. He outlines his dad’s Far Side comic books – for their “dark atmosphere” and “casual mixing of human and animal characters” – as being particularly formative. Also the older Aardman animations, specifically a compilation of their more experimental shorts that his family had on VHS, worked its way into his subconscious.
Joe Taylor: Tiny World (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
With such character-centred productions forming the basis of Joe’s pool of inspiration, it’s no surprise to find characterisation being one of the strongest facets throughout his work. Whether it be crooked-teethed rabbits, long-nosed wizards or frantic-looking cats, Joe has a way of making such disparate characters come together to create a positively wacky world. When creating a new character Joe tells us that he usually starts with the eyes and mouth, essentially, “the facial expression”. “Sometimes it’s a bit of a surprise what sort of personalities these create,” he expands, “and it guides the rest of the character.” Aside from this basis, Joe doesn’t really have many rules that he abides by, but he does have some features that he finds himself returning to. For instance, with rabbits Joe sees “a lot of extra expression can come from the ears,” and with birds (which he’s been drawing a lot more of since his lockdown walks) “a lot of personality can come from the plumage”.
It was when studying at art school that Joe realised he loved drawing. But, he later chose to study graphic design at university because he assumed it would be the only way to get a creative job. Graphic design ended up not satisfying his desire to draw and create surreal characters and scenes. After a few years, Joe found himself in Berlin, aiming to start working as a freelance graphic designer while having some time to work on his own drawing style. Through all this time, Joe tells us that he never really considered himself a “real” illustrator, and it was only when he moved to Random Collective – a collective, co-working space “full of great illustrators” – that Joe really began to trust his creative instincts. “The feedback and advice I got there was invaluable and it gave me the confidence to stick with it,” Joe adds.
Since becoming a full-time illustrator, Joe has completed some pretty impressive projects, including some fun interstitials for the TV series Cake and a low budget Ted-Ed animation. His favourite project, however, is his personal project, a series of looping gifs. Being a “satisfying” way to work, Joe feels as though the gifs he can “really get into the details of the animation as it’s only ever a few seconds long”. Also loving the feeling of “infinitely falling into a loop” when watching them, they go hand in hand with his love of repetitive music. With this in mind, Joe has hopes of releasing his own music, but for the moment, he’s pretty content creating “short beats” to go alongside his utterly hypnotic, wonderfully weird looping animations.
Joe Taylor: Bloom (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: More Connected Than Ever (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor and Alex Gamsu Jenkins: Moomin – For Willow music video (Copyright © Joe Taylor & Alex Gamsu Jenkins, 2022)
Joe Taylor: A rare sight (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: Wizard (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: Eye Burp (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: Mello Illustrated Banner (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: Cake FX Interstitials (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor: Chicken or Egg (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
Joe Taylor and Alex Gamsu Jenkins: Attawalpa – Done Hangin' on music video (Copyright © Joe Taylor and Alex Gamsu Jenkins, 2022)
Joe Taylor: The Dancer (Copyright © Joe Taylor, 2022)
www.instagram.com/joe.tay.lor
www.joetaylor.work
Olivia Hingley
—
Olivia joined the It’s Nice That team as an editorial assistant in November 2021 and soon became staff writer. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh with a degree in English literature and history, she’s particularly interested in illustration, photography, ceramic design and platforming creativity from the north of England.
Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.
Ground Floor, Princes House,
37-39 Kingsway,
London WC2B 6TP
—
+44 (0)20 7739 5222
Work
News
Features
Opinion
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
About
Contact
Privacy Policy
Partnership Opportunities
The HudsonBec Group
Creative Lives in Progress
Anyways Creative
If You Could Jobs
© It’s Nice That 2022 · Nice Face Logo © It’s Nice That
Designed & Developed by Bureau for Visual Affairs
