Gavin Unusual on the subject of balancing the job with ardour initiatives
During the day, Gavin Strange works as a director and designer for Aardman Animations and at night as JamFactory, a pseudonym he uses to indulge his love of side projects. Here he tells us how he does it
When designer and director Gavin Strange was 17, he decided that university was not for him. After completing his BTEC in Design, Strange boldly ventured into the working world and got a job as a junior designer in a small studio in his hometown of Leicester. "If you look at a 17-year-old today, you are just a kid. I remember being so excited and excited to have put that trust in me and to know that people were expecting something from me," she said Strange CR. "Somehow it ignited something in me."
This was around the millennium and the internet was on the verge of becoming the next big thing. When Strange's boss asked him, on the one hand, if he'd heard about it and, on the other, if he wanted to learn web design, the motif was just as enthusiastic. "I had previously created my own website in Microsoft Word, which was possible and terrible, but I was really interested in the technology," he says. “I have vivid memories of telling my mom that the guys at work offered me another position to design for the internet, and my mom looked at me a little insecure and said, 'Are you sure this internet thing is up and running? to be there in the future? "But I had already said yes and was so excited."
Above: BBC Two ident, Aardman Animations. Above: 20 years of JamFactory.com. All pictures and videos: Gavin Strange
What followed was a long journey, during which Strange absorbed as much knowledge as possible from his colleagues. “I was put under the wing of the man who ran the new media department at the time, and when I say department it was just him and me. He showed me the ropes and I was so fascinated by what was possible with the technology back then, ”he explains. “With this dual role as a digital and graphic designer, he also encouraged me to have my own website. He saw it as a place where I could play and try things and just get better. "