Roderick Mills

Award winning illustrator and film maker Roderick Mills has worked across the breadth of the creative industry including editorial, publishing, corporate literature, and advertising for various international clients such as the BBC, The National Theatre, Bloomsbury, Opéra National de Paris, The Design Museum, Royal Mail, The New York Times. He has exhibited in both London and New York and is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. A graduate of the RCA he has one of those styles that is often copied but rarely looks as good.

What have you got planned this week?

Two train journeys to Brighton, where I teach. Drawings for clients, drawings for myself, drawings of the enchanted forest. Photography, maybe some filming.
A private view, an exhibition or two…

What do your parents think you do?

They know that I am an illustrator without really knowing what it entails. They understand the teaching aspect of my career… it’s more tangible for them.

What’s your favourite sense?

Apart from the obvious one of sight, I suppose smell.

Who do you look like?

The last person mentioned to me was the actor William Hurt. I think that it was more in reference to the hair style… mine had not been cut for a while?

Tell us something people don’t know about you…

At the age of 17 I became a qualified ballroom dance teacher. It was something that my parents did, so I had to go along too. The only way to get out of it I thought was to take all of the exams until… there were none more & I didn’t have to go again!

Did your education count?

At the age of 8 I won a national painting competition, but at 18 I failed my art ‘A’ level? Going to the RCA made sense of everything for me.

What word can’t you spell?

I use a dictionary?

Tell us a good fact

London is apparently the fourth largest Swedish city… by population?

What’s Next?

An Italian wife & family!

What’’s your ‘Plan B’?

Become a fisherman in Sicily.