Big-hearted illustrator Call Me George(s) finds inspiration and humour in the everyday

“I love to take any possible subject and try to find the funny twist in it. I’m proud to be a TV kid, not the fat one looking at fitness shows while eating sausage but more the one drawing all the weird things he sees,” says French illustrator Call me George. From an early age he has wanted to be an illustrator or cartoonist and studied graphic design in France and Shanghai before working as an art director. Nine months ago George(s) took the leap back to illustration. “I realised that in every project I was working on as an art director, I was trying to implement some illustration in it,” he explains.

George(s)’ work combines the banality of the everyday with some surreal twists, working primarily in monochrome with simple, deliberate linework – the illustrator is colourblind and is working on a short book about the affliction. “Basically, as every subject is different from the other, the way I approach work varies a lot,” says George(s). “One constant is to start by sketching. Working by hand is for me the most direct and free expression of my mind. The computer is more for details and ‘special effects’. I don’t sketch too much either because I get bored quickly and having too many options stresses me a out. I subscribe to the belief ‘the first idea is a good one’."

Currently George(s) is working on commissions for a swathe of international magazines, is developing some wooden toys with friend and collaborator Le Fruit de L’Arbre and developing the next animated episode of True Stories for Wakeboarding Magazine USA. Alongside this, he is distributing a colouring book to migrant children and holding workshops with them – a project “close to my heart.”