Tell us about who you are, where you’re currently located and what your occupation is.

My name is Gustavo Eandi. I was born in Mar del Plata (38°00′S 57°33′O), Argentina, where I am currently based with my wife and son. I am a graphic artist working on graphic design, editorial design, illustration and fashion.

Can you walk us through your creative process and how you pull inspiration into your final work / deadlines? 

The creative process varies according to the project as well as how many projects I am involved in at the time.

I try to work on one project at a time but sometimes I may have up to 3 projects simultaneously. Ideally, I have a limit because the energy that each project takes is a lot, and my work days are long. I spend one day thinking, drawing by hand if necessary but I also work with Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator to throw out the first ideas. I also look through my archive (on paper or digital) in search of clues. What emerges from that first day is usually not definitive, but crucial. For works that carry a certain complexity, it’s convenient for me to let those ideas “rest” for about a day and then see them in perspective. That helps to take away vices and obviousness. Sometimes I solve the job the day after…but ideally (if the deadline allows it) I prefer to repeat that "rest" process a few more times.

In these stages of "detaching" from the image to see them in perspective, sometimes the client is involved (asking them for first impressions) but mainly I check those sketches with my relatives. Inspiration appears slowly but clearly in the work process. Spending days thinking about it, being aware of everything that appears or happens to me outside my studio and take it back with me the next day.

I could say the work itself is my strongest source of inspiration.

 

Affinity and admiration. Friendship and admiration. Sometimes money.

 

 

How do you decide on what type of projects you select, given that you’ve worked on a various range of projects with clients such as NTS, BONE SODA, BRAIN DEAD and Tame Impala?

Affinity and admiration. Friendship and admiration. Sometimes money.

If you could go back to the younger version of yourself / start of your career, what advice would you give yourself knowing the ups and down of a competitive industry? 

 I don’t think I could  give advice to anybody…my younger self included. I still have a lot of learning to do. The one thing I do know is I love this type of work..I really enjoy it. If you love your work and you have the chance to dedicate your time doing it, that’s a lot to be thankful for. Enjoy it, don’t run.

 

 

You've done a fair amount of work for the record label, Stones Throw Records. Do you remember the first commissioned job you did for the label and how your relationship with them has grown over the years?

 This year marks the 10th anniversary of my first job with Stones Throw Records and Jeff Jank, (Artistic Director for Stones Throw Records).

The first job Jeff and I worked on together was for the vinyl edition release of Madlib’s Medicine Show #1: Before The Verdict.

Prior to my first job with Stones Throw Records, I had submitted a drawing of the rapper MF DOOM to a Stones Throw email address, along with a link to my Flickr page. The response I received was from Jeff asking if I wanted to submit some drawings for the Madlib album series they were beginning to work on. This ended up being the Madlib Medicine Show and the albums were released monthly (13 in total), of which 4 or 5 I worked on. From that moment on every year we’ve worked together on one or a few albums together. 

I could say the work itself is my strongest source of inspiration.

 

I read somewhere that you grew up skateboarding and immersed yourself in the skating culture at a young age. When you first got your start as a designer / illustrator was skate culture a big inspiration for you when designing and is it still till this day?

During the early 90s in Argentina, skate culture was small (like me at the time) and in Mar del Plata it was very restricted. My friends attended a catholic school and did not skate…also the boards were very expensive. So my first interaction was not with a skateboard, but with the graphics from skate magazines that I purchased downtown at newspaper kiosks. Magazines like Thrasher and Transworld and their advertisements for Girl and Shorty’s (with Rosa Esperanza Gonzalez) but mainly a skate magazine from Basque Country (north of Spain) magazine called Tres60 Skate, written in Spanish. (this drawing from my show “Discipline” in 2013 is based on a page from that magazine). I remember the change from flat nose to double-kick in that magazine. The 80’s becoming the 90’s.

Tres60 Skate was short-lived (it’s last issue was #17, with only a few pages but epic)…then Big Brother appeared (on this side of the Atlantic), continuing and increasing that impudence, with politically incorrect content, almost porn for my age.

All this happened during my youth from when I was 10 years old, up until I was 16. So yes, it had and and still has a great impact on my work, my aesthetics and my interests.

During these times of sheltering in place, do you find yourself still being productive and creating work as you normally would or has it become more of challenge to produce new work?

It's becoming very difficult to be productive…but I don't feel bad about it. Most of what we visually consume is affected by this situation. Personally I am not interested in the content being generated at this time. There is a general analysis of everything. Analysis of what we "are", but mainly what we “will be" (!) I don't feel like being part of that analysis. I don't think it's time to think about it. We have to be aware, yes, but try to pass it as lightly as possible, so as not to lose our head.

 

 

When working on a new project do you have your go to songs / albums you prefer listening to while working or are you more of a mixtape / playlist type of guy?

I usually listen to NTS whilst working... My favorite shows are the ones from Carla Dal Forno, Beatrice Dillon, Helm, Freedom To Spend, The Trilogy Tapes, and especially the one from Mark Leckey.

I recommend a great guest show from my friend (and Uxe Mentale collaborator) Aylu, from last march: Intempestivas.

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