Meet Col McElwaine | Designer/illustrator/artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Col McElwaine and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Col, do you disagree with some advice that is more or less universally accepted?

“Fail often”.

I disagree with with this idea because failure is tough and you are going to have career hiccups and learning opportunities without inviting failure.

I am a big supporter of taking creative risks, and pushing through tough problems but often the people advocating financial risks and telling you to quit your job might not have to worry about how they are going to pay their rent. “Fail often” might be great advice if you come from a position of privilege with your parents paying your living expenses, but most people don’t have the luxury of the safety net to catch them if they fail – let alone fail often.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I think it’s really important for me to follow all the threads that might feed into my creative work. My art practice and my design/illustration work seem very different but I don’t know if one could exist without the other. So That keeps me pretty busy at the moment.

There have been some great projects coming through lately, I was really happy to recently my first cover on the Washington Post. It’s such an honour to be able to contribute to such an important institution even in a small way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

This is the greatest city in the country, I would tell them to move here rather than visit but:

Breakfast: My Mistress Cafe for the Okonomiyaki pancake.

Galleries: Edwina Corlette, GOMA, IMA, and Jan Murphy.

Lunch: Whatever ramen is close by

Exercise: Run by the river through Tenerife to the Kangaroo point cliffs

Dinner: Agnes

Hangout: Go for a walk though one of the amazing bat colonies along the creek. Mid-week there is a great community drawing night hosted by Studio Maverik which is quite nice.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?

There are so many people that have supported me behind the scenes of my career. I am really fortunate that my partner Chloe Hume is also a brilliant creative, so there is always that support and understanding when it comes to crunch time for a project and having her as a sounding board for any ideas or projects almost makes her a silent collaborator in all of my work.

Community is so important in this profession.
I have been lucky enough to surround myself with a group of artists and designers that I will talk through work with regularly such as Jenna Lee, Jack Tierney, Adrian and Heather Smith as well as people like Lindie and Mick Rush who really helped me get the first few runs on the board in the early days.

Like a lot of artists I spend a lot of time in the studio over a desk or easel so being able to connect with massive industry extroverts like Craig Black and Matt Haynes really gave my career a shot in the arm as well.

Website: Illustration www.colmcelwaine.com and art www.colinmac.club

Instagram: Design and illustration @colmcelwaine and art @mucho_okay

Twitter: @offwhatever