Design Federation

Meet Josef Lee - designer, animator, illustrator. When he’s not writing and illustrating cheeky comics (featured previously), Josef Lee art directs and works at a Singaporean design & animation studio. See what he has to say in this meaty interview

What is your name or handle and where are you located?

My name is Josef Lee and I am a designer, animator, illustrator, based in Singapore. In my free time, I also draw comics, write short stories, and is also an occasional curator of an online art portal.

Where did you learn your craft?

I was made to take drawing classes at a very young age. Since then, everything else in my life were somehow linked to my ability to draw. I got interested in drawing comics in my teens, which led me to learn how to think of creative ideas.

The next natural step was to enroll in art school. I took up a Diploma in Visual Communications, specialising in branding and advertising, and soon after, expanded my skills into multimedia with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Design through a part time degree course. The course sparked my interest in motion graphics which was still a relatively unheard industry in Singapore 6 years ago. I found myself a job as a designer with a production house, and as the only designer there, I learn on the job and taught myself everything through the internet and reading books.

What is your artistic medium of choice? Why that medium?

I currently work in the field of motion graphics and broadcast design as the Lead Broadcast Designer for a leading local design and animation studio, creating works broadcasted on local terrestrial and international satellite channels. As the Lead Designer / Art Director, I am in charge of a team of 9 designers, and worked closely with producers from various TV networks, creating graphics packages for programme promos and channel branding. My daily work include creative and art direction, design, animation, compositing, on top of liasing with clients and project management.

I am interested and also trained in a variety of skills (design, animation, illustration, compositing etc) and only motion graphics can offer me a single platform where I can apply a range of skills, depending on the project requirements.

Have you always been focused in this particular area?

I graduated as a graphic designer in 1999 so till date, I have about 9 years of experience in graphic design and branding, out of which five years are focused on motion graphics and broadcast design.

Whose work do you relate to most? Who inspires you?

I always believe that a real creative person will not limit himself to a single medium. Hence, I am most inspired by artists who defy boundaries and remain creative across different mediums. Some of my heroes are Salvador Dali, Scott Adams and Michel Gondry. Like them, I also try to grow myself as a more well-rounded creative. Besides just doing design and animation, I am now dabbling with writing short stories and drawing my own graphic novels. I will love to go into art or even make a short film in future.

What excites you about interpreting and drawing fairy tales and fables?

I always love fairy tales, fables and short stories. Even though I am a designer, I realised that deep inside, I am a storyteller at heart.

For me, The Museum of Modern Fiction is a place where I can freely translate my thoughts into stories that can hopefully touch the people who read them, to make them laugh and cry along with the stories. I classified my stories as “Bedtime Stories for Adults” as everyone grew up reading fairy tales and fables and even as adults, we are still very much in love with short stories. But you can’t be reading kiddy stories forever. There are just not enough fairy tales and short stories for adults. My hope is to create simple bedtime stories that every adult can enjoy.

startdrawing.org is an excellent portal. How did the concept come about?

statdrawing.org - The Asia Drawing Portal was initially intended as a precursor to a bigger plan, but the site has since taken on a life of its own and has grown immensely popular within the creative and arts community.

Co-founded with my good friend and long term collaborator Sam Lay (also an amazing cartoonist), we were initially planning to organise an exhibition cum conference for drawings and illustrations within Asia. In order to do that, we wanted to first gauge the amount of interests that people have in Asian art. We found that by creating an online news portal, it will enable us to collate all our resources within one venue, and at the same time being able to attract an interested crowd. Since starting the site about a year ago, we have been accessed by more than half a million viewers from around the world, and have also made many friends with artists from everywhere. We do have more plans for this site, but it will have to wait till we are both less busy.

How much time do The Museum Of Modern Fiction and The Life of Mann take up?

I have very short attention span, which is pretty common among designers. As such, I tend to jump from projects to projects, depending on the change of my level of interests. When The Life of Mann first started, I was spending all my free time on it. Currently, my involvement with the project is minimal as I am allowing the guest artists / writers to come i and do their magic instead. The project is pretty slow moving currently as some of the guest creatives are also tied up with work, and will require more time before they complete their chapter.

Lately, most of my free time goes into creating short stories for The Musum of Modern Fiction. However, my time spent on it also varies. On average, I took about two weeks to a month for one story, done in between work. “Adam’s Apple” took a long time to write as that was my first attempt in writing in rhymes. The illustration bit was fast as I had decided to keep the style really simple and clean. I finished the drawings over one weekend.

“Adam’s Apple” was completed a few days before Valentine’s Day. Immediately, I knew that I had to do a love story. Something touching. This time round, the inspiration came fast and the writing for “Feb 14″ was done within two days. The artwork however took a much longer time as I wanted to attempt a watercolour paintery style, which I have never tried before.

“The Adventures of Yutaro” took a much longer time to write and even longer to draw as I was too busy at work to work on the drawings.

Are your parents proud of your success?

Well, my mum doesn’t understand much of what I am doing although she has always been fully supportive of whatever choices I made in life.

Related Links

Personal portfolio website
Online Asia Drawing Portal - ’startdrawing.org’
Collaborative Online Graphic Novel Project - ‘The Life of Mann’
Short Stories Collection - ‘The Museum of Modern Fiction’

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Tags: josef lee, life of mann, the museum of modern fiction