 | Gez Fry originally planned to be a diplomat and studied languages at university, but after he met his future wife in Japan, he decided he wanted to live there with her, rather than moving around the world every four years. With that, in 2002 he changed his plans and decided to become an illustrator instead.
Gez had always loved drawing, but admits he hadn't really put the time in, until he’d changed his life direction. “This time I locked myself up in my room and did nothing but eat, sleep and draw,” Fry explains. “My first paid work came a year later during 2003 in London. It was an indy comic called 'Digital Graffiti', and it was pretty bad. It was really good fun though. I worked on it with my old friend Alex Frith, who co-wrote it with me (his parts were good, mine sucked).” |
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|  | Gez’ first real break didn’t really come until the next year, in 2004, when Dan Chrichlow and Nicholas Dawe from the illustration agency 'Folio' saw his work and asked Gez if he wanted to join their roster of artists. “I've been with 'Folio' ever since, and they have always provided me with great work,” Fry adds. “That same year, I was able to move to Japan, where I'm now living with my wife Kanako. I'm based in Kamakura, which is about an hour out of Tokyo.”
Of course, Gez Fry’s interest in Japan is more than just because he lives there. “It comes from the fact I’m half-Japanese,” he adds. “It's part of who I am.” There doesn’t seem to be a genre that Gez doesn’t work in. “My dream project would be a sci-fi fantasy story with an urban feel. But honestly, I like working on pretty much any theme, as long as it's done in an interesting way.
I enjoy the concept and story-based projects the most. I love designing stuff - people, places and things. I did some character and robot designs on a game called ‘RebelStar 2’ for Namco, which was great. I recently did some concepts and illustrations on a film for ILM, which I enjoyed a lot too. On both projects, the creative directors were cool and gave me freedom to try different things out.”
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|  |  | Gez Fry’s advice is that it's usually good to go somewhere after getting the brief. “It doesn't have to be somewhere related to the theme of the work,” he adds, “it's just that a change of scenery gets the creative thought process started. I'll try to go somewhere new at the start of a job. As a daily thing, I take an hour's walk when I get up, a slightly different walk each time. It's good for your spirit to see new things and also gives you a bit of time to chill out and think before you get into drawing for the day.”
He believes you do your best work when you are drawing from your own experiences and life, but at the same time you learn and receive inspiration from other artists; your seniors and your peers. “The list of artists I am inspired by is never ending,” Fry explains. “Every day I'm thunderstruck by a new picture I've seen in a book or on the Net, or by a photograph or a movie or something. There's inspiration everywhere.” |  |
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