I've been very drawn to collage work lately, and when I came across the work of Cover Art Guy, I knew I wanted to learn more about his process. We caught up this week about his ideas and process working with remixed imagery and various media types.

It's so nice to be speaking with you. To begin, can you introduce yourself to our community?

My name's Jimmy aka Cover Art Guy, I'm from London and I work primarily on collage designs.

I absolutely love the way you combine and remix images, building complete ideas out of disparate parts. Where did this creative journey begin for you?

Thank you! Ever since I started working on design projects I had a process of piecing together different images from different sources. It wasn't until about a year ago when I quit a corporate job to try and make a career out of it that I saw collage art as an outlet for this. I love puzzling out pieces and creating something from images that would have otherwise been put to one side.

That’s a great explanation, you are breathing new life into visual ideas that might otherwise be forgotten, and through your efforts they survive and take on new meaning.

I also left a corporate job in favor of the freelance life. What sparked this transition for you and how has it changed your day to day life?

I finished university and went straight into a series of corporate gigs to pay the rent, they were always pretty well paid but never gave me any satisfaction. I saved a little bit of money for a few months rent and took the leap as I decided there was no better time than right now to try and further my career and try something new.

Freelancing is WAY more time consuming than the 9-5 life, a typical day I wake up around 6am and begin working at 7-8. Usually I'm working 12 hours or more on client work, social media, personal designs & prints. The difference is I'm enjoying that time more than the time I was spending in an office.

Yeah well put. I find the same advantages, Id rather work harder and be my own boss. Personal freedom I’ve always prioritized over job security

Absolutely! Having no stable income always drives me to push myself further as well I find.

So do you work by hand, digitally, or some combination of both?

I try to do a combination of both! I have a lot of days where the creativity isn't flowing so I'll switch between the two depending on that. I keep a load of old magazines and an image bank on my computer, a lot of the time the physical elements blend into the digital ones.

Awesome. Amazing how much technology we have access to these days. So aside from other collage artists, from what media sources do you draw inspiration? What inputs do you have mentally that may inform some of the work you create?

It really goes back to old magazines and visuals from the 50s, 60s and 70s. I get a lot of inspiration from old advertisements from that era. The fashion and design choices in those magazines are so alien to what we use today so I really like bringing back some of those elements and stylistic choices and seeing how I can make them appealing today.

I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by some amazing artists on Twitter too, we all bounce off each other for ideas all the time and find inspiration from that. Shoutout providerka, blacksneakers, harveymcm and the rest of the art cult group btw.

Let’s talk a bit about the balance of social media. These platforms are a double edged sword. Can you describe your experiences on both sides of that equation?

Social media is a big part of what I do to find clients and get feedback, probably 80% of my work comes from Twitter so I try and use it as more of a tool for work and feedback. I always find myself scrolling for an hour or so when I'm trying to sleep though so maybe I should cut back a bit. In my opinion the positives outweigh the negatives at the moment though, I get a lot of benefit from social media! Moderation is key for sure.

What advice would you give to someone who is eager to make the leap into a creative career but isn’t sure where to begin?

See ideas through! When you start out its very easy to get half way through a design and decide to scrap it because you didn't see it going the way you wanted to. You could miss making a magnum opus if you don't try it out!

It was great speaking to Jimmy, AKA Cover Art Guy. You can stay up to date by following his Instagram, Twitter and Website.