Creatives during COVID-19 Times – Meet Andy Carolan the illustrator & Designer
Interview Series with creatives continues – Creatives during our COVID-19 era, how does it affect us.
Meet Andy Carolan the illustrator & Designer
A casual chat as if we met over coffee at the local cafe- if only COVID-19 was not here. In this interview series over coffee and tea, I meet up with Joe Diaz in USA, Melinna Kaminari in Athens Greece, Roy Reed, London, UK and Andy Carolan, Norwich UK. Read all interviews in the categori ”Cafe stories”
Stefan: What do you work with. What is your title?
Andy: I am an illustrator and Graphic Designer working in the UK. My areas of focus are Illustration, Graphic Design, Brand Identity, UI Design and Prototype. My main tools are Adobe CC and Webflow on an Apple Mac.
S: We live in very different times. The Corona Coved-19 virus have hit almost all countries in the entire world, when this is written. What was your initial feeling when you understood it would hit home, where your at?
A: It’s a scary time for sure and my initial thoughts were mixed. However, I knew that being in lockdown wouldn’t badly affect me as I work from home anyway. My main concern was, and still is how it would affect my clients businesses moving forward.
S: With the initial actual hit of Coved-19, where you working on a project at the time?
A: When the lockdown was announced, I was working on a number of small projects. Those weren’t affected. One of the new jobs I was pitching for was however shelved. I expect this to go live again once the country returns to some kind of “normal” routine
S: Many businesses have been hurt a lot. Many companies either layoff staff, while others simply go bankrupt within weeks. Have this affected the clients you work with? And have this affected you as well?
A: Many of the companies I work with are software developers so while their employees are now working from home, much of their work is continuing as normal. I don’t really have many clients in the retail sector, for which I am glad as they are suffering terribly as they simply cannot operate without their business premises.
S: During these initial weeks or months, depending on where you live, how do you plan, if at all, for how and what you as a Creative can do, or plan to do, to stay productive. Do you hibernate or keep on working?
A: Currently, I have enough work to keep me busy with more yet more projects being pitched for. If I find myself without work, I will do as I always have and look for new avenues to exploit. If anything, my own network of clients and colleagues have become closer as we now have a clearly defined common goal of getting through this in one piece!
S: When we all eventually comes out of all this, where do you hope to be, as a Creative on day one? Can you envision anything of the future ahead?
A: Once this is all over, my biggest hope for myself and others is that we all remain healthy and can continue our lives in a more normal way.
I personally feel that although the lockdown is highly restrictive, it has shown us how resourceful we can be. There are many tools at our disposal that allow us to efficiently work remotely… perhaps this will change the way that many of us work in the future. Also, I would like to believe that as a society, we would be better prepared should a similar situation arise once again.
