Sunday 19 July 2009

Zeke's Lunchbox

I recently caught up with Julia from Zeke's Lunchbox to chat about her creative endeavours.

First of all tell us about yourself and what you do in three easy steps?
I'm a rainbow child of the world, born and raised in Canberra but I currently resign in Sydney. I'm a fashion designer, illustrator, goblin and all round artist in every sense of the word... I create, illustrate and <3 to procreate!

Favourite cereal?
O.K, first of all, let's just put this out there but I like to consider myself a bit of cereal connoisseur... For a really long time I couldn't get enough of Just Right big fruit flake, I ate that shit for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  Then all of sudden that bastards discontinued big fruit flake!! I got so bummed out that I started eating a really awful alternative, Milo cereal, but that junk just wouldn't do. It's a bit too sickly, the sugar crystals cut the inside of your mouth and there is no way you can eat that on a daily basis. So right this very moment I'm a cereal whore and have no favourites, anything slightly healthy with fruit and yogurt is tops with me!


Where do you get your inspiration from?
My illustrations and fashion designs often inspire each other; they're constantly bouncing off one another. They often share similar themes, characters and colour pallets. When it comes to illustrations/designs I get a lot of my inspiration from a wide variety of mediums; cult films, children’s illustrations, history, nothing is out-of-bounds. What really fires me up and inspires me is taking something that is so out of fashion, so disgusting it makes to want to gag and turn it into something relatable, fun and zany.

Tell us about the way you make your rad illustrations?
I like to use a really wide variety of mediums, I seem to have accumulated a lot of random arty odds and ends of the years and I really want to get rid of it all! So it seems that's how my 'mixed media junk' style came about. I use; pencils, water colour, collage, textas, highlighters, pastels, crayons and my secret weapon of choice, white- out! I find that using a variety of mediums provides a fuller image and gives a lot of different textures, which I can't seem to get enough of. I'm also a bit bananas for colour, colours seem to distract and make anything boring and awful really beautiful. So whenever I feel an image is a bit too dull and needs some sprucing up I go ape on colours.

Have you always drawn pictures?
Yes, but it was never serious when I was a child. I was totally pathetic when it came to school so drawing always took a back seat... Drawing always seemed to be a hobby so I never considered doing it professionally. Then I started taking art classes at school and realised that I should develop my skills a bit more and see where they lead. Et voila! Bam, I'm here!

Tell us about Zeke's Lunchbox, how did it all start?
Zeke's Lunchbox is my baby and the only thing that keeps me going. It is my fashion label which started with an old school friend of mine. We had a really similar style and had a lot of things in common. We did fashion together in yr11 & 12 and we started sewing a bunch of creations together. Things led to another and we created Zeke's Lunchbox. We were a really good team in the beginning; we were so young, naive and free. Then you grow up and develop your own style, become your own person and in the end we had different visions. But I'm still going strong with Zeke's Lunchbox and hope to sell all my creations fluidly and pursue the label full time.

If you were about to die and you were allowed to draw one more thing, what would it be?
Perhaps a self-portrait of me dying, I know it’s a bit narcissistic but I'll never get that opportunity again and come on, I’m dying, some serious reflecting on my life needs to be done... get it??

What exciting projects or events are happening in the near future?
Well, the official Zeke's Lunchbox website is coming out in a months or two, where everyone will be able to get their greedy hands on some Zeke's Lunchbox junk, due to the online store. This will include a bunch of rare one-off pieces, plenty of jewellery and hey, maybe even some prints of some illustrations. I really want to do another fashion show sometime this year, just to get the Zeke's Lunchbox name out there.

Check out her work here

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