James Jarvis
Tuesday 6 March 2007
Born in London in 1970, and raised on a diet of Richard Scarry, Hergé, Asterix
and Judge Dredd, Jarvis studied illustration at the University of Brighton and
at the Royal College of Art in London. He has worked for international clients
such as Sony, Nokia and Parco and contributed to a number of international style
publications including The Face, Nova and Relax. He has also contributed to a
number of art book projects and had a collection of his sketches published by
Relax magazine in Japan. He has shown his work at various exhibitions worldwide
including prestigious stand-alone shows at the Parco galleries in Tokyo, Nagoya
and Hiroshima.In 1998, James Jarvis created the plastic toy figure ‘Martin’ for
Silas, a London-based fashion company, unwittingly helping to kick-start the
‘Designer Toy’ phenomenon. Martin was conceived simply as a promotional item for
the then new company but he proved to be surprisingly popular in his own right.
Over the next five years Jarvis produced more toys for Silas, including
‘Tattoo-Me Keith’ and the mysterious ‘Bearded Prophet’. With the success of the
figures, Jarvis and the two directors of Silas decided to create a dedicated toy
company. Amos (established in 2003) was set up to independently produce and
distribute Jarvis’ figures and open up his designs to a wider audience. So far
Amos has released the successful In-Crowd series, including Zombies, Punk
Rockers, Juvenile Delinquents and Wrestlers, and created the iconic ‘King Ken’,
a great ape. Most recently Amos published the comic book adventure story
'Vortigern's Machine', co-written with Russell Waterman, which tells the story
of two friends, Rusty and Wiggs, and how, wandering through their suburban
environment, they uncover some of life's more pressing metaphysical
questions.
I'm not to sure about Jarvis's work as a whole. I much prefer his toys to his drawings. I feel his "potato heads" translate much better in a 3d format. Here are someother links I found Insightfull.