Photography: Noire Mouliom
In just two years, Six Cinquième has become the blueprint for rising, self-established agencies—especially for Black creatives, who make up an absurdly small percentage of the advertising industry. Now, they’re speaking to Working Not Working about it all: being creatives, establishing their highly sought-after agency, and the vision that they have for the future.
Read MoreWe're always interested in learning how creatives are inspired by those around them. That's why we started interviewing Creative Couples last year. Now, we're excited to talk to two WNW Members who have known each other their entire lives: Franziska Barczyk and Hanna Barczyk. In our interview below, the Toronto and New York-based sisters tell us about their creative evolutions as illustrators, how they inspire one another, and where their styles bridge and divide: "The approach to subject matter is similar as we both have a strong focus on women, movement and the figurative but the approach differs as Franziska’s work is narrative and Hanna’s conceptual." While they have their own practices, they'll be joining forces for their first show together in Toronto on December 8 at Coldstream Fine Arts Gallery.
Franziska: Growing up I’ve always had an interest in drawing as well as the arts in general, such as performance and dance. I went to the University of Toronto for two years where I took art history and visual culture. I also had the chance to take painting and printmaking classes. My sister at this time was enrolled in the illustration program at OCAD U. This is when I saw that art/image making can be applied. I switched over to OCAD U and then graduated two years after my sister. I have since been going back and forth between graphic design and illustration. And even though I’ve worked in the agency environment and also as an in-house graphic designer, I kept drawing in my free time and was involved in gallery shows. Finally, I decided to focus on illustration full time. I’ve also worked as a studio assistant for Edel Rodriguez (2010) and Christoph Niemann (2014-2015), both who I look up to as mentors. It’s the continued interest to want to create stories through drawing that make me continue to do illustration.
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
Hanna: I’ve always known I wanted to be an artist. When we first moved to Canada from Germany in 1996, we walked past the Ontario College of Art and Design (now OCAD U) as part of getting to know Toronto. I knew that I wanted to study there in the future, and I ended up getting accepted into OCAD's drawing and painting department. In my first year walking through the halls, I noticed illustrations exhibited on the wall and reached out to my teacher. I then switched my major to Illustration. I graduated in 2006 and have since been involved in many creative industries from mural painting, film, graphic design and dance. Since 2013 I solely work as a freelance illustrator in between NYC and Toronto for major publications.
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
Our mother is a social worker and our father is a historian.
Hanna’s style is more rooted in the hand-drawn traditional medias with a minimal colour palette. Franziska’s work is mainly digital with a wider colour palette, using gifs and incorporating collage. The approach to subject matter is similar as we both have a strong focus on women, movement and the figurative but the approach differs as Franziska’s work is narrative and Hanna’s conceptual.
Hanna Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska: My favourite pieces by Hanna are: ‘Blue couple’, ‘The Iraqi Friends We Abandoned’ for The New York Times and ‘Perfectly Imperfect’ for The Los Angeles Times. To me they are strong, smart and sensual visual solutions.
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna: My favourite pieces by Franziska are: ‘Shape Woman’, it’s visually fun, confident, and has a a great mood. ‘Portrait of Jon Stewart’, captured his personality well, and ‘Skype Kiss’ which I feel captures a full story in a short gif animation.
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
We inspire each other by sending each other links to other artists, magazines, fashion, and interesting blogs. When we are in the same city we spend more time talking and inspiring each other through stories and ideas. We might have a sense of an unspoken competitiveness.
We will be having our first duo show together in Toronto on December 8 at Coldstream Fine Arts Gallery so we are working on paintings for that as well as numerous editorial projects.
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
In NYC: Whitney, MoMA, MET, Guggenheim, Printed Matter, David Zwirner gallery, and other galleries in Chelsea, the Strand bookstore and cafes
In Toronto: AGO, Swipe Design book shop
Franziska Barczyk
We both prefer working independently. It’s important to find out for yourself when you are most happy with your work. It’s important to get feedback when you are first starting out, not necessarily from a community but from a mentor. Once the work is finished it’s great to showcase it to the creative community.
Hanna Barczyk
Picasso, Matisse, Frida Kahlo and Hockney
A film director or dancer
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
Dance.
Not to wait for approval but make choices independently.
Hanna Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
Film: Victoria
Book: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities
Art books: Soy Cuba, The Push Pin Graphic, Mexico Illustrated and any Blexbolex books.
Albums: Erik Satie, FKA twigs, Astor Piazzolla, Frederico Aubele, Orchestra Baobab, Ismael Rivera, Willie Colon, Hector Lavoe.
Emiliano Ponzi: amazing sense of depth, perspective and sensibility towards subject matter and mood.
Jordy van den Nieuwendijk: treatment of colour, the simple compositions, fun
Olimpia Zagnoli: the way shapes are used to create compositions, simple, confident
Lynnie Zulu: stylistic, simple, emotional, sense of confidence and openness
Franziska Barczyk
Franziska Barczyk
Hanna Barczyk
WNW Member #1100 John James and a team of six have been spending their after hours crafting and branding a beverage best suited for after hours: Aurora. The team, ranging from brand strategists to bar managers, all share one thing in common: the love they have for Canada. "All of us came together over our shared ideology that - despite the (often) second-tier view that Canada has of itself, Greatness has and can be born here."
We spoke to John James about the process of building a beer company from the ground up, and how the identity and aesthetic for the beer and brand were born. After an incredibly successful soft launch in western Canada, Aurora will be sold throughout Canada in 2016 and go stateside and global soon after. The way we see it, Aurora is 4.5% alc/vol, and 100% Canadian Love.
The actual idea had been tossed around by a couple of the partners for a few years, but we (as a team) began taking the steps toward production in late 2013, building a fleshed-out team and seeking investors. As a business, Aurora is actually one component of a three-part movement to start introducing art and open-minded ideals to a larger audience throughout Canada and over the course of the next two years, throughout the United States and further globally.
In terms of my creative role within the company, as we have all been working on the brand aside from our day jobs (a team of 6 - ranging from brand strategists to bar managers), I've been acting Creative Director and part of the skeleton crew since the early stages. All of us came together over our shared ideology that - despite the (often) second-tier view that Canada has of itself, Greatness has and can be born here.
From a shared goal and extensive research from the team, it was easy for me to build the identity and language surrounding the Aurora brand. Everything seemed to come together under the introduction of our minimalist Aurora Borealis can, which stemmed from visualizations around our brand phrase - Rise Above.
We started with a western Canada soft launch, and from our vendor feedback, I believe we are almost sold out. The response has been tremendous, which is encouraging and we are definitely thankful!
After working at agencies for over 15 years, WNW Member and Vancouver-based creative #6643 Carson Ting has ventured out on his own, navigating the freelance world in a city where the freelance community is still getting its footing. While the creative scene may be laid back, there is still a vibrant mix of creative award shows, art shows, creative crawls, and more if you know where to look. Luckily, Carson's here to help.
For those on a budget, this pricey city is fortunately surrounded by gorgeous scenery. Carson tells us that doing something outdoors is valued over the typical post-work cocktail: "It's important to break away from shop talk and actually live a life. As creative people it's important to stay in touch with the outside world. Otherwise, we'd be creating work that only speaks to ourselves."
Carson gives us an inside look into the creative scene and outside world of Vancouver. He also created the series of original illustrations, below.
I was born and raised in Toronto (some consider it to be centre of the universe - ha!) and moved out to Vancouver over 8 years ago to work for my then dream ad agency, Rethink. Now I'm a father of a 15-month-old daughter named Audrey - the funniest person I know to date. My wife Denise, whom I met back in Toronto, helps me run our illustration company, Chairman Ting Industries. We've done work for adidas Originals, Microsoft, Kidrobot, Infiniti and more.
After busting my butt for over 13 years as a full-time advertising art director I decided to go freelance so I could mix up the type of work I get. I now do illustration work, murals, photography work, app design and of course, advertising art direction. I love the variety of work I get as an independent and I also feel so much more creative being able to work in so many different mediums and roles.
I'm currently working on an illustration project for TEDx West Vancouver, an illustration project for a Mercedes Benz print campaign with the guys at 123w, a mural for the Vancouver Economic Commission, a mural for a coffee chain in Calgary called Phil & Sebastien, and am also freelancing at DDB Vancouver.
My dream project right now is to produce a collection of personal paintings and finish up a mini documentary film I've been working on since 2013. Commissioned projects are great, but I really want to spend more time on personal work so I can stay fresh creatively. I've always believed in the importance of side projects.
I'm not entirely sure. I've been working around the clock for a very long time and the only thing I want to do with my spare time is chill with my family. I wish I could say I'm into some obscure indie drama show from Japan or something cool like that. But I don't watch much TV. I always feel left out in conversations when people talk about shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones.
When I'm deep into my illustration work, I usually listen to Radio Lab. It's a podcast series from NPR. It's absolutely fascinating stuff and I can't get enough of it. I'll even listen to reruns when there aren't any new ones.
It's cliche to say this, but my most favourite thing about living here is being surrounded with such gorgeous natural scenery like the mountains and the ocean. The city is also very small, so it's very walkable and convenient. In terms of challenges, I think the advertising and design community is really small, so there isn't a lot of room for creatives to move around - compared to the Toronto market. People tend to stay longer at agencies here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but as a freelancer I would definitely like to see the agency pool expand.
Through a recruiter. An opportunity came up to work for Rethink. I wanted to work there for the longest time and had tried to get into that agency for years and when the recruiter called about the opportunity, I jumped on it. I've been living here ever since.
Toronto. I've only lived in two different cities in my entire life. I've always been tempted to live in Amsterdam or Berlin because I hear there's a lot going for both cities in the arts and design scene. I still think about it from time to time, but it's hard to leave Vancouver. Both my wife and I love it here.
...a magical place with a big price tag.
Adbusters is based in Vancouver!
My favourite spot has to be Stanley Park and the sea wall. It's just minutes away from my place and it's got one of the best running trails I know to date. I always start running from my neighbourhood in Coal Harbour and go around the sea wall which is almost a perfect 10k distance and swing out of English Bay for a coffee. My wife and I love walking around the west end and chilling out in English Bay.
My absolute favourite cafe is in the west end called Green Horn Cafe. It's fairly hidden inside a quiet residential area so it's less busy and they also make a killer cortado. The owner is a fellow named Walter. He's super friendly and always loves to chat about his collection of motorcycles. Vancouver has such an amazing culinary scene so naturally, I have a lot of favourite spots. My top three places are Blue Water Cafe in Yaletown (hands down, the best sable fish dish I've ever had), Les Faux Bourgeois, a causal French restaurant in the Fraser area (killer scallop dish!), and lastly, I'd say Don't Argue!, a pizzeria in Mount Pleasant. It's not fancy but I get really excited every time I go there.
There is this hidden pathway in east Vancouver near my studio. The path goes right through these old train tracks and underneath the Sky Train overpass. The path is hidden because it's a very industrious area and no one ever goes through the area by foot. I love that spot because you'll always find interesting graffiti work on the walls of these two abandoned buildings. It's also a great spot for a photoshoot because you have the train tracks and the Sky Train above you. It's a great mixture of the old and new in one spot.
There's also a back alley by my studio at 1000 Parker where you'll find a collection of the most densely graffiti'ed walls in the city. It's a little creepy at night because there's a mannequin tucked in a corner and another one hung from above.
The creative scene in general is fairly laid back. There isn't a lot of after-hour get-togethers among the advertising community where ad guys go to hang out for drinks. Everyone here just goes out to do outdoorsy stuff like biking, running, kayaking and etc. I personally much prefer it this way. It's important to break away from shop talk and actually live a life. As creative people it's important to stay in touch with the outside world. Otherwise, we'd be creating work that only speaks to ourselves.
Although the creative scene is fairly laid back, one can still find a pretty active and exciting creative scene if you dig deeper. We have our monthly Creative Mornings talk, Lotus Awards (which came back after a one year hiatus), the annual Eastside Culture Crawl, Pecha Kucha and at one time we had the Cheaper Show (a fun collective art show featuring 200 artists around the world) and of course, there's the popular indie art blog, Booooooom.com that my friend Jeff Hamada runs out of Vancouver.
My friend Jeff Hamada, who runs Booooooom.com, is always actively fostering the creative community here, whether it's getting a bunch of people together to build tiny boats out of twigs and setting them free on a lake or getting people to submit drawings of stories from their past. Jeff is always thinking of new ways to engage with the creative community. We also have fantastic art colleges like Langara, IDEA School of design from Capiliano University and Emily Carr that hosts portfolio reviews for their arts and design programs.
Lara Palmer. I've admired her work for a long time. I remember seeing her work in award annuals since I was in art school and have continued to see her work evolve over the years. I finally got to meet her when she freelanced at Rethink and she's equally as nice as she is talented.