Feature Friday: Warren Le Platte

Warren Le Platte, Sun Goddess, 2010, Digital Illustration

Warren Le Platte is a graphic designer, who dabbles in illustration, photography and cartooning. His day job is a paginator (slave) for a local newspaper (salt mine) and teaches part time at the School of Business and Computer Science (SBCS). With a degree in Carnival Studies, Warren is a very well-rounded artist. He is the director of a design company, Zigwa, and says it's the reason he is still relatively sane. He loves comics, manga, anime and gaming, aka "all that good geek shit". That's usually a recipe for a funny, wildly fantastic imagination.

Warren Le Platte, Farmville spoof character design, 2010

Warren Le Platte, comic, 2010

I asked Warren to share some of the work he's doing now and boy is it a nice selection. Currently he is working on a T-shirt line called Hunting Season, intended to promote awareness of endangered fauna using imagery of hunted animals that refer to the animals being the hunters and not the hunted. He says, "Apart from being swanky the t-shirts we will also provide some info on each animal"

Warren Le Platte, Print design for Hunting Season T-Shirt line, Tattoo (Armadillo) Edition,2011

Warren Le Platte, Print design for Hunting Season T-shirt line, Caiman Edition, 2011

"I'm also working on the Donkey Eye project with James (Hackett) and a few others. More info on that will surface soon and it'll be exciting." To get a Donkey Eye teaser, you can attend a talk on July 15th at the Reader's Bookshop in St. James.

Warren Le Platte, Donkey Eye Project Teaser

Like most artists with multiple ongoing projects, Warren has a story to finish that started 5 years ago, he thinks. He's back in research mode and work on Kalenda (read bits in his Facebook notes) is continuing. It's an intriguing story that has local folklore and traditional Carnival characters. For him, it's all about entertainment, education and promoting the local. He also has friends who want him to finish. That should be inspiration enough.

Warren Le Platte, Kalenda: The fall of bois, book

In my usual Q&A bit, I squeezed some information from him. It's one of the more fun, entertaining interviews you'll read. I've left some of the dialect for authentic reasons. Readers unfamiliar should still get the gist!

TC: How's your current creative life? How do you balance personal work and a day job? Can you?
WL: To be honest my personal work is the only thing keeping me sane. My day job sucks big, hairy, watery ass! *sigh* One day...one day soon... that's all I keep telling myself... while I work to escape my creative prison.


TC: You're purdy busy - when do you work?
WL: Usually during slow periods, where there's nothing to do I would design something, or doodle... anything to break the monotony, and home of course.

Warren Le Platte, comic, 2010

TC: What's your dream creative life like?
WL: Hmmmm... apart from the cliche "I wanna do what I love everyday", Ii wanna be able to interact with other creative minds, have the freedom to do whatever. Sleep, read, play videogames, create, and most importantly, get paid bitches!

TC: Do you have a plan to do this?
WL: Yeah I do. The first phase is working for myself, or at least where I can have more creative freedom. Hence the big Zigwa push. There are a number of projects in the works.


TC: What are your methods of diversion when you've got down time or you're a bit burnt out/blocked creatively?
WL: The internet is a great tool. I trawl websites all the time, different blogs, video game sites. I love Penny Arcade. They do what I dream to do, like seriously, they influence me quite a lot.


TC: Do you have any specific daily rituals that feed your creative life?
WL: No not really. I should be drawin' more. I think I'll make THAT my ritual; pick up a pencil and draw something every day.


TC: Do you find that your collaborations bring another dimension to your work?
WL: Zigwa has definitely brought great focus to my work. I mean, it is my company so I'm workin hard to make it successful. I doh wanna be stuck in this dead-end job for the rest of my life.

Angel Thing, Warren Le Platte (left) & Tracey Chan (right) collaboration, 2011, Digital Illustration, 

TC: How do you feel about stepping out of your comfort zone re: collabs?

WL: As far as collabs go, I'm all for it... and actually your illustration has been the one that pushed me furthest out of my comfort zone so far. When i first saw it I honestly had no idea where I was gonna start with it, but I'm pleased with the end result (and i think you are too?), so thanks for that. I think I kinda started the "wet up" (digital collabs) trend in the We Does Draw group, something James and i have been doing for over 13 years or so.

Warren and Tracey clowning around at the Bomb Shelter collab, excuse me while I am clobbered for posting this.

TC: Definitely. I have other challenges for you if you're interested. We must paint together as well - another Bomb Shelter shindig will be organised at some point soon. (I'll have a full post on this soon)
WL: I would love to!!! Granted I'm not much of a painter but I'm up for anything. I mean that night in the Bomb Shelter, the level of creative vibes was fuckin INSANE!!!! I was so tired from de office, I was literally just passin' to show meh face so I wouldn't get any ole talk. Next ting is because I have a maker in hand, duttyin people wall. I wish I could experience dat everyday. Soon I will hopefully though, might run outta walls... lol.
TC: That's the crazy thing with these collabs, especially with a group.  The energy gets really concentrated and beautiful. You can be tired to death and then something hits you, wham, and you can go again.

TC: What do you think are the most important or interesting art movements/action/development that are happening in Trinidad art/culture/carnival scene?
WL: Definitely the We Does Draw group. I can't stress how much I love what is happening there that shit is growin by leaps and bounds! As far as Facebook is concerned, it's the most active group I've been in, period. This place has so many talented people, it jus' blows my mind.
In terms of Carnival, the other 5 brothers and I who make up Zigwa are working hard to ensure that craft and creativity come back to mas and mas making, but we prefer to show rather than tell, so remember the name, you'll be hearing it a lot more.


TC: Any words of wisdom for upcoming graphic designers and creatives?
WL: Hmmmm, words of wisdom - yuh doh hatta be wise tuh impart dem kinda ting? 
Read, read, read
Do, do ,do
Use the technology available tuh you
Learn yuh craft and push yuhself
Right now yuh really don't have to be limited by anything, you can do work (design, illustration, photography etc) and have that work sold to someone in Canada, America, Europe, whereever, and get paid, all without leaving yuh house. That is cool.
Market yuhself. I suggest yuh learn a lil bit about the business side of things. 
Learn how to draw up business contracts, because trust me, people may will run you down to get some work done, but then the game switches when you hatta run them down fuh yuh money. A contract can protect yuh from that, so apart from letting people know that yuh serious, they also know that if they try tuh fuck yuh over, it have court in dat, so they know is tuh approach yuh on ah certain level nah.
Know your worth, and make people respect that. A lot of people want quality but not willing to pay for it. It cyar wuk so. As much as possible, try tuh maintain yuh integrity.
I should probably stop before ah start tuh really rant and sound like a bitter ole designer. I should probably go and soak meh teet, Geritol and Red Bull FTW!!!!

Follow his shenanigans, stories, ole talk, and awesome art on his blog and facebook via Zigwa.