TAXI Thanks for doing this interview with us. What have you been busy with lately?

Gianluca Folì Thanks to you. Recently I’ve spent most of my time working on another children’s book which took me almost a year, it’s only the second one for me and I considered it a great challenge. By the way, I didn’t missed working on commercial and on my personal portfolio, sketching on my old Moleskine diary.

My future plans are all addressed to create more project as an author and these are the right occasions to catch.

TAXI Could you share with us your creative process?

Gianluca Folì I usually prefer watercolour, pencil and ink but I rarely work on a single support. I simply make an editing and assembling work using Photoshop levels as they were paper sheets, superimposing the different analogic elements to compose the final illustration. I adopted this method mostly because of the commercial work where you’re always requested for changes and partial modifications, and it’s easier to modify a detail without spoiling the rest of the image. Maybe I just saturate a colour or erase a level, something that would be much more laborious if done in my own hand. I pay a special attention on the paper composition, searching for the right one to fit my lines and the matter effect I want to achieve.

TAXI What is it about Asian philosophies that fascinate you? And what does the colour white mean to you?

Gianluca Folì Filosophy held into gesture. The simple, impudent beauty of a sign which contains the inner power of its creator.

Every line comes from an intuition, from a mountain’s wind peace, from a great emotion, from a challenge, from a pleasure or from a need and everything could became sign and design.

White is a scary colour for many Illustrators, in Italy we have the so-called “white paper fear “ and at the beginning I was scared too, so that I started using layers and layers of acrylic colours to cover evrything.

Then there was an instant, a really hard moment of personal transition, and I came out with the need to start over from myself, from the sheet, from drawing’s bases, from White and I found in it my natural habitat, an oriental quiet, a new space to fill with myself. So simple.

TAXI What do you think are the essential skills a good illustrator should have?

Gianluca Folì Basically there’s only one rule: to be honest with your work.

We can plentifully talk about the commercial work an Illustrator does only for money or about the fragile alchemy between outside and inside spurs but as a matter of fact an Illustrator should always be independent from market trends, He should develope a personal conscience devoted to individual research and not to the imagery homologation so that we can have a clearness of intents, an intellectual honesty that every draw might have.

TAXI Having been interviewed by important publications such as Casa a Milano, how do you define success? Does your definition change all the time?

Gianluca Folì External attentions to my work is surely satisfying but it’s quite far from “success”, Today I’ve the impression that being successfull is a really temporary matter, so hard to keep if you really don’t have your personal style that stands “out from the chorus”. By the years, with field experience and never ending research I started to have my own personal idea of how our work could bring us to the Olympus of true success, and it’s not just a matter of fame, it’s something really personal, it’s your work speaking for yourself.

TAXI Having done work for a variety of clients, from periodicals to fashion labels to children’s books, what are your favourite types of work and why?

Gianluca Folì Generally I like everything I do but I love working on children’s books. When I was a child I remeber I loved to turn over the pages of Andersen fairy tales, with their magical northern illustrations.

We had such a lot of those books in the house, someone so old I couldn’t even touch, I’ve got those feelings still alive in me, those colours, my mother voice reading of magical places, sitting by the bed.. feeding my dreams.

My love for paper and my desire to create fantastic images were born on those days and I’m truly inspired by knowing that some child in the world could feel the same way by reading my books.
Last but not least, books are more free and request more interpretation than a magazine or any advertisement work, they really bring your style to surface, that’s why you have to be confident in what you do.

TAXI I notice humour seems to play a role in almost all your works. What are the key messages you hope to communicate with your illustrations?

Gianluca Folì I must confess you’re the first one making me notice humour in my works; Some pieces really are humorous, like “Me, Sushiii” or “Kuma Danzu” but most of all I research some kind of poetry, not the sugary or banal one but more the poetry you can mirror of and, why not, laugh with.

TAXI Please share with us an image of your workspace.

Gianluca Folì Waiting for my brand new studio to be renovated, this is my temporary working space. I like the analogical section and the digital one cohabiting on the same level.

Next to my pen tablet you can always find crayons or Ecoline inks scattered all over the table so that I often loose my Intuos pen.

On the right you can see my board, used to recall my week agenda, of course, but often covered with some “souvenirs” from my past, form places I’ve been to and from my best works.

TAXI Before we end, tell us, where would you like a TAXI to take you now?

Gianluca Folì What a question!...to the Airport!