Darcel has been a regular fixture on our blog for some time now, but Craig’s work doesn’t end with his little character. He recently returned from Milan, where he presented his series Portraits in print and 3-D form at the Slam Jam store. But I’ll be quiet now so you can read the interview and ogle Craig’s lovely LES studio.
Gillian Tozer: How did you decide on the look and persona of Darcel?
Craig Redman: During my first year in New York, I began making these stupid observations––the kind everyone makes when you first move to a new city. I was just noticing all these strange new things, so I decided to start a blog. Since my writing skills sucked, I decided it should probably be an illustrated blog.
Additionally, the illustration style I was doing at the time was super complicated, and I was just getting sick of it! Darcel took half a day to design––I wanted to create the simplest character that I could twist into any shape without stressing out. So I just banged him out. That was around 2007.
GT: And was Darcel an instant hit?
CR: I set up an e-mail account for the blog in the first few weeks of its inception and then completely forgot about it. Maybe three months later, I thought, shit I better check that email! And of course, there was a message there from i-D from like three months prior, asking me to do a fashion story for them. They of course ignored me when I wrote back. But within the first year, I heard from Sarah at Colette––she has really helped enormously with the exhibitions, the collaborations, and stuff like that. I've been incredibly lucky.
GT: You just had a great show in Italy, and Colette is cray-cray for your stuff. Is there a Euro appeal in your designs?
CR: I think being in Colette helps attracts a Europen audience because everyone has great respect for the store, but most of the blog visitors are from USA, specifically New York.
GT: Why do you think this is?
CR: I just think people can relate to him––he doesn't talk to butterflies, live in the clouds, or skip down rainbows. He gets sick of walking up six-floor walk-ups, waiting in line for 10 hours for a fucking coffee in SoHo every morning, and gets desperately lonely. It's just a normal, boring life. He has some clue about what’s going on in the world––it's not dumbed down. It's not like watching Bravo, where you turn your brain off. He challenges you to think.
GT: What’s been the most popular post?
CR: In the early days, there was this Halloween drawing where Darcel had on one horrific thing after the other: a Croc, an Ugg boot, a Snuggie, an Ed Hardy cap, and a pair of those Kanye West shutter sunglasses that every tourist buys in Chinatown. That was pretty popular.
GT: Did you like any particular designers growing up?
CR: During high school, I was pretty sheltered from the international art scene in Australia. Once I got to University I started figuring what I liked. But my whole knowledge came from my dad's Australian art history books. My dad is a civil engineer, but he's a bit of a weekend artist. As a little