- James Jarvis Illustrator 1970-

Inspired by classic cartoons like Tintin and Popeye, the British illustrator JAMES JARVIS (1970-) has created his own three-dimensional casts of characters as the World of Pain and In-Crowd plastic toys. He also invents imaginary worlds for his characters each of whom has their own role and personality.

When James Jarvis dreamed up a group of bikers as a new collection of the plastic In-Crowd characters he designs for the toy company Amos, he pictured them as “reasonable, sound, sane, wise, balanced, rational, sagacious, prudent, judicious and level-headed”. He even invented a club for these do-gooding bikers – the Forever Sensible Motorcycle Club.

Jarvis went on to study illustration at the University of Brighton and then at the Royal College of Art in London.

A Japanese friend suggested that Jarvis should turn the characters drawn in simple, sparing strokes in his illustrations into toys which he did by creating the engagingly raffish Martin, a moulded plastic model, for the London-based fashion company Silas. Jarvis then developed equally engaging characters to live with Martin in the World of Pain, the imaginary world inspired by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings which he invented for them and depicted in a book and website. Eager to create different characters, who would not necessarily fit in to the World of Pain, he then invented the In-Crowd series of figures.

I really like this kind of work, although I could not see it as something I'd do myself I find it really interesting and love the quality of his works. They're very bold and clear and remind me of Wolice and Gromit style characters.