We’re so excited to share our final collaborator for 2017 — welcoming London-based illustrator Dominic Kesterton to the Odd Pears family!
Gazing at Dominic’s drawings feels a bit like dipping out of reality for a second and taking a little mind holiday. Carving a strong niche for himself over the last few years, his work has become instantly recognisable, with an iconic combination of monochromes, heavy colour-blocking and lush line-work. Mysterious man-holes, alluring shapes, blobby men with chunky appendages and plants galore flow from Dominic’s pen, both analogue and digital, in a style that balances reality and the abstract.
Yep, Dominic sucked us into his wonderfully graphic world a couple of years back and we just knew we had to collaborate with him one day. And, finally, that day has arrived!
Read on to discover more about Dominic + shop the wonderful limited edition foliage-flavoured Pears he designed for us here.
Give us the low-down. Who are you / what do you do / where are you based?
I am Dominic Kesterton. I am an illustrator. I recently moved to London.
Can you share your working process? What are your essentials? (for example, tools, materials, tunes, snacks etc)
My essential tools are a HB pencil and some paper. I quite recently got one of those ruler sort of things with loads of different size circles cut out of it, I love this tool. My process is just sketching stuff in pencil trying to refine stuff and then doing it in pen. Snack-wise, I’m down for most things whilst working, I eat quite a lot of pasta.
Your work spans across analogue and digital — what is your favourite way of working?
I guess analogue is my favourite. I like drawing and I like painting. I like digital stuff too, it doesn’t have to be one or the other. I’m interested in trying more digital stuff now because my hand is hurting from drawing.
We really admire your crisp outlines, bold colours and simplistic approach. Who do you admire and what inspires you in your practice?
I admire simple and immediate things in most mediums.
Tell us about the design you came up with for our collaboration!
It quite simply is some thick foliage. Using the colour green seemed right for it.
How do you spend your downtime, ie. when you’re not drawing?
I like to make music, skateboard a little. I like doing nothing, just watching trash on TV or online.
If you could send anyone in the history of the world your Pears to happily wear forever and ever, who would it be and why?
Some ancient being, I’m not sure how to specify which one but it would cool to send them way back out of context to a point where the perceiver would have trouble figuring out what they are and how they were made and why. What is a sock?
What are you looking forward to in the new year?
I’m looking forward to next summer. I’m looking forward to making some more t-shirts. I want to produce some paintings too. I really hope to get stuff done.
See more from Dominic Kesterton —