Interview #19: sixcellphones

I’ve been a fan of Jake’s art for a minute now, and I quickly realised he was the perfect fit for my first non-musical interviewee. His pieces are phenomenal and I can tell he is dedicated to his craft. He’s also a real real nice guy! Enjoy this interview and support his work, which I’ll link at the bottom.

1. What inspires you the most to create? Is it primarily a musical influence or do you have favourite artists in your field of work?

ive noticed a lot of things inspire me to create. wether it be new music or some fashion shit. i love making mock ups bc i like to showcase my creativity and put twists on things im interested in and honestly i just like making shit that looks cool. a lot of LV ads, old nike shit and other covers inspire me. theres a lot of incredible designers on twitter bailey, nipz, travis, kodone, marcus, jamescargil and many more i could go on forever lmao but my biggest inspirations artistically have to be LV, john coltrane, takashi murakami, ps2 games and lil b AND WATTBA.

2. Can you describe your creative process for me? Your designs must take a while to perfect.

i usually jus get on photoshop with no idea what to do then figure out sum along the way wether that be from random ideas that popup in my head or sum i see on twitter. from there i jus try to perfect what i put n make it look as good as i can.. nothing crazy really lmao

3. How long have you been doing graphic designs for? Your talent is evident and I’d guess you’ve built up this skill over the years.

i took a graphic arts class 4 yrs ago when i was a freshman. thats where i first learned photoshop n i kinda jus fell in love with it from there was only really working on pointless shit like changing the colors on peoples shirts but def knew it was sumn i could have fun with. after that class i didnt really touch photoshop until my sophomore year when my friend josen hit me up and asked me to make him a cover. i had fun with it and went on to make a few more for him. it wasnt till i moved out of my house about 5 months ago when i started taking covers serious. i pirated some form of photoshop for my computer and started making some more covers for josen. after that a few random people hit me up and from there i kinda saw where i could take this. so i had some more customers made some more covers n mockups n here i am now. im far from great but i feel i improve everyday and i feel my work shows that.

4. When did you become interested in hip-hop? Has the art of your favourite albums been an influence on your work?

ive always liked hip-hop even when i was a lil kid. i think when i seriously got into hip-hop i heard some joey bada$$ shit n fell in love wit it. that kinda jus led me to madlib, j dilla and DOOM n some stuff like that. as time went on i really got into future after listening to DS2. from there i was in love with rap music n i jus opened up to many artists and i feel like i have a very diverse taste in music. some of my favorite album covers gotta be liquid swords – GZA, mm food – MF DOOM, banco – sir michael rocks, big gucci sosa – chief keef n gucci, XXX – danny brown, EVERY GORILLAZ COVER, daniel johnston covers, 1999 – joey badass, yeezus – kanye west, 808s n heartbreaks – kanye west, every uzi cover n miles davis covers and many maaany more. id say a lot of these covers have influenced my work.

5. Of the work you’ve done, which piece or collection of pieces are you most proud of? I was put on to you through your take on Beast Mode 2, that was seriously dope and could easily be official work.

i appreciate that a lot 💕 n my favorite things ive made are easily my mockup pollari cover and my takashi murakami n lv collab. both were very time consuming but the outcome was well worth it. i think i like these the most because of the colors and jus how nice they look design wise.

6. I saw the other day you were considering doing merch, I think that’s a great way to get your brand out there and hopefully we will see a long line of it? I think there’s a lot of great art you could put on shirts, accessories and such.

tuhhh! yeah i had a few designs i had made that i thought would look cool to put on some shirts. ive had a few people hmu to make some clothing and thought maybe i can try it. people seem to want it im just hesitant bc i feel like no one would buy it lmao. but sixcellphones shirts SOOON! maybe.

7. Do you have any favourite artists, or artists you’d love to design something for? Your ideal design placement, ideally.

design/art wise my favorite artists are takashi, kaws, mark gonzalez, katsuhiro otomo and kodone. i would be tha happiest man in the world if i could one day work with any of these artists. music wise i would love to make a cover for sir michael rocks, travis scott or maybe sumn for thugger. my IDEAL placement is designing for LV wether tht b LV ads or some bags. making some designs or ads for apple music or nike would b pretty coo too…

8. What new stuff are you working on? And where can people find it when it’s posted?

more sixcellphones designs/ merch maybe. some client work n then some more designer n shoe mockups :)!!! everything can b found on my twitter ion rlly b on anything else

9. Where did the name sixcellphones come from? Sounds like a producer name of sorts so I fuck with it.

i think i was making my new twitter acc n needed a new @ n was deciding what to put. i remember hearing sixcellphones in a sir michael rocks song n thought it sounded pretty cool. it was between sixcellphones and deathblassic but ig i jus chose sixcellphones lmao. its also a bladee lyric which is cool too!

10. Finally, I want to say thankyou for doing this interview and is there anyone you want to shout out to wrap up?

thank uu!! these questions fr amazing n i had a great time answering em. hopefully someone cares ab me enough to read all this n maybe we can do another interview in the future theres a lot yall still ain kno ab a g. SHOUTS OUT TINY PANTS GANG, DRAKE OVO BADMANTING AKA CHAMPAGNE PAPI, MY GF, LEBRON JAMES, KEITH SWEAT AND PIRACY!!

Check out the sixcellphones portfolio here. Follow Jake on Twitter at @sixcellphones.