ALTPICK.COM

While growing up in Missouri, illustrator and designer Doug Erb entertained himself by drawing. "My interest in drawing, art and popular culture has always seemed natural to me. I was raised watching cartoons like Wacky Races, Underdog, and Space Ghost, and found early artistic inspiration from healthy doses of Hot Wheels, Marvel Comics, Mad Magazine and Famous Monsters of Filmland," he says, recalling those formative years.

Although Erb's passion for TV cartoons may have taken a break during his teen and college years, his love for drawing didn't. He just added music to the mix. "I played in a garage band or two, and after a while found myself pondering upon whether to pursue music or art." Even though art won out, Erb still has a guitar or two lying around.

Erb's love of music has certainly enhanced his music packaging design - witness a client list that includes Sony Music, Warner Music, New Line Records, Rhino Records, and Capitol Records. But his designs are not just for music labels. Fantagraphics Books, Tribal DDB and Pearson Learning, are also on his client roster.

Intuitive in his approach, Erb isn't comfortable discussing what a particular image is about. "Ideas for me come from absolutely anywhere and everywhere, elusive ghosts that lose their energy if I talk about them too much," he says. As for his tools of the trade, "When I started out, I was cutting Rubylith, ordering type from your local type house, and doing paste up. That was my world. Nowadays, all you need at times is the Adobe Creative Suite. That said, as an illustrator, I'll never give up using pen and ink."

Erb spoke to altpick.com from his home studio in Springfield.

What did you do after college?
For some reason I didn't look for work with a design studio or art department, but just began freelancing: Business cards, stationary, logos and the like. I remember at the time submitting cartoons to National Lampoon and receiving positive feedback from then cartoon editor Shary Flenniken, getting rejection letters from Marvel. At one point I even wrote Stephen King to see if he'd be interested in writing a comic book, with myself illustrating. What was I thinking?! I was amazed to get a personal response, letting me know that after he'd finished with a graphic novel he was working on, he wouldn't have time for any more comic work in the near future. So, I wasn't without ambition as a creative person.

What was the most significant time in your life?
Professionally I'd say when I moved to California and began working for Fantagraphics Books. It was my first real job in the art world, and the beginning of a series of jobs on the West Coast. When Fantagraphics moved to Seattle, I decided to stay in Los Angeles and worked as a freelance music packaging designer until I began working my way up to full-time art director with Sony Music. Eventually I left that and went back to being a freelancer.

Moving to Los Angeles from Springfield MO must have been a big adjustment.
It was a big change from life in the Midwest. A faster pace, less family oriented and more career driven lifestyle. I went out in 1987, around two years after earning my BFA from Southwest Missouri State University. At that point in my life I loved being in a major city. I finally had access to all the bands I'd always wanted to see, there were great record and book stores to spend my hard earned cash in. It was interesting to me that with all my preconceptions about what life in Los Angeles might be like, many in Los Angeles had preconceptions about life in the Midwest that was just as far off from reality as mine. I feel fortunate to have experience in both of those worlds.

What do you consider to be variables?
For myself, variables occur during the penciling stage of an illustration. As an example, maybe an arm isn't in the correct position, or the client would like to see a different expression. Once I get that tight pencil drawing done and have approval from the client, then we're off and running.

How has the business changed for you in the last couple of years?
There's actually been a huge change for me because I left L.A. at the beginning of 2004 and moved my family back to Springfield. In so many ways things have come full circle. My actual work has changed in that it's much more Web-based, moving more into a direction of character design and illustration, further away from packaging, though I continue to have music packaging projects.

After 20 years in the business do you see any trends in illustration; where it's headed?
I feel I don't consciously focus on trends as much as on the quality and honesty in an illustration. I prefer to continually look at and study the works of my favorite cartoonists and illustrators versus attempting to stay on top of the style of the moment - something that by its very nature is constantly changing.

- Contributed by Mary-Beth Holland