Ver Eversum (It)

Ver Eversum (It)

According to FB Ver Eversum means Springtime, so you will understand easily this is the best time for us to interview them. "It is the fascination with nature, infinite source of inspiration, with its forms and its materials" which drive Ver Eversum creativity, it is kind of obvious when you look at their work, really unique, mixing XIXth century illustrations and 70s psychedelism. Will I thank IRPA enough for this discovery ? Well, I hope so...

Hello, of course as every Crewk interview, first question: what are we listening to when we come to visit you?

Just now we’re listening to Weezer’s Pinkerton album.. kinda a big hit in the last month in our studio! Cool happy music to draw with! 

Can you tell us more about yourself, who are you, where are you from, what do you do?

First of all, we’re two people: Ver Eversum is the name of our project of illustration and poster art. We’re a fellow and a lady living near Rome – Italy, coming from different educational backgrounds, with strong passion for drawing, music and screenprint. We began making poster for friend’s band, then we discovered an amazing world of poster art, and decided to try to be a part of it.

When did you start drawing? Did you follow any course or did you improve by drawing in the margins of your schoolbooks?

Definitely margins of schoolbooks, sketchpads, tons of paper that we never have courage to throw in thrash, causing us a major room problem! One of us made more art-focussed studies, not involving hand-drawing classes though. That passion grew with time and practice for both of us. 


Today are you living from your art, or do you do something else for a living ?

At present time, poster art is “the dark side” of our activity; we work as freelance for brand identity, visual communication and advertising companies. From this work as art directors and creatives we pay bills and rent, but we’re investing a lot on the poster side of our studio, and it’s such a pleasure seeing it growing from a small local reality to something bigger and concrete. It’s funny that customer on the “serious” side and from the “music” side often aren’t aware of the double face of our studio. One day we’ll pack-up all of our works, build a nice comprehensive website and make this two different souls converge!


Are you collaborating with magazines/fanzines, regularly?

Actually, work with press and expecially fanzines is one of our target for the next future. We never did that, maybe ‘cause we never contacted any! We were kinda shy, just lately we developed that little bit of self confidence due to little trust in our portfolio. We hope to expand on printed media soon. Book illustration will be, then, the next step.


Where does your influence come from? Is there any artists/graphists you particularly like, what are your influences?

There’s so much stuff constantly influencing us, starting from medieval illustration arriving to present day’s street artists and poster artists. Maybe the main source of ispiration comes from the early 1900s book illustration, black and white and full of details. Artists in that period were great to capture the exact mood of a novel or a fairytale in just one illustration, and that’s exactly what we aim to do with our posters.

What are the principal steps in your work ? Do you do everything by hand or on computer?
How long does it take you to do a poster?

We do 95% of all process, from idea to printed poster, by hand. It should be seen as an outdated way to work, but we believe that there is a strong difference, especially today, seeing a poster drawn by hand or digitally made. We believe that computer should be considered as a very useful tool, but should not override the artist who uses it. We respect and admire lots of people who creates amazing art on computer.. but it’s just a working way that doesn’t fits us. The principal steps in our work involve an embryonal idea, then research about the topic of the poster, read stuff and see images to refine the original idea and make it more meaningful. Then we make tons of sketches of every possible layout, lettering etc. When we’re happy enough (or tired enough) we draw the final version. Even if it seems an endless process, it takes us about 3-4 days to get the complete poster, depending on artwork’s complexity.


You have a very distinctive style, are you doing only what you feel like or if tomorrow somebody asks you an oil painting with horses running out of water with a sunset backdrop, is it a problem or are you up for it ?

Be picky with commissions is something you can only do if you’re plenty of them! But this doesn’t mean you should work as a trained monkey doing everything the customer asks you, in the way he tells you. We’d like to think that if someone hires you on a project, do that ‘cause he apprecciate your particular way of working or style. So, considering that oil painting is not our first mastery, and we’re not really into this kind of images, we’d probably try to persuade the customer to make something more in line with our style!


For which band have you already worked for?

Until now, we mostly worked with bands and venues from Rome’s underground music scene, slowly expanding outside the border of our city to work with different venues and for several cultural associations and music festival. Just a few days ago we made our first poster for an international band.. Karma To Burn playing this month in Italy!

For which band would you love to work?

Probably every poster artist wish and aim to work with the bands he usually listen and love! Our list is quite long..  ‘cause we listen to lots of very different things. If we should pick up from italian current music scene, we’ll be glad to work with NoBraino and Zen Circus. Tool, Fleet Foxes, Black Mountain, Red Fang, Kyuss Lives, My Morning Jacket, Electric Wizard picking up from international band’s pool. Working for big festivals, doing poster series for band playing there, would be also totally cool. But  most of all, we’d love to continue to work with all the bands that supported us, believed in our project and with whom we’re walking a common path, such as Misty Morning and Godwatt Redemption.

Do you choose the artists yourself?

Until now we have been chosed by bands..and we have to say it’s such a cool way to work, because you discover a lot of interesting underground bands and lovely people. But we’re starting to submitting design proposal for big foreign bands. It would be cool, let’s cross our finger!

What is the most difficult part in designing a poster ?

Choosing the idea for the poster, what it should portray, has always been fast for us. Music and lyrics are very inspirational to generate images in our minds. Maybe the most difficult part is trying not to drown in the pool of alternatives, as color patterns, lettering and layout options. Sometimes it’s hard to stay focus on the original idea we choose, cause while you work this idea develops and you’ll never know where it carries you. While we work on a poster, we always try to create something worth to be framed and hung on a wall, in a reasonable time.

Do you think you are part of a "Graphic Scene", if so who else ?

Italy is actually growing the awareness to have a poster art scene, thank to the work of the amazing guys from ItalianRock Poster Art (www.italianposterrockart.com). One year ago we felt like hermits doing some kind of strange job. Today we’re glad to be a part of a big family, a little but constantly growing poster art movement, where you can admire other people’s work, talk to them, ask them for suggestions or giving suggestions to whoever asks you. Can’t wait for meet ‘em all in June, at Italian Poster Rock Art Expo 2012! We hope to initiate more people, collegues and poster fans to the magical mystery of handmade screenprinted posters.


A bit of self-promotion, take advantage of it, it's free, where can we see your work , on the web or in real life?

A complete website of our works will come soon!! meanwhile the best way to keep an eye on what we’re doing, and to sneak peek the backstage behind every poster, it’s our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ver-Eversum-art-lab/106510422714915

The most complete gallery of our poster is on Italian Poster Rock Art:
you can check them out even on Gigposter.com:

The best praise you received lately?

We’re glad anytime someone appreciate what we’re doing.. lately someone we admire a lot told us (speaking about our work) “i wish i thought and made this..” . this is kinda the BEST praise!

What can we wish you for the future?

We always hope to make more poster, to keep working with cool bands and nice people, to live well, love much, laugh often!
We hope for us, and for the italian poster artist movement, to grow big and strong, to make people, bands and venues aware that there are really a lot of young, skillful clever folks you can work with! Yes, they’re right beside you!

Thanks for answering my questions and see you soon on the website !!

Thank you!! :)

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