0602 Collective

'There have always been collectives, but the fact that so many formerly solo-going illustrators are banding together is telling. In some ways, it’s another sign that illustration is mirroring the multidisciplinary design studio model. As illustration is increasingly treated like a design solution rather than a decorative element, there’s more need for larger collectives that can put their minds and pens together like an agency might. Peepshow may be at the forefront, but we expect smaller collectives (in Germany and beyond) to evolve in that direction.' - https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/why-every-illustrator-should-form-a-collective-right-now/

Starting the 0602 Collective has been really interesting. To be honest, I’ve never taken a leadership role in anything I’ve done in life. But it’s quite fun! It’s completely outside of my comfort zone to organise meetings, delegate tasks and reach out to people, which has also made it an experience of growth for me. I think this is helped due to working with such a talented, resourceful and communicative group of artists who form the 0602 collective. Being part of this collective allows us to share ideas, collaborate and find creative inspiration without feeling like we're all in this on our own. Working together we hope that each of our work and styles will grow and develop, as one person's perspective on a project can be completely different to another's.

WE ARE:
Elloise Rosemond, Hannah Balogun, Nicola Reeves, Jasmine Walsh, Laura White, Mark Henson-Dupuy, Claudia Espart, Jack Merton, Katherine Koroleva, Adi Pashalidi Kozelj and Patricia Beja.

To create a name for our collective in the beginning, I created a poll with different names that everyone had come up with and asked everyone to vote for their faves. This resulted in the name Smoothie with a whopping 5 votes in total! A couple of weeks after, at our first official meeting when Laura V got involved, the name Smoothie was no longer (which we were all quite glad about tbh). 0602 Collective was birthed – to mark our very first meeting on the 2nd February, which we much preferred. Our first task was to make a self-portrait - see some of ours below!
 
Personally, I can already see how this is impacting my own work in terms of having a solid group of people that all have a similar goal in common – to make more work. This somehow makes it easier to find the motivation to create work and not to worry so much about it ‘fitting in’ to a particular brief; in other words, it’s a safe space. Especially as I have often lacked confidence to carry out my ideas as a student, being a part of this collective has helped me to draw out the ideas I have within. I feel as though we have eachother’s best interests because we all want to get something out of this experience and it gives us a platform to share our work and get honest feedback, as well as encouragement when we need it. I’m really grateful to Laura V for coming up with the idea of starting a collective and egging me on to start it off, albeit forcefully (but forcefully in a nice way like when your grandma puts more food on your plate even after you’ve said you’re full), it’s made me really happy to be a part of even though we are still in the early stages.

We had a second meeting where we talked about projects we want to do for the next few weeks. We would like to make work about current events as well as weirder topics, but as it's March *Women's Month* we decided on the word motherly as our first theme. We have our third meeting tonight so I'm excited to see what everyone has come up with.​

Illustrations of the 0602 logo by lovely gals Hannah Balogun and Nic Reeves.

Katerina Demetriou-Jones