Vector Town Collective Interview
Part 1/2
Please describe the basic idea behind your project
M: The vector.town collective was founded in january 2020 in Berlin and is a community of creative people.
The main focus is the production of illustrations and vector set on different topics, for example dealing with the society in large cities and it’s architecture. We offer those through our online shop. Everyone who buys our illustrations can use them for their own commercial or non commercial design projects. The available vector sets are not only for professional designers but also for young creatives.
A small element, such as a person or a plant from an existing set is often already sufficient. Less is more. Our sets are for all who enjoy prototyping, tinkering and who want to create new works or fictional worlds.
Why was the founding as a collective important to you and how is the collaboration organized?
M: The group idea was important to us. The level of participation in the collective is up to every designer. They only have to submit a clean, elaborated illustration or a vector set and complete a personal application procedure. That is the entrance to the collective. The designer is then free to decide to participate in future collaborations, strategies or art activities of the collective. Furthermore he gains free access to all existing sets as well as the internal “work-stage area” where projects and composition sets are harmonized.
Does the collective only consists of designers and illustrators who work digitally?
M: At the moment, yes. Access for free artists, who do not do illustrations, we are planning at the moment. The focus is primarily on group projects, exhibitions as well as collaborations within the scope of the collective. At the moment I can’t tell you any more concretely.
How long did the development of the project and the first vector sets take?
M: The development of the first sets e.g. the 100 people of the “Berlin Edition” as well as the architectural studies took about 2 years. During that time the project kept growing and had to be newly aligned several times. Analysis of the market and the inclusion of needs and requirements of young creative designers was very important.The project grows, changes and sometimes even surprises us. [laughs]
How does the voting within the collective work and who decides if a set will be included in the catalog or not?
M: All members have equals rights and vote jointly on newly submitted illustrations. Since the opinions regarding artistic works are often very diverse, we try to keep the voting process as simple and matter-of-fact as possible. For the whole process we have defined 8 rules, those can be found on our website under “Welcome to the rabbit hole!” – we work very structured.
At the moment there are no people portraits on the website vector.town. How would you describe yourselves?
M: As individualists, …well. [laughs loudly] maybe as freaks! We define ourselves through our work. Longs biographies would be disproportionate and seem somewhat antiquated. None of the applicants or shop customers have so far asked for them.
What previous occupations did the member have and how did you find each other?
M: Our members are from all areas of the media sector. There are some who have jointly done contract work for agencies and costumers for years. We work on a project basis and how the network behind it developed I can not really say.
