One of our favorite parts about putting together RANGE Magazine is finding passionate, talented people to partner with for photo shoots, illustrations and creative brand stories. When we made Issue One, RANGE enlisted illustrator and maker Andrew Groves to create a special infographic for a feature on goTenna, a rad off-the-grid communication technology. Since then, Andrew’s art project, Miscellaneous Adventures, has taken off.
The project started out as a way for Andrew to combine his love for creativity and outdoor adventure, but now the brand offers a small collection of soft goods and accessories, as well as workshops for woodworking and learning basic camping skills. We’re super stoked for Andrew and Miscellaneous Adventures, so we wanted to catch up with him, learn more about his experiences as an artist, and share all of the fun projects he’s working on.
Q. How did you originally get into printmaking and illustration?
A. It happened fairly organically, I suppose. I’ve always drawn and made things, and was encouraged by my parents to get a job doing something I enjoyed or was good at. It was skateboarding and skateboard graphics that introduced me to the idea of producing a piece of work for a specific purpose or product, which is what I really like about illustration.
Q. Wilderness exploration and adventures, why are these the subjects that you chose to focus on?
A. These are the things that excite and inspire me, so it feels natural to focus on these subjects. I focus on nature in particular as a way of exploring or documenting the way an encounter with nature makes you feel, that sense of wonder and adventure you get when you’re exploring a new place or see a weird bug or creature. I’m interested, too, in the way humans and nature interact, both positively and negatively, so this is a common theme in my work. Also, from a purely aesthetic point of view, nature is hard to beat as a source of visual inspiration.
Q. What inspired you to live in a barn in the woods?
A. I have lived in lots of different places and want to experience as many ways of living as possible. I had just come home from Australia with Emma, my then-girlfriend, now-wife, and we decided to look for somewhere rural to live. The place we found exceeded our expectations, and we were lucky to meet some very interesting people who taught us much of what we know about living in the woods. It supports me creatively by providing the materials I need for my woodworking projects, and it also provides me with a source of inspiration right on my doorstep. There are times when it can feel lonely. I think that’s more a problem with being freelance than the location, though. I share the barn with my wife Emma, and most of the time, we wish it was even more isolated than it is.
Q. You created the goTenna infographic for RANGE Magazine Issue One and it was EPIC. How do you see illustration evolving (or how have you seen it evolve) to tell brand stories?
A. Thank you! It was super fun to make! Illustration is a really powerful tool to help make data more interesting or easily digestible to the viewer, and I think the rise in popularity of infographics reflects that. I personally think that illustration helps convey a message or concept, and it’s great when brands embrace this to help tell their story.
Q. Could you tell us a little bit about your recent project, Miscellaneous Adventures?
A. Its beginnings are a little hazy, but I founded the project not long after we moved into our barn in the woods and had to learn about working with hand tools and wood, and looking after a woodland. At around the same time, I’d also completed a long trek in the far north of Sweden and been inspired by a nation of outdoors folk who seemed to be better connected to nature than we are here in the U.K. I wanted to combine my new skills with the attitudes and aesthetic I’d seen in Sweden and link it back to my illustration work and style.
I started off incorporating the things I’d seen into my illustration work, but it wasn’t enough, and I felt that working inside on a computer contradicted what I was trying to achieve. One of the first things I made was a little wooden toggle that was inspired by those the native people of Sweden use to attach cups and other tools to their belts. Our Micro Mountain Toggles now are an update on the original design. The name comes from seeing so many awesome patches on hikers’ rucksacks on our trek. Each one was a souvenir from a specific location or trip, but I thought it would be nice to have one that was a memento of lots of smaller achievements, so I designed one featuring the words “Miscellaneous Adventures” and it stuck.
I guess I hope that by combining traditional skills and outdoor adventures with a strong graphic style, I can bring these topics to an audience that perhaps might not have been interested otherwise. I really just want people to connect with nature and the outdoor environment as it’s so important in understanding who we are, where we’ve come from, and how we’re affected by the changes we’re making to the planet. It’s also super fun, so get out there!
Q. I know you all recently came out with a brand new collection, can you pick a favorite?
A. Yeah, we did! It was a mini collection of soft goods and accessories all inspired by the themes of navigation and pathfinding. With all our products, we want to try and encourage people to get outside, have fun, connect with nature, and learn about some of the awesome things you can do in the great outdoors, and we tried really hard to make this collection both look good and be educational or inspirational in some way.
One of my favorite products from the collection is the Constellation Tee, which features a graphic illustrating how to locate Polaris using the pointer stars of the Big Dipper. It’s 100% recycled, too. At the core of our brand are the wooden camping utensils, so we launched a limited edition Pathfinder Spoon with a little waxed cotton pouch, which I really like too.
Q. What drew you into the world of creative woodworking?
A. It was kind of an accident. I learned woodworking through outdoor skills and creating objects I needed or wanted while in the woods, but with everything I do, I want to inject an element of creativity or subvert the subject in some way. For me, the appeal of working with wood is firstly in taking a chunk of material and turning it into a useable object, and secondly in where there material comes from. Trees are just incredible, and learning about how they grow and the ecosystems they create has been one of the biggest pleasures in learning to work with wood.
Q. What is the most important object that you’ve created and why?
A. I made an outdoor/woodcarving knife with my dad just as I started getting into woodwork. My dad is amazing at working with both wood and metal, so to work on a project with him was great. I use the knife to make nearly all my wooden objects, and take it with me on every adventure, so it’s a really special thing.
Q. How do you help others discover woodworking?
A. Through our products and artwork, we try to spread the word about nature and creativity in the outdoors. We also teach monthly woodcarving workshops in the woods, showing folks how to make their own wooden utensils in a fun and creative outdoor environment. Additionally, we teach some basic camping skills, and are trying to encourage people away from their computer screens and into the woods. We’re in our third year of teaching now, and it’s so much fun sharing the skills we’ve learned and enjoying a beer around the campfire at the end of a day of making things with a bunch of awesome people. We have some new workshops and outdoor experiences planned, too, which we’re really excited about.
Images by Andrew Groves, courtesy of Miscellaneous Adventures.
XX SYDNEY
