06 → Yuk Fun @yukfunwow
Yuk Fun is an independent illustration label ran by Lucy Cheung (She/Her) and Patrick Gildersleeves (He/Him) based in Portslade-by-Sea, England. On top of making and selling Yuk Fun products. They also work freelance on developing client projects.
How has your creative journey looked?
Long, arduous and slow! We graduated back in 2007 (Patrick) and 2008 (Lucy) and it's only in the last couple of years that we feel we're really getting somewhere (and have left our part time jobs). We both did our own art separately after graduating from a Contemporary Creative Practise course. We both felt more like artists and tried to make our way in that world for several years before focusing more on illustration and clothing.
Were you motivated by family or friends to pursue or not pursue a career in it, or was it entirely self-led?
Neither of us have arty parents but they both encouraged us to do what we wanted.
Have you ever felt like giving up? Or could you not bring yourselves to do anything else?
There have been times where it has felt very hard, for example after doing an art fair where no one has bought anything! We've never seriously discussed giving up though. It's very hard to imagine doing anything else now, we love what we do and we've poured so much time and effort into it.
How did you decide YUK FUN would be viable for the two of you? (creatively & as a business.)
We had both been struggling as artists separately after graduating working day jobs and not really getting anywhere in the art world. Patrick had done a few illustration commissions but they were really badly paid. In 2014 Patrick was commissioned to do some T-shirt designs for a children's clothing company. This gave us the idea to make clothing ourselves and try to make a go of it as a business.
What does your idea of contentment look like? Is it monetary, a state of mind, or something different entirely? Do you believe we can find creative contentment in client work, or is that mostly quenched for you guys by your apparel business?
Ooh that's a tricky question. It's certainly hard to be content when you're not making enough money to pay the bills, but we're not aiming to be mega rich. I would say it's making work we're really proud of, that other people appreciate and that earns us enough money to have a good quality of life.
Did you have a childhood dream growing up? Apparently ¼ of people actually end up in their ‘dream job’. Is it all bullshit? Are you there? Should we follow our dreams?
Patrick wanted to be a cowboy, which hasn't really worked out! Lucy didn't have a childhood dream other than to grow up, which she's achieved haha. Surely there's no harm in following our dreams, as long as you bear in mind that they might well not come true. We love doing the work we do but it involves a lot more admin and boring stuff than I think a lot of people might realise. Not sure any kid dreaming of being an illustrator thinks about spreadsheets and tax returns!
“Surely there's no harm in following our dreams, as long as you bear in mind that they might well not come true.”
Do you guys have a form of ethos slash moral code you stick to which informs which clients you work with or do you think that’s more of a luxury we can't usually afford? That is to say: Are you willing to sacrifice income for peace of mind? As co-owners / authors of YUK FUN. Is it ever a struggle negotiating with each other in terms of creative direction, clients, etc. How do you navigate that partnership?
There are definitely companies we wouldn't work for and we've turned down the occasional job. There have been a few occasions where clients have chosen a direction that we disagreed with but nothing major... we tend to just suck it up and go along with it. They are paying, so it's fair enough that the client gets what they want. We do have the odd difference in opinion when it comes to what we're making, but we talk it over and find a compromise eventually.
In terms of the future, are you glass half-full, or half-empty? Especially with a gradual rise in acceptance to generative A.I. and so on. Do you see AI as a growing threat to your job security as creatives?
Half-full just about! AI is definitely a concern and I don't think it's a fad; from everything I've read and heard it's going to either make a lot of people jobless or massively change the way everyone works. I think the clients that would hire us aren't the kind of clients that would use AI anyway - they want to work with genuine people and appreciate human creativity.
What are the realities of running an independent apparel business like YUK FUN?
What's great is that it is very varied, in one day we can be working on a comic, printing T-shirts, packing a wholesale order, working on a spreadsheet, emailing clients and so on, so it's never boring. We can listen to music or podcasts when we're doing less interesting tasks unlike in lots of our old jobs, and can decide our own hours. Drawing cute animals is a relatively small amount of what we do all day, but also business stuff doesn't have to be boring!
“Drawing cute animals is a relatively small amount of what we do all day, but also business stuff doesn't have to be boring!”
If you could time travel back to the start of your business, what wise advice or cautions would you tell yourselves, and I suppose by extension, other creatives looking to start up their own independent businesses either alone or with friends?
Be prepared for any kind of success taking a lot longer than you think! If you're going to make stuff, then try to make things that you would love to own, or work on projects that you are passionate about.
You two must wear a ridiculous amount of hats running all the different aspects of YUK FUN. So how do you account for self-doubt and burnout, especially when having to work to client deadlines, and I'm assuming screenprint, manage inventory, pack, and ship your various products. (while vending at art fairs, and so on.)?
The only time when things start to feel a bit tricky is the build-up to Christmas. We get a lot of orders from individual customers, plus shops that stock us as well as doing art fairs on lots of the weekends. We try really hard to draw a line and stop working too long into the evenings and we'll try to set aside time to go for walks to get away from work. I think we also just happen to be very lucky with our physical and mental health, plus we have each other which helps a lot. We also both had jobs in social care in the past where we had bigger responsibilities and more stress. If something went wrong in those jobs then it could potentially be really bad for the people we were helping, whereas with YUK FUN someone might not get a T-shirt in time for their birthday. So it feels like the stakes are much lower!
How do you handle clients, do you have a written contract, or is each project handled on an individual basis? If so, has it changed a lot over the years?
Yes, we have a written contract every time we work with a client. If it's a big company, they usually write it, but we have a template that we use for smaller clients. We make sure we ask for a 50% deposit before we start any work. Yes it has changed - we didn't have a clue about this stuff when we started and would do work without a contract or deposit.
Looking ahead, do you guys have any big aspirations or goals set for yourselves and YUK FUN? Or are you more of the mind that we should take things day by day?
We have a dream of having a workspace/shop/gallery one day where we could organise exhibitions.
Lastly... An image of something that gives you contentment?
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