Not just a small town girl, Amy Simmons has flown the nest and is dipping her talented hand in as many of London’s creative outlets as she can. At just 17, she had already ventured from her small home town in the Scottish borders to Farnham to achieve her foundation in Fashion and Textiles, and now 20, has progressed on to Epsom to study Fashion Promotion and Imaging at the University of The Creative Arts. Currently specializing in illustration, film and animation, she is working on a variety of freelance projects as well as completing her studies and being a regular contributor to IDOL.

Taking inspiration from a family of creatives, she is determined to shape a career in the arts and fashion industry and is already well on her way.

Are others in your family creative, or is it something unique to you?

My immediate family are all creative in their own ways, for example, both my sisters are talented creative writers, but none of them have chosen to channel that creativity through visual art, as I do. My uncle, Steven Appleby, is a huge inspiration to me, as he works as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, and has achieved a huge amount in his creative career. He has some beautiful murder mystery comic books drawn by my Grandma, based on the 1920s aesthetic that she admired from her childhood. I love that you can see the artistic gene travel down the generations and I’m grateful that I’m a part of that chain.

You seem to have so many creative outlets, what made you focus on fashion?

I’ve always been interested in style and reading people based on their aesthetic. A new branch of the fashion industry has been developing more recently that sees fashion as an art form in itself and clothing can become something more conceptual. This is the side of fashion that I love, and that I try to work with in my projects.

Did you find it hard moving away on your own from such a small town?

It was incredibly hard. I am a massive homebody, and am  really close to my family, so moving so far out of my comfort zone was terrifying, but definitely a leap I had to take. When you come from a small town you forget there’s a whole world of amazing experiences beyond that, and its easy to get caught up in that lifestyle and never leave.

Who/ what inspires you when illustrating?

I tend to find inspiration in everything, but particularly in people. I like trying to capture a tiny emotion or action that people don’t think you see, but that tells you something personal about them. Like the tiny frown of disappointment as someone reads a text, and you get a glimpse of their real life. I find that, particularly in London, I need those little things to remind me that those bodies surrounding me on the tube are real people, with thoughts, feelings and lives outside of that moment.

I also find music really inspiring as I become very instinctual when listening to a piece of music, and I love interpreting that into a visual outcome.

What made you come to London, what do you like about the city?

I knew if I wanted to push myself creatively, then London was the place to do it. Its Britain’s hub of creativity. The place to meet like-minded people and create beautiful and amazing things together. I like how London still seems foreign to me, no matter how much I explore, there’s still so much more to see.

Do you have any dream person or project you would love to work with?

I would love to work with Michel Gondry, and create a fashion film with him. I love how he views the mind as a real place that can be navigated, and I’d love to create something based on that concept, but within the context of fashion and identity. Perhaps with the mind as a giant wardrobe… now that would be something!

Where do you see your career going in the next 10 years?

In an ideal world I’ll try and maintain the diversity that I have at the moment in my work. I’d be doing a bit of everything, illustration, animation, film, art direction and set design.

Hopefully I’ll be balancing commercial work with some more experimental projects that will allow me to really push my ideas and originality.

Who would you say is your idol?

Right now its Oliver Postgate. I loved watching his animations on television as a little girl. But now I have a whole new respect for what he managed to achieve in animation with so little in the way of professional equipment, just because of his passion for the medium.

His work has the beautiful imperfections of something that was done by hand, like footsteps in the grass as he walks across the set to move a character. He is one of the reasons I don’t worry about the imperfections in my work, I learn to love them.