“Memory is a big force in my work,” London-based writer and illustrator William Goldsmith tells It’s Nice That. “Visually, I like cataloguing memories from a particular time, but I also play with repetition, overlay and abstraction to convey how slippery memory can be.” That’s why the illustrators work so often takes the form of something sequential: like comics, zines and books. His recent publication The Suitcase is a comic that spills out a beautifully illustrated narrative across its pages – a story springs off from a childhood memory of a boy climbing into a suitcase carousel and merges memories from three cities: Athens, Glasgow and Moscow. Riso-printed with four colour layers in a limited edition of 100 at the London Centre for Book Arts, the book explores in layered, patterned windows that overspill with colour a narrative about ‘the beguiling pull of memory, and the strange patterns that shape it.’
Inside this theme of memory sits William’s fascination with how a sense of place shapes a story. Whether its entirely imaginary spaces – like his wacky collaged mini sets for The World of Interiors magazine or real places and scenarios drawn from observation, the illustrator’s scenes always carry a playful sense of humour or hint at the surreal. Much of the inspiration for the atmosphere of William’s drawings comes from escaping the everyday and placing himself somewhere new entirely: “If I travel, I like to be in a new place for a long period,” he says, like his residency at the Šašek Foundation this summer in Czechia where he started to develop a new book, drawing influence from the town of Tábor’s colours, textures and tiny winding streets.
As for the shape of the characters in his work, even though his style is not “photorealistic”, he says, his figures always “need to feel like real people I have encountered,” their dialogue often inspired by the “rhythms and dynamics” of daily ramblings. “Perhaps this is my biggest creative influence,” the illustrator ends, “just remembering the stories people tell me.” As a writer as well as an illustrator, William’s practice is pretty much the perfect recipe for such compelling storytelling.