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The Mischief Movement Podcast
A podcast for people looking for more Hell Yeah in their life! This is your one-way ticket out of midlife-mediocracy towards fun and positive impact, via playful-disruption! Wouldn’t you love to wake up and feel like a total badass?! Stop waiting for your amazing life to happen and go get it! We’ll discuss mindset, share stories and develop strategies in a bid to help you find the freedom, adventure and meaningful connections you’ve been craving. You will feel inspired to create positive change, do more of what makes you feel alive and rebel against the ordinary!
The Mischief Movement Podcast
Colouring Outside the Lines: Making Mischief as a Full-time Artist with Ian Cook from PopBangColour
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Have you ever painted your dreams with the vibrant strokes of perseverance and innovation? My guest, Ian Cook of PopBangColour, certainly has, transforming his visionary childhood scribbles into a life-size canvas of success. This episode peels back the layers of Ian's artistic journey, from the early days of navigating university critiques (crits) to the adrenaline-fuelled moment his giant Lewis Hamilton portrait turned heads and ignited his career. His story is a vivid palette of serendipitous encounters and strategic pivots that’ll inspire you to see the world through a kaleidoscope of possibilities.
Step inside the studio where creativity and corporate meet as Ian walks us through the corridors of teaching, the hustle of bar work, and into the heart of the business world that's anything but drab. The conversation is charged with tales of chance meetings that blossom into career-defining projects, illustrating the power of networking and the art of standing out in a crowd—literally, in Ian's case, thanks to his penchant for colorful clothing. It's a candid look at the intricate dance between personal passion and professional growth in the art industry.
As the engines cool and the episode winds down, we shift into a more intimate gear. Ian shares the warmth of his car restoration project, a beautiful ode to family history and the ties that bind us to our past. We also explore the crucial elements of consistency and visibility, ensuring that artists like Ian don't just survive, but thrive in their chosen path. So, if you're ready to shift your perspective and add a splash of color to your daily routine, this conversation is the perfect backdrop to fuel your mischief and creativity.
https://www.popbangcolour.com/
Not long ago I felt trapped by the daily grind and all the mundane stuff and responsibility it brought. I wanted to escape but instead of running away, I decided to rebel against the ordinary, put FUN back on the agenda and do more of the things that made me feel alive. This podcast is one of them and through these conversations I'd love nothing more than to be able to help you do the same!
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For more insights and inspiration on living your best life and rebelling against the ordinary, check out the blog or sign up to my newsletter at zoegreenhalf.com You can also find me on Instagram @themischiefmovement or LinkedIn and let's start a conversation. Who knows? Maybe we can shake things up and start making mischief together!
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And I just, you know, for me, I just want to keep doing that quote bigger, brighter, louder, faster, Like just doing that, Like that is my motivation, is to just do what I do, but better.
Zoe Greenhalf:Hello, it's Zoe mentor, creator and mischief maker behind the Mischief Movement Podcast, your weekly inspo for people looking for more hell yeah in their life. I'm on a mission to help you rediscover that rebellious streak, find your confident inner badass and stop holding yourself back from the amazing life that you're dreaming of. Why? Because I know what it's like to wake up one day and think, wow, this isn't the life I'd imagined for myself. But I decided to bring the fun back, get curious about the things that made me feel alive and empower others to boldly rebel against the ordinary with me, and so the mischief movement was born. I've always loved the word mischief because it's cheeky, playful and a little bit rebellious, and that's exactly what I hope this podcast brings to the table. Now I'm daring you to jump in with me. Are you ready? Let's go.
Zoe Greenhalf:If you're a budding artist wanting to take your passion full time. If you're a creative and you've been led to believe that you can't make money from a creative career, if you're a petrolhead or multi-passionate, curious to know whether it's possible to combine those passions and create something truly magical and unique to you, oh my god, do not go anywhere, because this episode with Ian Cook spills the beans on what being a full-time artist really looks like. So yeah, spoiler, it's totally possible. It's a long one, because we covered a lot of ground, from uni days to struggling to earn a creative living, to getting a lucky break and kicking off his career. Or was it really just luck, as you'll discover? If there's one thing that Ian is brilliant at, it's using his drive, determination and unfailing self-belief to make things happen for himself.
Zoe Greenhalf:And I think if you only take away one thing from this podcast, please let it be that Believing in yourself will carry you way further than talent alone. But I'll let you judge for yourselves. So get comfy and prepare to meet this week's mischief maker, Ian Cook. Well, Ian, I feel like this conversation has been a long while coming, actually, but I'm really excited to finally have you here and quiz you about what you do. So, uh, what? What is your mischief?
Ian Cook:What is my mischief? Now, I was thinking about this. Um, I think I'm pretty dogged in terms of like, if I, if I'm like, really I want something, I'm like a dog with a bone, like I'm gonna get it, uh. And the other thing I think is there's not really a line between Pop Van Colour and Ian Cook, like it's kind of One and the same. It's a very blurred line Because it isn't the business and it is what I do and it's what I'm known for doing.
Ian Cook:But it's also like, it is my like. I live and breathe it, I love doing it. I'm very fortunate to be able to have it as my job. But it's also like it's hard work and it's sitting there. I, you know, wake up at 7, 7.30 and I'm like right, today I'm doing this and I'm never. It's almost like. It's almost like I'm not satisfied, because I, you know, it's great to have done things, but it's always like what's next, like what could it?
Ian Cook:Yeah, and that determine, you know, and that determination to kind of be like always the next project, always the next artwork and how to get there, yeah, and I I'm a, when it's come to art and stuff, even from school, like I don't, they broke the rules because it's you know, rules are there, you need to abide by certain rules, but in art there aren't that, there aren't rules.
Ian Cook:And I and I've pretty much from from day dot. I remember, you know, being at school and like when they said right, you produce an a4 sized artwork, and I'd go in with an a2 one, like I'd go on something twice the size, and she'd be like well, I asked for an a4 and I said well, I haven't, I've done it, but done it bigger, like you can't complain that doing that I've done more than you wanted me to. But but there, you know, but that I told you like, yeah, but I didn't want, I kind of didn't want to and I've actually done it better well, were you deliberately doing that to antagonize them being like well, I don't care what size it is, I'm just going to do what I want.
Zoe Greenhalf:Or was it a case of this is too, um, restrictive for me? I'm just going to see where the creativity goes why wouldn't I?
Ian Cook:yeah, like from school, like from a very young age, like art and creativity, producing things, whether that's, you know, painting, drawing, I did. You know, I did three. I did three. Uh, what was gcse's in arts, where the art, text arts and graphics all at the same time? Um, which no other student had done, uh, in the school.
Ian Cook:So I was able to drop tech, one of the tech subjects, to do graphics, yeah, um, but I love, I love the challenge of of, I want to be that person who did that. So I think that, you know, it's always always been in in me as a, as a you know, my, my grandparents were relatively creative. My dad was a former art teacher, yeah, I mean, and like no, he pushed me when I was at school, like that was ingrained in me. I've always had that kind of determination to kind of go right, I want to do that. But, yeah, there's a quote, a Dewey Nix, who's an American photographer, quote, and that is "you want to make things bigger, brighter, louder, faster than the manufacturer's specification. And I've always liked that quote, because it's basically what I do. I just turn it up and go right. Whether it's painting, drawing, whatever it's performance, it's, people are watching it, engaging with it, seeing it at events. So it's more than just ta-da. Here's a pretty artwork on the wall. It's like I'm creating it in front of people.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, you're creating experience, aren't you? And you know, know? When we first met many years ago, you were in a phase of pop bang colour, where you were painting these gigantic artworks from radio controlled cars yeah, and I said literally I'd love to know how, what's been the evolution um over the years of pop bang color and what is it for somebody who hasn't experienced it yet?
Ian Cook:what is Pop bang? Well, so, yeah, so there's a couple of different elements to the business. Yeah, essentially. But yeah, the business started in 2006-7, um, so prior to like any of the social media channels being a thing, yeah, yeah, but before that, I've always been quite sharing like an outgoing kind of like person in terms of my artwork you're an oversharer.
Zoe Greenhalf:Is that what you're trying to tell me?
Ian Cook:yeah, in like in terms of my artwork I wouldn't say like as a kid I was particularly like outgoing. As such I don't. I don't think that really happened until like college, until I went to a proper, a proper art college. Like you know, at school I never really fit in, didn't particularly enjoy school, but I knew I could smash art like I knew I was the best artist in that school and you know whatever the kids, you know peers, said, whatever came out of my hands it was good and it was far better than anybody else. I wanted to be a car designer. My uncle worked at what was then Rover Group and I wanted to be a car designer. Like him, I did a week's work experience at what was then Rover and then realized I'm not an engineer and having married an engineer, I'm definitely not an engineer. Like I know that, like we are polar opposites of how we work.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah.
Ian Cook:And like an engineer is a bit like a graphic designer. Like, you have a brief, you work to the brief you create. Yeah, you can be creative in what you're doing, but generally you're as creative as what the end user or the client wants. Yes, you're as creative as what the end user or the client wants. Yeah, they want you. They kind of know what they want. Yeah, it's this, isn't this fix. Fix to these parameters.
Ian Cook:Um, so I went into illustration to start off with, because I was I'm good with tight, accurate stuff, um, and then, when I was on the illustration course, they then cancelled it, like whilst I was on it, so that we were the last year going through it. They were like, and here's the Macintosh computers next door, um, and I was like, nah, nah, I don't know, I'm not, that's not me, I'm not going to set a computer and create. And then I found a fine art rooms downstairs and the fine art painting rooms and that was like paint splashing and the stuff going on and I was like I want to be in there, that's, that's where I want to be. How do I now? How do I get?
Ian Cook:there no, no, what, what's the process of me going from? I'm tied to an illustration course, but I was like I want to do fine art, uh, because it looks fun and there's no rules. Yeah, um, and I don't have to be tied to a mac. Because I was like, look, I'm not a Mac. Yeah, like I'm not a graphic designer. For some reason they're like, oh right, well, you can join the fine art course, um, you still have to finish your illustration. So you still got to do illustration, but you can also join fine art and see how you go, and so, yeah.
Ian Cook:So then I was up against peers who were 18 months, two years older than me, because they it meant that I wasn't doing foundation, like so, in art, you did your b-tech and then did foundation and then you went on to university, yeah, um, so I joined the final and I was given like six weeks to prove myself okay, and basically I got. You know, I got a distinction. I went over and above what, yeah, and I was working there till late, like I was. I was putting the hours in, like I was, I was in there. Every spare minute I had I was in that studio, yeah, um, working, creating, doing stuff. I then got my fine art portfolio together and then applied to go to Winchester do fine art at Winchester. Um, what kind of helped is that? I accidentally put the wrong course code in. So I applied for Winchester to do fine art, but it turns out that I put the fashion code into the system. So they rang me up and went you know, you've applied for fashion, don't you? And I went, uh, what they're like yeah, your course code you put on is fashion. You don't apply fashion deals like no, I'm fine art. And then they ran back and said look, we've had a drop out, you can come and have an interview, and I love that challenge of being a bit not an underdog, but like proving myself, like going right, I'm good enough to be here, I've earned it. Yeah. And also, being around older people like you get a thicker skin. Like you kind of like go okay, right, I'm in a like crits back then. Whether they do it now or not, I don't know, but you know when you're having crits, you're 17 and they're 19, they're brutal man like, and if you listen to everybody's bit of feedback, yeah, you'll get somewhere. Like you, it's only opinion, yeah. Then you take it on board and go okay, yeah, that's interesting, that might work for me or my work or how I work. So, yeah, so it was.
Ian Cook:You know, I was able to go to Winchester. It was great to move away from Birmingham. Well, yeah, we speak like this in Birmingham, like you know. And so I went down to Winchester and got this accent because, yeah, I arrived in Winchester and they were like you can't speak like that, absolutely not. And Winchester was the right place for me because it was far enough away from home. It was just the right place at the right time for me. Yeah, it was a nice-sized campus and all the years knew each other like first years, new, second year, third year, like there wasn't that kind of like, oh, you're a first year, yeah, so you all just kind of, you know, mingled together that's quite nice yeah, which is lovely, which is which is what I kind of needed.
Ian Cook:I needed that kind of like. It felt like a bit like a family, um, but also like I had some really good peers. Yeah, I just turned I'd just turned 18 when I went to university. You know, finished when I was 21. So I was there at a time when I'd learned a lot about myself as a young person, like, and I had people around me that were supportive and I was able to have experiences, like going out to Latvia and live out in Latvia for three months, wow. But again, like, I was determined to get a first class honours that's what I was there for. Like, yes, I was there to make friends there, to meet people there, to have an experience, but I was coming back with a first class, like that was my absolute determination, um, and it was.
Ian Cook:You know, I remember having a crit in the second end of second year, or it might have been early third year. I got absolutely pulled apart, like it was. You know, I remember having a crit in the second end of second year, or it might have been early third year. I got absolutely pulled apart, like it was what was I doing for my final major project, like it, just it all. It was like, oh man, like I can't. I obviously hadn't conveyed my idea well enough. But actually that's where Pop Band Colour came from. I remember talking to a friend of mine you know, called Craig came from. I remember talking to a friend of mine and you know called Craig, who was a year above me but also from, like, from the middlers, from Kidderminster, yeah, and he and he, he said to me he was like is this about the car brand? Yeah, because I'm a massive petrol head. Like, so it was my is featuring films and the characters, that how it supports the characters. I mean, I'm not, I wasn't on a film course, I was on a fine art course. Yeah, um, and craig just went is it about cars and brands or is it just about color? And just, yeah, yeah. And I was like, yeah, maybe it's just about having fun and do this a little bit.
Ian Cook:So what I ended up doing for my degree show was I ended up cutting up all of my toy cars, all of the collection I'd amassed. I cut everything up by colour, made a sculpture which is called Po Bang Colour. So Pop Bang is a friendly explosion of colour. That's where the name Pop Bang Colour comes from and that was the name of my degree show. So I've had the brand name, the name for a color, come from and that was the name of my degree show. So I've had the brand name, the name, for a long time.
Ian Cook:That's what it was like. Yeah, you, my degree show, you walked into this room and it had like a sculpture, imagine like organic form almost, but it's all done by color. Then you had this bottom bit that rotated so mechanical bit. They had skelectric motors went. You had all the the packaging of all the cars cut up and done by color. Um, so there was like all this stuff, just like it was a sensor, it was designed to be like a sensory. Yeah, overload, like, yeah, but also like lots of details, like lots of little things that I which only I would notice, or, yeah, still, we might when I think it's all about details and in case you haven't heard, you can now purchase mischief movement merch.
Zoe Greenhalf:It's all done through t-mail, a uk print on demand platform offering global delivery, organic cotton and production powered by renewable energy. Not only can you now tell everyone you are a true mischief maker, but if you feel inspired to create your own t-shirts, stickers or mugs, you could also give T-Mail a try, because it's a great way to experiment your ideas and take fast action with low risk. You'll find the links in the show notes, so write yourself a little reminder for later.
Ian Cook:And let's get back to the episode when I came back to Birmingham yes, I came back with my degree. Yes, I'm, I've got a degree, I'm an artist now um and my parents were like, kind of gotta work, kind of gotta get a job. And I I was like, oh, yeah, I do that. So I ended up doing bar work. What I loved about bar work is that you built relationships with regulars, locals. So I did pubs for a bit and then I did nightclubs.
Ian Cook:And then what happened is I was, when I moved to doing the bar, I was photographing the DJs, um, whilst they were, whilst they were DJing. So the nightclub would have like relatively not big, big-ish DJs but head candy DJs people could go out, do Ibiza and whatever. So one of them I found, because I had my camera when I was at university, I I photographed him behind the decks and it was a really cool photo. It was like long exposure, it looked really cool. I edited it and he was like, oh, could I use that as my album cover? And I went, yeah, I guess.
Ian Cook:And then by the time that came out I'd actually left that nightclub Because I did it for a year, a year and a bit. I went to work at a restaurant, um, and and the the cd had come out in that time. So I remember saying to my manager okay, let's pop around to HMV and go and get the the album. And I remember running back yeah, here's my, here's my image on the album cover that's amazing and my boss was like Ian, this is the most excited I've seen.
Ian Cook:You. You're not like this. When you come to work for working the bar, he's like I think you need to work in the creativity somewhere. I think bar work isn't. It just isn't for you. It's great you've got to see Nico, but it just doesn't mean anything to me.
Ian Cook:Yeah, it was like, yeah, okay, I was like I know you're probably right. So I ended up getting a visiting teacher status at the college that I used to go to. So, um, so I started teaching on like nine hours, six nine hours, um, and very quickly it became pretty much a full-time job. But I, I enjoyed it, like, and what I enjoyed about that was that I was being creative and I was. The ideas were starting. Like, the creative ideas were I was going oh, this is this and this, and you know what about doing this. And yeah, you end up going I'm giving away my ideas. Like these are, these are my ideas, and I'm giving them away to a student who may or may not use them.
Ian Cook:And I only did it. I was like right, if I'm gonna be a teacher, an art teacher, like, I need to be an artist. The best way of showing that it's a job, or yeah, or or whatever, is that is that you. You are doing it, yeah, and that's that's what. Yeah, so yeah, I was. I was given a radio control car by an ex-girlfriend and she said to me don't take down the studio and don't get paint on it.
Ian Cook:That's which, knowing you and knowing how that probably went, is quite funny I remember, you know, being presented this gift and I was like why did you give me a lightning, lightning mcqueen radio control car? Like I'm okay, yeah, I won't do that. But in the meantime my granddad had built, helped build me a studio at my parents. He could see that I was getting when I was doing the bar work and stuff he was getting. I was getting frustrated that I wasn't creating. So we had converted a garage down the bottom of my parents house so were you still doing the creative stuff in your spare time?
Zoe Greenhalf:Was the bar work there Because you couldn't sort of get your foot in the door as a creative in a working capacity?
Ian Cook:yeah, when you leave uni like you go great, you've got a degree, yeah, and it's like they don't actually teach you about business or about, like how to how to be an artist in the real world, because uni is like the world when you're at university, it's the world of university.
Zoe Greenhalf:It's a bubble, isn't it?
Ian Cook:Yeah, it's not in the context of a business, particularly creativity, because I think even if we had had some business seminars, I'm not sure I'd actually have enjoyed them or gone to them, because it can be a bit boring yeah, no, it's just interesting because I mean, I fell into that trap as well.
Zoe Greenhalf:I ended up with a fashion degree, a footwear design degree, and then, as soon as I finished, it was like right, and now? How do I find that amazing job that you've been promising me for the last three?
Ian Cook:years and the reality is, is that there's also, you know, there's 36 of you, or whatever, in your year at your university, there's another 36, another universe there's. So every year there's goodness what yeah, thousand.
Zoe Greenhalf:It's just interesting that you ended up in sort of a bar and nightclub work and I ended up working in a bar, in a gym, and my new colleague at the same time, during exactly the same time as me, was my long-term friend, Michelle, who'd also done an illustration degree and was in exactly the same boat. So it's kind of painting a slightly negative picture of what happens to graduates of creative degrees, but it's really but the this is what happens.
Ian Cook:Yeah, I mean, the reality is is that you've got to make it happen. Nobody's gonna. Actually, they're gonna go, actually, it's that way. If you just go over that, you know it's my route to it isn't the same way your route to it. Yeah, and the reality is now that most jobs don't exist because the tech industry is as fast-paced as anything. You know how we communicate now isn't how we communicated 15 years ago. I mean, I remember being in latvia on dial-up internet where we all had to sit in a room and wait for three the three people on the computers in front of us to finish their MSN typing to then spend. You know, we all had to wait an hour for somebody else's conversation to end and you go. What if you did that now? That sounds crazy, exactly. But would I change that process? Absolutely not.
Ian Cook:Like, I enjoyed the bar work, I enjoyed the teaching. I was teaching when I was 23. Like some of my students my mature students were older than me. Yeah, I was just an artist with a tie on in the room going oh right, I've got 30 people for three hours, right, and if you can't think on your feet when you're a teacher, it is the biggest challenge. It really helped that my parents were both me and my dad being an art teacher like I was able to remember stuff that he had taught me and I'd learned at university and just stuff.
Ian Cook:And when I was teaching I was like, right, well, I'm gonna be an artist. And then I've got to be an artist. And I was like, well, how do I do? How do I go about doing that? How do I find how to make it seem like the person who's standing up in front of all these people is on that journey with them or has has had the training that they're having? And now I'm on that journey to the next stage. Yeah of it. So I had the studio at my parents house which I was able to be a little bit creative in. So I started painting with the cars in the studio. So just working out, actually, how do you paint with a car? How do you create with it? How do you draw with it? How do you what pro? What's the process?
Zoe Greenhalf:so what's the first one that got paint on it, the one that your ex-girlfriend had bought you?
Ian Cook:I didn't actually get paid on that one. I was very good. I didn't actually get paid on that one. I thought you're gonna tell if it was that one I had other cars, cars that I was able to get. I was able to do that, and it was just like I attached pens to the back of the car. I worked out, you know, do I put the paint on the wheels? Do I put paint on the canvas? How do I actually create so?
Zoe Greenhalf:you're literally just playing around.
Ian Cook:And then what happened is five of us at university, five in our year, got first class. Another friend of mine was sarah. She then went to work at wolverhampton art gallery and and did like a a bit of a junior curatorial role there again really determined, like properly feisty, I remember. Yeah, we did. We clashed a little bit, because the best people do clash because you both, you're both passionate about what you're doing. Sometimes you're going to have people in the same industry who are like, oh, I don't get on with this person because you're probably wired the same way.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, you want the same thing.
Ian Cook:But anyway, she was really cool at organising people and she put this solo show together in Wolverhampton. So we came up with an idea and at the same time the council of Wolverhampton wanted to have a Britain in Bloom. They wanted to, yeah, because it was financial crash and things weren't going well in the economy too well. They wanted to put a load of stuff into shopping vacant shop units. So Sarah forwarded me an email saying oh, if artists want to use a vacant shop unit as a studio space or a creation space, here's his number. So I just rang him up and went yeah, keep to do that, I want to do that. So that's where I was able to have the actual space to start actually doing stuff with cars, because I needed like a meter and a half, two meter spaces per canvas, um, and I took over this shop unit and just started to like work out how to actually paint with a car.
Ian Cook:Do you put paint down or put pens down? Uh, and people were watching me paint and draw in this shop unit and I was like, oh, that's interesting. People were like, well, if they're interested, the local press will be interested. And at that time there wasn't Twitter and stuff or you couldn't just at somebody. You jumped on my phone and find out who was the local press in Wolverhampton. So I just rang them up and went news desk and you've got 30 seconds to be like what it is why and what's important. So I drank and went look, I'm painting a shopping unit. Come down, people are watching. It's causing a bit of a fuss and I got the newspaper down. I thought, well, if I get that newspaper down, I could probably get the TV down.
Zoe Greenhalf:I love how your mind works.
Ian Cook:I was like I'm just not worried at all. I mean, at the end of the day, worst, the worst somebody can say is no, like that's if you don't ask.
Zoe Greenhalf:Like exactly but it's like you just said, you've got to make these things happen and it's incredible you're there doing it. You're phoning the people and having the ideas and going who. Who needs to know about this?
Ian Cook:well in 2023. I was just like, well, I did. I didn't think it worked any other way. So, so I was just like rang up the ITV News Hiya Artists in a shop being it Do you want to come down to film and have a go at painting the cars? And whatever. And they were like, yeah, we'll send out a crew, we'll see you Friday. And it went out on the Friday lunchtime and evening news and I was like. I was like this is weird, but this is weirdly working. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, and then, and then what happened as well is that the local newspapers because they're all owned by media groups they then felt the story was good enough to go from Wolverhampton to the metro newspapers, so they went national okay like this is, this is without like a PR agency or or any, this is just me just going all right.
Ian Cook:So then I had like. I then had ITV ring again. Oh, do you want to be? Because it was then the Paul O'Grady show. Uh, do you want to be on the? On the Paul O'Grady, I'm like, uh, I'm teaching, which, like I don't know what's going on. Um, but it all felt every time I got something else I was like, okay, what's next? This is how it works. Nobody's telling me what to do, I'm just going well, this, this seems to be working. So we did that and I was.
Ian Cook:I was also doing a lot of car events the weekend, so creating and doing it as a performance in front of people. So the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, they had like supercar sunday, father's day, yeah. So I started creating at events and then when I was at events, other events organized went oh, do you want to come down to our event? Yeah, and then my lunch breaks at work when I was teaching, I was then go I'd get like one of the car magazines and see what events are coming up. Um, because at that point it still wasn't massively internet based, it was all like published in magazines. So I was like, oh, and then there's this, this event called goodwood, and I was like, well, it looks like it's across all the magazines, must be something big. Um, so it's a good, professor, speed. So I rang him up and went oh, yeah, uh, I'm an artist, I paint with radio control cars and I think you want me at the event. And they went well, how much do you cost? And I went oh, you're going to pay me. Ah, right, okay, interesting. So I drove down to Goodwood having no idea. I was like, oh my God, this is huge, this is huge. I had no idea Got set up Because basically what they wanted me to do was paint a portrait of Lord Marsh, then now the Earl of Richmond Portrait of Lewis Hamilton, because it was Hawthorne to Hamilton that year, mclaren on the start line and Frodo.
Ian Cook:So I started doing these paintings, um did, and the Lewis one was particularly good because he was like what everybody was talking about that year was was Hamilton and the new, the new kid on the block, yeah, with the claret. So I painted his portrait. Then came back to birmingham and because I was in the art studio when I wasn't teaching, I was able to use the art studio so I put the artworks back at display, got the photograph, did another press, you know like rang the press again sending your mail, got more like just I've done this, like I was getting like bits in the local paper, like every week I love it though.
Zoe Greenhalf:I love it, though, because it's exactly what you said if, if you don't ask, you don't get, and so many people are afraid to do that. And you were, and you were like, I'll just pick up the phone, what's the worst that can happen?
Ian Cook:I think that mentality of you know, yes, of course sometimes a bit of fear can come in, a bit of like oh, I don't know if I can do that, but at the same time you go. Well, I just go back to like, if I could do that when I was 23 and I didn't know any, I didn't know anything, I didn't know what corporate world was. I didn't, I had no idea. I was fresh out of uni and I was just going right, just do it. I mean, what I did learn at uni as well is that you got opinions from people and I did it with my lecturers. So like there was sort of like four key lecturers and then you had visiting lecturers, but I always made sure that they all knew a little bit about my artwork and I was also in there.
Ian Cook:I was in my university space, in my studio space, at like 7 am, because I knew that the head of fine art would be walking around at 7 am to see what was in the studios and whatever. He was like this guy, he'd walk around and just take notes and whatever. So I was always there, so we'd always have a chat. We'd be like how are you? I'm good, it's what I'm doing now. If he looked at ours, if he looked at ours, we were always chatting. So, yeah, so for doing good, I brought the artworks back and then I was teaching and then my boss, he got a phone call and he's like, oh, somebody's rang about the lewis hamilton piece. And I was like, oh god, I'm in trouble. Like what's happened here, like it was done with goodwood. I was like, look, yeah, is there any trouble? I'll be like, look, sorry, I was asked by goodwood to do it. It turns out that was mc sarchie, the advertising agency. Um, so morrison charles sarchie, and obviously I knew the MC Saachi, the advertising agency. So Morris and Charles Saachi, and obviously I knew the name Saachi, because Tracy Emin's bed and Damien Hirst and all those kind of people.
Ian Cook:I was like, Saachi, what do they want? And it turns out they'd seen me at Goodwood and then they were like, well, how big can you paint? And I said, well, how big do you want it? That sounds like a challenge, like exactly Another challenge. I'm like, well, how big do you want? Like you tell me what you're looking for, then I can tell you if I can work backwards from that or not. So I'm going to go now to their offices, which is in central London, golden Square.
Ian Cook:And we went to the offices and paced it out and we were like they were like we kind of want it 12 metres by eight metres. And I was like yeah, yeah, fine. And they were like sure. And I was like how long do you think we'll take? I was like a week, I think. I don't know. You tell me how long I've got and I'll work on it. So that turned into the project where I painted a portrait of Lewis Hamilton the size of a three-story building as a global project for Reebok to announce him as their new brand ambassador in 2008. Initially they wanted to do it out in Brazil, but then they brought it back to the UK and we did it in Brazil, but then they brought it back to the UK and we did it in a vacant shop unit on Regent Street in central London, so the main road. Over 30,000 people came in to watch it being done Reebok's most successful advertising campaign they ever did Wow.
Zoe Greenhalf:What a lot of pressure, though. Did you feel feel it? Did you feel the pressure doing that, or were you still sort of a little bit naive about what's going on?
Ian Cook:no, I just I think the top of it was just like what's going on? I don't. I didn't believe it because, you know, I grew up in like you know, kind of feels about and stuff and I just suddenly thought this is a wind-up, somebody's gonna come out and go joking, um, so when it, when the canvas arrived at the customs factory in birmingham, we rolled it out, I was like, how big is 12 meters that? I mean like, yeah, that's the size of like three double-decker buses on top of each other. It was like that's, that's huge. And I went, oh, all right, how are we gonna do this?
Ian Cook:Then it was like, it was like well, you know, we then worked out how to proportion this all up. You know, how much paint do you order? Yeah? And the thing is I couldn't tell people what I was doing, so I could kind of like ring people and go so what material would you use to kind of paint on an outdoor artwork? And they were like, well, there's that. Suddenly we came out with the, the plastic material. You ban the material. It's like yeah, okay, yeah, cool, what. Yeah, what are you doing? I was like, oh, I can't say what I'm doing, just want to work out, yeah, what the material is. So we did like tests and whatever, like literally I painted and then we had to jet wash it to see like how much paint would come off it yeah so I had a week in central london.
Ian Cook:Uh, what I did manage to do just before it, though also brilliantly I was cleaning my cars up and I managed to put a craft knife into my leg, like just before starting it. So the project manager rang me and she went everything all right. And I went yeah, I'm just an a and e just getting uhE just getting sewn back together, but I'm OK. It was an unexpected challenge because obviously when I'm painting, I'm kneeling down. So to put a craft knife in your leg when you're kneeling down for a week, it's not ideal. It's not ideal, but it turns out. There's a drop-in clinic in Soho which managed to patch me up whilst I was down there. I was like can you just make sure it's OK and it doesn't like weep or anything That'd be?
Zoe Greenhalf:great oh.
Ian Cook:God.
Zoe Greenhalf:If you're a small business doing things differently, an independent brand disrupting the status quo, or simply an unconventional, adventurous individual looking to make more of a positive impact, I'd love to hear from you so we can share your story or create some amazing sponsorship opportunities together. I'm always open to collaborations too, so dm me on instagram at the mischief movement. Was that a real sort of like crucial moment in your career with it, with the giant lewis hamilton? Did that sort of launch you, or at least give you the sense of maybe I can make this my living and not the teaching? Or did the two things kind of coincide together for a while longer? How did it all pan out?
Ian Cook:well, weirdly, I went back to teaching the following week after that and the students were like, weren't you on tv last week? And I was like, yeah, um, I don't know what that was, but it was. It was that opened my mind to like there's this whole corporate world when you don't know it exists. It's like you know business breakfast meetings. You don't know if they exist because you you're not. You know either you're not invited or you don't know if they exist because either you're not invited or you don't know about it. But once you know they exist, you're like, ah, there's this other world out there that people work within and I want to be part of that, particularly like commissioning artworks, corporates, so, funny enough after the Lewis one.
Ian Cook:So I'd already been in touch with blue peter and they were like, yeah, yeah, when you've done something important, you will, we'll have you on the show, but not until then. And then, literally the tuesday, after I had blue peter in me, go, come on, then come and get your badge, amazing. So. And it was like a child, an 80s child, going. Oh, my god, I'm going on blue peter. Oh, like it was bigger than the lewis. For me that was like an 80s child going oh my God, I'm going on Blue Peter. It was bigger than the Louis. For me that was like bigger than the Louis thing because I was getting my Blue Peter badge.
Ian Cook:So I got my Blue Peter badge, which is very cool, and then from there I just quit teaching. So it got to a point I was like, well, while we're getting orders in, I need to look for a studio. So that's where I started I went. Being from Birmingham originally, I was like, well, custom Factory in Birmingham is generally creativity, yeah. So I got a studio at the Custom Factory. Well, I was there for I think six months or maybe a year, okay, not long. It kind of got me into like, right, how do I do this as a business properly?
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah.
Ian Cook:Then the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, like right, well, how do I do this as a business properly? Yeah, then the british motor museum at gaydon. They were like, oh we, there's probably a space in the museum okay went to get, yeah, so moved on to gaydon in warwickshire and that's where the car industry is. So you know I, you know I then worked for jaguar land rover and I had some work on top gear as well for their art special which still gets shown there.
Zoe Greenhalf:Was that really a case of being in the right place at the right time, then? Because once you were in the museum did you find that your network just kind of went bonkers because it?
Ian Cook:didn't. It didn't like it was, it was more. I always found that events were the key, like I found that the key thing, like, yeah, particularly from the sarchie thing at goodwin, I was always like, right, I need to be at events as much as possible, thinking about car events and whatever is that generally on the weekend. So it's people's downtime. You know people are out enjoying themselves and they're stumbling across you as of you know if you're painting or wherever you are, and that's always been a key thing. I've always been a people person.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, look, for me, the worst thing is if I'm locked in my studio and I'm like I'm not seeing people really even as a even as a an artist that's so passionate about your work. You don't get that sense of locking yourself in and just doing it.
Ian Cook:You still want the social I only get work done in here if I have to, if I'm like, okay, I have to get this work done. I have no choice. This is the window that I've got to get four artworks done. If I look at my schedule I'm like, well, I can't get it done there, done there, than there, I've got to get paintings done this week. Um, so yeah, so that that gives me the motivation to go right.
Ian Cook:I am in the studio because I need to paint. I have to, I have to get this done. You know like I'd rather be out somewhere creating, because I just feel like more at home, more home. But I also know I I have to have a space to work in. The studio is my safe space and also, when I've been clients in here, they can see I'm a car guy. The history is here, the massive hot wheels collection, the you know the bits and pieces that I've done over the years. It's all in here. If a client is commissioning, this gives them the all right. This is why we're paying that amount of money.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, it's a studio and a showroom.
Ian Cook:It's a showroom. It's a studio, we're on base, it's a creative village, so there's some funky stuff to see, so they go all right, okay, so it gives it that kind of like. This is why we're commissioning. So even during lockdown, like when I started doing the lives, you know, for me I was missing people in the interaction. So to be able to convert that into an online thing and chat and talk to so many people when we all couldn't see each other and then other people could jump in and listen to the conversation, but again, that was that like I just had to think quick, like what do I do? Like I'm I don't like not seeing or hearing people, right, let's convert what we try and do physically at a show and do it online.
Ian Cook:That's where the you know, the drawing started, because of that, um, and the drawings were only ever meant to be a stop gap. They were meant to be a a stop gap when I couldn't do the paintings. Um, so, as much as we tried to do paintings in a two-bed flat with, you know, in the garage, it just wasn't going to work. That's when the drawings became the thing. And now you know, I have paintings and drawers to do, yeah, but now I can cater for two different markets of kind of gift people who want to buy something as a present for somebody like you know. They kind of anything from five pounds to 150 200 pounds, and then the, then the commissions of paintings are the much higher stuff that. That is still the hero pieces that people commission as well yeah, that's incredible.
Zoe Greenhalf:And where are you going to take pop bang color next? Because I know you're always about the next project and the next thing. Have you got any ideas, or are you kind of enjoying where you're?
Ian Cook:at. There's a whole series of things that happen. I'm working with a company called Radical Sportscars this year, so that's going to be a really exciting project. I can't really say too much about what I'm doing quite yet, but it's quite cool.
Zoe Greenhalf:Come on.
Ian Cook:I can't say it yet, not allowed, not allowed A couple of weeks' time, but I have seen it today and it looks really cool. I mean, I've been very fortunate enough to travel out. I've done the Middle East, I've done Dubai, abu Dhabi, saudi Arabia, america a couple of times. I've travelled a lot of the UK. I've done bits out in Europe.
Zoe Greenhalf:I'm sure you were over here at Como or somewhere once, weren't you?
Ian Cook:Yeah, yeah, that was cool last year with the W Group. Yeah, yeah, and that's where the Cars project last year at Goodwood, just again, it was like don't ask. A friend of mine introduced me to the creative director for Disney Pixar. So the guy who is responsible for the, the car's brand yeah, a guy called Jay. So we met previously at Goodwill Revival and then during lockdown, I spoke with him because he owns a Porsche, so we spoke about his Porsche and whatever. When it comes to shows, he is a, he judges the shows, so he's brought in as a, as a judge, and he was at this event that I was at. So I posted I just arrived at como for this um concourse d'elegance that villa d'esta. He was a judge and he was, oh, and I'm, I'm at the event, I'm flying in right now. See you there. I was like, oh, brilliant, great cj, really excited.
Ian Cook:And I happened to have brought some prints with me as well and one of those prints was my Lightning Mcqueen artwork from 2017. So I gave jay that print. I said he's like, oh, but this is cars two, not cars three, it's the old livery on on Lightning. And I was like I was like, well, we should do, we should do the new one. We should do an updated one. It's like I think there's no new movie, but yeah, there's a lot of merchandise and and stuff, and they also do the cars YouTube channel and and whatever. So I said, well, what about Goodwood, the cars artworks, all the days, record, document, film, it all at goodwood at the festival speed, and and that's what we did last year. So this kind of chance happening in it in italy, yeah, I mean go. Oh well, I, I took a print. I just took a print with me isn't.
Zoe Greenhalf:It isn't, though, because you're very much making these things happen, and when a chance comes along, you jump on it, yeah, yeah. And then, like you said before when, when you were teaching, you were thinking on your feet, and there you go again. He's like this isn't quite the right cause. You know, like right, thinking on your feet, we can make it happen, we can turn it into the designs that you're after, and we can do it this way. You put forward such a good idea that they're like, yeah, why not?
Ian Cook:and suddenly you've just created yourself a new opportunity I mean jay was like the most amazing human being I've ever met. He was just brilliant. I mean to spend, spend a few days with, with a man who's clearly very important within a massive brand like disney, like for him to fly in from californiawood. I mean he's a car guy. He wanted to be at Goodwood anyway, like he loved being at Goodwood, but his contacts were like oh, I saw Jensen last night. I'm like Button, like that's him. And then I was paying attention.
Ian Cook:And then Tom Christensen has just stood, like I don't even know Mark Egan, is that? Yeah, that. Then Tom Christensen is just stood. Well, I remember Mark again, is that Tom Christensen? And then he was like, oh, jay said to me to pop down, cause he's like did you know I, I was hero in in cars. I was like, well, he voiced one of the characters, so he came down to chat to Jay and then I was introduced to him that way as well.
Ian Cook:And it's just these things I was like I'd never thought I'd experience. It's what I've learned over the years. It's just like people, the worst they can say is no, but you can be gracious if they say no, so you go. The amount of projects that haven't happened. It's just it wasn't meant to be. At that point. I'm not going to get upset about it. It's just it wasn't meant to be.
Ian Cook:Okay, at that point, I'm not. I'm not gonna get upset about it. It's just like something else will come in. I'm a, I'm a not an oversharer, but but I love sharing what I'm doing and particularly on socials, I like a little bit of me and a bit of it, yeah, business and me. So because people, I think they, people buy people, they invest, they want you know I'm the face of it, but also it's I share it and people can associate to it. Yeah, yeah, that's the draw of being able to share what I do creatively, but also personally, because it, yes, it's that line of blurring line of what's pop bank color it all kind of blends together, doesn't it?
Ian Cook:um, but you need both of them to make it work, because if I was just like paint, paint, draw, draw, people would just be like, okay, great, it's in the painting. But now when I do the paintings, they go, oh, that's oh. We like seeing that, but we also like seeing the drawings. We like seeing the other stuff that you, that you enjoy as well yeah.
Zoe Greenhalf:So it's interesting because there isn't this sense of um a personal brand and a business brand. It's all kind of one and the same mixed together and you're bringing the personal into the business and the business into the personal and and the amount of people at events are like oh, is Cook Senior here?
Ian Cook:Where's, you know? Is Mother Cook here? Yeah, you've got the whole family there, haven't you? If they're not there, they're like what's up? Where are they? Like, why aren't they here? We actually came to see them.
Ian Cook:I think in an ever-digital world, you know where it gets even more blow, in line with ai and and all that, the things that people can relate to and I'll real they invest in more because they, they can see that it's I'm physically painting, creating, drawing it like it's. You know, I'm very much like the creator of it. I'm on the road doing it. Um, now, you know, when I do do the international stuff, I, I really enjoy it. Yeah, I'm just starting to to do more kind of business networking meetings again, just because I think it's part of the business that probably I've neglected a little bit.
Ian Cook:And you never know who's going to be at those business network. You know, because it's like you know it's seven to yeah, seven to ten business meetings somewhere. You know you meet lawyers and you meet different people and you never know when you might need them. You know you go, actually, I, I, I go to all of them. As an artist like I go in colorful clothes because when you're in a room full of suits and you're not in a suit, all of a sudden you stand out and people go. I want to speak to that person because they look interesting. I love that. Why has he got paint splattered jeans on?
Zoe Greenhalf:I'd have been disappointed if you told me you'd gone and dug out your best black suit and put it on.
Ian Cook:Last week I turned up at one and, like I turned up in my studio car, so my car was covered in stickers and I've got some like fitted three quarter length trousers that are smart trousers, but they are smart shorts and both are paint splattered. So I kind of go in those and what I found is it starts conversation because people go, oh, top, my color isn't it. Because you know, I'm dressed as what I should be, which is on brand. You know, I think it's always interesting to to do stuff like that and go out. You know like to like comfort zones and do that because it's very easy to go right, I do car rents, that's what I do.
Ian Cook:But actually to go and meet a whole different and that's what, yeah, and again, that's why I enjoy the running club is I'm not part of my color. Like I'm there to, I'm there along with a group of other people to get fitter, yeah, um, you know that was completely out of my comfort zone and that's what I feel. It's now become part of my life and I'm trying to integrate more so that it's not just like oh, I did that for a bit. I'm like no, I'm trying to keep this as part of my, you know, improving myself.
Zoe Greenhalf:So yeah, are you planning to carry on with doing the events because they feel like they're a big part of your? I mean, I don't want to call it a marketing strategy, but it kind of is, because that is the way you get yourself out there and people see you. Um, you get yourself in front of people, don't you?
Ian Cook:generally really love it if you took, like when, obviously, when lockdown and stuff happened, like to lose that, like overnight. That's my, it's like the lifeblood of what, what I enjoy doing. And it still is like because I always you never know if I see my events as my marketing, as my. You know, wherever I'm going, it's um, you know I'll be like, right, I'm going there, it might cost this amount, but hopefully I'll. It will put me in front of other people because you never know who's who's. I know what you.
Ian Cook:What you find is that people don't commission on the generally, don't commission on the first time they see you. Yeah, they commission when they've seen you three or four or five times and they go, oh, it's you again. So it's like, all right, he's not just a guy who's just popped up out of nowhere, it's oh, you're consistently here here. I mean the amount of people who talk to me and go I see all the events. I'm like my reaction is like, well, you must go to the best events. Yeah, so it's like you're so smooth. Yeah, you're going right actually, yeah, I, it's your choice to be here, my choice to be here.
Ian Cook:We're in the same wavelength. You know for me not being able to do it is not an option. Yeah, um, and sometimes you have great weekends and sometimes you have, yeah, you can be walk away and go oh, I didn't make much there, or whatever. But you know, at the same time, it's the emails that come in after we go. We saw you at, yeah, or I saw you online at, and now and now, obviously I get it people go. Are you the same guy who? Who I saw at silverstone in 2010?
Zoe Greenhalf:I'm like, yeah, that's still me, that's such a good point, though, because so often we hear this stuff about being consistent, and when you're trying to sort of raise your profile, being consistent tends to be associated with an online presence, so it's all about showing up consistently on social media, um and I haven't really heard it put out that way before, but it's. It's so true that there is that ability to be consistent also in what you're doing in real life. It's not just about the social media, and the fact that you're showing up again and again at the key events is fundamental to keeping your business going, isn't it really?
Ian Cook:Well, the thing is, if you don't do an event like a big event like Goodwood, and you don't do it the following week, they'll just think you've gone out of business. It's that kind of oh, he's gone, I guess he's not doing it anymore. Um, whether that's a creative thing, whether you're going to go, it's like a oh, it's a hobby. You've all sort of events go. So what's your, what's your proper job? Oh, no, do they?
Zoe Greenhalf:I'm like uh, I didn't think I was gonna have that conversation with you. I thought people would realise that, no, they don't.
Ian Cook:But it's people who may not have seen me at you know, like if that's their first event, okay, if that's the first time they've seen, if I've popped up at an event that I haven't done before but they've always gone to, then it's like oh, so how long have you been doing this? Well, I'm just like, well, you know, only 17 years. I think I'm doing alright. I think I think it's alright. I wouldn't want to be like, oh, I'm offended, I just go with a different angle of like. I mean, it's only been this amount of time, so I'm okay at it. Now I think, yeah, you know, an artist as a job it is a rare thing to hear that is a rare thing to hear that is a full, particularly somebody who isn't retired. It's when you get so many people who are car designers or they were something, and when they've got to 55, 60, they then start painting and drawing in their downtime and then it becomes a secondary business because it becomes something that tops up the pension and and whatever. Um, yeah, there's not a lot of people who, who can, who are able to do it full time, and that's where you talk about consistency. Is that it's because you've always got to be thinking what's next? What's next? How do I do that? How can I improve? What products should I bring out? Where do I go? What? Yeah, like um, but it's like, yeah, it's like a couple of weeks ago.
Ian Cook:So I had two patents come back from from loan and new venues opened up. I was like I, I emailed them, I knew it was a press day, so I dropped a message look, I've got two patents that are available. Because I've been up there a couple of weeks previous and I was like there's white walls here, I walk around going. I've got two paintings that I want on those white walls. So I arrived, you know, I emailed and said, look, got these paintings, happy to learn them out? Yeah, and they were like and they emailed me the day before the press they go, can you bring them up before nine o'clock tomorrow? I was like, absolutely, because that's what, that's the answer I wanted. But then, because I'd already been there, I also knew which walls I wanted them on. Yeah, as well. So I was like I put one on this wall and one on that and following that, they've now commissioned their own painting. So, had I have not done that, like you put them in under the nose of the right person at the right time.
Zoe Greenhalf:That wouldn't have led to another painting yeah, yeah you know just the the idea that if I loan that out, that might lead to to something else, and I think you just never know yeah what do you think you would say to somebody who's listening to this, who who is an artist, who's trying so hard to get their work out there and make it their career? Have you got any advice for them?
Ian Cook:I see creativity, like how I do things, I see as like a superpower, like it's how I process, how I work, how I do things, and it is hard work. So, even if you feel like I still find writing really hard, so if you said to me, right, you've got to write a 2,000-word essay, no, I'd be like meh, like can't do that. If you said to me, right, you need to write it into pitch so you can get an artwork on the wall, I can do that, it's no problem, because it's it's how, how you package it. Okay, how people communicate, contact each other you know tiktok and all that like it's a whole different communicate. You back in, when I was doing it, it was like you had to bring a newspaper to get them to come down and whatever. Now you can add them on something and they might react to it. It might go viral.
Ian Cook:Yeah, the language of how we communicate has changed so much. Um, and it's always about trying to to change the business or or integrate that into the business so that you don't get left behind. Yeah, it's about going right actually to interact and get my stuff out there. I've got to be a bit on everything and doesn't necessarily have to be enough to be brilliant at it, but as long long as you're out there in some way, I think what you're talking about is the visibility, really isn't it?
Ian Cook:Yeah, it's, keep at it and rather than be like, oh, I'm basing it all on one thing, you've got to go right. Okay, that's one thing. If I just did one event, based everything on one event a year, it wouldn't work. I've got to be at. I think I was at 45 events last year, wow, including midweek events and track days and whatever, and I can't say just one of them was the thing that helped make the business or grow the business. It was a mixture of it all. Yeah, um, so that I think that, yeah, now it's about visit.
Ian Cook:And also, I always was like Popman Color is the, is the brand, like that is what I'm, that is what I'm committing to. I don't. I don't do it as artwork by Ian Cook or, yeah, people remember Popman Colour as the brand name, as the guy who paints with radio-controlled cars and also having a USP. Like that is always. You know, when I paint, I paint with radio-controlled cars. When I draw, I draw in one single line without taking a pen off the paper, and whenever anybody else go, you know, I'm like, well, they sort of go. Oh, there's this other artist. I'm like, yeah, but do they do that or that?
Zoe Greenhalf:No, I love that, because you've created this identity and you've created your signature style, your signature products. That's what you're known for, but you're also not confined by those things.
Ian Cook:No, and it's about changing and altering and going right. Yeah, I dabbled with doing like a live. It was a live feed that was then photographed, that was then recorded it from youtube and then the audio was for a podcast, so it was the right ingredients. It does still interest me. I've just got to get the, I've just got to get it right, so it's takes up less, less of my time.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, you know, in post-production I suppose, at the end of the day, it's you know, experimenting and just trying lots of different things, as you say. So, um, what are you currently working on? Is there any sort of projects that you've got going on or new things that you want to try? What was occupying your time?
Ian Cook:There's always a bit of life stuff that throws curveballs. I think my granddad was always like a massive influence in what I'd lose in 2011. It was always that big loss. Granddad was like a big loss, and losing him in 2011, it was always like it's a big lot, like Grandad was like a big loss and then from there, from it then lost all my yeah, lost all my other grandparents until Uncle Phil.
Ian Cook:And then Uncle Phil was the last of that kind of yeah, older, older generation of family and when he passed, we then found his diaries and actually opened up like a whole load of stuff that we did, we and that's, you know, doing this chevette, rebuilding that car, as much as a restoration project, but it's also like it's such a fast he, him as a, you know, as a, as a character, as a person. It's fascinating. We never knew. We never knew. We never knew so much and that and rebuilding that car has has, like, also opened up new friendships, relationships, people who who've helped me get it to where it is now, um, and that's something which I I never thought would happen like it was, because I haven't asked you about the car.
Zoe Greenhalf:I mean, I've seen it on the social media and I've commented that, um, we used to have, uh, an almost identical chevette as our family car in the early 80s. So I was like, oh, I remember this car, but I haven't actually asked you about it. Do you want to tell me how that project's come about?
Ian Cook:yes, that was so. That was my uncle Phil's car. So uncle Phil was my granddad's brother, um, so he had that car from 1977, from new up until he drove it till 2011, 2010, 2011, um, and it was his daily. Eventually got to a point it was just rusted and it you know, chevette's just rust because of how they're built. But for me, that car signified Christmas. So when I was a kid, my Christmas presents were in the boot of it.
Ian Cook:My uncle wanted to just get rid of it and have been, yeah, like get rid of it, and I was like, no, I'll save it. So I pulled it out of his garage and had it collected from him and it went into storage from 2012 up until 2019. It kind of got moved around a bit just so I could be like, oh, I can't afford it right now because it is a money pit, um, but actually, like, sharing that story has been amazing. Like and like yourself, people going, oh, I had one of them, like, yeah, because you don't see him anymore. Yeah, um, it's kind of like it.
Ian Cook:It it conjures up memories for other people, yeah, but it's also the memory of that car arriving and Christmas starting when I was a kid. So when it actually starts up like to have achieved that, like to, I was told it would be a waste of time and I I'm really excited to when I can actually take that from from Cleve Mortimer to to Cle Hill to recreate that journey my my uncle used to do. It's been a long, it's been a five-year restoration I love that yeah, the car community and cars.
Ian Cook:That's what it's about is actually is you're meeting people and you know you're going, driving to an event and seeing others. It's not necessarily always about the metal that you arrive in. It's actually you're arriving there to meet your friends and socialize and and and enjoy yourself. So, um, when I'm not working, I'll be able to be able to take that car for a, for a, for a ride, and I'm putting my own uh, flick, flick on it like it's not going back to standard. It's yeah, yeah, and, and being able to talk to people about what to do with it has been, you know, even last weekend has been great to get people's reactions to it.
Zoe Greenhalf:I love that because you are creating conversations around it. I mean, the most fun thing is when you just start creating conversations with people about your project car.
Ian Cook:Yeah, and the amount of people who would actually be like, oh my gran, I rolled one into the amount of people who've rolled one into a ditch. You know, five friends on a night out or pushing one back because it ran out of fuel and like there's all these things that you know, a car that I rescued out of a garage. But this is the same uncle who was a ballroom we never knew was a ballroom, we never knew he was a ballroom dancer Like we, just it's not. Until we got his diaries and we started to go through. He kept a diary from 1950 to 1957 where he documented every day and, just matter of fact, this happened this day, the most beautiful handwriting in the world and weirdly that you know we, because he was such a quiet old man, we just never knew that actually he had a really exciting life. Oh, that's amazing. He just didn't share and now and now I can share it because I'm driving, I'll be driving his car, I'll be like, actually this man, who was a quiet man we only ever saw at christmas and this car had my christmas presents in actually was somebody who had a whole life that we only found out after he passed away.
Ian Cook:Um, and the. You know we've also got all the letters that my granddad sent to him as a brother, so you can start really seeing this. You get to know the person, the car I'm driving, because I inherited the car, and what's fascinating about his diary is that he wrote all these diaries for seven years. And then the last part of that diary it just says if somebody is reading these diaries, I have no regrets, and it's like a cliffhanger. It's like a proper Netflix-y kind of like thing of like, oh my God, like I'm reading. That was for me. So, yeah, and what was lovely, you know, last week at the Classic I was able to bring my uncle, my mum's brother, who was why I got into cars and he was the car designer. He was able to come and see the car, got him to come up to Birmingham see the car, see what I've done with it, and as an engineer he loved he was really excited. So to see his excitement about saying that I'm building as a passion project, that really made it for me.
Zoe Greenhalf:I love that and I also love that glimpse of your slightly rebellious streak in you, because they did tell you that it probably wasn't worth it. You did it anyway. I mean, if I tallied up the cost of it, so what it's worth, but it's got emotional value to you.
Ian Cook:You know, yeah, I mean every, every time I speak to it and the occasional start welling up. Like I said, the cars are the, it's just the met is the metal.
Zoe Greenhalf:It's actually what the memory like, what brings it back and what it means, um, and that's what's nice to be able to share yeah, I guess the only other thing I really want to ask you is having done all of this, having worked so hard for your, for your artwork, are you happy with where you're at now? Does it bring you joy? Are you excited when you get out bed and you know that you're painting and that you know you're actually making money from your painting and your drawings as well?
Ian Cook:yeah, people say to me, like what's your, what's your favorite piece? I always say my next piece, always. I'm very fortunate to be able to do what I do. I've worked for it, but I've also I over the time I've done it. I'm fortunate that I was able to be at the right year, when it's right time or whatever. I enjoy doing what I do. Oh god, it's.
Ian Cook:It's hard work, man, like it's. You know, if I said something like, yeah, you've got to do this pretty much seven days a week and you've got you won't really have a whole. You've got to do this pretty much seven days a week and you've got you won't really have a. You've got to be forced to go on holiday. Um, you've got to guarantee that you can pay a mortgage, to pay rent, pay. Like if you put all of those pressures together, some people arm out. I can't do that exactly. I mean you when you've got. You know paintings take 12 hours, 12, 15, 20 hours to do, but you've got to be on it like that's all you do, like I've just got to put a podcast on and be like right, I'm painting, that's what I've got on and I'm just in my own little zone and I. But the thing is, when I'm painting, I love it like I love. I just zone out, that's what I'm doing is that your flow state when you're painting?
Ian Cook:yeah, just I can just do it, just do it um, and that's and it's, and it's. I, I love it, I it's a beautiful state of mind to be in, but it's just finding the the time to do it, um, and also, you've got to be in the right set.
Ian Cook:You've got to be in the right mindset, like, if you're not in the right mindset, that painting is gonna be crap yeah so, like you've got to be like right there, I'm producing the best painting I can at this time now for this amount of hours, um, no distractions I love that.
Zoe Greenhalf:I I've loved hearing just how you have created this brand from literally nothing and built it up over the last what would you say 17 years.
Ian Cook:However long 2007 is 2007,. 7, 8, you've just got to do it. If you are committed to being a freelance artist, a freelance creative, you give up more than anything. But I'm not the boss to anybody. I am somewhat guided by brands who want to interact and want to do stuff, but at the same time, I'm that kid who was really good at art and now I'm the guy who does art good at art, and now I'm the guy who can, who does art, and that's all I do. Like, yeah, I'd be the worst employee because I don't know what, my what, if I went to the job center. Now I go yeah, I've worked for eight years, 17, 18 years on my own.
Ian Cook:What do you do? Yeah, paint the cars. They'll be like, uh, we don't know what, we don't know what to do with you, so, like, there's not, there isn't another option. Um, and I just, you know, for me, I just want to keep doing that quote bigger, brighter, louder, faster, like, just doing that. Like that is my motivation, is to just do what I do, but better so I can go. Yeah, you know when people go oh, have you painted with a real car? Yes, I've done that. I've got a guinness world record. You've been on top gear. Yeah, there's. You know, when people go, oh, you've done that, it's tick, tick, tick, tick, tick is there anything left that you haven't ticked?
Zoe Greenhalf:what's your bucket? How's your bucket list looking?
Ian Cook:I would. I would like to go back to america. I would like to do america properly now, like so what does that look like for you then?
Ian Cook:when you say, like I want to do america, does that mean like I'd like to like probably road trip it, like go and do like, uh, some really big events like nascar uh, you know you do nascar indycar, uh, or you know some of the really big hero us events, yeah, so where can people find out more about you? I'm guessing on all the socials, and probably you've or some of the really big hero US events.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah, so where can people find out more about you? I'm guessing on all the socials, and probably you've got events coming up.
Ian Cook:All the socials, popbankcolor on everything. All one word yeah. So yeah, mainly I do. Instagram is my main source, but I share that onto Facebook anyway. Facebook page and I am on LinkedIn, but I don't really. It's a another. I know I should be like and here's my business, uh, but I think most people know me on Instagram, so, yeah, you can find me on there as well. I just don't really post anything amazing.
Zoe Greenhalf:Well, I guess in that case, people's best chances of um seeing this stuff are actually to come to one of the events and see you yeah good sense of speed, definitely this year good with revival.
Ian Cook:I've had an interesting email today but I can't say anything. That could be quite, that could be quite you can't keep doing this to me.
Zoe Greenhalf:If you're going to tell me, give me this little tidbit you've.
Ian Cook:Literally our conversation was like oh, this could be quite exciting. You're such a tease. I well, I know, but that's just. I just I don't know what, I don't know what they want yet.
Zoe Greenhalf:So, um, you know, I'm trying, I'm trying to get the exclusives here, but it's just not happening, is it?
Ian Cook:I just I don't know if, like, it's just one of them's like this is what I kind of like, this is what I kind of like about the job. It's like this morning there was not an email, now there is an email that could lead to something.
Zoe Greenhalf:Yeah.
Ian Cook:But they're a big brand, they're very well known. Just stop.
Zoe Greenhalf:Ian, it's been amazing and I wish you a fantastic summer full of events, and can't wait to see your next big project, because I know it's going to be the best one thank you.
Ian Cook:Thank you, thanks for having me keep up the amazing work. I'll try.
Zoe Greenhalf:I'll get back to it straight away phew, that was a long one, wasn't it? But there was so much good stuff in there. So here are my 10 takeaways from this episode. Number one remember that there are no rules, especially when it comes to creativity, so you get to rewrite them or simply throw away the book. Two be unafraid to turn the volume up on who you are. Think bigger, brighter, louder, faster and cultivate your self-belief. So, no matter who criticizes you, you don't veer off the path towards your goals. Take that feedback, filter it and use it only if it really serves you. Three follow your excitement. Find a way to integrate into your week or month some time to do what lights you up, especially if you're starting to feel frustrated at the lack of creativity in your life. Four be audacious in the pursuit of your goals by making things happen and being your own PR manager. Find out the contact details of people you know would be interested or would benefit from your skills. Get media or influential people involved, so whilst you help them out, you also increase your visibility.
Zoe Greenhalf:Five don't be afraid of rejection. The worst someone can say is no, but don't take it personally. Often rejection is just a form of redirection anyway. So keep calm, write it out and then move straight on to the next thing. Six when an offer comes up that really excites, you say yes and then figure out the rest later. Seven look for networking opportunities or even inspiration in unlikely places. If you're an artist, step outside the creative world. If you're a business manager, get into poetry or nature or something that is completely unrelated. You get the idea. Expand your world by thinking differently. Eight if you're looking for visibility being consistent, doesn't just apply to social media. Think about where you show up in real life too. Regular networking, fairs, events, co-working spaces and classes are all places where you can be found, seen and heard.
Zoe Greenhalf:9. Get yourself known for your signature style, Whether that's a particular product, a technique, a way of dressing, but make yourself unforgettable. And ten sharing your passion is the greatest gift you could ever give. Ian's restoration project has started conversations, built connections and brought back memories for people, so don't underestimate the power of storytelling and the emotional value of pursuing something that's meaningful to you, because the chances are it's meaningful to others too.
Zoe Greenhalf:Well, I hope you loved today's episode and it made you think differently or perhaps nudged you into changing something in your life that's not working for you. I'd love to give you a shout out right here on the podcast too. So let me know what you think, what you'd like to hear more of, or how you've been inspired to take bold action. Let's keep in touch over on Instagram at the Mischief Movement, or click the link in the show notes to sign up to my Mischief Mail newsletter, where you'll get exclusive insights on upcoming episodes and your chance to submit questions to future guests. But shhh, don't tell anyone, it's our secret. Please keep spreading the word about the podcast. You're doing such an amazing job, and I'm also super grateful for your five star ratings on apple podcasts or spotify, which seriously help my mission to inspire and empower more people like us to choose mischief over mediocre. Have a great week. Us to choose mischief over mediocre. Have a great week and keep making mischief.
Ian Cook:Ciao, his waffle's on and keeps on going on tangents. Stop going on, tangents. Cook, come back Beautiful, all right See you later, bye, bye.