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Kam Tang has produced graphic work for clients ranging from Sony and Nike to The Chemical Brothers and Gnarls Barkley. Paula Carson meets the illustrator as he moves from book covers to a personal book project
Before Kam Tang learned to use a computer, he used to painstakingly hand-render his detailed, complex drawings using Rotring pens and French curves. His working process still involves hand-drawn originals, although the computer allows Tang to tighten up work in a fraction of the time. For a perfectionist like Tang, vector-based illustration is a mixed blessing. 'It opens up another can of worms. With pen and paper you try to be the best draughtsman you can. With the computer you try to be the best line manipulator you can,' he explains. 'Nobody is ever going to see that detail; the reproduction is never going to capture that finesse. But you know deep down, and you're the one that's got to live with the image. If you're going to do it, you might as well do it properly.'
Ask Tang what inspires his exquisite images, and he'll talk about the delicate nature of lace, birds, plants, 'natural phenomena, strange bulbous turnips and...