From Illustrating for Brands to Adweek's Latest Cover

When Kiehl's Canada approached Toronto illustrator Tim Singleton to design special Pride packaging for its popular face cream, the decision was a no-brainer. He'd used the brand for years, and more importantly, Kiehl's vowed to use part of the proceeds to help the queer community in practical, tactical ways. The partnership will create 2SLGBTQIA+ workshops for 17,000 students, virtual workshops for 10 schools in remote areas and training for two new speakers—one of them trans—to bring a message of hope to 58 schools this year. Adweek partnered with him this month as well to illustrate our June 21 Pride Stars cover story, marking Singleton's first magazine cover. We caught up with him about what influences his trademark style—a colorful, optimistic "rainbow explosion"—how he chooses brand partnerships and how Pride can evolve beyond June to better support the community. Adweek: What led you to a career in illustrating?Tim Singleton: My oldest brother is 10 years older than me, and he was always making art and has since gone into user experience design, and I kept up on the fine art side of things. I was really lucky my parents were OK with me always being into drawing and design. My dad was an accountant and my mom was a nurse. I'm very lucky they said, "Yeah, go do the art thing." How did you find your style as an illustrator? It's so distinctive.I have no idea. Whenever people say that to me, it’s a little bit of a shock. If I had to say anything about my style, it’s that it's colorful, but it's always changing to me. I'm influenced by the big names in the '80s—Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring—with an infusion from comic books and Saturday morning cartoons. My work is a stream of consciousness of a lot of pop culture I consumed in the past 30 years condensed into this big rainbow explosion. Say what you will about our generation; we watched a lot of TV, and all of those Saturday morning shows were beautiful works of art. What inspires you?So many things. I'm inspired by vintage advertising. I have random books on ad collections and the history of graphic design. Queer culture has an obvious and clear influence on my work. I think drag queens and kings are the most inspiring figures in the world. Also, the influence of nature. I'm a city boy born in Toronto, and I like to get out into nature and hike. So the city boy and natural world combine. Drag queens and nature! I love that.It’s not a typical combination, and in my mind it just works. You recently partnered with Kiehl's to create special packaging. How do you choose brand partnerships?I do brand partnerships fairly frequently. I like them to be brands that I know. I've used Kiehl's products for years, so when they reached out I was like, "Oh great, I love it." Also, if it’s a partnership that will help a not-for-profit or charity. I know there's a lot of talk about rainbow-washing, so I'm always trying to seek out brands that want to support the community in a meaningful and positive way. How have you seen Pride evolve?I came out in 2008, right before Glee and queerness in youth became a big conversation in the mainstream. Pride was a thing sponsored by a lot of alcohol brands, associated with a party lifestyle. Now, it seems that every brand has some sort of engagement in Pride month. Also, now it's an entire month. It used to be a weekend. I think there’s something good happening when the partnerships are going to help the community and [brands are] working with people who are queer. If they are actually engaging and hiring queer people, that’s important. Queer people exist 24/7, 365, not just this month. What would you like to see more of during Pride month?I really enjoy that we are shifting away from being purely about a street parade, and it's becoming a time to talk about queer history around the world. We're very lucky to be in North America [where these conversations are accepted]; it's not that way everywhere. It's about educating the 2SLGBTQIA+ community to use this month to reflect on what Pride means to yourself and the greater populace, and it's becoming more about what queerness means every day and not just this month. It started as a riot, and it's good to keep up that civil action to engage with it.

Creative Thinkers

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Tim Singleton on the ideal Pride partnership

Stephanie Paterik

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Stephanie Paterik