Jordan Askill, Good At Everything, Explains How to Be Good At (Nearly) Everything

This article is presented by TAFE NSW

Jordan Askill is proof that different creative paths can shapeshift into one career. This guy has stories to tell, which he explores through clothing, short film, music videos, sculpture and, currently, jewellery. The chapters in Askill's tale move from winning the Grand Marnier Design Award after finishing school, to interning with Alexander McQueen in London, working with Dior in Paris, and now running his own jewellery studio in New York.

VICE caught up with Askill when he was in Sydney to chat about merging many mediums into a career, the value of work experience, and his creative highs.

VICE: Your career has taken so many different turns, but let's go back to the beginning. Coming out of high school, what did you want to do?
Jordan Askill: I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was inspired by the fashion around me and had my eyes firmly set on East Sydney TAFE. I even remember the interview process. I organised how I was going to be seen and what my portfolio was going to be like. It was a big deal for me.

How did you make yourself stand out?
I made sure I did work experience. When I was leaving high school, I worked at Signature Prints, which was a fabric printing company. I also made sure I was building myself up by taking fashion design–related topics and creative subjects, like drama, during my final years of high school so I could get a portfolio together.

Why do you feel work experience is important?
Having hands-on experience in the workforce is one of the best ways to learn. It's also very much about meeting the people and discovering exactly what they're doing. It opens your eyes to the realities of the work and industry.

What advice would you have for people who are planning to enter a creative field?
Once you start to study, it doesn't mean you can be complacent. It's also about doing your own research at the same time. I think study is best when you are also looking outside the box, doing your own thing. The two really help each other.

Tell us about the positive takeaways from your study time.
We got to learn about computers and pattern-making. All of that was interesting. But there was also so much value in making friends while studying, friends I still connect with today. We were also encouraged to be aware of what was important and valued by the industry. We'd do work experience as part of the course, we'd be at fashion week, all that stuff helped us be involved. The passion of the teachers left a mark, too. It was a really nice little world of supportive people. Even when I decided, after my first year, to go overseas for a bit—and I ended up interning at Alexander McQueen—I still felt that support.

That internship would have been a huge deal at the time. How did it come about?
I'd been obsessed with McQueen since high school. I remember my art teacher and my mother introducing me to his work when I was in year 12. I became really passionate about what he was doing—the artists and the historical culture he brought into it. Very randomly, my brother got some work in a company in London. I was in Australia and he called me up and said, "Man, you have to come over! I just got a job at a digital agency and it's in the same building as McQueen and it's a really weird coincidence." So I went, and we somehow worked out a way for me to have an interview for an internship there.

Do you remember having a breakthrough moment?
I think it was being able to go away and travel and experience the world in relation to what I was studying, then to come back and have the opportunity to continue my course. I also remember I was offered some really interesting t-shirt design projects when I was going through college and I said yes to all of that. I also entered awards and I won a couple of them while studying. There were so many opportunities that helped me build that momentum. So, after I finished studying, I was able to start working for Ksubi and design a little capsule collection.

It sounds like a pretty great experience, but is there anything you'd do differently?
I could have been more focused on learning the tricks and skills of pattern-making, but I was trying to be really outlandish at the time and I suppose, in a way, that's what study's there for as well. As a student, you want to try to reach very high creative points and your teachers are there to help you execute that. It's important to learn the ropes, concentrate, and do the projects that are given to you, and I think I could have done that better, but it's also important to really reach to high grounds and push things.

Is there anything you wish you'd known when you were starting out?
I think I knew this anyway, but it doesn't hurt to say it again: Find something you're really passionate about and learn everything you can across all facets, both technically and commercially. The commercial side—having a business mind if you possibly can—is really important too. At the same time, you want to try to be free and make sure you enjoy things. Push the limits of what you want to do. Be alert. Go for it. Take everything in.

Photography: Daniel Bolt

This article is presented by TAFE NSW