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Nous Vous: We, You, and Everyone we Know.

Illustration Collective, Leeds

Good things come in fours. The Beatles, leaves of clovers, aces in a pack and now boys from Leeds. The quartet go by the name Nous Vous (French for “We You”) and are equal parts Tom Hudson, William Edmonds, Nicolas Burrows and Jay Cover. They work individually and they work collectively, producing astounding work that has paraded walls and spaces around the country including Shoreditch’s Jaguar Shoes, Edinburgh’s Analogue and Leeds’ Project Space.

In their own words the framework of the collective allows them to be a ‘responsive, amorphous entity, embracing new and diverse projects from graphic design commissions for a range of clients, to launching publishing projects and record labels, exhibitions, curating and teaching.’ I pinned them down for a bit of question time in order to get to know them just a little better.

Hey, Nous Vous, what makes you so awesome?
The fact that someone might think we are awesome makes us feel pretty awesome

Is there a story behind the name?
It came from the phrase ‘Nous Vous Apprecions’ which is ‘we appreciate you’ in French. The sentiment is the important thing, ‘Nous Vous’ (We/You) looks and sounds better, and applies to lots of ways in which we work.

Where, when and how did you guys all meet?
Jay and Tom studied at Leeds College of Art & Design and started working together. Nic and Will studied at the university of Leeds and started collaborating as well. Then we all met through friends and other stuff, had an exhibition and went from there.

What backgrounds do you all herald from? Are they similar?
Yeah they are all pretty similar in terms of education. We all studied Vis Com or Graphic Design. None of us in actually from Leeds and we all came here to study.

What advantage is there to working in a collective rather than putting yourself out there solo?
Support, pooling of resources, broader skillset, lower costs, bro-time…

How does Leeds compare to London in terms of creativity and opportunity?
Well having never lived in London we’d find it hard to fairly compare, but from our experiences London has a larger network of people interested in the things we are doing, though there are opportunities in Leeds as well, and we are always looking to take advantage of those.

Is there any plans to expand the group?
No, we don’t work like a conventional studio, taking on extra staff. We work together because of the strong dynamic we have and we wouldn’t want to jeapordise that.

Which illustrators/artists do you most admire?
Kim Hiorthoy, Olle Eksell, Stefan Marx, David Hockney