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Ward is an easy-going guy—comfortable talking about his work, what he likes,
what he doesn’t and how he got started…which is a pretty fantastic story,
one you are going to be jealous of.
After he finished “Uni” Ward got himself a letterpress and over six months built
a nice little portfolio. So, what do you do when you have a portfolio of work in
this day and age? You build a website, of course.
“I have a very geeky friend who taught me the importance of meta-tagging
your website, so people can actually find you when they’re searching for you,”
said Ward. “So, apparently I was the first name that came up when The New
York Times searched letterpress. So they commissioned me. It was my first paid
commission. Once I had that under my belly it just rolled on from there.”
Not bad, only 22-years-old, less than a year out of school and the NYT
came knocking.
Within a year of his NYT work, Time Out New York, The New Yorker and GQ
commissioned him. And it’s not hard to see why.
Next up for Ward is re-launching his website: www.wordsarepictures.co.uk,
a move NYC and a possible solo show in October—which might help convince
his friends and family from Lincolnshire, England he does have a real job.
“My family and friends back home work really hard. They do proper jobs—they’re
laborers or they’re carpenters, or they’re builders or they work in a factory or
whatever and that feels like proper work,” muses Ward. “I come back all stressed
out, holding the bridge of my nose saying, ‘Well what a terrible day, someone
rejected an idea of mine.’ And that for me is hard work and a bad day. But it
doesn’t carry much weight when I go home, so it kinda keeps me grounded.”
Grounded is good, but Ward’s work is better.