Brands Untapped - an interview with Jehane
With thanks to Ian Downes at Start Licensing.
Jehane, it’s great to catch up. Firstly, can you give us some background to Jehane Limited – and Jehane the person! What inspired you to start your own agency?
I founded Jehane Ltd in 2018 with a vision for it to be the most imaginative, most alive, and most loved artist’s agency. I now personally represent 20 distinctive artists from the UK, Europe, USA, Canada, and New Zealand. I was inspired to start my own agency in order to have the freedom to curate and personally work with artists whose work inspires me personally and has the depth to be applied across multiple disciplines. Our clients include Chronicle Books, LEGO, Anthropologie, Godiva Japan, and many more.
Jehane Limited encompasses work across illustration, publishing, editorial and art licensing… Can you explain how the different disciplines work for you?
When choosing the artists we work with, I always look for the potential to work across all of these areas. It gives us more breadth and variety commercially and gives the opportunity to apply creative ideas across all areas. Within publishing, we tend to focus on non-fiction books, book covers, and pre-school which gives us a rich source of inspiration when thinking about new ideas for art licensing projects.
You represent a very talented and diverse roster of artists and creatives. How do you identify new talent to work with?
Thank you! I’m so glad you like what we do. As an artist myself with a strong colour sense and a personal interest in both narrative and pattern, my criteria when identifying artists includes having a sparkling sense of colour, strong draughtsmanship and an interest in both publishing and art licensing.
The artists I work with also tend to have an illustrative style with a touch of the decorative. I try to ensure that no one’s work is too similar so that each artist stands out, while sharing these general qualities which inspire me and I know clients will respond to.
