Character Design - Jeremyville

Apparently 'Jeremyville' is a household name amongst graphic designers. To the shock of many of my fellow students I only found out about him two weeks ago.
I found about about him when doing research for the 5 examples of interactive design that we had to collect.
I was in the library and found the 'Jeremyville Sessions' book and it caught my attention, possibly because its got a very shiny cover and i'm a magpie.

I took the book out because he has done a lot of clothing, toys, skate decks etc. but I have found that the rest of his work relates a lot to what I plan to do for this current brief. I'm looking to create a character/s to communicate a series of narratives and I find his work very inspiriation especially when it comes to character design.

Heres a few examples of his work:


Various characters he has design for diffirent projects:

The book came with a DVD and it featured some live footage of him creating his characters, I've managed to find a couple on youtube:





Look who it is

Heres another:



When asked, 'What advice, tips or tricks do you have when creating your work?' - his answer was, "Look at what is out there, then forget all about it, and do it diffirently" - good advice... sort of. I think for me, I'm going to definetly try and create my own unique style but I don't think theres any harm in borrowing from 'what is out there' until you find your own voice.