Customer Spotlight - Jeremy Nguyen

I'm so excited to introduce you all to Jeremy Nguyen, a New Yorker cartoonist, illustrator, and humor writer and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

He's been a customer of ours for a few months now and it's been such a pleasure working with him (We appreciate you, Jeremy)! Once he shared his first order publicly, we were then introduced to one of his followers (now Radnaut Artist), Jeremy Yuto Nakamura. (Both Jeremy N's from NYC... Yes, I absolutely got the two confused!)

His work is phenomenal, hilarious, and so true that I feel attacked at times.

How did you get started?

"Luck plays a huge part in my career. I started my own webcomic called Stranger Than Bushwick while holding down a day job. It was tough to find time to draw with a job that constantly had us work overtime. Stranger Than Bushwick ran on a neighborhood news blog called Bushwick Daily, and that got a lot of eyes on it from people within Brooklyn and New York. An art director named Anna at Thrillist saw those comics and was one of the first people to hire me to do editorial illustrations. Soon, I was getting so much work from them that I was able to quit my day job, go full-time freelance, and dedicate time to pitching cartoons to The New Yorker. My timing was lucky, and I was able to sell some cartoons to them early on and be a part of some of the new opportunities they gave to young cartoonists."

What inspires you now?

"I'm inspired by many things, but first and foremost I'm inspired by my audience. I really take care into crafting work that reflects the world we live in, and I can't do that without the great people who read my work letting me into their lives to observe and help me find what is truthful out there."

"I'm inspired by the many incredible artists I've gotten to meet in the past decade. Friends from school, comics artists at live readings, cartoonists from the magazine, new friends I'm making from opening a shop. My world has expanded so much by taking part in this community. I'm grateful to have gotten to know so many people making really cool things. I sometimes think I'm the dumbest artist alive when I talk to so many talented people making smart decisions. It's helped me realize that learning is a constant and that I don't have all the answers to navigating life as an artist."

"Japanese mascots inspire me lately. They are so cute."

How are you expressing your creativity in your free time and professionally?

"I am fortunate enough to be making things with The New Yorker because it is one of the few places that lets me have a voice in all aspects of my work. I can make singular images, long form comics, prose writing if I wanted to. I like to play around with style and form, and they allow me to experiment with whatever my obsession is at the current moment. Creative freedom is an absolute privilege and I'm thankful every day that The New Yorker welcomes that."

"I really like new media. I've been painting on planters. I've been making new products to sell in my shop. I got into TikTok over Christmas break, and it's way more than just a lip-sync/dance app for Gen Z. There's a lot of interesting makers doing really cool things, and I almost closed myself off to them. I even like editing little videos on it!"

You can find Jeremy's Instagram here: instagram.com/jeremywins
And shop all his goodies here: jeremywinslife.bigcartel.com