Douglas Coupland & James Joyce — A Collaboration in Words and Pictures

For years, Canadian writer and artist Douglas Coupland has been writing a column for Financial Times Magazine. For the last few of those years illustrator James Joyce has been providing illustrations for the pieces. We talked to Financial Times Magazine Art Director Brian Saffer and James Joyce about how the collaboration started and the process of turning words into pictures. Probably best known for his novel Generation X: Tales from an Accelerated Culture, which originated terms and concepts like ‘Generation X’ and ‘McJobs’, Coupland is not just an author (though he has written twelve other novels since Generation X). He studied art and design and has had a number of public sculptures commissioned, including ‘Infinite Tire’ in Vancouver and ‘Monument to the War of 1812’ in Toronto. He’s also exhibited in galleries and had a major retrospective of his art at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2014. He even ventured into fashion in 2010, with his designs sold in boutique retailer Colette in Paris.