The Work That Made Me: Jimmy Marble
Jimmy Marble is a director and photographer, his work is characterised by its use of colour, irreverent aesthetics, modern surrealism, and pop. He grew up in rural Washington state before moving to LA in 2009 and began making narrative shorts and directing music videos. Recently, he shot the cover of Time Magazine with Ariana Grande, as well as premiered films at Tribeca Film Festival, Nowness, and Vimeo Staff Picks. He is the creator of the photo zine Fudge Monthly, on top of his career in commercials and advertising which includes clients such as Coca-Cola, Smirnoff, Marc Jacobs, Nike, Tinder, The Palazzo Hotel, LG, Kate Spade, Apple, among others.
The ad/music video from my childhood that stays with me…
Jimmy> The Beastie Boys were BIG in my childhood, and their music video for Sabotage by Spike Jonze was 100% my favourite music video on MTV in the 90s. I remember downloading it as soon as I had an internet connection and LimeWire in 1999. It’s such a brilliant blend of camp but with absolute technical perfection.
The ad/music video/game/web platform that made me want to get into the industry…
Jimmy> Becoming a commercial director was mostly an accident. I was just very excited about making my short films and having a simple little life as an artist who made the stuff I felt inspired by come hell or high water. But then people started liking the short films I was making and some of those people worked at ad agencies. Next thing I knew, I was making commercials. After that I learned how to take photos and then basically the same thing happened and all of a sudden I had a photo career I wasn’t planning on. Once that happened, I began tackling jobs that had motion and photo elements as my bread and butter and found those jobs to be super soothing for my brain.
The creative work that I keep revisiting…
Jimmy> Post war-1960s fashion photography and cinema is always an endless source of inspiration for me. I love the innovation seen during that era and the way the artists wanted to burn the old methods to the ground. I love feeling the excitement of whoever made the art I’m looking at, and you can really feel that vivacity from the makers of that era.
My first professional project…
Jimmy> My first professional job was making a series of videos for the cookie company Oreos with Wieden+Kennedy. The agency producer had seen a short film I had made that had just had a viral moment on the internet, and they called me up and commissioned me. Having never had a client to working with Wieden was a huge gain of momentum for my career.
The piece of work that made me so angry that I vowed to never make anything like *that*…
Jimmy> I would never be a publicly scorned lover.
The piece of work that still makes me jealous…
Jimmy> CANADA’s music videos when they were still a foursome.
The creative project that changed my career…
Jimmy> Deciding in my late 20s, as my directing career was picking up steam, that I wanted to learn to take photos changed my whole life. Having a parallel career in photography has made me a more observant director, and has also allowed me to be very choosey about the jobs and opportunities I take on.
The work that I’m proudest of…
Jimmy> All of my short films.
I was involved in this and it makes me cringe…
Jimmy> Oh man, used to dress pretty twee in the early aughts. Really loved Belle and Sebastian.
The recent project I was involved in that excited me the most…
Jimmy> I have two new short films that will be finished this spring. One’s an animated sci-fi fantasy and the other is a live action slice of life about a girl losing her mind while trying to leave her pandemic quarantine.
