Hello DA readers! I'm a New York City based illustrator and digital art director. I originally hail from Richmond, Virgina, but I moved here to study 7 years ago, and never looked back. I attended Gallatin's School of Individualized Study at NYU in a quest to fuse my interest in creative writing and studio art, and ultimately ended up in advertising—a serendipitous marriage of both. I lead a bit of a double life: I work full time as an AD at a big global ad agency but also aggressively pursue my passion for illustration nights and weekends. It's a challenging and often exhausting balance, but in the end I feel very lucky to be pushed in this way. I believe both disciplines help to inform and cross-pollinate one another.

Your illustration work is amazing. We would like to know more about your regular job and commercial work. How's it going? What are your feelings doing commercial work?

Thank you very much! My day job keeps me on my toes. Where with illustration it's easy to work in a vacuum, my job keeps me in check with other creatives. It not only continuously challenges me as a designer, but also as a thinker. Where at one point in my career I may have designed only to make things beautiful, I now try to design things to make them function better, to tell a story, and to convey a message. I work with a sea of ridiculously smart and talented people who are constantly teaching me things, showing me new Photoshop tricks, sharing new art, and dropping new perspectives. It's incredibly humbling and at the same time makes you want to work to be better. So although the foremost goal is always do good work for the client, I like my day job because I get paid to learn stuff from cool people. Also, in many ways, my job is to always be looking at new art and design for moodboards, exercises or whatever, which helps give a business context to my illustration ventures. My goal has always been to make illustration the full time livelihood, but currently I am in a good place where I'm still learning and working hard. And I can give my parents the peace of mind that their weird art loving daughter can make a living. So to finally answer your question: I think commercial work in the right environment helps us grow. It has it's time and place, all depending on what the end goal is for each of us.

Speaking about your art, what can you tell us about your style of work? It's awesome, I've never seen similar stuff before.

Wow, thank you, thank you! All my illustration work starts by hand with pencil and paper. I tend to do very little sketching, and just go for it. I usually describe it as freestyle. I like my illustrations to surprise me. I don't like knowing who they are until they are done. Especially with my portraiture, I like to discover my characters as I go. It's like getting to know a stranger. And likewise, sometimes the relationship blossoms into something beautiful, and sometimes it's an utter ugly failure, but I think it's a more exciting and fulfilling process for me. After I've gotten to a good place with the initial drawing, I add watercolor, scan, and color in Photoshop. I have a huge library of textures from around NYC that I've collected over the years with my digital camera—sidewalks, broken glass, construction tape, graffiti—and I layer on tons of those into each drawing. New York is inevitably infused into each of my digital pieces. I guess it's an ongoing love affair with this city.

What can you say about that there is so much similar stuff over the world this days. I mean, people are doing same work, same styles, copy each other…

I think it's inevitable that there is repetition, but if you imitate and can still add a completely unique twist, you can stay fresh without copying. It's like a big visual game of telephone—the proverbial design joint—take a little hit and pass it on. And I don't see anything wrong with that. In fact, I think if you share what you know, more will come back to you. Design is growing and changing collectively. I don't think any of us can claim to be the original at anything. There is so much opportunity to adapt and do something new with styles that already exist, and adding that new perspective is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls.

What is music for you, while you are drawing?

I switch it up. Music is always a necessity to long bouts of drawing. I've been a huge Radiohead fan for over a decade, so that's always a go-to. Lately it's been a lot of instrumental stuff like Hammock, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, This Will Destroy You, Explosions in the Sky, Flying Lotus, and Mogwai—but I also love stuff like Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Menomena, Bon Iver, XX, and the Silversun Pickups. I also love me some Chet Baker! Last FM is my best friend for stumbling across new stuff.

Your spare time, when you are not drawing, not working. What are you doing? Any other hobbies?

I'm working most of the time, but I make time to go on long runs. Other than my heart, it's my biggest passion outside of work. There are few more fulfilling experiences than pushing your body to it's limits. I'm a believer in punishing yourself so that the sweet is all the sweeter. It's also an ideal time to clear your head. And secondly, I'm not sure if you can call this next one a hobby, but it takes a lot of my time and has the same masochistic theme—I love tattoo art and spend a great deal of hours, energy, money, and pain adding them to my personal library. And food and drink with loved ones whenever possible.

Pen is your best friend? Could you explain a bit about the process of how you draw?

There is something very soothing about working by hand. It comes naturally, and I feel the most connection with the medium when I'm drawing. Most of my work in the work place is completely digital and entirely created in Photoshop, so drawing is a welcome change. I count pixels daily so it is refreshing to relish in all the variations and imperfections of pencil and paper. It's one of the few places in my design life where fuck-ups are a good thing and celebrated.

Graphic tablet or pen? Why?

Both! I mainly use the real thing, but I use a Wacom tablet for light airbrushing and accentuating shadows and highlights.

Mac or PC? Why?

Mac. I can't even begin to explain all the reason why…

Do you think to be a talented artist it's necessary to finish an art school or something? Thoughts?

Definitely not! I think everyone has his or her own story, and learns and works differently—there is no rule book for how to succeed, nor is there a concrete gauge of what is considered success. I took art classes in college, but I didn't go to a traditional art school, like Pratt for example. The main benefit of my education was exposure to new ideas, mediums, people, and methodology, but from a technical standpoint, I still consider myself all self-taught. I believe art school is what you make of it, and can be incredibly enriching and valuable, but I don't believe it is at all essential. Passion, drive, love, and determination are what get you the farthest.

Have you ever been stuck and uninspired, how do you manage this?

I get stuck all the time, and it's usually a direct result of sheer exhaustion or my mood. Unfortunately, I wear my heart on my sleeve, and if I am upset or brooding, I completely shut down creatively. Running helps, writing in my journal helps, mom helps, music helps, and an occasional alcoholic beverage or 3 helps.

What are your plans for the future?

I have my first solo gallery show called White Lies coming up in Sydney this September. I have a number of exciting collaborations coming up over the next year with some talented folks across the globe including Shadow Chen, Joshua Davis, Daniel Diggle, Max Spencer, and Magomed Dovjenko. I've got a couple other top secret projects underway too, but you will have to stay tuned on my blog to learn about those! (www.hellozso.com/blog)
Either all that or I'm gonna disappear, buy a hot air balloon, sail around the world and dock under the Northern Lights.

Hello. Since my earlier days I was always fascinated with film, moving pictures, cartoons, video games and such. I was not so much into art and/or design work yet, that wasn’t until one day.
I received a phone call from a friend of mine, in ’95-’96 I believe it was and I had just recently heard about the latest invention “the internet”. I didn’t really know what it was for except I had heard that you could see pictures of Pamela Anderson naked – wow!
Anyways, to make short story really long, my friend told me he now had his own website and from that day on we became rivals. I spent days and nights figuring out ways of making my own site an even better one. I remember how fascinated I was with just an animation of a letter coming out of a mailbox; I still had no idea how that was done. Slowly maturely I started to crave answers, I really needed to know all the tricks to this trade.
A couple months later I came across a website called Anders Qvicker, Art and Design (aqa-d.se), he was an old paintbrush artist who had started making digital work on the side. His work was amazing, it was fun to interact with (javascript coded rollovers was an eyebrow raiser back then) and it animated.

I attacked this guy with questions and quickly learned that he was using Adobe Photoshop and, back then, Macromedia Flash. I found out that this one guy I went to school with had a copy of Photoshop and I more or less had to force this guy to give me a copy and finally got it. Come home from school, opened Photoshop and my first thought was “This is it? What do I do with this?” Later on various people’s online tutorials taught me some tricks and I was soon on my way into endless nights of no sleep, making art and design work for my own websites just for shits and giggles. Between that point and this, I have wrestled with the Swedish army, the American government and New York City lawyers to make all pieces fit and get to where I am today.

What got me to New York is when the co-founder of an old employer emailed me, asking me if I wanted to come do an internship as a graphic designer / animator with their company working with Hollywood clients. As a 20 year old growing up in a small town in Sweden, that really meant something. So I kissed my mama goodbye, packed my bags and left my home city and Hyper Island, who had indirectly helped providing me with this opportunity, and moved to Brooklyn / New York City. After a while in New York I met Jens and James, 2 out of 3 partners of Your Majesty today. They took me under their wings, gave me valuable lessons and introduced me to new tools and ways. So when they opened up Your Majesty later on down the road, it was a very easy decision to follow my mentors, help their business grow and give back to their employees what they had given to me.

You have worked at plenty of agencies, which one do you think is your best destination and why?

Your Majesty is by far the loveliest place I’ve been at and I am lucky to have been given the opportunity to work together with such a hard working and striving team. I can rely on the people I work with and I feel the same love and respect right back. People here like to get down to business and at the same time build a vague (exchange for very) environment of goof. And goof by the way means “good” in a knight’s vocabulary.
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At Perfect Fools I had a great stay as well, I had plenty of responsibility put on my shoulders, leading the New York design team. I was forced to constantly push my boundaries, as an example of that; I had to learn Real Flow (3D fluid simulation) in a matter of weeks to produce HD quality liquid animations for Smirnoff.

Being a Sr. Art Director, is that hard work? What are the pros and cons?

Well there is a distinct line between being a designer and being an art director. As an art director you can’t just sit yourself down and focus on getting that current piece you’re working on in place for the delivery. As the art director you need to see the overall picture, you need to make sure you’re team understands their tasks, provide them with new tools and new ways of approaching problems, set level or expectations et cetera. At the same time you’re in charge of communicating to the client side of a project, what direction you plan on taking with you team, why that is going to work, how it’s going to work et cetera and to make sure that they’re always in line with what you’re currently developing.

So I guess a con is that it’s time-consuming overlooking things, it takes away from what you’re actual hands-on times. But on the other hand a pro is to see your own skills being transferred over to other hard working talents and to see them succeed.

Working for various industries, which one do you think is the best to work in? I know you spent a lot of time doing movie-sites. Could you tell us more?

Working with Hollywood was interesting; I had a lot of fun doing it and I learned a lot, what sucked about it was that when the movie came out you had already read the script a couple times, seen the trailers and movie set photography. Also, to me, doing the same thing over and over again bores me, once I’ve learned how to do something I need to move on to something new, I need to constantly be moving, learning new things or I’ll feel like I’m wasting time and slowly maturely feel anxious. Therefore, I think Your Majesty has been a really good fit for me; we have a diverse base of interesting clients. I get to move around a lot, one day we’re shooting photography in the beautiful landscapes of Vancouver, the other day I’m working hard with the other designers on making super detailed matte paintings and animations for some other interactive project. Lately I’ve been working with 3D tracking of 2D footage in a program called BouJou, meaning I can add 3D animations seamlessly on top of a video we’ve shot for example.

Thoughts about Flash? There are loads of web 2.0 sites launching more and more. What's going to happen with Flash then?

It’s beautiful. We need to simplify and make accessing information quick with little to no wait at all. Simple code based animations can now be done with HTML and jQuery and doesn’t really require Flash anymore. But I definitely think Flash will remain, as there’s always going to be sites and campaigns that are animation savvy like that, that require a bit more advanced tools than just fading, scaling, translation et cetera.

To give an example of what I am talking about. Right now in Your Majesty pipeline lays a very animation heavy project. We’re talking our design team is breaking out the finest detail pieces from Photoshop into Flash. Little pixel characters, perhaps 150 pixels high and 40 pixels wide, gets broken up into head, limbs and torso, et cetera, and then animated. A dragon was divided into a great amount of pieces to be given lots of animation control. Its neck was divided per neck skeleton joint so that we in Flash could make it bend and move its neck and spit fire.
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We sometimes have to make some pieces of our design come alive in After Effects rendered as a video loop, just to bring it back into Flash and combine it with other elements such as png sequences or vector animation.

I hear people expressing their frustration over heavy upfront loads, et cetera, and I understand them, I do. But on the other hand, I know there are people out there that put their love and passion into making a campaign really come alive in highly dramatic fashion in their animation heavy interactive productions. People just need to realize that there is a difference between brands. For example apple.com, you wouldn’t go there an expect a heavy upfront load; you just want your specification for your desired product and information on how to order it, that’s it a one minute visit tops. On the other hand, Doritos, it is more about keeping the user engaged and interacting with the brand for as long as possible to create brand awareness. So next time when that user visits a deli he or she will most likely pick the Doritos out of the bunch. And I think our friends over at B-Reel makes an excellent example out of what I am talking about when they launched http://hotel626.com, all in video and Flash.

Why do you think the iPhone and the iPad don’t support Flash?

Honestly, I don’t know what the deal is, and if Apple doesn’t want to put Flash on the iPhone that’s fine. If I owned an iPhone I could probably care less about visiting Flash sites with my phone. However, I understand the frustration about the iPad. There are no limits to what you can put on your Mac book, why should the iPad be any different. That’s a stand I took five minutes ago, as I don’t own either an iPhone or an iPad.

Working in digital business, what would you do, if not your current occupation?

I am an interactive strategist, graphic designer, an animator, illustrator, a 3D generalist all wrapped in one, and most of the times I share my knowledge with the team I work with and I guide others through the projects we work on, which also makes me an art director. This is my occupation this is what I do. It is what I’ve fought to learn and it’s what I love; I would never give that up for anything. Sorry for perhaps a disappointing answer to your question, but most likely, and happily so, I will tell my grand kids about tracking 3D over film footage in my rocking chair as they’re too polite to tell me that I am mentally challenged.

You must be spending a lot of time in front of your computer, how is offline important for you? Do you work 9-17, or do you work more and the hours are flexible?

I do spend an insane amount of time in front of my work computer, and between me and you, I sometimes fall asleep with my laptop watching tutorial DVD’s, mostly from Gnomon Workshop, only to wake up in the middle of the night to check my email.

We have set hours at Your Majesty, I officially work between 10am and 7pm, and however YM has made the hours somewhat flexible to create that relaxed environment that people find themselves comfortable in. Because we all know, comfort makes room for happiness and that’s when you produce your absolute best work.
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If you would have a chance to move to any place of the world, where would you go? Or you are happy with New York?

I am, and will forever be happy living in New York. New York is such a unique place; New York is a place that will teach you about life in so many ways. The multicultural atmosphere and social love in NYC is something I haven’t witnessed in any other place. I will always consider New York to be my home regardless of where I lay my head. Having said that I cannot promise what tomorrow will bring or where it will take me. I could definitely see myself move back home to Sweden and incorporate another just as equally important component to work into my life. You know, take a chance. Maybe have a summerhouse in Barcelona, who knows?

By working at Your Majesty, working in an office environment, what makes you think full-time and office work is better than freelance?

Well, first and foremost, it’s amazing to collaborate with other people and to figure out things and share with others, get their instant feedback and input. There’s nothing I love more than to brainstorm with a whole group of motivated co-workers, come up with insane idea after insane idea and then being able to execute the idea with the same group of people.

Another benefit you have as an in-house designer is the producer protected environment that allows creative space. To just keep track of delivery versions, change orders, revision rounds, schedules, et cetera, on top of your creative work will make your life stressful as a freelancer.

How do you see Your Majesty in the next 10 years? It's growing fast, but what are the plans for the future?

Your Majesty is determined to never be more than 25-30 people in any of the offices, just to keep a family tight group together and to be able to quality control our production in the best possible way.
YM is currently established in New York City with a brand new office on 19th Street and Broadway, but is on the look out to expand the movement to Sao Paulo/Brazil, Amsterdam/Netherlands and to Stockholm/Sweden.

What would you suggest to young designers/artists? How to start a career and from what to learn?

Number 1. I used to think while having already invested a lot of time and energy into learning design: “What if everyone cannot be a designer? What if you need to be born with a certain talent? What if I don’t make it?” Those are limiting believes and you need to KILL them, Jack the Ripper style. Those thoughts are bad ones! You need to get straight with your own mind in this business, as well as any business, be confident in yourself. There is close to nothing that can’t be learned, nothing you can’t do. People in this industry will even try to tell you you’re worthless to keep you on smaller paycheck. Don’t believe them. If an employer ever tells you that nonsense, milk that company on knowledge and then get out, better yet, quit immediately and find that knowledge elsewhere!

Number 2. Look to your elders. Find a mentor, someone that know what they’re talking about, that just doesn’t talk but can actually back it up with action. Learn from them. It will be the fastest way you can gain knowledge, period. Ask! Be hungry! If you find yourself just sitting on your ass doing nothing, you better get up and ask someone something! If you don’t know what to ask, ask your mentor or whomever it is, what else knowledge you should be seeking. The idea is to keep the knowledge coming and to keep progressing. In the beginning, work around the clock, don’t just leave the office because you’ve finished your daily tasks, have an experimental project on the side lined up.

Number 3. Find a balance between your salary and fun projects. Getting paid too much could mean you’ll be working in a stiff office in a cubicle or similar, working on less attractive work. Getting paid too little and youmight be unhappy because you might not be able to do anything but buy food and paying rent. I believe that your work environment should be playful, socially dynamic and efficient for it to be truly successful.

Are there any moments, when you want to stop doing what you do if you are totally uninspired?

If I ever feel uninspired I take a step back and do work that I can do in my sleep and I do it as well and detailed as I can and then look at the end result to boost my self esteem a little. That might give you that spark back and rub off on to your other performances.

Another thing I like to do is to ask someone else for a reference to relating and inspiring work, to get someone else’s completely different take on the matter instead of my own. That usually takes down brain barriers that I might run into.

Sometimes it’s as easy as “Calm the fxxx down, these here are pixels!”

Final Comments?

Dream, follow them, set up goals, have fun on the way, respect all people, speak your mind as frequent as possible, spend your energy wisely, spend your energy unwisely. Don’t let anyone tell you what is possible and what is not, simply do not accept impossible. Do what others believe is corny or wrong if it makes sense to you. Stay true to yourself and everything you wish for will come to you!

Thank you!
Chris

My name is Jakob Nylund and I?m a Swedish art director living in London and working at B-Reel. Hard to say what inspired me, but my family is quite creative, but mostly in the music field. I started playing classical piano at age 6 until I was 17. Realizing that music wasn?t anything I could do for living I started looking for other things to do. This was kind of at the same time as dad got the family a modem and it was the most amazing little technology. I started making some websites, very bad I must say, but that was the start anyway. In the summer that year, think it was 1997, I got a summer job at my dads friend who had a little advertising agency in my home town, Sala. I just loved it, and more and more I started getting an appreciation for the art of typography, colors, how shapes works together and the logic behind everything. When I was 20 I started my own little agency in my home town doing projects for local companies. It was a great start, but everything was by the book, and at times I had no idea what I was doing, just did. Websites got more and more complex and I thought I needed some education so I applied to Hyper Island, got in and from there it has just rolled on. What are your current projects and plans? I was working in Sydney for 6 months last year, at Frost Design, owned by the talented Vince Frost. Frost is really a print led design company, but they started up a digital department a couple of years ago, so I jumped on the train as their Design Director — all whilst my girlfriend was finishing her uni degree in Sydney where she is from originally. I got inspired by all the amazingly talented print designers, there use of typography, there imagination and playfulness with shapes, so when I got back in December I started sketching on some typefaces. In 1 week I had done 7, thought I would never really use them that much so I put up a website for people to download them for free. So that has been my latest project, Just—My—Type. It?s been successful, almost 20k visitors in January, so I hope I?ll get to see some of them in use sometime. Other than that I?m planning on buying a shiny new Canon EOS5D and start photographing again, been a while and I miss it. Always wanted to get into photography, but hard to have time with everything you want.

Are you design educated? Do you think it’s important to be educated if you work in this field?

Yes and no. I went to Hyper Island which is a brilliant, fantastic school for digital creative people. I did new things before I started, so in that way I?m autodidact. But what I enjoyed with Hyper Island is the people around you. I got inspired and evolved as a designer. If I still would have been running my company in Sala, I don?t think my eye on design would have been that good, you need to get out and get inspired. Another good thing with education is the work-placement. Springboard out in the world.

Could you tell us about your life style? What is your offline life?

I, as everyone else, enjoys good company with friends and loved ones. I watch movies, read too few books, bad at cooking, travel… but a lot of my time I?m stuck in front of the monitor browsing useless webpages, filling my brain with nonsense when in fact I should do more physical things like running, going to the gym, taking a walk — all to even out the sitting hours. I also love the PS3, but thats also sitting down being lazy.

Do you have moments when you are tired designing?

Yes a lot of times. Sometimes I just think that this is the most stupid work you can have, but most of the times I love what I do. If it wasn?t for the passion and the drive to be better at it, I would be bored all the time. The moment I?ll stop learning I will change career.

Photography, motion, illustration, interactive? What do you prefer? Why?

Interactive, typography and photography — because those are the ones I know. I?m a really bad illustrator, don?t have that eye for it, I can do some motion, but there are other people that are better at it, better to co-operate than trying to know everything.

What was your most interesting project? Can you tell us more about it?

About the process. Hard to say a specific project, but I have enjoyed working on just—my—type, freedom to do whatever I wanted. What was your first ever design project? That was way back in 1996, I did the design for our music schools monthly magazine. I actually think I still have a copy hidden away. I do remember I used a lot of clip-art illustrations, I thought they were a great resource and would spice up my design a bit!

How do you see your career in the next 10 years? Still designing? Living where?

Lets see, then I?ll be 36… I?ll hopefully still will be in this field, but maybe not as a hands on designer. I want to start up my own company before I?m 30, so hopefully I?m running that as some sort of creative director with a bunch of eager talented fresh young designers under me doing kick ass work!

What is your opinion about the current situation in the design sites/portals. Well, they are quite the same, and a few years ago, there were still some unique and new stuff. And now its kind of stuck, and lack of new things. What do you think?

I think it?s a great to get information about inspiring and new stuff in one place. But yes there are a bunch of big sites posting the same links everyday. But the ones that was there from the very beginning are still a good resource, like qbn.com and Digital Abstracts of course. But I like the design of Reform&Revolution, Andreas (suprb) did a good job with it, a lot of information but utilizing the space in a good way, and it looks really good too.

What are your thoughts about the most inspiring city? Where would you live? What is the worst design city then?

I really wanna live in New York before I?m 30. I love that city, the vibe, the romance and the harsh and rough edge it has. It just has such a rich culture and the creative output is just so inspiring. Photographers, fine artists, illustrators, designers, graffiti artists, fashion designers, entrepreneurs — they all live there, almost under one roof and they all inspire each other. The worst city… tbh I have no idea. Maybe Dubai? There are a lot of agencies there and some of the work they do is great, but it feels a bit too corporate for my liking.

Freelance or full-time. Why?

I like working at a company just because of the people around you, they are your colleges and your friends. I?ve done freelancing in the past, but I just feel restricted and isolated. It?s good once in a while to get some extra cash, but in general I?d say full-time.

What is design for you? Why did you decide to be an artist?
I’ve been drawing since I was one year old and I think I’ve probably always used visuals as communication. I think that even now, my “art” or whatever you want to call it stems from me attempting to visually capture an abstract thought or emotion.

Where are you currently located and where do you work? Maybe you can open some secrets and tell us what are you working on?
I am currently in, and have been living in sunny Los Angeles for the last five or so years. Right now I am contracting onsite on the Acura website redesign, my focus being an “experience” section for one of their vehicles. It’s the largest project I have ever been involved with and includes everything from photo/video shoots to good ole fashioned design and illustration. The experience so far has been remarkable.

What is your opinion about flash?
Flash is amazing. I feel it has enhanced the online user experience with how visually engaging it can be and also with its potential for innovative ways to configure navigation. It seems to become more and more sophisticated every year. To me, it can only get more impressive from here.

What is your favorite music?
I have a lot of music I love, and it ranges from Beethoven to DJ Shadow. I think, to me, good music is good music, regardless of era or instrumentation.

Do belive that dreams sometimes can be real?
I think dreams are a good way into our subconscious. They are without limits, often without logic and that sort of spontaneity is excellent for creativity. Can they be real? I’d like to think anything is possible. I did once have a vivid dream of a strange place that I later ended up visiting.

What is your favorite things you like to do?
I think I am getting old now because more and more I just love spending time with my man, great dinners with good friends, some drinks out at a nice lounge, having dinner parties. I was also able to purchase a baby grand piano and have it in my apartment. Playing music and writing some on occasion has been a hobby of mine since I was six.

Your goals for the future?
One day perhaps I would like to be a full on artist who also scores for movie soundtracks, but… I’m not so sure that will happen. Mainly I would like to be able to continue my good fortune of meeting and working with the best designers/artists/musicians in the world and finding my way successfully through a fickle online world.

What is your opinion about design-community sites like Digital Abstracts?
I think its great that we have such a strong community and they’re great for inspiration or just random surfing to cut up what could otherwise be, a monotonous day.

If you would find a jin, what are the three wishes you would ask?
01. for more time in the day but less hours in the work week
02. a dinosaur
03. a ride in the black lion of Voltron!

How did you start your career as a web designer?
Well, back when computers with 256 megs of RAM were considered super fast, I came upon the reasoning that working with a file at 72 dpi was a lot faster than a file at 300 dpi, so I took advantage of having gone to a school with a strong computer program and decided to go into interactive design.

How do you rest when you are out from the front of PC?
I love single malt scotches or a good whiskey to assist in the unwinding process. My guilty pleasure is watching NFL football-sort of appreciate the strategy involved. And I also watch a ridiculous amount of Discovery, National Geographic and History channels.

How many hours, daily, do you work?
Oh it can range from 6 to 14 hours!

Oh, what's your favorite font?
At the moment, it’s DIN. Its extremely legible and elegant, a san serif font with some character (no pun intended).

PC or MAC, why?
I work on a PC these days, though I used to be on a Mac. I am capable of working in both (and have) but I think the main reason I had made the switch was the cost. With the help of friends, I built my own PC at home for an amazing price. I feel both platforms have their strengths and weaknesses and in the end, I tried to balance out my PC by having 2 23” Apple Cinema Displays.

Well, that's enough, last comments please?
A favorite quote of mine from Mr. Henry David Thoreau:
“I went to the woods because I wanted to live life deliberately. To front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could learn what It had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

Speaking about your designing style. From where it comes? How would you call it? What is behind it?
Some people that I talked to say that the could identify a style in my work, I for myself try to actually change my style all the time and try new things. I get bored doing one and the same style over and over again, thought it might be lucrative and it’s what most people would tell you to do in order to place you work within agencies art buyer departments. Anyway I like to constantly challenge myself and writing this interview, this weekend I again worked on a project for David’s (www.hellohikimori.com) L’Oreal site and found a new style that fascinates me quite a bit currently. Reduced but dynamic vector illustrations that is, by the way.

Illustrations, web or motion? Why?
Mainly interactive design and illustrations with a bit of motion design as well. This is due to a fact that I work at an interactive design studio and also because that is what interests me the most and what I grew up with. I like the fact that users can interact with my work, which makes it so much more interesting and engaging. But I also moving a little towards motion, cause that’s all melting together anyway somehow…

Your current projects?
I’m worked on the relaunch of Leica, then I art directed for ThyssenKrupp, a bit of Mercedes Benz and a little bit of Coke Light. Currently I work on mobile applications for a new venture by people from the MIT, some interactive projects for the American music industry and also Mercedes Benz. Plus the usual top-secret stuff I can’t talk about yet. In addition I also do a few personal projects, mainly for art exhibitions, magazines and stuff. I’m trying to work more in that field again and also to get a few more collaboration projects on the road that some friends and I have been talking about for a long time. I just finished illustrations for L’Oreal that I talked about earlier in the interview, a calendar page for Lounge72 (www.lounge72.com) and an illustration for IdN (www.idnworld.com). It’s a lot, the fun thing is that I really just had to look into my projects folder to get an overview… ehm, but I still accept challenges!

What would you do if you have a deadline and you are out of inspiration?
Talk to colleagues and friends. That’s the best source of inspiration most of the time. If that won’t work I’d go out and try to talk to no one at all, just keep thinking and looking around, sometimes helps, too. Well and there is the usual creativity methods you find in any good book about the topic.

Tell us about work process, how do you start to work on your pieces? How much time it usually take?
That’s different from project to project, but I think I can at least name a few things most of our projects got in common. If we work for commercial clients we’ll have a concept phase, usually I do the same with my art projects, but in some cases things there happen through sheer experimentation or coincidentally that are not entirely controlled by myself. So after the concept phase we’ll most of the time built screens and based on that, prototypes to see whether our idea works as it’s supposed to and to present our idea to the client. Then we’ll usually optimize our concept and screens, so we can go into production. Regarding our team, we try to have people from all areas involved during the whole process, which is mainly design, programming, text, and project management. Like I said this is also very dependant on the timeframe and size of the project, can be anything from a small team of 2 people working for a week up to 10 or more people working on a project for several months. Imagine a print poster written in Processing by myself versus relaunching a brand website all around the world…

What are your hobbies? I mean offline.
I used to skateboard a lot, but my body won’t take it that easy anymore. I get more and more into photography, which is partly commercial though. I also like a good game or just hanging out with friends, having a decent conversation and a drink. Watching a good movie is also nice, especially on the big screen. Ok, to be honest, I don’t have any real hobbies besides my work.

You are traveling a lot to design events. What do you think it gives to you and your career?
You meet tons of interesting people, creativity and knowledge is all over the place. If you are lucky, you’ll also see something of the city and country you are in and not only the convention center. So being at such events is a good way to get to know new technologies and trends very quickly from people that are responsible for their emergence. You’ll also have the chance to do lots of networking, if you are that kind of person. But mainly it’s a great way to get out of the office and meet old friends all over the world.

What would you suggest to young designers, what they should do for growing up?
Don’t take yourself too serious, work hard, be open and breath in as much knowledge as you can. Also be open to people from other disciplines and question anything. I guess you’ll hear this quite often, but a good designer is much more than someone who just creates stunning visuals, non-design related skills and social abilities are very important.

Tell us about the place where you are located. Do you like it? Thinking to move?
I live and work in Mainz, Germany which is close to Frankfurt. All of these cities are very close in one area there. I like Mainz a lot cause it’s close to a river and in one of the warmest parts of Germany, so it’s almost like Spain in the summer. People are very nice and relaxed too, so yes I love to live there. I thought about moving to Berlin, if I’d move within Germany it would definitely Berlin. I don’t see this happening in the near future cause I really like it here, though in the long run, I might move to Berlin or Barcelona.

Have you got many emails in your outlook? What people are sending and asking? Job offers also?
People treat me very nice most of the time. They send kind words about my work, which is such a great feeling, it’s even better, than being in magazines and stuff, cause it’s so personal. Then there are magazines, exhibitions and request for interview like this one. Well plus project and job offers not only in outlook, but also through headhunters on the phone. There are many things I can’t do because we are usually pretty busy, but I try to answer any request and also do as much as a can because I certainly appreciate all of this.

If not a designer, then who?
Anything, honestly, I’m interested in so many different things, I couldn’t pick one and listing twenty jobs here would also make no sense. This is why I do what I do, cause my job is so much more than design. I’m also a part time mathematician, programmer, manager, photographer, social worker and so on, at least in some kind of way. My job is changing all the time.

The most scary thing happened in your life?
Your body acting in a way that it isn’t supposed to and stuff that is connected to personal feelings, loosing people, being disappointed, you know, no job related things just personal moments. I wouldn’t say that I actually had the great scary moments that change my entire life, like loosing a someone really close, that’s where things can really touch you deeply inside.

The most funny thing happened in your life?
There is not one specific situation I remember, but many little moments and people around me that are a joy on a daily basis!

Thats all! Thanks. Please final comments…
Do what you love, that’s so important! Thanks Andrey, I really enjoyed the interview.

Why did you decided to become a graphic designer? What inspired you? Do you think you will have a big future in it?
I'm not very far into my professional career as of right now, however recently I've been making some big leaps head first into the visual communications industry.I've always had an interest for anything creative though my passion for design and the digital arts really took off around the time I was 15.
Back then everything was fresh and you could find new inspiration anywhere you turned. I remember my first big inspirations came after visiting a few sites like Chapter3, Idiocase and Nginco and wondering how on earth they made images like that. For me when I become intrigued by a subject I find it hard to sit by passively. My curiosity will usually get the better of me and I seek out ways to understand whatever it is that has my attention. I began experimenting with programs like Bryce 3d and Photoshop making digital artwork now sometimes referred to as "oldschool abstract".
As time went on my source of inspiration grew and I began to expand my skills and experience over a range of different applications, disciplines and styles.
I was accepted into an online artist community called Depthcore (www.depthcore.com) which I firmly believe helped me develop and sharpen my skills as an artist and prepared me for a career in design.
Out of high school I completed a short course in multimedia then with a friend started up a design business in the lounge room of his house.
The business never really took off but the experience and practical lessons it taught me were very valuable in my growth as a designer.
The beginning of this year I decided to go freelance and launched my personal portfolio in March. The response and feedback I received from the site was overwhelming
and took me completely by surprise. Things have only now just started to settle down and I’m trying to push myself into a routine to get through all the work I have lined up.
This is only the beginning for me and I'm very much looking forward to what the future has in store.

Can you describe your style of design? What it's about, where it comes from and how it's inspired?
I thought about this question for a very long and feel slightly embarrassed that I can't give you a straight answer.
Usually I prefer if people view my works for themselves without any preconceptions and find their own meanings.
I could easily tell you everything I dislike about them, but understanding the meaning and where it comes from is not a simple thing. Of course it’s subjective to the public but personally for me each piece holds a different emotion frozen in a time from when the work was produced. I've been told a few times by different people that my works are shallow and meaningless and all they really are, are just trendy graphics or pretty pictures. Perhaps they don’t search for the enigmas and hidden meanings, or don't appreciate the intuitive and subconscious nature at its essence, Or perhaps they're right and my works are just a bunch of superficial pixels glued together on the screen. I don't like to analyze or deconstruct art in an extreme way but I do believe there is substance in my work.
I can remember a high school art lesson during our time studying impressionism which ended with a quote from Renoir who said.
"Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world."
As casual and depthless as these words may sound, they struck a cord with me and I wasn't able to forget them. Even if sometimes I may not adhere to this philosophy or follow its direction, I believe that this may be at the very center of my creative ideals. I believe art should be productive and not destructive and would hope that by making my art I can make this world just a little bit more beautiful.
On the complete flipside however, my commercial work is very easy to comprehend and is inspired by money, deadlines and dirty clients.

Illustration, web design, photography or motion graphics? What do you prefer and why?
In the past I would generally have preferred illustration or motion projects rather than web design. This is because usually they will allow for a lot more creative expression and focus more on aesthetics and visual elements rather than function and usability. Recently however, I've been developing a number of sites in flash that are beginning to sway my opinion on the matter. With new technologies emerging on the web the possibilities and previous limitations of interactive design are rapidly expanding, leading to new horizons, which I find very exciting. I enjoy any work that really pushes the boundaries of convention and work that forces me to learn new skills and develop fresh ideas. I’m always on the lookout for fresh stimulus and can't just do the same repetitive tasks over and over. In the end I would have to say it all depends on the project itself and not the media or discipline. Weather it appeals to my creative side or captures my imagination is what's most important to me.

Please tell us a little about your offline life, how do you relax, rest?
As of late there has been no such thing as my 'offline life'.
Trying to catch up with the demand generated from my recent exposure has become a full time job. I’m finding myself sliding deeper into an obsessive and demanding work ethic. Working long days without a break on very little sleep. If I’m not on the computer working on a project I’m usually either asleep or lying in bed thinking about working on a project.
When I get the time however I'd love to do more of my drawing, painting and metal sculpture. I also love to dabble a bit in music production. You can find some of my audio experiments on my portfolio. I’m also planning on starting a fashion label this year, but again wish I had more time.
Apart from all that creative nonsense I like just hanging out with friends, going out, staying in, pretending to be invisible, winking at people, helping pigeons fall in love, smiling at strangers then touching my crotch, throwing rocks at small children, baking, having fun with scissors, wondering what pirates think about, eating lamb. All the usual things normal people like to do.

What is design for you?
You sometimes hear a lot of debate over the differences between art and design or what the exact definition of 'design' means, but I think this type of argument is very trivial in any case.
Design for me is the planning and process of construction that goes into everything. It's creation that is goal orientated with an ultimate objective in mind. A design is the final resting place in the journey of an idea.

From looking at your works, they're mainly noncommercial stuff. What do you do for money? Do you do web design or something?
A lot of the works on my portfolio are from personal projects because I wasn't happy with any of the commercial stuff I'd been involved with before hand. Most of my previous paying work had been from local business, making relatively plain, boring websites, brochures, things like that.
The main reason behind my decision to go freelance and create my portfolio was to try and break that trend and move into more exciting work. I wanted to attract interesting clients who would encourage me to produce work using all my creative resources and strength.

There is a lot of copying on the internet these days. Many people have similar styles and work. What are your thoughts on this?
I’m not really that against the copying or ripping of styles like some people are. It can be a hotly debated issue but I don't see the big deal. I think it’s a part of any art culture, having people see something they like and try to imitate it. I find it very encouraging infact, if I find an artist who has been inspired by one of my works and tried to replicate the style. It’s not a new phenomenon and not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. Its how all creative movements and trends are started from Hip-hop to Cubism. I myself must admit, have fallen victim to the 'Trendwhore' bug on occasions. Having seen an image or style I liked and tried to de-construct its techniques and composition. It can be a very helpful learning method when you first start out, just observing what others do and trying it for yourself. Having said this, it’s also very important to be original I believe.
Developing your own style should be a natural progression and something that comes out instinctively.
Unless you deliberately try to stomp out any individualism or personality you have in your work, I think not being at least partially original is a pretty hard thing to do.
If you have problems coming up with something original you're probably thinking about it too much. Try switching off your conscious thoughts and just letting your hands do the work without worrying about the consciences on the canvas. If you still can't come up with anything then maybe you should think about switching to code :P

What is more important for you, career or your girlfriend? Why?
I don't have a girlfriend so right now it’s my career. I’m sure if I did have a girlfriend though she'd be pissed at me for spending too much time on work and not enough on her. :)

Favorite designers and inspiration.
Too many to mention in one go. Any good art, music, etc from any time in history really. I’ll try and mention just a few.
Past painters – Klimt, Warhol, Dali, Picasso, Renoir, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, that guy that painted ballerinas, Film – Kubrick, Tarantino, Miyazaki Hayao Fashion – Bape, Diesel, Tsubi Music – Everything from trance through to Hip-Hop and Classical through to Drum&Bass. not Country though. Misc – Graffiti Art, Anything new, Youth culture, Things that push boundaries, Shiny glowing things.

For some of my favorite digital artists and designers visit my del.icio.us feed.
http://del.icio.us/drewflaherty

Are you happy living in Australia or do you have any plans to move? Do you have any ambitions to work fulltime in a studio in the US?
Right now I’m quite content just freelancing from home. I've had a few job offers comes from the States and other countries but no solid plans on moving just yet. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities in time so I’m not trying to rush into anything. If I was forced at gun point to leave Australia, New York would probably be my first preference. I’d go just so I could be a cliché.

Well, that’s enough I guess, thanks for your interview and we wish you good luck! Also some comments from you are welcome!
Thanks for the opportunity and good luck with the future also. Sorry If I ranted on a bit or if I sounded a bit pretentious. I wish good luck to everyone at everything they do for as long as they're doing it. Good fortune to all, and to all, a good night. Bonne nuit.

Tell us, where do you work and what you do?
At the moment I am working out of the RES offices in London, but my normal office is in Darlinghurst in Sydney, Australia. We have a big joint office that I work on all my projects from.

What's your position behind Semipermanent and Design Is Kinky?
Position? I co-own both companies with Andrew Johnstone.

Can you tell us a little bit about Design Is Kinky and its history?
DiK was born by Andrew out of experimentation. It started as a place for interviewing designers from across the globe. When I joined Andrew in running the site, we started on other projects like books & events.

And Semipermanent?
S-P was thought of while sitting in a hotel room while waiting to fly home after presenting at the OFFF in Barcelona. Through meeting the guys at Diesel we together come up with the plan and concept. Flew home and started straight away.

You are in Australia, right? Never planned to move to U.S? Why?
Would love to move to the US. I have plans to. Semi-Permanent will be landing in New York in September, but through DiK, S-P & my magazines we plan on looking into moving to the US if possible.

What are your thoughts about design magazines like Digital Abstracts?
I think it is the most practical way of reaching so many people across the globe. Its great.

What are your hobbies?
Thinking & planning. And when I am not, surfing.

How do you rest?
I don’t really, work hard for months and then I do big short holidays, but of late my work is a big holidays. I get to travel a lot for all the things I work on, so they cross over.

Web design, photography or motion? Why?
Motion, Film, the next step. Soon.

Inspiration?
Mike Mills, Neasden Control Centre, Charlie Kaufman & Spike Jonze.

Do any sports?
Surfing, Bodyboarding & Football (Soccer).

Last dream you remember?
Swedish, with black short hair.

Ok, last comments are welcome!
Don’t sleep, its over rated. I once tried to train my body to survive on 4 hours a night so I could get more work done. Lasted about two and half weeks.