Interview by Charles Festa

Hello there, and how are you doing today?

Pretty good thanks.

How did you get your start in design?

Hmmm, well I'd been doing photo manipulation work for a few years as a hobby, and studied multimedia design at Uni, but was never that into it. I designed and produced an interactive 'zine CD-ROM for an indie music mail-order company about 7 or 8 years ago, but then kind of gave up, and never really attempted any more design as such until I stumbled across Threadless a couple of years ago and decided to give it a shot. I've been gradually getting more into it ever since, but it's still only a hobby for me, hence most of my work samples here being Threadless stuff!



What inspires your work?

Difficult question. Many things inspire me in general - but little of it seems to find its way into my designs, at least not consciously. I tend to rush in headfirst with no plan whatsoever, and somehow I'll end up with a picture of a dapper rabbit smoking a cigarette, or an aristocratic humanoid fly. I love animals, and most of my designs feature animals, so I guess they inspire me. I like to take my favourite animals and make them into characters I'd like to hang out with. I spend way more time than I should taking photographs of different animals and mashing them together to create new and wonderful creatures. I don't do drugs.



How does it feel to have a design selected by Threadless?

Really, really good. Kind of hard to articulate just how good a feeling it is. As aforementioned it was through Threadless that I first got into designing t-shirts, so being printed by them is pretty special. When I got the email I read it and re-read it over and over. The last year has been pretty awful but the print seems to have sparked a run of recent good luck for me, relatively speaking.



What do you plan to spend your hard-earned cash on?

I'm moving to Vienna early next year but have a bunch of debts to clear and a damaged spine to fix before that's really feasible. The winnings will definitely help with all that.



What is your favorite:

Cheese? A good, really mature cheddar
Book? Hard to choose one, but Richard Price's 'Ladies Man' and Paul Auster's 'New York Trilogy' are two amazing reads.
Movie? A tie between 'Predator' and 'Big Trouble In Little China'
Song? Currently, 'I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You' by Tom Waits
Word? Enigma
Curse word? Cunt
Color? Green? Black? Orange? Pink? I don't know.
Television show? Twin Peaks, most things involving Chris Morris, and more recently, Lost
Super hero? Hulk
Drink? Whiskey is my alcoholic tipple of choice, but my girlfriend introduced me to this delicious apple and walnut yoghurt drink they sell in Austria which I could happily consume by the bucketload
Farm Animal Sound? I like a good, heartfelt duck honk
Threadless shirt? Beasts. I hope it gets a supersize reprint soon like Radios did.
Sport? Football (soccer to you crazy Yanks). I couldn't care less about any other sport.
James Bond? Sean Connery is the only Bond. Goldfinger is my favouite Bond film, although I'm not a huge fan in general.
Smell? Petrol
Website? Wikipedia
Right or Left handed? Right
Political? I'm completely and embarrassingly ignorant when it comes to politics
Wine Cooler? My favourite wine colour is pink

Interview by Charles Festa

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