Artist Interview with Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor designs his days away down in Brighton, UK’s number one creative coastal city. After graduating from Buckinghamshire University he rolled straight into a successful ten year illustration career. Matt has notched up clients as diverse as Adidas, Urban Outfitters, Sony AMC, GQ and even The Elvis Presley Estate. On hearing the latter CIA wasn’t surprised to discover Matt turns to Americana and classic comic books from the 50’s and 60’s for inspiration!
1. How would you describe your style in 3 words?
All. The. Colours.
2. What has been your favourite project to date and why?
It’s a tough call - there have been a lot of projects that have meant a lot to me for various reasons. The Lion King poster I made for Mondo was specifically something I took on so I could make a piece of art for my daughters wall because she loved that film; the cover for the San Diego Comic Con brochure took me to San Diego (obviously) for an absolutely bonkers week of meeting a lot of my art heroes and being a guest at an event I had read about and dreamed about just visiting for years; working on the title sequence for the movie Scoob put my work on the big screen - or would have if not for the pandemic - it still counts though. I could go on - I’ve been lucky to work on a lot of cool gigs.
3. How has this past year changed the way you work?
Honestly, not a whole lot other than now I work in my lounge instead of in a co-working office (although I hope I’ll be back there before too long). There was a slightly dicey couple of weeks in March where a lot of projects were put on hold while everyone figured out the changing landscape, but after the initial shock wore off it was business as usual. If anything, the lack of other things to do meant I spent more time working than I probably should have, so 2021 I’ve been trying to redress the balance and give myself a bit more time to relax.
4. What is your current workspace like?
Currently it’s my dining table in my front room, where I set up my laptop and tablet. I was travelling a lot for work before the pandemic so I have streamlined my setup so that I can pack it in a bag and work pretty much anywhere. Luckily my apartment is lovely, and I have views out to sea, and any time I need a break I’m only a couple of minutes from the beach so it could be an awful lot worse.
5. What is your favourite thing about being an illustrator and why?
I get to draw for a living. Which seems pretty obvious, but I’ve always loved drawing since I was little and so the fact that it’s my job and I don’t have to work in a cinema/sell shoes/cut down trees/design UX interfaces (all thing I have spent time doing) is the absolute best. I count my blessings every day, and I do live ever so slightly in fear that one day I will be found out and have to get a proper job again…
Diving a little bit further into the specifics of the job though, I love the constant variety in things I get to draw. Last week it was baseball cards, this week it’s an album cover for a Japanese monster movie, next week who knows!
6. Where do you find inspiration for your work? Who inspires / influences you?
Everywhere. Which sounds cliche, but I try and be open to as many influences as possible. I’ll see the framing of a scene in a film, or the colour of items arranged next to each other in a junk shop, or the shape in plants leaves and it will end up informing something in my work. Usually, it’s almost impossible for someone to deduce the source of the inspiration, but I know a poster looks a certain way because of the contrast in colours of the land and the sky in that documentary on volcanoes that caught my eye.
In terms of artists, thanks to the wonders of social media there are so many that I follow now it’s hard to keep up. Being able to chat with peers is super helpful and it always makes me laugh when I message an artist to tell them how much their work is inspiring me to find out that my work is inspiring them, and we’re just making a feedback loop of awesomeness. I’ll always have time for Pop and Abstract Expressionists (Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline, etc) and graphic designers of the 60/70s (Milton Glaser and Tadanori Yokoo especially). In terms of contemporary illustration, Tomer Hanuka, Paul Pope, Murugiah, Rosemary Vallero O’Connell, Jen Bartel, Rory Kurtz, Daniel Danger, Phantom City Creative, Jack Hughes, Veronica Fish, Killian Eng, Henry Wong, Francis Manapaul, Rob Jones, Paul Rentler, Ori Toor, John Vogl… the list is endless. Oh, and Jack Kirby. Always Jack Kirby.
7. Having worked on projects from film to music - which has been your favourite sector and why?
Probably movies. I always loved movies growing up - some of my earliest memories are trips to the cinema with my dad - and so the fact I get to work adjacent to an industry I’ve always found exciting and inspiring is a great treat.
8. How did you develop your signature style? How does it differ to when you first started out?
I think my style has been constantly evolving - I don’t think I’ve reached the endpoint by a long way. It’s been a fairly natural development of finding out what I like to draw and how I like to draw it - I’ve tended to swing through periods of increasingly detailed pieces before driving back towards bolder and more graphical work (usually because everything is just taking too long). I hope that if you put all my work from the last ten years chronologically next to each other you would be able to see the through lines. I’ve found that trying to ‘force’ a style has never turned out well - I draw the way I draw because of all the art I’ve seen, the things I’ve done and because that’s how it looks in my head before I put it on paper.
9. What would be your dream project to work on and why?
I don’t think I have one! But in a good way! You never know which project is going to be a dream project when you start it - sometimes you have super high expectations that end being unobtainable, other times you go in with no expectations and unexpectedly have an absolute blast. I think that if you set a specific job or a client as a target then what do you do when you reach that target? The work continues! I’ve been lucky enough to work with a lot of clients and companies who I love but I don’t think there’s anyone who I’d be disappointed if I never get to work with. That said, I’d love to do comics covers for Marvel - still not managed that one.
10. What’s the best thing about having an illustration agent?
Having someone fighting your corner when you feel a job is getting away from you and knowing that your agent is out there looking for work for you. It also means I get to spend more time drawing and less time doing admin. I hate admin as anyone who has had to repeatedly chase me for an invoice will know...
11. What do you wish you’d known when just starting out that you know now?
That the 'resize to nearest pixel’ option existed in photoshop. For complicated and slightly boring reasons that would have saved me a LOT of time.
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