Heads up creative

The fact that you can create a lot of reaction just based on the way you arranged things shows that design is such a powerful language.

The main aim is that people aren’t indifferent to it. I want people to react. I totally understand some people might hate my work and I would rather have that than just dismiss it with indifference.

Type is a thing of constant interest to me. In short, type can be a tool, a toy, and a teacher. It can provide a means of livelihood, a hobby for relaxation, an intellectual stimulant—and a spiritual satisfaction.

To me, it’s just something that I do. I don’t like to think about it or analyse it too much. I like making images as a way of speaking without using words… It’s intuition based

When you try to please everyone, you wind up with a ‘vanilla’ brand that says nothing. No one hates those brands, but no one truly loves them either.

I’m always after an individual personality for the product. A total way of speaking. An ad that reflects the company — that is the company itself.

When I put my pencil on a sheet of paper it has everything I have been through, making its way out. It is who I am. This is my style. This is how you develop a style. You live life.

I guess I like to think that you should never give up too easily and should be prepared to back up the things you are passionate about. Sometimes clients need a little push. They see things they haven’t seen anywhere else and they’re not going to just digest it.

For me, cool isn’t about being trendy – it’s about self-expression and a lack of self-consciousness about what other people think. I don’t want to follow what everyone else is doing, I want to do things my own way.

I think that there is a built-in necessity for empathy with your audience, and that is very much a basic requirement of what it means to be a designer.

I think it’s relatively safe to say that everything I do and encounter and experience in life affects my work in some way because it strengthens my visual archive.

I’d like to be remembered for not taking myself too seriously – for not being afraid to show personality and emotion in my work. I guess I just want to be remembered as a person. I’m human!

I like to reduce everything to its absolute essence, because that is a way to avoid getting trapped in a style.

A big part of sustaining a creative career is making sure you're interested in your work. I got a little bit bored of my older style after the first couple of years, and so I started branching out into chalkboard lettering and then hand-painted murals.

The only interesting, avant-garde visual information I was receiving in the mid ’70s was on a record sleeve. So, you know, you’re 20 years of age and you say, 'I want to do that!

Each book is in its own way unique. It has its own set of problems, own set of circumstances, and that doesn’t seem to change. So, there will always be an idiosyncratic nature to the work.

I don’t give a damn if the client thinks it’s worth anything, or whether it IS worth anything — it’s worth it to me. It’s the way I wanna live my life. I wanna make beautiful things, even if nobody cares.

I feel that as creatives we have a duty to contribute to our communities using art that addresses social issues, advocates awareness and change, which can ultimately open minds to act towards making a difference.

I'll probably never know [when I've done my best work]. The point isn’t to have done it, because if you’ve done it, you’re done.