Here we have the long overdue Drew Millward interview. A nice guy and a great talent, I figure most people reading this are poster and or design nerds so I’m gonna spare any big intro.

But I will say if you’re following me on twitter you should definitely be following Drew. We tend to trade snarky jabs from time to time. People always say “Shameless plug” when they plug themselves like this, why? It’s shameful, that was a shameful plug. I feel shame…anyway, Drew Millward. ENJOY:

Jon: So where are you from, Leeds?

Drew: Yup, well, I’m not exactly from Leeds. I’m from a lot of places (kind of like The Highlander). I was born in Coventry, when I was about 4, my mum and I moved to Bolton, which is just outside Manchester. I lived there until I was about 18… so I guess I’m from there. That said, I’ve lived in Leeds now for about eleven years, so it’s as good a place as any to call home. I moved here for University, met my now wife, and just stayed…. more through laziness and circumstance, than design.

Jon: In my time working at D&L I saw your work plenty and I’ve seen it evolve. You’re obviously a natural doodler, are you self taught or did you go to art school??

Drew: Bit of both, I guess. I studied art through high school, college and did my degree in Fine Art, but I didn’t really draw throughout that time. I always enjoyed it, but I wasn’t good enough to actually pursue that angle at degree level. It was only after finishing University and working an office job for a few years that I really started drawing. That must have been around 2004/5. I started making some posters for shows we were putting on in Leeds, and it sort of snowballed from there. I’m pretty sure that without that imputes I would have likely just carried on in an office job, but I didn’t really enjoy it, so when someone offered me some money to draw them a poster, it just set the ball rolling. It was around that time that I met Jay Ryan at a show opening in Manchester. Spending some time with Jay, and talking to him about work, really lead me to think about pursuing it seriously…. so it’s all his fault really.

Jon: Another thing, I assume you have no idea what GEICO is. It’s just this insurance company here in the states, but their mascot is this generic British(or perhaps a poofy Aussie) animated gecko. It’s the worst shit ever:

It’s always a hack move to attach a British accent to something for no reason just to come off as smarter or classier….not that it doesn’t work, but it’s a strange phenomenon.

Drew: What the fuck is that?! What is the trend with animating animals to look like they are talking? it’s bullshit. Why they would see fit to have a gecko with a voice similar to Danny Dyer, to advertise insurance is a fucking mystery. I’m not sure what the connotations of that voice over there are, but over here, that voice sounds more like one that would accompany a sales pitch for pirated DVD’s (and possibly a knife attack), rather than insurance.

That said, we have Iggy Pop advertising car insurance over here, so it’s probably a little less heartbreaking than that.

NOTE: This is the point in the interview where I realized I had a million little British thing I needed to ask about, so it’s going to be like The Chris Farley Show for a while.

Jon: Jason Statham. Over here he’s the poster boy for meathead, assembly line, mindless action movies. Is it the same over there? I liked him in Snatch, didn’t expect him to ‘roid out and be a watered down Jean-Claude Van Damme.

BTW, the guy who plays Tommy in Snatch is pretty good as Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire. He pulls it off, I swear.

Drew: Aw man, I’m saving Boardwalk Empire until I can sit down the the whole box set. Really looking forward to getting stuck into that.

As for Statham, he knows what he’s doing. If he took himself too seriously (something that Van Damme, Lundgren et al were guilty of), there is no way he would have made ‘Crank’. That film alone saves his habitual career missteping. It’s like watching a fucking headache, or being crammed into the mind of a teenage boy with ADD. I’d challenge you to find anything that looks like it, or is as downright preposterous. It’s almost quite experimental, but you get the feeling that it’s by accident instead of design.

To be honest with you, Jason Statham probably makes a lot more films than anyone sees. Since the start of this year, he has been in 4 films, with another 4 in production. Over the period of about 12 months, how many Jason Statham movies would you want to watch? I can’t imagine even his biggest fans will watch everything he appears in. In fairness, I’ve not even heard of most of the films he’s been in. Hi mum might watch them.

I dunno, he seems to be fully aware that he’s not creating high art. He’s carved out a little niche for himself, and he’s feathering is nest while he can. Probably a good idea when you look at the likes of Van Damme and Seagal. These things seldom come with a pension plan.

If you want low budget hardmen, you can look no further than Danny Dyer.

Jon: Guy Ritchie. Wanker? Is it all Madonna’s fault?

Drew: I’m unsure. I’ve not met him, but frankly, anyone that divorces Madonna is OK in my book. If I did meet him we have some common ground straight away, because I wouldn’t want to be fucking married to Madonna either. We could probably while an hour or so away in a boozer. In fact, I’d happily go for a pint with him, as long as he buys the nuts.

I think if you look at his body of work, he has a pretty unique style, a bit of visual flair (admittedly, he’s inconsistent, but, y’know, we all have our off days).

Jon: The Long Good Friday. I just watched this(on recommendation from Chris from The Flood Gallery). It’s good man, the theme is the shit.

So the ending, Hoskins gives his last gasp/fuck off and die speech to the Americans before facing the music. Here’s my take on it, the ugly American perspective:

Hoskins character is the embodiment of “the old days” and he wants to put England back on top but he knows in the back of his head that it’s a futile effort. He presses on regardless which is where the charm lies. He’d rather die on his feet than live on his knees, as James Brown might say. He truly does live his life like a candle in the wind(I couldn’t resist).

He talks about the Dunkirk spirit, says the Americans don’t have the balls(he’s looking tough to this point, even though the Americans are clearly leaving his sinking ship and would be crazy to stay in the deal) but then says he’s gonna get in bed with THE GERMANS…..hello. The fucking Jerries?!?! This man is obviously desperate. He knows he’s screwed but he’s gonna go out guns a blazing even if he reveals himself to be insane.

I found it perfect to cast a dude the size of Bob Hoskins to play this kind of character. He is so Napoleonic.

It’s a great movie, left me wanting more. I don’t really know what my question is, you like it right? I guess it’s the “best british gangster movie ever”, agree??? I still need to check out Get Carter and all that.

Drew: You know what? I don’t think I have ever seen it.

Jon: WHAAAAAT???? YOU JUST SUNK THE WHOLE FUCKING INTERVIEW! THIS IS THE PART WHERE I LOOK COOL FOR KNOWING ABOUT NON-OBVIOUS BRITISH SHIT…The Long Good Friday was my ace in the hole…BLIMEY!

Drew: HA!

Jon: What’s a “Budgie”??? There’s that Clash song, “Vacuum cleaner sucks up Budgie”…I’ve heard it other places.

Drew: It’s a bird. Like a little parrot. It was not one of The Clash’s finest hours. I did once meet Joe Strummer, he was nice.

Jon: DUDE!….meeting Joe Strummer, nice to know your life’s complete at an early age.

Next up: James Blake. Don’t tell me you like this guy.

Drew: No, can’t say I do. I listened to the album, as it was recommended to me by a few people, but i didn’t get it. There are some elements of the overall sound I quite liked, but the tunes were lacking. Who knows? He may make a great album at some point, but this isn’t it, as much as the music press would have you believe.

Jon: Oasis, Blur, Supergrass. Rank ‘em!

Supergrass, Blur and then, an awful long way behind would be Oasis. In fairness, when that was all kicking off, I was much more into American music. The whole ‘Brit-Pop’ thing sort of passed me by. My early/mid teens were spent listening to stuff like The Pixies, SDRE, Nirvana, Green Day, Offspring, Afghan Whigs, Soundgarden, Guns and Roses, and my brothers tape collection of 80’s/90’s metal… that sort of thing. The first show I ever went to was Silverchair and Everclear, which i think was the day before my 15th birthday. That alone probably gives you an indication as to my sadly misguided ways. Having said that, I listened to Everclear’s first album again recently, and I really quite enjoyed it. The production on it is pretty fucking raw.

Jon: Radiohead. I love Kid A, everything before then seems pretty good(obviously) but haven’t been interested since Kid A. Whatsayou?

Drew: Radiohead are another band I simply don’t get. Not saying they are bad, but the way people talk about them, you would be forgiven for mistaking Thom Yorke for the second coming of Christ. I really try not to get into conversations about them, because i know how people feel about them, and me just sitting there going “well I don’t like them”, usually ends up in hurt feelings and raised voices.

They are nowhere near as groundbreaking and interesting, to my ear, anyway, as people would like to think.

Jon: Ricky Gervais. The snarky comedy nerd community over here has pulled a 180 on him recently. Years ago it was “the British office is the best comedy ever, I can’t believe you watch the US version” now it’s “His podcast is lame, he just makes fun of that retarded guy and The Office is only 12 episodes”.

For the record I have enjoyed his podcasts, all that Karl Pilkington shit is good and I liked Extras. Thought his jokes on the Golden Globes were good but I wasn’t into him on Curb this season and his bit as the doctor in Louie gets old real fast.

Drew: Is that even a question?

I’m in the same boat as you. If he sticks to working with Steve Merchant and put out stuff of the quality of The Office and Extras, then it’s all good. I’ve watched some of the films he has been in, and i’ve not really enjoyed them at all. But, y’know, we all have bills to pay.

Jon: The class system, what up with that? Do people in top hats and manacles spit on you if you’re wearing jeans.

Drew: Can’t say it’s something that has ever happened to me. Rumour has it, that we live in a classless society, but that’s just a load of bollocks.

It’s pretty tricky to discuss class systems, especially in the form of an interview, without coming across as either a wooly liberal or verging on the right. It’s probably best avoided.

All I can say is that I have seen some poor people, through the tinted window of my gold plated Rolls Royce.

Jon: Beer. I like Boddingtons, Samuel Smith and Newcastle. Have you tried this John Smith Ale? Recommend something for the yanks to try and track down at the local imported beer store.

Drew: Now we are talking. Most of the stuff you listed is the mass market filth that you will find in any chain pub. There has been a massive resurgence in brewing in the UK over the past few years. In Leeds and surrounding areas alone there are some really awesome breweries making bloody delicious ale.

http://www.leedsbrewery.co.uk/

http://www.kirkstallbrewerycompany.com/

http://www.saltairebrewery.co.uk/

I’m just thinking locally, but frankly, if you go anywhere in the country you will find a lot of different beers, all of which are different and unique.

Jon: Can you elaborate on this Danny Dyer character??

Drew: He’s a bit of a tit. He makes more films than anyone else i am aware of, even though I’m sure only about 12 people will ever see them. He always plays a lippy cockney geezer, and is generally fairly unlikeable. As well as his film work he also make TV shows about real life ‘hard men’, which are shit. Personally, i’m convinced that some day he will make a genuinely great film.

Jon: Bands. You’re always talking up these bands I know nothing about on twitter. Gimme the 2-3 best UK bands right now.

Drew: Fucking hell, that’s too much pressure! How can I just choose 3?!

Ah, fuck it. Well, again, I’m going local on this, and it should be stated that I do know all three, to varying degrees, but I’m very lucky to know some very talented people, who play in some great bands…

1. Humanfly – Heavy, fast, slow, heavy, progressive – http://humanfly.bandcamp.com/

2. Himself – Talky, Heavy, Fast, Slow, Beautiful, Terrifying – http://himself.bandcamp.com/

3. That Fucking Tank – Groovy, sludgy, fast, heavy, danceable – http://www.thatfuckingtank.com/

4. David Thomas Broughton – He’s a bloody genius – http://www.davidthomasbroughton.co.uk/

There should also be notable mentions to Hawk Eyes, Blacklisters, KONG, Mob Rules, Palehorse, Broken Arm and Hookworms. Infact, just go and listen to all those bands I just mentioned.

Jon: Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd is still a stoner rite of passage over here, high school and college kids get into pot and mushrooms and go through all the Floyd albums…well actually most of them probably only listen to Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall(Meddle is best, you idiots!) but the question is, is it the same over there or is Floyd old hat?

Drew: My wife is a big Pink Floyd fan. Until I met her, i’d paid them practically no attention whatsoever. Not sure it’s as much of a rite of passage over here.

I much prefer King Crimson.

Jon: Soccer….you into that shit, hooligan?

Drew: Absolutely not.

Jon: What’s a crumpet?

Drew: Umm, i’m not sure what it is really, It’s kind of a round bit of really doughy bread, with holes in it. They freak me out a bit. The texture and the way they look gives me the creeps.

Jon: Riots. Weren’t there some riots or something over there recently, people still rebelling against the whig party???

Drew: It was localised pockets of disenfranchised kids, wanting some new trainers. Fucking scumbag thieves. The sad thing is, is that there were plenty of reasons to riot. The fact that these events took place in parts of London where the government is spending millions to host the Olympics, while down the road they can’t keep open basic provisions within these communities. That’s a pretty good reason to riot, not to get a new pair of Air Max.

Jon: They still make Air Max? American sitcoms. I was in London and Brighton for a week a couple years ago and I noticed whatever the comedy channel is over there, was just getting King of Queens and I think Two and a Half Men, and the ad campaign was in full swing. It was really gross.

I would apologize as an American but, we still haven’t cleaned up the oil spill that is Simon Cowell over here. So eat a bowl of dicks!

Drew: Your sitcom’s are horrible, and we get a lot of them. We export our most odious cunts (Piers Morgan, Simon Cowell etc.) to your shores. Fair deal.

Jon: Reckon. I like how you guys say “reckon”, I reckon this, I reckon that….It’s a very useful word that has been denigrated in the states as it is most commonly associated with and incorporated in the vernacular of the country bumpkin, ignorant hillbilly, and white trash types…, like Pikeys in England. It is a useful word, I try to use it when applicable.

Drew: I use reckon a lot. It is very useful indeed.

Jon: I saw on twitter you sold your old drums or something, so you used to be in bands? The cliche, failed musician poster artist?

Drew: Not really, I was never that good. I played in bands when I was younger, and then started playing drums again a few years ago, when some friends and I started a band. It was never something we took seriously, and never thought we would really bother playing live, but we did. People seemed to enjoy it, but we were all to lazy and busy to actually do anything. I’m not really one for travelling and sleeping on floors, so the idea of touring didn’t appeal to me that much. I never really wanted to be in a band, but I do enjoy playing music. It’s just reached that point where I’m playing less and less, and lugging a drum kit around is a total nightmare, so, in a way, I’m glad to see the back of it.

I think sitting at home and drawing posters for bands, is much more enjoyable than actually playing in bands.

Jon: So you got this new Bon Iver poster, you tweet about this new album like it’s Blonde On Blonde or something. Is it that good, I got it, haven’t listened yet. I like “Skinny Love” and I like what Kanye did with “Woods”, I was gonna listen now but I started watching Bucktown…

Drew: Personally, I think it’s phenomenal. I loved ‘For Emma…’, and I liked his work with Kanye, but this sounds like such a leap forward in terms of song writing, production, lyrics… everything. I think Justin is a pretty incredible talent, and they don’t come along that often, so it’s nice to see.

I’ve always loved a wide range of music, but this year I seem to have been struck by three albums in particular, and they all seem to come from a similar hushed place. Obviously ‘Bon Iver’ has been a favourite, but I’ve been equally enthralled by ‘Last of The Country Gentlemen’ by Josh T. Pearson, and ‘Everything’s Getting Older’ by Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat. All three came out this year, and all are difficult to fault, in my eyes. It’s been a while since I connected so much with an album, and then to get three in one year, is a bit of a treat.

Jon: Let’s wrap it up! Go ahead and plug whatever you have coming up, or what’s happening right now.

Drew: I have no idea. The future is uncertain, anything could happen. I’m sure if you visit www.drewmillward.com then you will be able to find what is going down.

As well as all the usually drawing malarkie, there are plans for my creative brotherhood The Dead Sea Mob to set sail to the US next year, as well as a lot more shows in the UK and Europe. We are now five members strong (Myself, Godmachine, Tom J. Newell, Twistedloaf and Dan Mumford), with some new members and affiliates ariving all the time. It’s exciting. It’s like being in a band, but without the sound checks.

Jon: OH YEAH, a drawring question. For all the kids at home, what does a Drew Millward draw with? Brush pens, nibs, bic, pencil? And do you lean more towards photoshop or illustrator?

Drew: Anything I can get my hands on. Pencils, Rotring Isograph pens, dip pens and ink and posca, generally. I use Photoshop to clean up and get stuff print ready, and I have never used Illustrator.

There you have it! THE GREATEST DREW MILLWARD INTERVIEW EVER!!…are there other Drew Millward interviews? Probably, but I wouldn’t know. The greatest thing I gleaned is that generationally growing up at the same time in the UK and America is pretty similar as far as the media and music you’re exposed to, I suppose cable TV and the internet pretty much close the gap. The part about being into Silverchair and Everclear at 15 painted the picture of Junior High for me.

Good stuff, I enjoyed it, hope you did too, thanks again to Drew for indulging my onslaught of random inquiries.

Doodled to look like ME, not Jesus Christ in case you're confused. Although Jesus came back too, one time....

My fellow internets,

Jon Smith is officially getting back on the wagon with the Association. This is the first of many steps toward reconciliation. My statement to the NBA is thus: “You don’t have to sleep on the couch anymore. …Let’s stay together for the kids.” So I’m not going out of my way to watch NBA basketball but I’ll treat it like anything else on TV or the internet, I will pay as much attention to it as any other sports fan without an NBA franchise would(to those who don’t know me, I am a Seattleite. Born and raised Sonics fan, pretty bitter).

Nothing has changed between myself and the likes of David Stern and Howard Schultz. Those creeps can eat a truckload of dicks in Hell, I really hope I never see Howard Schultz around town…don’t know what I’d do. Slim chance of that though, as I have no life and rarely go downtown. So you’re lucky Howie!

So as I slowly re-acclimate myself with Napoleon’s traveling circus, I will need to lean once again upon Todd Slater: the nerd prince of basketball, to help navigate these murky waters. 

The following is an Email conversation between Todd and I:

ME: It cannot be denied that due to officiating or this generation of players, this league is soft. Not nearly as aggressive, not nearly as tough to score especially in the paint as it was in the glory days of Jordan/Magic/Bird BUT It’s nice to see one young man taking advantage of this generations soft defense: BLAKE GRIFFIN. How’s that for a segue?? This kid is the closest thing to Shawn Kemp we’ve seen since….Shawn Kemp. Not quite as powerful but just as electrifying and unstoppable, more athletic.
Is this the usual cock tease fans get from the Clippers every 3-4 years or do you think Blake can break through and make the Clip show a contender?

Todd: Well, they haven’t had a tease this big in a long while.  I have to say I’d exercise *some* caution regarding Blake and here’s why:  I’m weary of freak athletes because when the hops fade they fade fast.  If your game revolves around jumping over everyone in the gym you’re going to deal with alot of wear and tear on the treads.  Your chances of getting injured exponentially increase if you play the way he does year after year.  Remember how different Vince Carter’s game was when he came into the league versus now?  To Vince’s credit he’s still a useful player, but Air Canada doesn’t fly nearly as high as it used to.  Blake’s doing the right thing, he’s the best athlete on the court and he uses it to his advantage every possession.  In the offseason, he needs to develop a better mid-range game and continue to build his fundamentals so that he’s ready to evolve into something else in 6-7 years or maybe sooner should an injury occur.  I’d trade great fundamentals for athleticism every time tho… see Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki.

ME: Wanted to start with Blake because that’s kind of the catalyst for my getting back into NBA fandom. What else is there to be excited about, what’s Todd Slater excited about? Specific players or teams getting hot? Is there a dark horse you like to win this year? Seems like the Celtics and Lakers are old and vulnerable.

The Lakers will turn it on when they need to like always.  Jerry West had an interesting quote about their defense this week: “If there’s a loose ball now, how often do they get it? The reason you ‘can’t play defense’ is because you can’t! …I don’t think the Lakers will be good for much longer. You can keep a car running for a long time by changing the tires, etc. You can’t change a player’s tires.”

I think it’s Celts and Spurs in the finals.  Spurs win it all.

Todd: This guy in Cali runs it, I’ll make sure you get in next year if you want.

ME: How are your Mav’s doing?

Todd: Kinda just trucking along.  I think they make a splash at the trade deadline.  I’m confident Cuban will always put out a quality product.

ME: Hey is Cuban involved in the UFL?? That’s his league right? I think it kinda has a chance, and will benefit from a lockout in the NFL.

Todd: Well, he’s suing them right now for 5 million for an unpaid loan so I dunno where he stands.  UFL fantasy football?  That would be hilarious… gotta get our fix somehow.

ME: Shit, I got dibs on Maurice Clarett!

Given you did a GaGa poster, thought you’d like to know I’m doing a Ke$ha poster….

So I’m watching this Mavs/Celtics game tonight, who is this small foreign looking Guard you have?…I’m not talking about Jason Kidd, Ha!

Todd: That my friend is Jose Juan Barea, better known as the Puerto Rican AI (Allen Iverson), he goes by JJ for short.

Dig in, internet! It’s the long awaited Brad Klausen interview!!!

For most of you reading this Brad Klausen needs no introduction. But for the few of you who may not know, Brad is a Seattle based designer/illustrator best known for contributing a bulk of great design work including a ton of amazing posters for Pearl Jam. As a designer I have to say the way Brad came out of relative obscurity and hit the ground running with PJ posters when the bar had been established at a dizzying height by the Ames Bros. is pretty awesome.

When you get called up to the majors and you look like you’ve been there before, it’s a Hell of a thing. From that start with Pearl Jam(which he continues to do posters for) to posters for all kinds of bands(Built to Spill, Mogwai, MGMT, The Gossip etc.) Brad continues to be a fucking powerhouse in this screen printed, signed and numbered niche, and a super nice guy to boot.

So with all that said, let’s see if we can’t get to know the fella.

Jon: Alright let’s take it back, where you from? Montana? Idaho? Colorado? Everything east of the Cascades is all the same to me.

Brad: I am from LA basically… grew up in Santa Clarita, Newhall to be more specific, which is about 30 minutes north of LA. But I commuted to school in North Hollywood and all my friends lived in the LA area, my dad lived in Playa del Rey, so I grew up in a car stuck in traffic on the freeways of LA. But Newhall is by no means LA, over the course of years we had a variety of different animals, a couple of horses, 2 goats, 3 pigs at one point, they’ve always had chickens, there were some geese and ducks briefly,…to all my friends in LA I lived on a farm out in the sticks, and while we had farm animals here and there, it was by no means a farm. Since my folks have lived there, it’s changed drastically, the population I think has tripled. Not sure if you watch the show Weeds, but they filmed the first few seasons there, and where the show takes place in the planned community of “Agrestic” with all it’s “little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same”, that’s Santa Clarita now… growing up there you could just watch the development, that’s the wrong word though,.. development implies growth or progress and to me, covering over all the hills as far as you can see with boring, lifeless cookie cutter homes and cramming as many as you possibly can into as much land as you possibly can and then naming the communities something regal similar to  ”Agrestic” to make it feel like it’s a fancy area is not growth or progress. How many of the same house can we cram into one hillside over and over again until all you see is houses… but it’s not just Santa Clarita, that’s just California for ya…

Never would have pegged you for a SoCal guy…but then again most people I know around here are transplants to Seattle.

I went to the same school from kindergarten through 12th grade. A small private high school in North Hollywood.. my graduating class was I think 63 students… I got a plaque at graduation for being there 13 years. You can’t really be a loner in that environment, teachers I had in third grade I had in 10th grade, it was a small environment that little did I know had made me socially retarded when I got into the real world. Standard stuff like meeting people and introducing yourself, were not skills I had from existing in the same place for 13 years. But all in all high school was alright… looking back on it I probably thought it was way worse then it actually was because I was an ignorant teenager and that’s what teenagers do. Towards the end I had had my fill of the place and couldn’t wait to move away and get as far away from LA as possible. I was applying to schools in Maine and Vermont but only made it as far as Denver, which wasn’t the opposite coast, but it wasn’t LA so I was fine with that.

Brad: After that, I went to the University of Denver. It wasn’t an art school but they had a nice little art department. Apparently DU is known for its business school, which shows what I know, I had no idea, even when I was there. I actually didn’t know there was such a thing as art schools, I found out about those after I graduated from college, again showing how oblivious I can be… a friend of mine who graduated from The Art School in Pasadena, CA took me for a tour through the school a little after I had graduated, and it made me wish I had gone to an art school… but the more I thought about it, I was glad I had the experience I did, I had a lot of fun in college and I don’t think I would have enjoyed art school nearly as much as a regular old college. Plus the small art department at DU was bad enough with all the kids in there trying to find their identity by playing the role of “eccentric art student”… those kids drove me up the wall… a few of them, that’s who they truly genuinely were and they lived and breathed it,.. but most of them were just trying on the uniform to see if it fit. You could tell who was for real and who was just searching for their personality when it came time to put art up on the wall for critique days. So I don’t know if that would have been worse at an actual art school, my gut says it would have been much worse. Always made me giggle though, you can make art and be an artist and not be a weird eccentric character, but for some people who they are is far more important then what they make…

Got home from Europe, they flew me out for an interview and asked if I’d be willing to relocate from LA to Seattle, which I quickly replied to with “YES!” since I couldn’t wait to get out of LA once again and out of my parents house (don’t get me wrong, my Mom and step Dad are awesome, but when you go from living on your own in college to moving back home, it’s no good). I moved up to Seattle in November of 1999, right in the midst of the WTO riots… it was a quite a greeting…

Jon: Ha! Way to date yourself grandpa. I watched the WTO riots on TV in High School, Junior year. I still need to see that movie about the WTO riots, it looks kinda shitty though. Plus Michelle Rodriguez is in it and she renders all things she stars in unwatchable.

Okay we’ve talked about this before in person plenty, without getting too convoluted I think generally people think of Brad Klausen as an illustrator more than a “pure” designer although I find the more designy posters in your catalog just as impressive as the hardcore line art posters…but this is more of a technical question than a design vs. illustration question though. I want to know how often you use, and how much you like or don’t like Illustrator. How do you look at it? The approach, you know what I mean…

Brad: I use illustrator mostly to clean up my hand drawn type. I’ll draw all my letters and then scan them and bring them into illustrator and redraw them in there so that i can make things more consistent.. you know, make the spacing between things more even and make sure each letter is the same height and width where it needs it. But other than type, I don’t use Illustrator all that often. I might use it to make a pattern or a particular shape if I want to make sure that things are precise and even and symmetrical. Mostly I just draw everything in pencil then use a light table to ink the drawing and then clean or alter that in photoshop. I use photoshop far more then I use illustrator. But I like Illustrator a lot, it’s a resourceful tool in the shed.

Jon: I’m sure by the time this posts your Monsters of Folk poster will be out there for all to see and purchase. I had the pleasure of racking this print at D&L, I trust the registration held up and the there were no bugs??? Blend turned out nice?

Brad: It came out great, the graveyard shift did well as always. Blend looked good too…it’s always kinda cool to see how blends can actually start to blend away from the original idea and combine the two… there were a few in there where the brown overtook the orange and the blend went from a brown to orange to a brown to a lighter brown, but those looked cool too… I know both Steve and Cary get mad at me for using blends as frequently as I do… you might be more privy to them cursing me when the blend isn’t working right on a print run of 1500 pearl jam posters that need to be done tomorrow…

Jon: Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you, you’re targets are too big. To pinpoint the registration it’s a lot easier to work with a target that’s like 3/8″ , so I would say shrink your targets by about half of what you usually use.

Anyway, speak on the future of Brad Klausen, workwise and or personal if you got anything cool going on. I know you just moved, if you’re digging your new place/neighborhood etc.

Brad: The new place is ok. It’s on the west side of the hill of Magnolia near Discovery Park. And while it’s awesome to take the dogs for daily walks through Discovery Park, this side of Magnolia is sleepy and quiet. Mostly just old folks and families. It’s kind like living in a sleepy midwest town, there’s Magnolia VIllage, which is one or two streets of a few restaurants and shops I think there’s a pub, and on a Friday or Saturday night after 8 pm it’s a ghost town. No one comes over here. My girlfriend and I have started referring to it as “Mangolia”.

Welcome internet, get ready to read! What we have here is the first half of a two part interview with Todd Slater. It is the first of what I hope will become a monthly feature on this blog: Jon Smith shooting the shit on the record with fellow poster makers.

Jason Dean of The Best Part design blog bestowed me with the honor of Poster of the Day(of the week) this week. To him I would like to express gratitude and appreciation. It’s a neat blog.

Coming up, I have a two part interview with Turd Slaughter, aka Todd Slater. The first part should be up in a day or two and the second part will go up next week. It was pretty fun, half the interview is poster talk and the rest is misc. nonsense and of course we talk plenty of hoops!

Should have two new prints/poster designs done this week, hoping to get a sneak peek of some kind up asap.

Seehox looked pretty alright on Saturday in San Diego, a win and no one got hurt. The corners looked bad though. CORY REDDING IS THE TRUTH…I think.