I recently had a chance to checkout the portfolio of U.K. based Designer and Illustrator, Dale Edwin Murray. Needless to say I dig his work and thought it would be nice to share it with the readers of The AG.. so we interviewed him. You can see more of Dale’s work on his site HERE
Tell us a little about yourself and what steps you took to get here:
I’m a freelance illustrative designer based in East London. I’ve been designing and doodling for the past 3 years. Before that I was Creative Director at an online retailers. Over the past 3 years I have been specialising in apparel graphics and am now moving into editorial and poster design. Everything I’ve done has been self taught so I’ve had to find out the hard and sometimes the long or wrong way to do things technically but I’ve got there in the end! I work from my studio at home and my day is divided between work and looking after my two French Bulldogs Lilah and Ozzy. They told me they’d get mad if I didn’t give them a shout out!
It’s apparent that you’ve been influenced by graffiti and street art. Can you tell us how you were able to transition your style into a career?
Yeah graffiti and lo-brow art have always been a source of inspiration to me and my earlier work was quite heavily influenced by that style – I’ve been moving further away from that kind of aesthetic as time has worn on, but I think for someone of my generation it is almost impossible to turn your back on it completely. In terms of how I managed to forge a career out of my style, that’s not something I have ever consciously thought about really. I’ve just done my thing and hoped that people like it. I guess the people that have bought my art/designs were looking for something whimsical, playful and quite stylised – I guess those are common characteristics in what I do
What’s your go-to source of inspiration outside of art or music?
Outside of music, which is probably my number one source of inspiration, I would have to say the internet. I was a really late bloomer when it came to computers and the internet. You might even say that I was a bit of a Luddite. But once I got switched onto the net I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s like the most enormous magazine that you can never get the end of. If I ever get stuck for inspiration I just trawl the web for a couple of hours – that never fails
What are some of your influences as to your style?
Like I said, the first influences were from graffiti and street art. I also went though a period of being obsessed with early skateboard graphics. Right now I would say that I’m more interested in vintage cartoons, propaganda posters, and the psychedelic style of Heinz Edelmann and Peter Max.
Words to live by?
Never give up
What blogs or magazines do you turn to for creative inspiration?
Too many to mention them all but - ffffound.com, piccsy.com, threadless.com, grainedit.com, Dazed & Confused, I.D., flickr.com, highsnobiety.com, society6.com – to name a few
What’s your personal favorite piece of your own work? Tell us a story behind it.
I think my favourite right now is probably the ‘Bon Voyage’ piece. It is the first time that I have really let loose with textures and I liked how it turned out. I think I am definitely going to try to use more textures in my work from now on
What’s your all-time favorite piece of art or design? (*not created by you)
I think that would have to be Picasso’s ‘Guernica’
What’s your current creative obsession?
My creative obsession at the moment is handmade typography. It is the area of my work that needs the most practice and I’m obsessed with people that do it well.