Hey there! How are you doing today?

I am very well thankyou. Tired as I normally am, but somehow refreshed after three hours sleep! London can be a noisy place to live.

For those who need to know, tell us who Dan Mumford is.

Dan Mumford is a freelance Illustrator, who also dabbles in design and print making. Primarily at the moment most of my time is spent working on tee designs and merch for bands, but I am slowly moving away from that at the moment into new realms of art, theres only so long you can work in one area before it begins to get stale.

Give us an insight into a typical day for you.

Most days will begin around 7:30 with me waking up, followed by sitting in bed emailing, surfing the internet and watching crappy morning tv. Then I will head to the studio for about 9:30/10 am, and start working away on whatever I have on my plate that day. I pretty much just sit in front of a computer for LONG periods at a time, most of the day is essentially just punctuated with breaks to get a drink. Sometimes I get to go down to the print studio where I do screenprints, but that’s quite rare at the moment as time doesn’t really permit that. Generally I finish up around 7pm and head home. I don’t do any work at home though unless its essential, I try and split work and homelife, otherwise I would never stop, so I make sure the evenings are for me.

What are you currently working on?

Right now I am working on a new batch of tee’s for ‘The black Dahlia Murder’, I’ve done something like 12 designs for them now, they’re gret clients, and just do bulk orders of designs from me to take out on tour, and its always fun working out ideas with their tour manager Karim. On top of that, I am working on a top secret project that should be fun with a couple of others. As well as that I am in the concept stages of a print series for myself, and also just started outlining some sort of graphic novel concept, those last two are literally in the beginning stages..i find it hard to get time for personal work, so it could be years before they see the light of day, but I hope not.

Your work is incredibly detailed and looks meticulously thought out.
What’s the longest you have spent on one piece, and which was it?

It completely depends on the piece really. A tee design will nearly always never be more than two days, sometimes three, which I think surprises some people, a lot of designers manage to crank stuff out in a day or even half a day, but each design I do takes quite a lot out of me to do, the intricacies are a real headache, I sometimes question why I decided to work like this, but then I guess that is what makes my work, my work! The longest though would probably either be the ‘Evil 9′ zombie landscape, which I remember was two weeks solid work, long days..or ‘Francesca’ which was around the same, but to be honest that wasn’t as intense. So yeah, the ‘Evil 9′ piece wins that award, that was such a nightmare..!

Your latest work has a limited colour palette which delivers an immediate punch.
Is there any other reason for this apart from it’s aesthetic value?

I’m not sure if I agree on the limited pallette, perhaps the range of colours yes, but I’m just adding more shades now instead! Haha, to be honest it’s all for the aesthetic value, that and just trying to change things up a bit. I can see myself going back to black and white in the future, colour used to scare me when I was at uni, I never really used it, and my tutors pushed me to use it, which was a good thing, but I think it maybe detracts somewhat from the linework sometimes.

You’ve worked with some quality bands such as the Gallows, Set Your Goals and Protest the Hero. Are you quite selective about the bands that you work with, and do they often present their ideas upon you?

I would say that I am only selective in that I won’t work with a band that I don’t agree with on some level. Most of the time it is just the people that come to me with a good idea at the right time though. I am lucky in that I have to turn down a lot of the work that comes my way now, so I can be quite picky about the jobs I choose, who knows If that will last though! And yeah the bands nearly always have some sort of idea, I don’t like to be given a clean slate to come up with an idea, you never know if the band will like it, so its always good if they have the seed of an idea.

Tell us a bit more about your screenprinting. How did you get into that. It’s such a beautiful art!

That was when I was at university about 5 years ago. As I said I was doing a lot of black and white artwork, and my tutors wanted me to inject some colour into it, and screenprinting seemed perfect for me, so essentially my movement into colour came with blocks of colour in pieces, and I slowly built up from there. I gained a real love for printmaking when I was at uni, and I truly hope in the future I can just spend all day making prints, I find it really calming.

Who has influenced your art, past and present?

I always find this question hard to answer, and I always answer with the most broad answer I can, because essentially my influences are all over the place. I think the one thing that really captured my heart and imagination was films from the 80′s-90′s in the sci-fi and horror genre. Aliens, the terminator, The thing, blade runner, Big trouble in little China and so on, artists didn’t really resonate with me that much and they still don’t, I try to look outside the box for influence. I think the only artist I can say has honestly impacted my style is Alfons Mucha, and I see it in a lot of peoples work these days, his flowing lines and yet the boldness of his work is unbeatable.

Away from design how do you escape?

I actually really like being on my own, haha. I am a bit of a loner sometimes, so I like to hole up and watch a film or play videogames, it really helps me get away from work and immerse myself in another world, I am all about immersion and escaping from reality and getting involved in some fantasy world someone else has spent ages creating. Of course I do like to go out with friends and vist places with my girlfriend, go away for the weekend etc, but yeah.. a lot of time spent watching movies, I go to the cinema at least once a fortnight!

Music

What bands are you shuffling through your playlist at the moment?

Too many bands, in the last few days, Ghost Brigade, Behemoth, Darkest Hour, The Mars Volta, Porcupine Tree, August Burns Red, Poison The Well, DJ Shadow, Boards of Canada, The Get Up Kids..etc..

Who would be your all time favourite band you would design for?

I have always said Slayer in response to this question, but you know what, I don’t think that still stands. Maybe Opeth, they are a great band..or Adamantium before they split up.

Debate

What’s really ticking you off at the moment?

The HEAT. I really really hate being too hot, I am totally a winter man. I always say, if you are too cold, put on a jumper, but if you are too hot, you can’t take off your skin can you….if that makes sense? Hahaha, basically because In England we don’t have air conditioning everywhere, when it gets really hot like it has this summer, the tube becomes so hot underground, and shops are unbearable. TFL (transport for london) really needs to roll out air conditioned trains fast, or as summers get hotter its going to get even worse when you travel to work. Anyway, I am sure it will be back to rainy days soon, this is England after all.

What are you “buzzing” and totally happy about?

The new projects I have planned! I am itching to get working on a lot of personal projects, I am a little bored of client work at the moment, so putting new things into gear will be a real shot in the arm for me and hopefully make me a little more excited about work!

If there was one thing in the world that you could change, what would it be?

Chocolate would be good for you. I blame my mum for her sweet tooth, we had a sweet box filled with biscuits and chocolates, she said it was for me and my sister to have treats from when we were good..but I know the truth, she was the one who needed the chocolate, and now I do!

You can view more amazingly evil illustrations at Dan Mumford’s Site. Do it. Do it!

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