Chatting creativity: our most inspiring interviews of 2019
Insightful, enlightening interviews with big names ranging across illustration, animation, design, art and more.
Trojan Horse is a Unicorn, Adobe MAX, D&AD Festival – Digital Arts travelled far and wide this year to interview art and design’s greatest talents, going in deep across their careers and bringing you the nuggets of wisdom needed to help propel your career.
Below you’ll find our ten greatest interviews of the year, perfect for reading on this Christmas break away from the studio.
Some of them you can also watch on video – keep an eye on our new YouTube channel for more inspiring content in 2020!
The Last Freelance Wars
Last year the Freelance Wars Twitter account combined two of our favourite things: GIFs and snarky commentary on the daily frustrations of being a creative.
After a year, creator Alex Griendling decided to let Freelance Wars fade to black, and we caught up with him over email to look back over the project’s success and find out if he’s likely to resurrect it in 16 years time (or just next year with an embarrassing holiday special).
Takashi Murakami told us first he’s turning to folk music
In this interview from ComplexCon 2019 the art legend told us which Kanye cover he made in a day, and why he’s becoming a folk singer.
Chip Kidd is the Batman
The book cover master for Haruki Murakami on branding the Dark Knight and opening up his Batcave of sketches and Bat-Manga for a very special exhibition.
Tina Touli on being a design maverick
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Tina Touli on livestreaming her design practice for students and brands like Adobe. The designer also told us about the power of experimentation, and gave advice on how to be a better teacher – watch video above or read the feature here.
How being bad at illustration encouraged Julian Glander to make his own AI art teacher
Find out how Julian Glander: The Movie became the Microsoft Paint of our future overlords in this gonzo interview from Pictoplasma 2019.
Illustrator Simon Landrein explains his peculiar, provocative comic strips
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Simon Landrein’s I Don’t Get It has come to London’s Pocko Gallery, a series of comics and prints that err on the edgy. We sat down with the artist for a chat and a giggle that you can watch above or read here.
Anti-Trump artist Edel Rodriguez on how he’s not so different to Donald – and why dialogue is failing #MeToo
As Donald Trump hit London for his state visit he might have seen hard-hitting art by the man behind your favourite anti-Trump magazine covers. Find out more in our interview with Edel touching on black comedy, universal humour and his biggest similarity to the President.
Loish and the influence of The Little Mermaid on her female character designs
Neww Dutch master Lois van Baarle on designing for Horizon Zero Dawn, and why thin eyebrows won’t exist after the apocalypse.
Webcomic Name‘s Alex Norris and loop king Laurie Rowan on finding success and laughter with their characters
Two great talents whose characters you can recognise from anywhere talked to us from Pictoplasma and D&AD Festival 2019, with topics ranging from barmy ballet and comedy to the artist as a persona.
Related: Our other D&AD interviews with Apple’s logo creator Rob Janoff and Pencil Award winner Travis Louie.
From Game of Thrones to Women’s Weekly: Ricardo Bessa on his sublime style and diverse clients
The illustrator discussed with us his work, influences and why representing LGBT+ identities is so important to him.
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Read next: Game-changing Digital Arts of the 2010s
https://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/features/creative-business/chatting-creativity-our-most-inspiring-interviews-of-2019/