Interview with Gordon Reid aka Middle Boop
Hello and welcome to Digital Art Empire, Gordon thanks for the interview. Why don’t you tell us about yourself, your blog and background in design? Hi my name is Gordon Reid I front Middle Boop which is a moniker I use for design and illustrate and also the name I have given for the blog I run which reviews the best music and showcases the talents of amazing designers and artists from all over the world. The blog started off as a …
Hello and welcome to Digital Art Empire, Gordon thanks for the interview. Why don’t you tell us about yourself, your blog and background in design?
Hi my name is Gordon Reid I front Middle Boop which is a moniker I use for design and illustrate and also the name I have given for the blog I run which reviews the best music and showcases the talents of amazing designers and artists from all over the world.
The blog started off as a way to promote my own work and talk about the bands I was into but after gaining international recognition it has become a really popular blog for music and design where I now have a team of six writers and designers who work really hard in creating stunning reviews and interviews with amazing bands and designers/illustrators. We now get over 300 hits a day and are pretty overloaded with the amount of music and artwork sent to us which is fantastic really.
I remember the day I knew design was the route I wanted to go down, I was at my friends house who was doing a design degree whilst I was still at school, I saw the sort of work he was producing and just thought ‘this is what I want to do.’ I studied Graphic Image Making at Solent uni (a course which no longer exists) it incorporated animation, illustration, graphic design, 3-d, music production and web.
It was great to learn so many aspects of the industry and meant I could really experiment with lots of different techniques and processes and explore avenues I would not have considered if I was just doing a design course, I did a lot of animation at uni and was commended for one of my shorts at the BFI Cobra Beer awards. I haven’t created an animation for ages, it’s certainly something I would like to continue experimenting with.
The main thing I really learned from my time at uni was a DIY ethic, after a fair few disagreements with lecturers about my work I knew I had to push myself as much as possible to make sure my work got seen and appreciated.
Your latest Digital Arts Cover is an eye catching retro piece – what was thinking behind this and what’s your process from concept to print?
Well I had a fantastic brief to work with which allowed me a lot of space for creative freedom, as Digital Arts have just had a re design I knew this had to look really special I was asked to create a piece that really blended the 60’s styling’s with modern approaches and techniques, I was given the main image of the computer and two images of the woman to work with and from there built up an illustration deriving from bright geometric shapes, adding lots of texture and using a number of techniques to add depth to it.
I wanted to really experiment with an abstract colour palette that made sure the mag would stand out over the others on the racks but also drew in reference from 60’s and Swiss style graphics. I kept developing the design further and whenever I got to a point where I was happy with it, I took a breather away from the screen and made sure that when I came back to it I had even more ideas to develop it further. The turnaround was really fast and before I knew it the mag was on the shelves along with my recent Computer Arts tutorial. January was a good month.
How have you found it creating an online presence? Is this where many of your clients come from or do you do focus on offline promotion?
It’s always tough creating a presence on or offline, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to make sure that your work stands out from the rest. Getting your work on the many different portfolio sites such as Behance and Final Crit is only really the start as you compete with so many other design hopefuls and although it takes time and money to set these things up having a website is truly vital, I really started to notice the difference in interest pretty much from the day my site went online, having something that’s easy to use where people can just go and reference your work is a crucial tool in gaining a fanbase and getting noticed.
My clients range from online and offline promotion, a lot of clients when I first started out came from the connections I had made on the blog, record companies and bands etc, I gained a lot of recognition over the summer with a range of digital prints I created for bands and people started to recognize my work on the gig circuit which was great but I guess the bigger commissions have been coming from people seeing my work online.
What are your tools of the trade and which software do you use? I’ve seen some people learn a new program each month, would you say knowing a single application is more helpful?
My tools of the trade would certainly be my Canon 4400F scanner and Powershot Sx200 camera, on top of that I mainly use Photoshop and Illustrator but have been known to sneak a little Cinema 4-d into my work as well as using In Design to layout pages for the Middle Boop zine and various other projects.
At uni we had a pretty intensive run through a wide variety of different programs and that has certainly been more of a help than a hindrance as it allows you a lot more creative freedom with the packages although there are always packages you just don’t get on with. I think it’s really a matter of exploring lots of different options, finding the ones that work best for you and then concentrate on really getting to know those particular packages, finding out shortcuts and all the little ins and outs that can speed up a job.
Where do you look for inspiration? What are a favourite handful of blogs you regularly visit?
I am inspired by tons of different things, people that really push boundaries Paul Rand, Lester Beall, movements as Bauhaus and Dada. Not to mention today’s geniuses such as Siggi Eggertsson, these guys all create amazing work. I regularly check sites like Yay Everyday! And Dirty Mouse for great inspiration I also find that once you are involved with a particular project chilling out and taking time away from the screen to let things all wash over you is a great way for new ideas to hit you when you least expect it.
The newest image for Computer Arts has a fairly retro look to it too can you go into the process for this design after the initial concept ?
This was another great brief as I was allowed to do whatever I wanted as long as the type was clear. I think due to the retro aspects of my work people are starting to notice a trend developing and a lot of clients have requested a certain ‘retro’ theme which was picked up by Computer Arts, for this image I found the image of the oil refinery and thought that would be the perfect image to act as a focal point for the piece, from there I built the illustration up using found layers and then using some tricks of the trade created vector shapes and colour. I used a very different colour palette and used the brighter colours a lot more sparingly, I wanted to experiment with the background texture a lot and added very subtle use of colour which you can just about make out I wanted to create an illustration with a lot of detail which would draw the viewer in.
Gordon you have had a fair amount of exposure in magazines to say the least. This must be greatly encouraging. Would you say you have been headhunted? What kind of plan have you had, if any, to get this kind of attention?
Yeah it’s been great I mean really fantastic, ever since I knew what design was I’ve been reading these magazines never actually thinking I would be in them so to come from that to walking into Smith’s and seeing my name on covers and read all these nice things people have been saying is the best feeling, it’s great to get so much recognition for my work and has certainly opened doors.
I wouldn’t say I’ve been headhunted by anyone but there certainly seems to be a lot of attention on retro design at the moment, something a lot of people are tipping to be big this year so people have been coming to me a lot but there’s never really been a plan to get this sort of exposure, maybe it’s been right place right time or something like that, I just always make sure I push myself and my work, especially in self initiated projects where you have creative freedom and make sure that the right people know about what I’m doing I also want to make sure that my work stays ahead of the game and I don’t just get stuck in one trend.
Pretty Much Amazing is one of my favourites. Compared with Deerhunter it seems effortless and almost easy. Are there any specific techniques you use when designing that you would suggest to designers in the same field as you?
Pretty Much Amazing
Deerhunter
Thanks. Well I am a big fan of the blend technique in Illustrator, it has amazing potential and you can do so much with it. For Pretty Much Amazing I used that technique a fair bit in various ways, usually I use it a lot more subtly but for this piece I wanted the bright orange lines to stand out. I also used a lot of shading techniques and filters to bring out the characters and some lighting techniques to add depth, the brief was to have dark ‘erotic’ tinged imagery hence the particular use of stock imagery which isn’t usual for my style of work. To add a more dingy effect I added a noise to the stock images which when used in the right hands can also be effective.
Gordon it’s great to see new fresh designs especially with such an original style. Finally thanks for this interview with Digital Art Empire do you have any advice for our readers?
Thank you very much, one piece of advice I would give, especially in these tough times would be to allocate time to self initiated work, it may not give you any instant gratification but you never know who will see the piece, with the economy the way it is and so many designers vying for attention thinking outside of the box is more important now than ever before, you have to have that DIY attitude towards your work and career because no one else is going to do it for you, this is one thing I learned very early on. If you want it you have to work for it and also believe in yourself and your ideas, I know too many designers and illustrators who far too self conscious about their own work, having a good idea is only one part of it, it’s having the confidence to make sure that people know it’s a good idea is when you will start to get noticed.
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