Espo

Jumbo / Daren Newman

Letman / Brett Stenson

All City Media

Marta Cerda / Keepa

Skael / Paul Tooth

Eine / Dave the Chimp

Rime

Rime

Junko Azukawa / Jessica Hische

1. Describe yourself with one word
hungry

2. Describe your typography.
actually, i’m not sure. i think the biggest thing i want to achieve with my type is to erase the line between illustration & type. my type is usually sort of “edgy”, as lame and design-suave as that sounds. I guess I’ve always been inspired by the things i grew up with, and Ninja Turtles, Monster Trucks and riding my BMX bike come to mind. Music has influenced it quite a bit too, considering I’ve been an avid thrash metal fan, and what’s thrash without vomit? Either way, my type reflects me, and i hope i’m not taken too seriously, and neither should my type. it’s just me having fun.

3. Do you adhere to the rules and regulations of typography, or make up your own?
i am a grid freak, which seams contrary to my inner-idiot who likes to slop shit around and just figure it out. but as far as weight of letters and just the flow of things, Alphonse Mucha and Josef Muller-Brockmann have been my Bible for design. I’ve learned a lot from them, just making sure that my work flows right.

4. What artists / typographers have influenced you in your recent work.
Well, I would have to include Mucha and JM-B, since I mentioned them before, but for sure, I would have to say Herb Lubalin, Municipal Waste, Ed Roth, Jim Phillips, Jeff Soto, and my friend Huey Crowley all have influenced me. Of all of those, Huey is the only one I have really had close contact and feedback with, but yea, those people have all set me in motion in my mind. I have been trying to find influence from other places too, and i have found that my toy box I picked up from my mom’s basement has been a huge influence.

5. What is the most acclaimed project you have worked on?
Not to sound like a totally infant, but in all honesty, probably this one. This is my first gallery exhibition, and its on the other side of the planet, which has been blowing my mind for the last couple months. I’m 22 and barely know anything about the world yet, and to see that I am being featured in the same room as the other people in the show is a totally insane to me. Thanks to Marty, it happened.

6. what is it about typography that you love?
Type is one of those things that you can draw it any way you want, and its new. You can’t really draw a unicorn a million different ways and keep people interested in it, but for some reason, typography has this way about it that it just never stops evolving.

7. What is your favourite letter and why?
Oof. To be honest, I don’t really have one. I really like the lower case “g” when it has two loops, though. That’s pretty fancy.

8.  serif or san serif ?
Hey, that’s a trick question! Some serifs are awesome (United, Didot, Rockwell, etc.), and others suck massive (Trajan, Copperplate, Typewriter, etc.) Some san serif fonts are also awesome (Helvetica, Gotham, Avant Garde in most contexts, etc.) and others blow ass (Comic Sans, Chicago, Myriad, etc.) That’s why you skip the confusion and make your own, serifs or not!

9. what can we expect to see soon from you? Other projects, shows, etc.
Well, I just scored a little contract with Target as a freelance illustrator for the boys section, drawing skateboard tee’s, and I was also invited to participate in an exhibit in Barcelona called “The Brrothers Project”… so who knows! I hope to keep busy because it keeps me from laying around, watching knife informercials at 3 in the morning.

www.brettstenson.com