Peter Saville, Factory Records, Manchester

One of my favorite interviews nearly cost me $600. I phoned Peter Saville in London – the graphic designer behind some of Factory Record’s most famous album covers – from a hotel room in Melbourne.

As it turns out, Peter Saville is incredibly talkative. He must have been interviewed by a thousand journalists over the years, all repeating the same questions, and yet he pondered each of mine like they were the most provocative questions he’d ever heard. We spoke for hours, and I forgot I was paying exorbitant rates for the call (until the hotel gave me my $600 phone bill the next morning, and I nearly fainted).

Mostly, we discussed Saville’s recent role as Creative Director for the city of Manchester and his plans to create a design destination on par with Bilbao and Barcelona. I love the fact that Manchester city had the foresight to hire a graphic designer to play a major role in revitalizing the city. We also spoke about Australian designer Matthew Robertson’s book, Factory Records: the complete graphic album. I think he’s brilliant.

Artist Wen Min Li

For some reason, I rarely find art I love enough to buy, although I interview a lot of artists and illustrators.

But when I interviewed artist Wenmin Li last year for incubate magazine, I loved her drawings immediately. They are inspired by traditional Chinese printmaking, yet depict everyday objects in a childlike, abstract style that really appeals to me. Perhaps part of the allure is Wen Min Li's fusion of East and West, which reflects my own background.

I wrote to Wen Min Li and asked her to invite me to her graduate exhibition at COFA, which she did, a year later. I'm now the proud owner of one of her oversized drawings. When I'm rich (any day now) I'll own more.

CREATIVE 2004-07

From 2004-07, I edited a magazine called CREATIVE, which is all about commercial creativity in Australia - designers, photographers, directors, advertising creatives, illustrators and architects.

The magazine was redesigned by Frost Design in February 2005, celebrated its 10th anniversary in October that year, and launched a website a year or so later. (This cover shows talented Australian graphic designer, Marcus Piper, of POL Oxygen fame.)

Feet

I travel a lot for work, and I photograph my feet to prove I was there.

About this blog...

Over the past few years, I’ve interviewed some of the most successful creative professionals in Australia and globally – first as Editor of CREATIVE magazine, and now as a freelance journalist.

Many creative professionals are far less interesting in person than you expect them to be, but the most innately gifted creatives can make the most delightful interviewees.

This blog is dedicated to them.