Artist Interview: a.mar.illo

a.mar.illo. One of the first artist humans that joined our site, 61 to be exact, is one of the favorite artists, so we caught up with him to see what’s he’s been up to.

How did you come to adopt the name a_mar_illo?
Well, it´s a.mar.illo actually, dots aren´t allowed at some websites so a_mar_illo is the alternative version. 3 years ago I had to think of a name for my shop at the button badge marketplace prickie and back then I had kind of a yellow ( amarillo in spanish ) period, black and white drawings with strong yellow highlights and I also realized that something beginning with a and a dot could be clever to not to get lost in endless alphabetical listings, haha:) So I stuck with it over the years.

With 8 wins and 34 designs, you’re one of the most prolific and successful designers at Design By Humans. What’s your secret for staying productive?
Yeah, 8, wow, that´s really amazing, only “celebritees” such as Jimiyo, dhectwenty or aliadotony have a similar number of shirts printed there. I´m really honoured to find myself in a row with those names:) Unfortunately I´m not productive all the time, but I keep doing my best. I just let the ideas come whenever they appear, if I haven´t any I don´t force myself:)

Was there a defining moment on your path to becoming an artist? What were some of the important steps along the way?
Well after studying fine arts I wasn´t that sure at all if I really wanted to be an artist. It took me a few years to get back to illustration, In 1996 I became a fulltime freelancer doing illustrations for publishing houses in Germany and I did that for more than 10 years. In the last 3 years I got a little tired of working on similar themes for textbooks over and over, so I´m really happy that t-shirt design became my ( almost ) main income lately.

Some say that the environment you work in can influence what you create. What is your workspace like?
I guess I don´t like it too messy around as to be seen on the photo, enough light is important too:)

How do you create your shirt designs? Are you a pen and pencil guy, or someone who does a lot of drawing digitally?
I actually never create something that doesn´t base on a real drawing, but on the other hand I also finish almost all of my designs digitally, so I guess I´m kind of both types in one.

I love the weirdness of some of your work, like Treepeople at DBH. What inspires you to create more abstract pieces like that?
When I do something like treepeople I start to combine elements that come to mind, call it pure surrealism. A completely different kind of working is asked when I do a design like The Space Wreck which is much more conceptual in a way that I have to get a really close look on how ships really look like, just as an example.

Your portfolio shows that you do a lot more than shirts, with products showcased including posters, stickers, buttons, sketchbook covers, bags and more. What would you recommend to other designers looking to expand the range of what they design? Which of those do you find the most intriguing to work on?
First of all I must admit that t-shirts are still one of the best and most effective ways to get your work out there. Especially when it comes to sales in internet. Prints, posters and buttons do sell, but certainly not the way tees do. It´s a lot of fun making designs for badges and the most intriguing was to get my drawings to be laser engraved into moleskine notebook covers.

What are your top three favorite DBH shirts? What about those tees appeals to you the most?
okay, there are tons of shirts I love, but I give you 3 completely different examples, that mark 3 different design trends I tend to:

First an example of a pure illustrative style, it´s just awesome to see names like these featured at DBH: Fawn Fruits, sonmi, graphicairlines etc…

Secondly abstract/geometrical art like this one, just amazing and really neat:

And another trend I was amazed to see getting fashionable lately, mainly because for us the designers it´s just pure fun to do them: Zombies and stuff like that:

Do you have any cool projects underway that you’d like to promote?
Ok, to tell you the truth, next week the summer holidays of my 4 year old son begin, and this is the plan for the next weeks: Going to the beach and all kinds of kids entertainment:)

But stay tuned for two 24 hour features to on July 14th at Teefury.com and another one at RIPT apparel.

(Thanks for the interview Sven. Also thanks to MJ, our new artist liason, social media, and all around PR guru that helped with this interview!)

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