Cryface Interview

Next in our series of interviews with super talented artists across the net we caught up Cryface. The Jacksonville based artist has worked with massive clothing brands like Iron Fist. With large prints featuring artistic illustrated designs becoming the trend Cryface's amazing drawing ability has seen his artwork become much in demand. We caught up with Cryface to ask him just about everything we could think of, thankfully he was cool enough to answer everyone of them.

TFS - Hi Stephen, thanks for doing this. Firstly tell us how you got into graphic design and designing shirts?

CF - Well I have always been interested in art and drawing. Growing up I always wanted to be a comic book artist. When my son was born (2001) I needed to get a real job and gave up every hope on making a living as an artist. I enrolled into collage to get my degree in information technology. While in school and working full time I came across emptees.com. Just for fun I started putting up t-shirt designs. After a few months I was contacted by we are the ocean to do a design for them. Over time more and more bands and clothing lines contacted me and I dropped my day job to part time to focus on my designing. So in a nut shell, I started by accident.

TFS - What inspires your work? (Music, an artist, another designer, etc.)

CF - Everything does. It may be a song, a movie, a cartoon, a toy or just an odd shaped tree. Inspiration comes from everywhere. You just have to keep your eyes open and you will fine inspiration in almost anything.

TFS - What is your entire process when designing a shirt?

CF - I generally start with a digital or pencil sketch. I then ink the sketch in Manga Studio. Front there I will take it to Photoshop t add any effects (splats, textures, etc). Then I take it to adobe illustrator and turn it into vector art. Then I will take it back to Photoshop to do the color separations and halftones.

TFS - How did you first become noticed as a designer?

CF - Emptees, nuff said.

TFS - What is the most important thing to remember when designing a shirt?

CF - There are 3 things really. 1. Remember it is a shirt so there are very specific size constraints. 2. Know how many colors you can work with. Screen printing limits the amount of colors you can use and most clients want 4-6 colors only. 3. COMPOSITION!!!

TFS - How is being a freelance graphic designer different from working under a company

CF - I have no idea, I have only free lanced, although I can only speculate. I guess working for a company limits the amount of control on what jobs you take. I take work that I am excited about and turn down what I don't want to do. I would think that you don’t have that option working for a design company.

TFS - Do you differentiate styles when working with different clients or do you just have one general style you stick with? If so, how do you change it?

CF - Yes and no. All of my work can be spotted as my work but I will give the art a different feel or look depending on what the job is. Some projects require a more cartoony look and some need to be more realistic. In shot I try to keep a style that is mine and yet still try to be diverse.

TFS - How do you relate music to clothing?

CF - I have always been a fan of band shirts. I am a huge metal and hard core punk fan. I would go to a lot of shows and always bring home at least one t-shirt. To me the shirt is art and a way for you to say “hey I love this band”. Besides bands still need merch to make money.

THS - Due to the decline in the music industry bands are beginning to rely more on merchandise sales than record sales. Do you believe that this is causing bands to care more about their merchandise than their music?

CF - No. Bands are made up of musicians. Most of the time these musicians are not visual artists. Bands will generally higher an artist or get a friend to do their merch for them. The band does this so they don't have to worry about their merch so much and focus on the music. Besides, I don’t care how cool a bands shirt is, if the music sucks, the band sucks.

TFS - Do you believe that being in a band helps designers get noticed faster?

CF - No, being a good artist helps you get noticed as a designer and being in a band helps you get noticed as a musician. Horsebites is a good musician and is in some great bands, but I did not become a fan of his art because I like his bands, I became a fan of his art because it is great art.

TFS - Do you believe that the music industry uses the clothing industry as a crutch more than the clothing industry uses the music industry, or visa verse?

CF - Neither, they work in tandem with each other. The music industry and the clothing industry are working together to create the different styles that we see today.

Thanks Stephen, check out the Cryface website to see his artwork or contact details at http://www.cryface.com/