Hi, Anthony. How are you?
Hi, Liam, you alright? This is the studio — welcome!
Thanks for helping me with this. Can you introduce yourself and tell me about your background?
My name is Anthony Burrill. I’m a graphic artist, born and raised near Manchester. If we’re starting at the very beginning, I suppose I’ve always been interested in art, even from a young age. At school, I had an art teacher who encouraged me to try new things, so I spent a lot of my school days in the art room. During that time, I was also encouraged to apply for an art foundation course, so I applied to Leeds Polytechnic and was, thankfully, accepted. I was over the moon. I did the foundation year, which I loved, then went on to specialise in Graphic Design. My earliest inspirations came from music and looking at record sleeves. I could look at them for hours, and one day it clicked that it was someone’s job to create that stuff. The foundation year was brilliant as I was able to experiment with lots of different disciplines — something I really appreciate now, looking back.
From there, I went on to do an MA at the Royal College in 1989, graduating in 1991. After leaving the College, my friends and I all set up our own studios. Many of us started on our dining room tables — we were all just beginning our careers the way we thought was best, and it really worked well for me. From 1991 until now, I’ve rolled along, creating work I’m proud of and chipping away, refining my craft.
Eventually, I moved out of London to the countryside on the South Coast, where I currently live and work. My time is filled with creating my own projects and collaborating with other interesting creatives and clients.
How do you maintain your creative independence? Have you ever had the itch to join an agency?
I really do value it — I’ve never worked in an agency. I’ve always been staunchly independent. When I first started, I couldn’t imagine working in one of the big studios like Pentagram. Their work is fantastic, but it wasn’t for me. So, I set up on my own, and I’ve been on my own since then. It works for me, and it gives me the freedom I need to make work I’m proud of. I’ve also been really lucky with the people I’ve collaborated with. I’ve an amazing network of creatives, ranging from screen printers and letterpress printers to product designers, filmmakers, and musicians, and I take great joy and inspiration from working with them. It has all been very organic — many of the people I’ve worked with have become friends, and we end up collaborating on interesting things. I enjoy that dynamic. We’re all invested in doing good work for the right reasons.
I think it’s all about developing your own style, developing momentum and then connecting with people. You need to be ambitious with what you want to do. I’ve always enjoyed taking on big projects and really going for it. Not just for myself, but for the client too — when there is one!
Ultimately, I’ve always needed the freedom to explore and challenge myself.
You know what it’s like. I don’t like the idea of getting a brief on a Friday afternoon and being expected to have it finished by Monday morning. When I started, that was really how people worked in those days. I think those boundaries are a lot healthier now. But there’s no right or wrong. I do think you sometimes have to go through that kind of experience — it’s all a learning curve, isn’t it?
It is. I think working somewhere without those boundaries can also calcify in your own mind what you don’t want to do long-term.
Yeah, definitely. It’s all about finding out what works for you. You might have a clear idea of how you want to work, you might not. Go out, test the theory. What you don’t want is just as important as what you do want.
How do you balance self-initiated work with commercial projects?
I think of myself as an artist, rather than a designer. I work within graphic design, but I see that as a way to realise my ideas. When I was at art college, most of my time was spent creating collages, using found objects, and playing with letterforms. In those days, my work was quite abstract. After a while, I began to say things with my work. It started to fit more neatly into ‘graphic art’ than ‘fine art’. It’s always this odd thing — I wasn’t fine art enough to be an artist, and I wasn’t graphic enough to be a graphic designer. I think it’s good to be on those boundaries. I like being between disciplines, rather than being funnelled in one direction or another.
Have you ever had a mentor?
I’ve had people that I’ve learned from, but no formal mentors.
Peter Dougherty, who was Head of Creative MTV Europe, was brilliant with me. He came to our degree show and gave me his card. He was from New York, so I thought he was super cool. He was friends with the Beastie Boys and people like that. He had just created MTV Raps and was looking to build up a network of new talent. So, I had his business card, and it took me a month to pluck up the courage to get in touch with him.
When I met him, he turned to me and said, ‘You’ve got 30 seconds of our time on MTV. What do you want to do?’ — he gave me the chance to start my journey. It was amazing, and by having my work on MTV, other people in advertising started to take notice of me and what I was doing. Peter believed in me and sometimes that’s all you need to get started — one person to give you that chance.
What principles underpin your process?
The type of client is important to me. I suppose I’m at a point where people come to me for what I do. They might know the kind of work I’ve made previously, but the work I’m making now is where I want to be. It’s really important for me to work with charities and small businesses, rather than working on huge campaigns. I’m just much happier making work that can be really direct with people and responds to an open brief with enough room to experiment.
Trust is also really important. Those briefs often start with a conversation. For example, a project I’m currently working on began with a discussion about creating something in a space and how that could be realised. I like to be in the room at the beginning of a project and be trusted to help steer it creatively. I can then apply my design aesthetic — direct, typographic messaging that’s integral to the overall project aims.
Resilience is also really important. You need to be able to stick with it if you believe in it. I’ve been doing this for over 30 years now, so I think I’m pretty resilient.
The power of the message in your work always comes through strongly. Have you always been interested in writing? Does that come to you naturally?
Yeah, it all comes down to words for me, really. My work is definitely rooted in visual communication, so I’ve always felt it needs to connect with people in the simplest way possible. I’m quite straight-talking, and I don’t like to overcomplicate things. Words have a magical quality to them. You don’t need to be too clever with them as they come pre-loaded with meaning and nuance. They’re great tools to work with.
In terms of writing ability, I suppose that’s something that has developed for me over time. I’ve always read a lot and I’ve always been interested in language. Most of that comes through natural conversation. I like funny turns of phrase and being able to slightly mangle the English language to produce something unexpected.
I always tread that line between profound and cheesy. I’m always navigating those two states, but when you deliver those messages with conviction, I think it lands with people.
I suppose another way to look at that is that my work has also never tried to impress people with how clever I am. It’s all about building a human connection in a straightforward and unpretentious way. When you strip away those layers, you can cut through to something more profound. I’ve always felt that complicated language gets in the way of things. I suppose that comes from my character and upbringing, as well as the way I try to navigate life.
Joy, optimism, connection and community are all qualities that I take with me into my work. It’s a natural thing for me, but it’s also really important for me to put those things back out into the world. I’m optimistic and deeply interested in the world around me, so I want to convey that through the work I create.
How do you fuel that curiosity?
It’s as simple as staying inquisitive and finding the childlike wonder in everyday things, as you put it. Discovering things that you didn’t know existed or how they work. It’s our job to excite people. To be optimistic. To find the joy in things. We understand why those things are interesting, relevant, or exciting, and we hold the keys to helping others experience that. Visual communication is the glue that holds those conversations together, and it connects people with ideas that we think are valuable.
How do you stay inspired?
I take in a lot of exhibitions, concerts, and films, and I still read a lot of books. I have a real interest in how culture constantly unfolds and changes. I want to stay relevant — I don’t want to be tone deaf or drive into a creative cul-de-sac. For my work to land, it needs to feel relevant to today’s culture. And the only way for that to happen is to be fully immersed in things as they are happening, in the moment.
That definitely keeps me excited. I don’t live far from London, so I go up every couple of weeks and just get an injection of that spirit, energy, vibe that runs through the place. I’m in my late 50s now, but I’m still excited about finding new music to listen to or finding new artists to look at. It helps that I’m still interested in those things. My kids are in their mid-twenties now, and it’s kind of like seeing the world through their eyes. Things move fast, but it’s important to enjoy it and take as much of it in as you can.
I also have two boys. What’s it like being a ‘creative dad’? What have I got coming down the track?!
It’s amazing because you’re almost expected to throw yourself into the creative side of parenting. You will know the value of it, but you can see it unfolding in front of you. Get involved in all the Lego and treehouses and stuff, it’s brilliant. It’s a brilliant, transformative experience, and you’ll learn a lot from your kids.
What brings you joy?
Meeting new people and going on creative journeys with them. I still get to travel a lot through my work, and I love meeting new people from different parts of the world.
I also love the feeling when I get an email out of the blue inviting me to work on something. It always feels like I’m going on another adventure. I love the unexpected nature of things like that. It could be brilliant or it might not come to anything. That’s kind of scary and exciting at the same time.
Let’s talk typography. How do you handle type now — do you set it manually or is your workflow digital?
I’ve just celebrated the 21st birthday of ‘Work hard and be nice to people’. For the first 10-15 years, I worked purely with letterpress, producing posters. I tended to use only three or four typefaces and stick to a certain number of sizes. That turned into my visual language, which I feel is fairly well developed in my practice now. My new workflow is a lot more digital. I’ve scanned all the typefaces and I can produce layouts using Photograph and have them screenprinted. It still starts off analogue but quite quickly goes digital before becoming analogue again. This gives me much more freedom to play with scale and layout while also speeding things up significantly.
However, my design process is the same. I still restrict myself to the woodcuts. I’m really interested in using technology to make my workflow better, but it has to feel authentic. I don’t want to cut corners with anything, but there are efficiencies that can be used. For example, I can now use repetition to a far greater degree than before as I’m not limited to how many letter A’s I have at a certain size.
What are you working on just now?
Some stuff for War Child at Glastonbury. We’ve built a temporary building that’s going to be their space within the festival. I’m also working with Michael Marriott, who’s a furniture and product designer, on a few projects. For War Child, we’ve produced everything down in Bristol and are in the final stages of getting it ready to go. I still can’t believe it is happening, it is such a great project to be involved in. It all started as a conversation earlier in the year while I was at the Brit Awards. We talked about what they wanted to achieve and how to create some kind of presence at Glastonbury. I think I came up with something on the back of a napkin, and it snowballed from there.
What advice would you give to someone at the start of their career?
Maintain and develop conversations with other creatives who are more established than you. Learn from them. Learn how they did it and put that knowledge into practice.
Be enthusiastic and be optimistic, even when you get knocked back by things. It’s all par for the course; it’s going to happen. But optimism is infectious — keep plugging away at things and it will come good.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
It’s not direct advice, but I’ve probably learned the most by watching other people navigate their careers. I’ve learned a lot by observing how people present themselves while working in an honest way.
Any strong thoughts on AI?
I think everyone’s still trying to figure it out. The bits that we’re seeing — like Midjourney and Adobe Firefly — are just the start. It’s going to impact lots of things, but I don’t know where it’s going to take us. I’m quite in favour of it if it makes things easier. I still remember the internet coming into being, and it felt like a fringe activity, much like AI does just now. Then, smartphones came along, and all of those technological changes have caused huge changes to society. Some good, some bad.
What opportunities can you see for the industry?
There’s an opportunity for us all to go back to building a visual culture that matters. The work has to connect with people to make a difference. That’s not necessarily working for huge corporations or feeding the need for constant newness. That’s where the industry is just now — everything feels like a repackaging of things that already exist. But I think there’s a slow move away from that, with creatives wanting to cut through all of that and get to the point. Substance over style. When I buy something, I want to know that it’s going to last for a long time. Design is the same. Longevity in design is crucial — it shouldn’t be disposable. The best work still feels new, even after decades.
Thanks so much for this, Anthony. That was great!
Any time, Liam. Good to chat.
