Anthony Burrill Interviewed
I think this might be helpful for you
by Rob Alderson
How would you describe the relationship
between the visuals and the messages in
these posters?
When I am thinking of ideas
for the phrases I am thinking of how
the words look as well, how the letters
are going to rest on the page. Because
I am using physical, wooden objects to
print these posters, you can’t change
things around too much. I am quite
restricted in that sense and I think
that’s what gives them that slight
awkwardness; I like that they‘re not
too over-designed. It’s quite difficult
to get them to feel balanced and to
work properly. They always have an in-
built character, because you‘re using
wood. You’ve already got that as a
starting point.
It gets harder and harder
thinking of new things to say, and
because everything is part of a single
body of work as well, it has to work
together. I couldn’t just go off on
a tangent. But when new ones do come
along – I have done one recently that
says Persistence Is Fruitful – as soon
as that came to me I thought, “Yeah
that’s a good one.”
Where do these sayings exist before they
become posters? Do you write them in a
notebook or save them on your phone?
I do write things down in
my phone but most of the time I just
try to remember things. I never sit
down and start thinking of ideas, it’s
always just stuff that’s been rumbling
around in the back of my head. I let
things rest in there for a while and
mature and the good ones come to the
front.
I saw David Lynch talking
about how ideas grow from a really
small seed that then germinates in your
head and I have a very similar feeling
to that really. I just let them grow.
So your mind sifts out what will work?
Yeah. Sometimes I might think
that seems a bit trite, or you could
see that on a greetings card. It’s a
real struggle. I try and make it look
easy but it is really difficult.
Yes, because there are
books of creative sayings that seems
to come from quite a cynical place.
It seems like you aware of that line,
of the danger of them becoming a bit
California life coach…
Yeah definitely. I am
completely turned off by all that kind
of stuff. It’s all about having life
experiences that have meaning and when
I made the first one, the Work Hard
one, it was almost a bit throwaway
and I was playing with it a little bit.
There is always a germ of truth in
things but it is a thin line between
cliche and universal truth…
The other dynamic going on alongside what
it says and how it looks, is what people read
into it. Do you lose control of these posters
when you put them out in the world?
Yeah but I like that – all
the phrases have got a bit of ambiguity
about them and they are not too
dictatorial. It’s just little hints,
insights that I have had that I want
to share. I have got an urge to put
messages out there, to say I am not a
perfect person, but I have found a way
of doing things that works for me so
too. I am not saying I have got all the
answers, at all.
How do you feel when you come across work
that has been, let’s say, “inspired” by them…
A lot of the time I don’t see
it, other people point it out and over
the past ten years simple statement
posters have become more and more
popular. I had a look at Etsy last week
and there are just over 100 versions of
Work Hard & Be Nice To People, all in
different styles, like echoes of the
first one.
If it’s a blatant rip-off and
you‘re taking it to make money then
that’s wrong, but it’s more complicated
when it’s students. It’s just part of
the success of the piece.
I have heard you say you have
an analogue mind – can you explain what
you mean by that…
I think it comes from my age
really! When I was in design education
that was pre-computers and when I was
at the RCA there was a special computer
lab, this hushed environment. I think I
went in there twice.
I am hardwired to appreciate
handmade things; it’s just how my brain That work was quite political and last year
works. I am also usually only working you worked on the Innocent Victims posters
on one thing at a time. I have got a
set way of doing things.
(highlighting the absurdity of US gun laws).
Do you like to do work that flexes a different
design or intellectual muscle?
Do you bring that analogue way of thinking to
your digital work? That was more bringing a
project together, so I worked with an
art director and a photographer and
The work I do on screen, I
a copywriter. I felt with that it was
am always thinking about the print
about my design approach and then
process. When something is purely
being able to get it off the ground.
digital it‘s very perfect and it’s
not satisfying enough for me. I like
It’s nice to do stuff like
to work something up on the screen
that that’s not just typesetting. I
for it to go through a print process
think if I just did woodblock posters I
afterwards, whether that’s working with
would go mad.
wood inlay or a screenprint.
Tell me about the
relationship with Adams of Rye Kind of The Shining style, cranking out All
(Anthony’s longtime printing shop). Work & No Play Makes Anthony A Dull Boy
Ian and Derek are properly
posters over and over again...
old school, and when you go there it‘s
like stepping back in time. They have
(Laughs.) That’s a good idea
got time to work on things and I can
for a poster…
spend an afternoon with Derek setting
type and we’ll have a cup of tea and
look through drawers.
A lot of your work is funny – do you think the
When I first started working design world can be a bit po-faced at times?
with them it felt really natural. I
felt like I fitted in there. The last
thing they are is fashionable (laughs). I went to Bangkok a couple of
weeks ago for a typography conference,
it was not graphic designers there but
What is it about the physical process of hardcore type designers. It turns me
into a teenage boy again, so I stood
printing you enjoy? up on stage and said, “Do we need any
more typefaces, haven’t we got enough?”
I was joking but everyone was a bit
It’s when you pull a drawer
taken aback.
open and see all the type there. You
just appreciate the beautiful wood type
People get into the whole
and its particular patina and age, and
graphic design lifestyle and it‘s all
then when you start putting it all
very controlled, putting your socks in
together to form words it feels very
order in the drawer. I am quite OCD,
satisfying, that these things have been
I like things very neat and tidy, but
crafted to produce typography that
I think it was the way I was brought
has a very particular style. And you
up to make jokes about literally
are using materials that are tried and
tested – you can say anything with it
everything, and to see the absurdity in
things.
and it’s going to look really nice.
It’s about producing work
Then it’s about trying to
that has personality and I think that
do something with that which keeps it
gets designed out of so much stuff. I
relevant, so it’s not just a museum
don’t really know what it’s like in the
piece.
working world because I am in my own
little bubble which I have created for
myself.
The future of the poster has been debated
at length but did something like Oil & Water
Don’t Mix (a poster made from oil leaked in You often talk about the importance of
the 2010 BP spill) show the combined power integrity in design – what do you mean
of a physical print and the way that can be by that and why is it so important?
spread online?
It’s about feeling
comfortable with the projects you are
I love the combination
working on and the associations. When
of analogue and digital in that.
people ask me to do things, they are
That entire project was about the
physicality of that poster, but then it
asking Anthony Burrill to be involved
and that becomes part of the story of
became really popular on social media.
the project. So it’s about whether I am
happy with they way they operate their
You’re so used to seeing
business. That’s why I end up doing
things on your phone that when you
quite a bit of charity stuff but then I
actually see the real thing it’s
do also work with Google who have quite
always a thrill. It’s like when you’re
a difficult relationship with how they
looking at A Bigger Splash, the Hockney
are perceived.
painting at The Tate which is actually
quite roughly painted.
It’s hard to speak for normal
graphic designers because I am not one.
But the pressure of running a studio
and having to pay the wage bill means
you are going to take on stuff that‘s
either not very interesting, or you
are just churning out graphic design
and communication that doesn’t really
amount to anything. I was always quite
conscious of producing work that I felt
had a worth to it.