This week in our interview series we spend some time with the Web Courses Bangkok graphic design instructor Mr. Daniel Feary
For those who don’t know you can you tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Daniel. I’m 34, New Zealander. I love type, Lil Wayne, drum solos, bears, deep-buttoned leather couches, dumplings from around the world, the typeface Futura, David O’Doherty, Aziz Ansari, Jon Stewart, Aasif Mandvi, coconut flavoured anything, Arsenal winning, 808 bass, Youtubing stupid things.
What are your skills?
Can cook a respectable khao mun gai. Handy with Adobe Creative Suite, Ableton Live, FIFA 09 (I really got to update my games collection). Can watch tv show The Wire for an unreasonable amount of time.
What inspired you to become a graphic designer or did you fall in to it like the rest of us?
My childhood curtains were my inspiration. They were the coolest 70s graphic pattern. I used to look at the pattern and think how cool it was. I still have them stored away. Then I entered a logo competition age 11. I didn’t win, but I still remember the design, and I still think it should’ve won.
Have you always used digital art mediums or did you start in the physical?
I started in the physical, I used to draw logos with pen and gouache paint when I was young. But I also used computers from a young age, I used to draw on an Amstrad 6128 and I even remember doing computer graphics for a school project in 1988. I got an A, thanks Mr Franklin.
What was the reason for the shift to digital?
Paint and brushes don’t come with an undo button and I am a terrible drawer. But I still do a lot by hand so it isn’t really a shift to digital, I just use both hand drawn and digital side-by-side.
In your opinion what is the difference between a good designer and a great designer?
The hourly rate?
When designing for yourself, Where do you get your inspiration?
I don’t really design for myself, design for design’s sake isn’t really my thing. I need some parameters to work to, and I usually need someone else to set those parameters. That said, many things inspire me in general, and it changes from week to week. I really like signage, sign writing, neon signs and some Bulgarian postage stamps at the moment.
How long would you spend on an average project, or is there no such thing?
I tick the “no such thing” box.
A lot of our trainees, when they finish their training tend to download 1000’s of Fonts and 1000’s of brushes, what is your opinion on this?
Limitation is a necessary part of creativity. Unlimited choices and options actually hinder the process. The idea is the most important thing, so I’d concentrate on the end result than obsessing about the tools used to create. That said, if a trainee downloads 1000s of fonts and learns an appreciation of type along the way, that’s no bad thing. But for me personally, I choose to work with just a few elements, typefaces and that’s what I prefer.
What advice would you give our current and prospective trainees, when they ask ‘should I learn graphic design or just Photoshop’?
It’s not an either/or question as the two aren’t related in an either/or way. You could say it’s like choosing between learning to drive or learning to fix a car. Graphic design is part of visual communication, Photoshop is one tool of many that are used to render visual communication.
Web Courses Bangkok Would like to thank Daniel Feary for taking the time to chat to us. If you would like to learn graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign) get in touch with Web Courses Bangkok, to find out when the next classes are starting.
If you would like to see more of Daniels Work visit his website
