MATT NEEDLE

Our 'Meet the Maker' features so far have all explored the world of physical objects; items created by artisans that you can hold, own, wear, touch and treasure. This time, we've gone digital. But graphic designer, Matt Needle's work still elicits the same response with collaged compositions, tangible textures and a depth to them that make you want to reach right into the frame. Let's dive straight in, shall we?

WORDS & INTERVIEW EVIE FRIAR

EJ Your love of films is a key part of your work, was this something that you pursued from the off-set when starting your career?

MN I think that my combined love of film, music and design have always been intertwined. From a very early age I was intrigued and inspired by film posters, video box art, record covers and book covers. These things pushed me towards drawing my own interpretations when I was a child, and that has filtered through to something I still do as an adult. My love of art and design aligned with those early influences and somehow turned into a career.

EJ Who are your main creative influences?

MN I draw inspiration from a lot of places The poster work of Bill Gold, Hans Hillman, Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, Japanese, Czech and Polish Film Poster design movements, the Dada Art Movement, and so many more.

EJ You graduated top of your class at university in Design and Applied Arts, how did you find the transition from design student to freelancer/business owner?

MN Daunting is probably the first feeling that comes to mind. Initially, I had already worked a bunch of placements at studios and magazines, I got hired to work part time for a studio whilst already in my 3rd year of University, but I noticed pretty quickly that I didn’t like the vibe of working on stuff that I wasn’t passionate about, in the style and voice of someone else and not getting to develop and explore my own direction and voice as a designer. So not long after graduating, I quit that job and went freelance. It was really hard at first, I would get sporadic commissions, lots which weren’t paying well, so I had to take some side jobs to help support me whist I worked and honed my craft and built my business.

The rise of social media at the same time definitely helped in searching for work, connecting with people and getting my work seen. And I’d credit that in my journey. EJ Your earlier work includes more flat illustrations and vector-based designs. What inspired you to transition to more textured, collaged approach?

MN I actually started out before that as a more collage based artist initially. But I decided to try working in and exploring a few styles whilst at university, and minimalism was something that was quite different to collage, but I could still focus on a symbolism/iconographic approach of conveying messages.

Whilst playing with this minimalist approach I started making little self initiated film posters and putting them online (Wordpress / Tumblr) and they started to gain traction and bring in a few projects. Once I started getting established in that style, it became hard to separate from it for a long while. On the one hand it was helping me get work, but I don’t feel it was my best work and I yearned to go back to collage style (but a lot of people were hiring me and requesting that flat vector style.) Once I got to a certain level of stability work wise I slowly started to re-integrate my old way of working and phased out the minimalist element. Sometimes I still revisit it when needed, but luckily my old original style has returned to prominence within my working practice and helped propel me to even greater heights.

EJ When starting on a new film poster, do you have a systematic way of coming up with a design or do you tend to have an initial idea or spark of inspiration that you just want to run with?

MN Initially, I kind of jump straight into the project by watching the movie and sketching down loads of rough ideas. Something will (usually) spark within that process and I’ll run with it. When it's a commissioned project for a film that isn’t out yet, I tend to develop a few options and work with the client to craft something that is almost a combination of elements from a few of the rough concepts.

EJ What is the one tool in your design toolbox that you tend to reach for the most?

An old school sketchbook & Photoshop are my two most used tools. I'm always collecting ("hoarding", according to my girlfriend) any little visual thing I see, I have boxes of stuff for potential collages, and I have folders of stuff for digital collaging on my computer.

EJ Do you have a favourite piece of work that you've designed or an idea that you're particularly proud of?

MN I'm pretty fond of my Bond Project as a whole, which I worked on in the pandemic. There are a few pieces I’d go back and rejig but mostly all of that stuff works for me. I’m also pretty proud of a lot of my Oscars poster this year. I feel like, in the decade I’ve been doing that project, this year was my strongest.

EJ You've recently worked on tour posters for Bruce Springsteen, how did that opportunity come about? Do you approach your music projects any differently to your film ones?

MN The project runners CollectionZZ just reached out and asked me to put forward some ideas as a few of the pitches had been rejected. Luckily they liked my concept of his guitar, which had a different collage illustration in the scratch plate for each location.

I approach gig posters in a pretty similar way as I do film posters, it's all about drawing out something iconographic from the subject matter, making that somehow the focus of the piece in a clever or engaging way.

EJ You have worked on a few self-initiated projects, including your James Bond poster series, your annual #ForYourConsideration Oscar nominees' series, and your #Noirvember Film Noir poster series. Is it important to you to always have a selfinitiated project on the go?

MN I love the self initiated pieces, they help me explore and evolve my style outside of commercial work, but they also work as a sort of advertisement for me and my work. It's also nice to just work on something for yourself, where I have no deadline and no amendments.

The busier I get with work and family life, the harder it gets to work on these types of projects, but as I mentioned previously the Bond Project worked perfectly for me in the Covid Lockdown where a lot of my projects got paused/scrapped. Likewise, I have the Oscars scheduled down for the start of every year and Noirvember for the end of every year so I can kind of plan my schedule around those in advance.

EJ As a creative, you're very active on social media. How do you feel about artists and designers now having to promote themselves in this way?

MN It's a bit of a double headed beast really. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think I’d be as successful at doing what I’m doing if I didn’t utilise social media when it was first exploding 10-15 years ago.

It coincided with me going freelance, helped me connect with clients/art directors/peers. Even now, it's very fragmented and spread over many networks, I feel it's important to use it to it's fullest advantage as a free promotional tool.

However, a lot of artists can feel pressure to feed the algorithm consistently with new art. Instagram and Twitter (or X?) keep messing with how things function to such a degree that only a fraction of people see what you are making. That can be pretty frustrating.

Overall I don’t think I would use it if I didn’t have to for work. I try to keep my private life mostly private (apart from the odd photo of my kid doing something cute).

@needledesign mattneedle.co.uk