British artist Olly Moss curates a unique retrospective exhibition for Mondo, Texan art-house and film poster specialist gallery.  After the exhibition, I was lucky enough to able to catch up with Olly Moss for a short interview.

 

4/5 Stars

To begin, I must confess: I’m an Olly Moss fan. When I saw that he was curating the “Mondo So Far” exhibition at the White Cloth Gallery, I would’ve bitten off our editor’s hand to review it. Therefore you’ll have to forgive me for my excitement and for coming at this article from a less then neutral perspective. It is the first ever showing of Moss’ work in the UK. He was exhibiting with other Mondo artists: creatives who specialize in using graphic design and great imagination to create pop culture based artwork.

The good news is that I can tell you everything I know about Olly Moss; the bad news is that he is a bit of an enigma. Before going to the exhibit, it was hard to glean much information about him. He seems to shy away from revealing too much about himself. What I do know is that Moss is a Brit, born in 1987, Winchester. Having graduated from Birmingham with an English BA, he got his ‘big break’ when he was commissioned by the founder of the Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles. After this, more personal details about this mysterious graphic designer are hard to come by; the only real trail he leaves is his work, along with an extensive client list. Some such landmarks include: solo-shows at Gallery 1988, video game covers for Sony, posters for Marvel’s Thor, published on the front cover of Empire and work for Nike, Apple, Urban Outfitters, Paramount and Penguin Books to name but a few.

It is somehow fitting that the life and times of Olly Moss are so well hidden that you only ever get some of the broad strokes. He leaves his artwork to speak for itself, and for him. His work often focuses on minimalist reinterpretations of pop iconography. He translates the plot of The Deer Hunter into a simple pattern of circles but still manages to make an impact. Within these simple images lie secret details on which you have to focus to see: a skyline in the head of a toothbrush, a creature in the blank space of a map. Moss evokes the kind of witty and well crafted posters you will have seen lining the foyer of cinemas when projectionists were still craftsmen, and when the likes of Saul Bass dreamed up the title sequences for Hitchcock’s Psycho and Vertigo.  Elegant, minimalist but always with a twist, Moss doesn’t just hark back to the vintage look for added panache, he takes the old-school ethos of making art out of the mundane and sticking to the truth of ideas to create fresh, modern work.

The other Mondo artists who stood out within the exhibition included Tyler Stout Martin Ansin and Jock: particularly his Shaun of the Dead and The Raid. The Mimic by Jay Shaw and Iron Giant by Kevin Tong are also definitely worth a look. The opening night also saw some of the artists dotted about, creating works live at the exhibit. This gave the show an extra buzz of energy that added to the already ‘edgy’ atmosphere. At the end of the night, while the paintings were barely dry, they were auctioned off, Olly Moss himself getting heavily caught up in the bidding war.

Being at the gallery made me wish that more of the artworks that gets fired at us through branding and adverts were designed with more lateral creativity.  The big bosses should think to shake up the standard movie trailers and trade up for some unique graphic design. I can’t help but dream of a version of the Olympics where the Games committee had sought the council of Olly Moss and his compatriots when choosing a design for the 2012 logo.

Nonetheless; if you’re a film buff, or obsessed with art, or need a place to take someone on an ‘alternative’ date, or you just have a free evening, then this exhibit is perfect. It’s just full of clever ideas, executed beautifully.

Where did your fascination with pop culture originate?

I used to draw anime fan-art on the Internet. From there I designed t-shirts for Threadless.com, and used that as a way of funding my degree really. This got me into making some movie posters for fun. And around that time, I saw this London exhibition, where artists had re-imagined their favourite movie posters. I thought that was a great idea and it got me into trying to create minimalist film posters, which turned out to be quite Saul Bass-y. But, I hadn’t ever heard of him, until people kept telling me that is what my work reminded them of.

So who does inspire you? Saul Bass is obviously an influence, but is there anybody else?

I did gravitate to Saul Bass, because of his method of making the idea first, and then working around it and trying to communicate it. It’s cutting out the rubbish and communicating ideas simply. But also, Polish film posters are a big influence. There’s a tradition of Polish-language versions of Hollywood posters, and they’re just so different from anything I was used to seeing over here. It’s not all photo-shopped, clichéd images.

How is it working with Mondo?

Amazing. They are the best people in the world. They’re dream clients, because they work directly and simply and give you freedom with everything, including the deadline. They don’t art-direct things too much. In some ways though there is a bit of pressure, because I’ve got no one to really blame it on if I do something rubbish. I can’t just blame it on the art-direction.

What projects have you go coming up?

I’ve still got two Studio Ghibli posters, but they take a long time to do. The studio is very fastidious with projects. You submit things, and they take a long time to discuss it. It took about three months for a Spirited Away sketch I just did to get back to me. I also just finished a Lord of the Rings poster, started doing some comic covers for DC and I’ve got a new solo show late next year that I’ve just started work on. Which should be good, if it looks how it does in my head.

So, what drives you to create?

Well, I never thought about making money. It’s just something wanted to do, to create. I’ve had massive arguments with people about it, because I wanted to sell my work cheaper, just break even on it, and have fun with it. But, you know, people need to make money from it.

What one piece of advise would you give to people with similar ambitions?

Just get your work out there, in a place where it will get seen. And get involved with stuff.

Theadora Young