Creativity & Clean Kicks
A C-Words Creative Conversation with FILFURY, Artist and Director
January 2021
I first met FILFURY when he joined Fitch. Having recently graduated as UK New Designer of the Year in 2003 it was refreshing to see how unaffected he was after receiving such an accolade. Rather than letting it go to his head he simply knuckled down and delivered great work time and time again. No ego. A quiet storm.
Over the following years we’ve forged a great friendship and it’s been wonderful to see how his supreme talent and relentless determination have deservedly opened so many doors for him. And all the time unwaveringly remaining true to himself and his values.
In February 2021 I spoke with FILFURY about his 90’s childhood, his all-time favourite sneaker, directing for The Mill and why he‘s moved house 19 times in 19 years.
Please give a short introduction about yourself.
I’m FILFURY, a British artist and director currently living in LA.
You state that your creative work is heavily influenced by your 90’s childhood. What in particular was it about the 90’s that inspired you and how does this feed back into your work three decades later?
Logos, my SEGA Megadrive, cartoons, comics, trips to Blockbuster video, family trips to the USA, American sports, sportswear, sneakers, music, rave flyers… making fake rave flyers on a cracked PC copy of photoshop…
Maybe it’s less about anything in particular, more about it being my youth. The things I was into back then I still am into… and I’m always trying to keep that kid within me alive.
In 2003 you graduated as the UK New Designer of Year. Did this accolade give you a headstart in getting into the creative industry?
It did for sure, well at the least it got me my first internship… as a junior designer doing print and branding. But more so it gave me confidence, a belief in myself that I should just trust my instincts and go for it. I wasn’t expected to win that award… I think since that point on I’ve always had this strong drive and determination that if I put my mind to it, it will happen.
A dreamer and believer attitude…
Your first foray as an independent artist saw you creating digital artworks representing insects and animals collaged together from images of your favourite sneakers. How did you come up with this idea and how has it developed over time from the first artworks to today?
It was initially a personal project I was having fun with on the side, a release from the day job (I was living in Sydney working as an art director at the time). Seems like a life time ago now already… but I was simply taking photographs of my own shoe collection and photoshopping them into new form. The idea was born from a challenge I set myself — could I do it?! At the time I had surrounded myself within the Sydney streetwear scene so it was a natural collision of passions… my love of graphic design and footwear aligned. I enjoyed the results so just kept making more and more. I was getting a real satisfaction in creating something that felt me, the process, the results, felt unique, strong and bold — and were very personal to me. I didn’t realise it at the time but that catapulted me into a new lane of creativity, a new focus and future path. I ran with it, trusting in my instincts of making art that pleased myself first and not a client :)
In terms of development it evolved from digital to full physical sculptures, then back to digital for animation… I’ve kinda left that mashup artwork route alone for some time now but the design approach lives within all my work. I always push for bold, graphic compositions, seamless blending of ideas (be that textural swaps or transitions in film work). I’ll no doubt revisit it at some point but I’m enjoying where that first idea has taken me and how it changed the way I think and approach my work.
Outside of your work as an artist you’ve made a name for yourself as a director of live action and motion design creating beautiful films for Rolls Royce, Epic and the NFL amongst a host of other high profile clients. Does your creative work in this sector have a particular signature? If so, please explain how you adapt your creative style for a diverse range of clients.
If I’m being honest when I began to make the transition from artist to director I worried about how my work would have a signature… there are so many incredible live action directors, so many great CG/VFX animators… what would make me any different?! The brands I’ve worked with don’t necessarily want a FILFURY art film… they need a piece of communication that tells their story not mine… but I soon realized whatever the client, brief, medium — I approach it as me. I tell their story my way. I obsess over every tiny detail, I inject myself into every frame of animation… I want to leave my mark, but that’s done through a combination of design, composition, graphic language, energy, pace, emotion and storytelling — and wherever possible a lil graphic twist or abstraction –something that I feel compelled to add, not just for the sake of it but to give it a stand out identity and edge.
Describe how you work professionally. Do you prefer to work alone or in collaboration?
I can’t do this alone. My ideas can only go so far… I’m very fortunate to work with incredible talent at The Mill, it’s the combination of myself and the team that really push the execution levels. I need to have my ideas questioned, ridiculed, evolved and developed. Thats the fun part, the jamming.
I prefer to work alone at first — concept creation, treatment and script writing, initial style frame development — are all done by myself as I craft the approach. But then very quickly I need a reality check, haha. The first hit is usually producers telling me my ideas are way too expensive… then the real work begins on how I can be creative within the true parameters of the job. But I need that first explosive moment of random thoughts, throwing all my ideas down, then refinement begins as I of course present to client and eventually the team I’ll be working with to bring it to life.
I’m very hands on though, I want to be involved in every little detail. A lot of the work I create these days I cannot create myself. I don’t use the applications, I’m not a VFX artist… I’m a graphic designer at heart who has fallen into storytelling. So that at times can be very frustrating. I want to see everything sooner than it takes to build… I’m the most impatient person on the project at all times… But I know what I want and fight till the end to get my vision.
You are a self-confessed sneakerholic. What is your all-time favourite sneaker and why? Have you ever considered designing your own sneakers or been approached by a brand to do so?
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want my own sneaker… but there are already so many classics… and I have my favourites already, do we need another?! I’ve been approached for various customisation projects but none of them have felt right. Problem is I’d probably just design something very similar to an air max 90… I love the classics.
As a nod to your passion for the US sports brand Nike you gave your two children sneaker related middle names (Cortez and Blazer). As you’ve become older have you become less singular in your approach to sneaker brands?
No, haha. I’m still only wearing swooshes… if anything getting older has just made me appreciate more simpler colour palettes to footwear but I’m still the same person and love wearing air max everyday. I don’t feel myself without air bubbles…
Who are your creative heroes? Have they influenced your work in any way?
Honestly I always hate being asked this question as I never really have a good answer… I feel bad saying I don’t really have any creative heroes, no stand out ones at least. I often think I haven’t read enough or haven’t done enough research… but I grew up without any real creative direction or inspiration other than being good at drawing (or doodling you’d say), and having my older cousin show me Marvel comics and we’d trace the characters… I watched a stupid amount of cartoons and films, collected soda cans (as I loved the graphics on them) and watched a lot of music videos… I would say its these things collectively that have had the most influence on me and my work.
Where do you find inspiration?
My surroundings, my travels… people and places.
You appear to have curated a powerful and unique public persona as FILFURY. How important is it for you to maintain your own personal brand and what are the important differences that differentiate your public and private characters?
Nothing was really intentionally geared towards creating a personal brand… But I like the fact it does feel this way… I’m a graphic designer after all. I’ve enjoyed putting myself and my work out there, I try to be honest with my work and how I represent myself. I’ve always played with my own branding so it kinda just naturally happened. I don’t want to talk in the third person, but I will, haha FILFURY did start out as just a tag I would write in schoolbooks, later becoming my artist name (a way of separating the real me from the me I wanted to be), now I even find myself saying certain projects don’t feel FILFURY enough, so I don’t share them. It’s a strange place to be, curating my own tonal output. At the end of day it works for me though, I get to have 2 identities. FILFURY the creative who is confident in approach, the work, the future… and then theres the real me… Someone who’s more silly, who make mistakes, who wants to spend more time with his family… I need that distinction to be honest.
As a creative you’ve successfully developed two clear outlets for your work: Direction — You are signed to The Mill where you create film, commercials, music videos, motion design and VFX based narratives.
Art — You also create physical sculptures and digital artworks which have been exhibited internationally.
What led you to pursue a dual creative career and what different skills do you need to operate as a creative in each of these areas?
I like putting things in boxes, in order, a system… I can turn on a different tone of voice and approach for different lanes I want to run in. I would happily make all my output one thing… but it doesn’t work that way, at least for me right now. I find every time I’m making art I want to be directing, every time I’m directing I want to make art. I need these 2 different disciplines to keep me hungry, to keep me learning and pushing. I hope they collide into one thing eventually, but they are very different mediums right now. One is client based the other is not.
The art I make is all self motivated, me having random ideas and wanting to bring them to life. The art takes real dedication to get into action, it creeps into my free time my family time… but its what makes me me. It’s the real me, having fun and expressing myself freely. Whereas working as a director is all about problem solving, for someone else. I love that though. Being a director allows me to work with others and really elevate ideas and execution. Its fun crafting something that takes months of work, with a full team of people to lead. I mean its hard work too, there’s a lot riding on these jobs, they come with big budgets and theres a lot of pressure… but right now I’m enjoying the growth and development my directional work is seeing and I’m hungry to elevate this as far as I can go with it.
Depending on how you look at it being ‘creative’ can be viewed as either a gift or a curse. Whilst creativity can enable us to miraculously produce the previously unimagined it isn’t always something you can draw on at will. What are your thoughts on this statement?
Definitely a gift. I love how I get to spend my life making the things I do… but I agree my creativity isn’t always overflowing at the same rate everyday… I have creative blocks for sure. I’m currently in one! (I’m trying to work out exactly where I want to take my art…) I find it easier with directing as there are always multiple ways to solve a particular brief. But plucking a random abstract art idea out of thin air is different…
As a highly prolific artist, how do you maintain your own creativity to ensure the strongest ideas and highest standard of output?
I wouldn’t call myself a highly prolific artist… I’m just doing my thing. I’m a tough critic on my own work, I wish I was producing more, bigger, better… its a constant internal battle of self doubt vs belief haha. “This is amazing, I love it, oh my god I hate it, its terrible, I’m terrible… nah its sick, I love it”.
I have to stay on top of things, I have to make time for personal work. Right now I’m super slammed with directional work… so the art is taking a back seat and I’ve had to learn to give my self a break and not beat myself up about that. I just don’t have the time right now, so I need to be cool with that and jump back on it when I can. All about balance…
You asked me about my personal brand, thing is I curate the output that people get to see… I’ve got lots of failed ideas, projects that felt like a 7/10, things I wasn’t happy with and didn’t meet the standard of output I want the world to see… I’m my own toughest critic and thats what keeps me pushing, experimenting, crafting, learning and trying to outdo myself.
Do you ever suffer from bouts ‘creative block’ where you may find it difficult to get your head into a freeflowing creative space? If so, what methods, processes, exercises or activities do you use to unblock yourself?
Yeah I’m in one… I just have to ride it out. It will come, trust the process… I’ll be pacing, stressing, and getting nowhere — its only when you walk away does the idea seem to come.
I used to use caffeine, nicotine, alcohol… ha. But fortunately I’ve managed to break free from all that and find myself shooting hoops on my driveway here in LA to clear my head these days. Or going for a drive with some old school rave tunes on. I also try to meditate once a day, I get up around 5/6am most days (most of my projects are on different timezones) so by lunch I’m pretty spent and need a reset button. Meditation I think helps, its a real balancing act these days with multiple projects on at the same time, early starts, busy family life and of course lockdown.
In your opinion can anyone be trained to become creative or is it something you are born with?
I think you’ve got to be born with some element of thinking creatively, seeing things differently… personally I needed that skill trained, developed. Anyone can have ideas but it’s what you do with them.
You’ve crafted a unique and powerful signature in your work without ever becoming formulaic. How do you keep your creative work fresh and exciting for yourself?
I get bored easily. I love new projects, new chapters, new starts… I‘m compelled to try new things and I’m super ambitious, hungry for new ideas. This is my passion, I enjoy making new things. I purposely don’t want to be formulaic. I guess thats why I stopped the mashup sneaker art pieces as I was boring myself with them by the end of it. Someone once said to me I should’ve just rinsed them, made 100s of artworks using that idea… but I lost interest and didn’t want to be only known for that one idea… I guess thats the thing — I’m not a business man, although I want to be paid well for the work I do — money isn’t the motivation, the creative is.
You started your career as a graphic designer but, over time, have developed a multidisciplinary approach which sees you today credited as artist, director, photographer, animator and sculptor. How did you develop your work across such a diverse range of media and what does this approach bring to your work?
I think it’s just about being yourself, it’s easy to put people and skills into boxes right? I’m a creative at the end of the day, whether thats for a logo, a film, a music video, an advert, artwork, clothing garment or sculpture… I’m just bringing myself, my ideas and approach to any given brief.
What does it bring to my work? I dunno its just me. Its real and honest I guess. It also means to me its under my control… if I’m taking on the task it means I feel more comfortable and confident that I’m the one executing that part of a project. I can always trust myself to do what I need.
What advice would you give to a young creative looking to develop a side hustle into a career?
Just get on with it, just do it. Looking back on my own career and spare time I used to have when I was younger — I should’ve been doing more! I had way more free time than I thought I had… its about putting in the work. Make sure it’s something you love and you’ll enjoy the process of self development. Actually some good advice I wish I could tell my younger self is — stop worrying about the outcome of it all. That’s one of my flaws, I see the end picture too early and work towards that, rather than enjoying the process and seeing where it will develop. I’ve had many personal projects and side hustles that I’ve spent months working on that I’d view as a failure at the time for not becoming what I thought they should’ve been, but reality is all that has just added to my knowledge and experience. I needed those failures to refine my craft and become who I am now, and where I’m going :)
It’s clear from your body of work that music, particularly hip hop and UK garage, play an important role. How does music inspire you creatively?
I don’t think I’m alone in saying that music takes your mind to different places. I dive into different genres for different tasks… music to chill out to, music to get me in the work zone. I like loud, heavy bass line music… old school rave and uk garage, grime and hip hop… music with attitude to help create art with attitude :)
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the majority of us to re-address the way we work with negative and positive consequences. One of the surprisingly positive results, suggested in WeTransfer’s Ideas Report 2020, is that many have actually been more creative during the pandemic. As a creative how have you been coping and what important lessons have you learnt that you will take forward in the future?
I think the lockdown put a lot of pressure on creatives to be MORE creative… I put pressure on myself to pickup learning the piano again, draw more, take more photos, finish the short film I’ve been writing… and you know what that really sucked. As if it wasn’t stressful enough there was now this extra burden of using the extra time wisely… the reality was, for me at least, no different. I often work from home alone (that’s how I write all my treatments) and I was also fortunate to continue at the same rate of work as normal… so there was no extra time, there was actually less time. As my family were now occupying the same space as me 24/7… my 2 sons haven’t been to school since March 2020 and its been a real balancing act. It’s been tough (like it has for everyone of course) I wouldn’t say we are coping we are just holding on ha… we’ve only recently moved to LA too and we have zero family support here… I’ve watched my Grandmas funeral on Facebook live the other day, its wild. I’ll never take the old world for granted again, I miss people, I missing jamming on ideas in person, I miss the commute to work (the alone time) and I miss international travel. We are loving the west coast but man we need a trip back to Birmingham soon… the big positive from all this though is how close my lil family has become and I’ll always be grateful for this time with them, I’ve got to know my 2 boys really well and it makes you realise what’s really important.
Your creative work has allowed you to live in a number of creative hotspots around the world — from London to Sydney to Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Does travel and experiencing different cultures feed into your work? If so, in what way?
100%. I love putting things in boxes, labelling and organising ideas, styles, thoughts, and I guess people… I love identities, sub cultures, the differences between cities and countries that I have lived in. I like being the foreigner, it allows you to understand your own identity and what makes you different/or the same as other people… I’ve moved house 19 times in 19 years… its those new starts and endings that have inspired how I think, how to open my mind and embrace different ideas. Im a very different person to the 18 year old leaving Birmingham.
And finally: What’s next for you creatively?
More fun. 2020 saw me direct work for some big brands and high profile projects… so I want to get some personal art stuff going again this year. Make more time for art, make more mistakes, be more playful… have more fun!
About the author:
Graham Sturt is Creative Director / Partner at strategic design and branding agency, D8.
Originally from England, he lived and worked in London for more than a decade before relocating to Amsterdam to follow his passion for Dutch design.
