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Favourite Fives: Adam Gill

We’d like to introduce you to the latest member of the proper family Mr Adam Gill.  An immensley talented young man from the heart of God’s country whose graphic skills and creative eye helped make our last issue the best selling one ever. So without further ado here’s his favourite five… hang on a minute in that last one I think he’s just called me an odd ball, the cheeky Yorkshire swine!

Clothing
There’s tonnes to choose from and write about here, but I would be an injustice if i didn’t talk about the brand ‘Carhartt’. I was about 12/13 when my older brother introduced me to the brand, and as much as I liked the clothes, the graphic design (stickers/tees/‘Rugged’ magazines/brand books etc) that accompanied them was the real influence on me and made me think “I wanna do that with my life.” Its maybe not the first brand I look out for these days when new seasons are coming out, but it’s served me well for the best part of 20 years.
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Music
This is an easy one, The Smiths are my favourite band. Everything changed for me – well, not changed, more like ‘started’ (I was only nine) when I heard Oasis for the first time and that music basically gave me a direction in life, eventually I found the smiths in my late teens. It was something very special. Some people ‘get them’ and some don’t, and I like that. There’s plenty of people who have put into words far better than I can why they are so special and so brilliant, but in simple terms it might be something to do with having a sense of humour, appreciating the rain, having a good grip on my feelings…just, being a northerner?!
Book
I’m really not one for reading fiction, I don’t think I own a fiction book but what I do have is at least 100 design and reference books and as well as tonnes of old magazines and ‘printed stuff’. I suppose it’s all work related, but I definitely do love books. The one pictured is from Tynemouth market and it cost about £3. It’s just got gold foil embossing on the spine and then about 70 years of boxing stories and photos inside, fuckin’ ace! Now, that is a book.
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Art
Unsurprisingly, I love art and practically everything about it (not those dickhead-types that just ‘express their feelings’, of course). To single something out it would have to be the Bauhaus movement. We were taught about it when I was in college and I thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially as my college was so bad. The story of the school its self, the students, the teachers, the building – never mind the work that came out of it – has been a true inspiration to me. I even took a cue from it for my own studio identity. Hopefully art schools like that will one day come back.
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Something else
Another work related thing (wow, i’m boring). I love sporting ephemera/history and memorabilia – especially old American stuff. Aesthetically I look at all kinds of stuff: programmes, posters, toys, patches, uniforms, jerseys, tracksuits, flags, etc, theres a lot to be learned from the way it was made as well as how it looks. A lot of sport stuff in the apparel industry is so contrived and people just copy each others watered-down ‘script fonts’ off tumblr etc. It’s very cool to get clients coming to me for this kind of design and knowledge after the amount of years I’ve been researching it. Also, I should mention the bit everyone can enjoy, too: actual stories of victories, defeats, heroes, villains, cheaters, haircuts…anyone who doesn’t like sport is odd.
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