Weapons of Mass Design (US)

Weapons of Mass Design (US)

"We have, in our possession, samples of his work that show evidence that David Gallo is, at the moment, developing weapons of mass design". And this time, the frenchs cannot say it is not true. We sent our french expert on David's website and believe me, we are about to face a massive design attack from this guy. Take your wife and kids, as I set up a huge "Design Storm" operation . The "Wall on terror" is open !!!

Hello, of course as every Crewk interview, first question: What are we listening to when we come to visit you?  

Music from posters I’ve done or am working on or the television, not gonna lie, I often listen to tv shows while I print.

Can you tell us more about yourself, who are you, where are you from, what do you do? 

My name is David Gallo and I run Weapons of Mass Design, posters for fun and profit. For which I have been doing so for roughly 8 years now. I grew up in a few places as my parents were in the Air Force. Mainly though I grew up on a little island in the Pacific known as Guam.

When did you start drawing? 

I don’t remember.

Did you follow any course or did you improve by drawing in the margins of your schoolbooks? 

When I was young, the memories I have were of getting in trouble for doing artwork during other classes in school. My parents had a conference with one of my teachers and tried to explain that if I was getting good grades in class while focusing on art projects instead of the lectures, why did it matter? I was pretty much asked to do my art projects on the sly in class to appear as if I was paying attention.

As for art education, I have an associate degree in computer animation and a bachelor degree in graphic design.

Today are you living from your art, or do you do something else for a living?

Poster art is not how I make a living. I’m also a freelance designer and work a

full-time job that is split between design work and other duties. That job is the one that pays the bills.

Are you collaborating with magazines/fanzines, regularly? 

Not since college. I used to do quite a bit for the quarterly magazine there. It was fun especially photographing the Bumbershoot music festival for a few years. Now I participate in the Flatstock at Bumbershoot, totally different, yet equally awesome experience.

Where does your influence come from? 

Everywhere. I like to soak life up like a sponge and use my experiences and knowledge to help me create my poster art. You never know when some random fact or experience stuck in your head is going to lead to awesome poster art idea.

Are there any artists you particularly like? 

There are tons of great poster artists, many of whom I like their style, but the ones I really like are the folks I have met over the years that are friendly, awesome people on top of having kickass work. To name a few: Andrio Abero, Dirk Fowler, Gregg Gordon, Jay Ryan, Bobby Dixon, Dan Kuhlken, Paul Imagine, Lil Tuffy, Kii Arens, Andrew Crawshaw, Guy Burwell, Mirjam Dijkema, Kunny Van Der Ploeg, Chad Lundberg, Mike Klay, Frida Clements, and Rick Goral.

Definitely have to thank Andrio Abero for inspiring me to start making posters. He spoke at the college where I work and graduated from. He was instrumental in forming the Vera Project’s screen-printing studio, which is where I learned how to print and now volunteer my time.

What are the principal steps in your work?
 

Pretty much everything starts with listening to the bands and sketching in my sketchbook. After that, the steps vary in how I create a poster and the printing process is pretty much always the same, screen-printing. Although, on occasion, I have done some digital only prints and that one time I did a combined screen-printed and letter pressed poster.

Do you do everything by hand or on computer? 

It’s usually a mixture. Most projects start out in my sketchbook. Some times drawings go straight from there to the finished piece or are re-drawn larger and scanned in and some times a vector or photo illustration comes from the sketches. All the posters that are screen-printed are printed by hand; maybe one day I’ll have a studio space large enough for a semi-auto press.

How long does it take you to create a poster? 

Design wise, it varies. Sometimes it’s a really quick process; sometimes it takes a while to come up with a solid concept. As mentioned before, I hand print all of my posters, so that amount of time really depends on how many colors I’ve designed and quantity of posters that need to get printed. I love being a part of the entire process. Most of my print runs are under 100 so printing isn’t too difficult.

You have a very distinctive style, are you doing only what you feel like or if tomorrow somebody asks you to create an oil painting with horses running out of water with a sunset backdrop, is it a problem or are you up for it? 

I do have a commercial art background, so I would definitely try and work with a client to give them what they want. I’m not that good at painting life like images so I’d give it a shot, but it might not be what they are looking for in the end.

Which bands have you already created posters for? 

I’ve done posters for a variety of shows. Mostly I’ve been contracted through my favorite non-profit arts & music venue, The Vera Project here in Seattle. Although I have worked directly for bands like X, Paundy, and Black Joe Lewis.

For which band would you love to work? 

I like doing work for smaller bands. It’s nice to be able to make a poster for folks that appreciate the work and don’t already have hundreds of awesome artists available to do posters for them. Although I would love to do posters for anyone in my music collection, but that list is long and continually growing. Maybe in random order: Phil Collins, Paul Simon, Snoop Dogg, Foo Fighters, and System of a Down?

Do you choose the artists yourself? 

Lately I’ve managed to get in on some posters series and have really enjoyed it; normally I do get to pick the shows I do posters for. The venue has a lot of bands that are just starting out or I have maybe never heard of before, but I love that aspect of it. I get introduced to new music all the time.

What is the most difficult part in designing a poster?

I think it varies. Sometimes, concepts happen quick and execution takes along time and other times it’s the reverse of that.

You will attend Flatstock 2012, is it the first time you take part in such an event? 

No, this will be my 3^rd time at Flatstock, but my 1^st time at SXSW. I’m really looking forward to it. I also plan on being at every Flatstock held in Seattle and at some point will try and make it to the other locations at least once. Especially now that Barcelona has been added to the list of cities where Flatstocks are being held.

What are you expecting from it? 

I’m hoping to get my name and art out there a bit more and hopefully make some new contacts and opportunities to work with new and different folks.

A bit of self-promotion, take advantage of it, it's free, where can we see your work, on the web or in real life?
 

Well, anyone going to SXSW this year, stop by my booth and say hi. My work on the web can be seen at www.weaponsofmassdesign.com or like my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/WeaponsofMassDesign/98977813630.

Also, those in Seattle can see my work and other cool posters hanging up on the windows of the Vera Project’s screen-printing studio. I also run open sessions there and every once in a while teach a class or two. As I mentioned before, I’ll be at Flatstock Seattle as well.

The best praise you received lately? 

Getting in Gigposters Volume2 – I am super honored to be published along with so many awesome poster artists. If you get a chance, you should pick up a copy. It’s pretty sweet.

What can we wish you for the future? 

I could use a bigger home studio, and maybe one of those fancy semi-auto presses.

Thanks for answering my questions and see you soon on the website!!