Illustrator & Art Director Justin M. Maller

November: Melbourne’s Superlover aka Justin M. Maller is a freelance Art Director and illustrator who with just 3 years professional experience already has an impressive client list in his Portfolio. Find out more about what Justin has been up to.

Lee pipes

What have you been up to lately?
It’s been a fun couple of weeks actually; we had the new depthCORE chapter ‘Noir’ drop in late September, so I had a hectic week doing the promo stuff, trying to get the word out. When that cooled off, I spent a week doing a complete overhaul of my folio, put that out and had another fun week promoting that. Since then I’ve had a couple of wicked projects on the go for Asus and another round of stuff for DC Shoes. I’ve got some stuff starting tomrrow with Umeric, and a nifty gig with Bliss n Eso some time in the week or so too. It’s been pretty hectic!

Your work looks very intricate and polished. How much time do your typical piece of work take you?
It depends. For most client work, I will get the groundwork done for a piece within a day or two, then send it off for a round of notes and comments. Typically I’ll spend another day or two adding polish and tweaking it to meet the critique given – it’s rare that I spend less than 20 or 30 hours total on an image.

X & Hell album artwork.

How did the DC Shoe Co project come about?
Brian Garofalow, their Marketing Director, got in touch with me after seeing my LeBron portrait; he put me in touch with Tony Larson, who is the Ad Director for DC, and we started discussing concepts and directions. That first round went down well, we’ve just started on a second round of work that we are hoping will lead to a solid campaign.

Illustrations for DC Shoes

What would be your dream project?
I’m loving a lot of the work I have going on at the moment, where I’m working with brands and companies I respect and am being given liberal (though certainly not complete) artistic freedom to explore some very non-traditional concepts. The dream for me at this point would be to be given a project I can art-direct from start to finish; typically I just get sent a bunch of assets and a general look – I’d really like to have the challenge of pitching a look, then putting together references for the photographer and having everything produced exactly in line with my vision. Not having this control certainly doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but I think it would be a cool experience to have complete ownership and responsibility for a big project in its entirety.

Conquest of color, Semipermanent 08

The Young Priestess, Empty Magazine

Patience, my pretty. Empty magazine 08.

Do you have a favourite artist, or artists?
Directing the guys in depthCORE makes it hard to have just the one favourite. I’m planning on getting a fairly large tattoo quite soon, and I suppose it says quite a bit that the guy I have designing it is my good friend and fellow Aussie Karl Kwasny from monaux.com. I adore Karl’s work, and am really looking forward to having a piece of it with me forever.

Where do you find inspiration?
I get asked this question a lot, and there’s no real answer. I don’t directly represent my influences in my work; my personal art is like a visual diary for me, a way for me to sit down and lose myself in creating something without worrying about anyone else’s ideas or thoughts. The things that inspire me are the things that make me happy; my loved ones, my friends, music, fashion, sneakers, basketball – the list goes on.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?
If latest trends are any indication, more large projects, stuff with multiple executions. I am really enjoying work with the scope for a few different looks within the one global concept. Freelance aside, I have a couple of depthCORE centric projects I am looking to get up and running, so keep an eye out for that.

What advice would you have to younger designers entering the industry?
Don’t get so swept up by the culture surrounding art and design that you forget the importance of being your own designer. I see so many young guys being so influenced by other designers that they border on stealing. Worry less about what’s cool, worry less about who is doing what and focus more on making yourself happy.

Sisters of the southern sky, DepthCORE "Noir". Photo: Holly Bynoe

Favourite photoshop/illustrator tip/trick?
Lens flare ;)

Links:
www.superlover.com.au
www.depthcore.com

(Top image “Ombres et Diamants”. Produced for DepthCORE “Noir”. Photo: Mark Cant)