Interview with Mario De Meyer
I’ve followed Mario De Meyer’s work for just over a year and in that very short span of time the Belgian’s design work has exploded in popularity. His beautiful experiments in lines and lettering have helped him carve out a niche that has also caught the eye of some big-name clients. I thought it was about time we got to know him a little better.
You are quite active on Behance and Instagram but further information about you online is quite scarce. Is this a conscious decision?
It kind of was. I wanted to share my work on a global scale and connect with people. Behance and Instagram looked like the perfect platforms for doing that and a website didn’t. Both platforms have a lot in common but are very different, I use Instagram a lot to test things out and see how people react to it. Behance is more serious. The competition there is of such a high quality that it encourages you to just do better, which is something I really like. I hope to finally put my website online this year, it’s on my to-do list :-)
What led you to start working with lettering?
My love for lettering is something that grew over the years. During school typography lessons were always one of my favourites, but I never thought back then that it would become my main focus. Typography wasn’t so big back then. I think my love of lettering actually came from frustration. Belgium is a pretty complicated country and the fact that we have two languages (Dutch and French) doesn’t make it any easier. Certainly when you’re a designer, clients don’t want two designs but still require two languages.
This frustration was healthy in a way. As a reaction I started designing stuff for myself for fun, with my own philosophy and to challenge myself.
Your linework and textures have taken on a life of their own. Can you tell us more about them?
They really have, I’m still a bit overwhelmed by that. I’m a night person and after work is done I usually challenge myself to explore new techniques and styles. I posted some of these results on my Behance page as Novelty Waves 1 and not long after that Adobe contacted me to license the artwork as a splash screen for Adobe Prelude. A year later I released the 2nd series and that had a lot of exposure and attracted the attention of a lot of people. Almost all of these images have been licensed by now and this has lead me to do similar work, like the designs for Fortune Magazine I made recently.
This is exactly one of the reasons I really love networks like Behance. The work started as a small experiment and snowballed into something pretty big, I never expected that.
I noticed that your portfolio of personal work is now peppered with commercial projects. Have these projects altered your creative direction?
Not really, in the end people come to me because they like my style, or a certain project I’ve done. Its more a confirmation that I must be doing something right :)
Do you have a vision for the sort of designs and styles you’d like to explore in 2016
I would like to explore animations combined with typography.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in lettering?
Get your stuff out there, connect and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but don’t forget to learn from them!
Thanks Mario, Keep up the excellent work!
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