UK bass label hyperdub has quickly become one of the most revered labels in the planet via their consistent take on future bass musics from the likes of burial, kode9 & the spaceape, zomby, king midas sound, and many more. what initially began as a 100% music focus, with simple vinyl artwork featuring the label’s logo and record info, has shifted to a more complete package with the futuristic graphics provided by london based studio optigram.
somewhat mysterious and elusive, optigram is a sister company of electrofunk label citinite, and has done artwork for several labels and brands including Clients include Hyperdub, Warp, Planet Mu, Hum + Buzz, Sähkö, Public Information, The Wire, XLR8R, MIT Press and the Red Bull Music Academy.
often recurring to geometric and repetitive patterns, their artworks are a perfect companion for hyperdub’s often mold-braking releases that hover between future garage, grime, house, and techno. however, they are equally effective when stepping out of their comfort zone as is the case on the beautiful and much more organic kode9 + the spaceape album cover (picture above), which is reminiscent of early japanese print art.
follow the label on twitter @hyperdub and keep track of optigram’s work via their website
also check out this spotify playlist featuring some of our favorite music from hyperdub
we turn our attention of the colectivo futurist series to our first illustration collective feature. based in Brussels, the Hell’O Monsters are a three-piece group formed by graphic artists Jérôme Meynen, François Dieltiens and Antoine Detaille. the three have been working together for the past ten years and have amassed a stunning collection of drawings featuring curious creatures and monsters that are inspired by the astute words of argentine writer Borges in The Book Of Imaginary Beingsand “the creative wonder of childhood”. for the most part their creations can feel a bit naive from a distance, but taking a closer look there’s a lot of symbolism and serious subjects to be found in their ultimately sophisticated drawings. check out some of our favorite pieces and read a short interview about their past, present, and future below.
* how did the three of you come together to form Hell’o Monsters?
Ten years ago we all met for the first time in front of a wall for a painting, we became friends by affinity of ideas and a strange sense of humor. We then started to work more together with really good osmosis. Three years later we decided to create a more coherent structure for our work and hell’o monsters was born. Initially our style was very similar and it became more inseparable to the point where people couldn’t recognize who was doing what. In this way we created a type of unique form for our idea, three people united as one.
* what is your work process like? do you come up with a concept and then start drawing together? or do you separate tasks to achieve the final piece?
We don’t always follow the same process, but usually one of us comes up with a general concept for a drawing or a whole series. Afterwards, everyone brings their own personal ideas and tries to confront and create dialogs with the others. Usually our drawings are composed by a lot of little things (and creatures) which together create one big theme. We don’t necessarily tend to separate tasks, instead each one of us does whatever is necessary in order to complete a piece.
* so far you have put your assortment of monsters on posters, books, shirts, and walls. which of these mediums is your favorite? which new surface would you like to explore in the future?
For sure drawing on paper in black and white with Indian ink is our favorite medium, it’s like the base for all the other things we do. At the moment, we are a little bit scared about colors because we have used them too much in the past, now we try to use it more carefully with a lot of attention to detail; but we love to explore a lot of different techniques and mediums, such as collages, painting on wood, etc. We are really interested in doing more three-dimensional things like sculptures and installations without necessarily ignoring the drawing side. Instead we are trying to find the best way to associate the two naturally.
* if you could soundtrack your work, what would you choose?
* what is your favorite thing about living in Brussels?
Brussels is a quiet city to live in, but with lots of cultural things to do. It is very stimulating to do our work here. We also enjoy our friends of course.
* which projects are you currently working on? what do you expect to be working on in the future?
Currently we are busy preparing two exhibitions, which will be opening soon. The first one opened this past weekend at the MOHS exhibit in Copenhagen. This is naturally consuming a lot of our time because we’ve been preparing a lot of new artworks: paintings to be exact. In the short future we want to realize a series of different sculptures; while looking further ahead, we expect to continue to work together in the same way or even better because so far our method has worked well.
we’ve just stumbled upon this brilliant animated film by one of our favorite film makers, Spike Jonze, in collaboration with french filmmaker Simon Cahn and fashion designer Olympia Le-Tan. together they have crafted a short story inspired by Olympia’s embroidered clutch-bag collection called Mourir Auprès de Toi. the film is based around the love story of a clumsy skeleton and his flame-haired amour played out amidst Le-Tan’s illustrations of classic first-edition book covers. shot inside one of paris’ most iconic bookstores, shakespeare & co., the film features around 3,000 pieces of hand-cut felt pieces created by the burgeoning designer. check out the film below, courtesy of nowness (twitter @nowness) and read their interview with Spike about the project here.
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