Freshly Laundered 009 / Simon Walker

Simon Walker is a freelance designer and custom typographer based in Austin, Texas. He’s donated the proceeds from both of the hand-lettered tees he’s done on Cotton Bureau to a friend battling cancer. Nice and talented, read on to learn more about the man behind the Super Furry moniker.

CB: What’s your story? How’d you get interested in design and typography?

SW: My love of letters began as a young teenager in England in the 80s, when hip hop culture was starting to make itself known. I’d always loved drawing, but I was immediately enamoured with graffiti and the way those letters warped and flowed and became abstract art. It wasn’t until my twenties in college when my love for lettering resurfaced during an art class, where I was making all these drawings and adding words to them without really giving much thought as to why. My professor at the time told me what I was doing was actually a thing called “graphic design”, to which I responded “what’s graphic design?” He then handed me some brochures to a couple colleges that offered courses in communication design - one of which was for the University of North Texas. I wish I could remember his name, because I genuinely owe my whole career to that one conversation.

CB: Aha! Further proof that everyone who lives in Austin, isn’t actually from Austin. How did you decide to go to school in Texas? How’d you get from there to Austin?

SW: We moved from England to San Antonio when I was 15 years old, back in 1988 (I’ll let you do the math). After a few years there and then another 5 at UNT in Denton, I spent about two years working in Dallas before being asked to interview at GSD&M Advertising in Austin. That was kind of a no-brainer, and I ended up staying at GSD&M for 12 years before finally, this year, breaking out on my own and going solo.

CB: How is freelance life treating you? Have you had any challenges going from a structured environment to a looser one?

SW: Freelance life fits me absolutely right - I love working at home, being at home with my family every day. I don’t even mind the bustle of the comings and goings of everyone around me. I loved working at GSD&M - there are few agencies, I’m sure, that offer that exact blend of freedom, respect, and creative passion - but there’s nothing quite like being on your own schedule and making your own rules (and then breaking them). The biggest challenge is of course financial, in that you’re never 100% sure where and when your next paycheck is coming from (a big difference to getting paid every 1st and 15th without fail), but I’m staying gratifyingly busy so it’s all working itself out pretty well I think.

CB: That’s great to hear - some people (myself included) really struggle to get work done at home. Going back a little, you mentioned being enamoured with graffiti as a teenager. Does it still interest you? Where else do you find inspiration these days?

SW: I still appreciate graffiti, for sure, and I feel like those sensibilities come back to me sometimes when I’m taking liberties with letterforms, but it’s not a world I spend any real time in these days. I get my inspiration from anywhere and everywhere - it’s not even necessarily anything I go looking for, we just live in a world surrounded by letters so, you know, it’s hard to get away from them. The kind of lettering that excites me the most is the stuff you see in the world that’s sort of accidentally good, like a logo on some cheap, obscure brand of hair gel on the bottom shelf at a Diamond Shamrock - there probably wasn’t any practiced skill involved, but the stars aligned and a killer treatment emerged and now there it is, hiding away in plain view, waiting to be noticed.

A big thanks to Simon for chatting with us. To be notified when he releases new tees via CB, sign up here.