Welcome to the Kiosk 5

I'm opening the Kiosk up for some more fantastic work that inspires me, and hopefully you too. Today I bring you an interview with surface pattern designer  Dan Walters. Dan works for the esteemed Peagreen design consultancy and as part of the design collective Hey Day. His work contains sophisticated illustration, yet retains a lo-fi quality that keeps the work charming and fresh. I've admired Dan's work for some years, and even own a couple of prints from Peagreen, so I am interested to find out more about what inspires him. It is certainly exciting to see how diverse a surface pattern designer's work can be.

EC  Firstly, for those who may not know your work, how would you describe what you do?

DW  I draw, design, paint, screenprint and make all over patterns and prints for apparel, products and spaces for all sorts of people around the world. My day job at Peagreen is fast paced and extremely creative focussed towards clients we work with. I like to try and do different things in my own time like music packaging and the hand made things with Hey Day, just to keep things fresh.

EC  You work as part of the Hey Day collective. What is it you enjoy about collaboration?

DW  I co-founded Hey Day Collective a couple of years ago as an outlet to make hand made products and prints. It is a good chance to do small shows and stalls that has a different feeling from my day job. It's nice being able to bounce ideas and making products from scratch with someone else, especially when things go wrong. I like the sharing knowledge bit. The plan is to do some actual collaborative pieces mixing both of our work in the near future.

EC  Tell me a bit about your work process. Music is clearly of great importance how does it feed your visual work?

DW  I am influenced by music a great deal, yes, I collect records and dj too so I love sleeve design. I have worked with a few different record labels over the past few years.....I really like trying to capture the feeling of the music in a package.....along with music I would say nature and wildlife are a huge part of what I do. I love drawing animals and the textures and colors found in natural things.

EC  Personal project or client brief? 

DW  A bit of both....I think it's pretty important to be able to do both really well.  

EC  Is there an era or style that inspires you? 

DW  I really like old Scandinavian design of the 50s and 60s. I like the geometric patterns and the naive character designs of designers like Stig Lindberg and Olle Eksell respectively. I love old travel design too...destination posters and stamps.

EC  What would you most like to see your work on? 

DW  I've been lucky enough to see my work on all sorts, whilst working at Peagreen, from underwear to an all over print on a bus. Bizarrely I've always wanted to design a football kit.

EC  Tell me one thing about you that no one would guess from looking at your work.

DW  I can actually really draw. 

EC  The Kiosk likes to enjoy the simple things. What is your favourite word, colour, shape, artist and food? 

DW  Bamboozle, Cobalt Blue, Circle, Geoff Mcfetridge, Sushi

EC  The Kiosk loves a to do list. What is next on your agenda?

DW  When I find the time in the near future, I have just had twin boys you see, I will be working on a new range of screenprints, tee shirts and products. Also possibly a kids book.

EC Any other information we should know? 

DW  Find me in these places..... bonebookbang.com ..... twitter.com/bonebookbang ...... pinterest.com/bonebookbang

Thanks to Dan for taking part, I have to confess it is a little dream of mine to work for Peagreen, so have really enjoyed finding out more about his work. If you like it too, do check out the links above, and you can buy Dan's work throught the Hey Day and Peagreen shops!

Please note that all images are copyright © Dan Walters 2012