Mr. Bingo is a vintage postcard-collecting illustrator based in East London. He describes himself as having a ’slightly smaller than average head’, ‘girl’s arms’ and ‘the same haircut as his mum’. His distinctive drawing style, filled with clever details and dark humour, has gained the attention of clients such as The Guardian, GQ Magazine, Oxfam, Tate, The New York Times and Microsoft.

He kindly agreed to take some time out to answer our questions.

1. How do you describe what you do?
At school I used to draw ‘funny’ pictures to make the class laugh. I have managed to turn this into a job.

2. What made you want to do what you do?
I think it was a natural movement in that direction. I’ve always been good at drawing and humour and not much else so it’s the only thing I can do really. That and working at a PR agency for a few weeks and deciding as I walked out one day, that I would do everything I could to never work as an employee at a company ever again.

3. How would you describe your workplace?
It is a fun box containing a photographer, an illustrator (me) and two graphic designers. It’s in East London.

4. What is your favourite colour?
I don’t have an all time favorite colour. Today, it is coral.

5. Who is your favourite artist or writer?
Oliver Jeffers (a combination of the person and the work). Here he is talking about what he does.

6. What was your previous job?
(Ignoring the PR agency, because that’s too disgusting to talk about) I worked in the HSBC UK headquarters. When post came into the building I had to put it into boxes called ‘pigeon holes’ so that the humans that worked there could find their post easier.

7. Do you work within a team? If so, how many people do you work with?
No, always alone.

8. Do you listen to music whilst working? If so, what do you listen to?
You know when you go up to a thick person and say “What kind of music do you like?” and they go “Oh I dunno, a bit of everything really?”, and you find it a bit disappointing? That’s me. If I’m on the studio on my own (like early mornings or late evenings) I tend to listen to TV programs while I’m working. This morning I watched ‘SAS – The real story’ while I was drawing.

9. Who inspires you to do what you’re doing?
Thick humans, fat humans, china cats, stamp collecting, Letraset catalogues, seaside towns, train journeys, normal people, offices, businessmen, dogs who wear clothes, found photos, newspaper headlines, amateur wrestling, bad art, hand drawn type, amateur signage, The British abroad, packaging, vintage postcards, religions, juvenile graffiti, overheard conversations.

10. Which advice has helped you the most?
I’m sure I’ve been given really good bits of advice on many occasions, but I can never think of a single sentence when I get asked this. Sorry!

Big thanks to Mr. Bingo for getting involved and answering our questions. You can check out more of his excellent work on his site, follow his his tourettes-riddled Twitter page here and buy some of his limited edition prints here. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch if you’d like to be involved in our Ten Questions series.

Mat