Believe in™ is an Exeter based design and art direction studio. Since the studio was established in 1996, they’ve created some beautiful identities, branding, print, digital work, illustration packaging and art direction. The creative brain behind the operation is Blair Thomson – self proclaimed ‘Design obsessive. Rock bloke. Food freak. Creative Director…’
As well as the above, Blair is very nice bloke and agreed to take time out to take the hot seat and
answer our Ten Questions.
1. How do you describe what you do?
Designer. Creative Director. Thinker. Consultant. Friend.
2. What made you want to do what you do?
Age five: meticulously reproduce the front page of newspaper (images, masthead, layout — the page)
Age six – thirteen: progress to album covers (ABBA – KISS – Blondie – Kraftwerk – AC/DC etc.)
Went from there.
3. How would you describe your workplace?
Stereotypical designer chic. White walls / furniture. Black floors. Bright. Lots of books.
Georgian Townhouse. Good space.
4. What is your favourite colour?
Process Black — double hit
5. Who is your favourite artist or writer?
Josef Albers. Andy Goldsworthy.
6. What was your previous job?
Failed rock musician. Bike mechanic.
7. Do you work within a team? If so, how many people do you work with?
Yes — there are six in the team. All creatives.
8. Do you listen to music whilst working? If so, what do you listen to?
Yes. There is a central system in the main studio cycling through various playlists / albums. I have my own office with separate speakers. Being the ‘old’ one — thats probably a good thing. Mainly rock, alternative, electronica.
9. Who inspires you to do what you’re doing?
Opportunity to produce great work for brave clients. My family. Life. The rock & roll dream.
10. Which advice has helped you the most?
“All the money you make will never buy back your soul” — Bob Dylan.
Stay true. Never do it ‘just’ for the money. Believe in you.
Big big thanks to Blair for getting involved in the series. You can see a showcase of work from the excellent team at Believe in™ here and follow Blair on Twitter here.
Get in touch if you’d like to chat about anything and stay tuned for more designer-y goodness.
Thanks for reading
Mat
I follow this guy on twitter, he has a wide range of really nice work and also writes some interesting tweets.
Comment by Chris — January 25th, 2011 @ 12:33 pm |Thank you for the comments Chris, that’s most kind.
Comment by Mat Dolphin — January 25th, 2011 @ 12:34 pm |Blair is a great guy and the work him and his team at Believe in™ produce is top notch! One of the few ‘good guys’ out there! Nice interview
Comment by Mark B — January 25th, 2011 @ 1:06 pm |Cheers for reading and commenting Mark, he’s certainly a lovely chap.
Comment by Mat Dolphin — January 25th, 2011 @ 2:35 pm |Blair -understated as always
Comment by Martin — January 25th, 2011 @ 7:01 pm |Martin
We agree! Thanks for reading Martin.
Comment by Mat Dolphin — January 25th, 2011 @ 8:10 pm |Blair is a great bloke and his team at Believe In produce classic and beautiful work. Nice, succinct (like his design) interview.
Comment by Mike Krage — March 1st, 2011 @ 1:27 pm |He sure is. Thanks for taking the time to read the post too Mike.
Comment by Mat Dolphin — March 1st, 2011 @ 1:29 pm |