Damien Matter

How did your creative journey start and when did you realise that you
could make some cash from it?

When I was a kid I would draw all the time, I would mostly draw warriors
and ninjas. When I was in high school I started to get into graffiti I
spent most days in class drawing in my books and not really taking notice
of what was going on around me. Also my high school (Nambour High – North
Coast) was near a rail line so the freights from up North would roll by
with Graffiti all over them. My good mates PUKE and DOSE where my painting
partners back then and still are, we would push each other to do better.
It wasn’t until I moved to Brisbane in 2000 that I thought about studying
art, I did a diploma and in the course there where some design related
modules. A few years I started working as a designer for a few studios
and companies including TKOSM (The Kingdom of Sad Machines), Billabong,
Tell creative and the Queensland Government.

I try to create everyday I m always thinking of new things
I could paint or draw, I m always looking at everything around me and
admiring good design or bad design. Life’s is boring if you don’t create.

How have you refined your style to get it to where it is today?

My style is still evolving. It’s like my hand writing it’s never the same.

You say your an artist and designer, do you have any thoughts on the
difference or boundaries between the two

With design it varies from brief to brief, The purpose of design is to
communicate a message and to deliver it in the best way possible. So I
guess if an Illustration of a giant penis with boobs would sell a new type
of baked beans then I would run with it.. Most of my paintings and art
don’t rally have any deep meanings, I pretty much just paint and draw what
I would like to see and what I would hang in my house.

Typography appears from time to time in your work, why does this
medium appeal to you..

Graffiti really developed my taste for letterforms these days I like to
get loose and let the letters flow.

Do you have any wise (or not so wise) words for people reading this?

As a developing artist/Designer I guess the best advice I
can give is to never give up and to always keep going forward, try and
create something everyday your shit will come together in the end.

YOU CAN SEE MORE OF DAMOS WORK HERE AND HIS BLOG IS HERE