Defunktion have been enjoying Tom Muller’s work for several years now. Originally coming to our attention back in 2002 with the impressive ximeraLabs and his work at London design agency Kleber, over the past five years he’s worked on a range of exciting projects and, most notably, joined forces with Mam Tor™ - an independent comic-book publisher which has garnered attention for teaming up great artists and writers to tell beautifully rendered and utterly fascinating original stories.
Click the Continue Reading link to read about Muller collaborating with acclaimed comic-book artist Ashley Wood, Kleber working from a virtual office and more.
Q: We last spoke back in 2005, you were were working on a short sci-fi story to be featured in the first Mam Tor™ title - Event Horizon. How have things progressed since then?
A:Seems so long ago! Well I’ve been up to the usual things - designing lots of stuff. I moved to an enormous 2 floor apartment, got engaged, worked on more design, became part of Mam Tor™ Publishing and now I’m trying to find some time to work on a new personal project. Things are very good!
Q:What’s your involvement with Mam Tor™ these days?
A:I got involved with Mam Tor™ late 2004. It’s a UK-based comic/book publisher started by Liam Sharp, a very prominent English comic artist/writer in the business (he’s drawn everything from X-Men to Judge Dredd).
Liam felt that there was a hole in the market that didn’t cater to material that’s not mainstream. You could say the big inspiration behind the company is the classic French magazine Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal); that period in comics where there was a rush of left-field, experimental stories that you don’t see anymore nowadays.
My involvement with Mam Tor™ is the overall art-direction and design of the company. I decide/design anything from the logo, overall identity, book and cover design… you name it.
Q:You’re also on the Kleber team - they’ve worked on projects for Warp Records, Ninja Tune and Partizan, amongst others. How has it been over there?
A:Quite busy. In the past two years we’ve seen an influx of jobs. We continue to do what we’re known for - the music related work - but we’ve also done some big projects for Sony Electronics, The ICA, and other non-music stuff.
We’ve also been very active for Sony BMG Records here in the UK, designing a lot of their label and sub-label sites, artist sites etc. And we’ve managed to stay at the same size as we were which is a good thing I think.
Another interesting thing is that since 2005, possibly a little earlier, we’ve become what you might call a “virtual studio”. We decentralised the company, we don’t have a physical office anymore - we work locally from our own areas yet still within a company structure. It seemed a risky move at the beginning but has actually worked for the best - we’re closer to our clients this way, and are able to cover a lot of ground.
2007 is shaping up to be another busy year. Some very interesting projects in development and on the horizon.
Q:As always you’re incredibly busy, what’s your main project at the moment?
After having designed the graphic novel Worry Doll for Mam Tor, Liz (my fiancée) and I are designing another novel for them - it should be out in a month or two. I did the publication design for comics anthology 24SEVEN for Image comics, and Liz and I did branding and identity work for fashion duo Felder Felder, plus I did an animation piece for The Colour Rooms - a concept space by Sony Bravia.
I’m also working with Liz on the branding for a new furniture company. And at Kleber I’m working on some projects that I can’t talk about - one is arts related, the others are music related. All of the work is on my site - HelloMuller.com.
Q:With so much on the horizon for you, what are you most excited about getting started on?
A:I’m going to collaborate with Ashley Wood on a poster project for Wear It With Pride and I’m doing a 48 page design/illustration book for a new series curated by Ash and published by IDW Publishing if all goes well.
There are also a lot of projects at Kleber which are in early development stages, I’m hoping to allocate some time to spend on my new personal project that I’ve been tinkering with the past 2 year.
Tom Muller Exhibition on Defunktion.net
Mam Tor™ Publishing - www.MamTor.com
Kleber - www.Kleber.net
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