Skrilla is a Midlands-based Graphic Designer from the UK. He is well known for his atmospheric and striking album artwork as used on the ‘Adulthood’ Soundtrack and he has attracted the attention of many important Producers, Rappers and Emcee’s (Papoose, Million Dan, 10Shott, Joe Budden…his list of clients is endless) over recent years.

A big inspiration of mine, SICKMANSICK were fortunate to catch up with the man himself…

SICKMANSICK: Hi Skrilla, thanks very much for taking the time out for a chat, what have you been up to recently?

No problem and I appreciate the opportunity. It’s busy as ever over here working on various projects, one of which is the new Sean P mixtape, Kimbo Price which is pretty exciting!

SICKMANSICK: What is your background as a Designer and what have been the major influences on your work?

I did the usual route and began at college before going on to university studying design which gave me a pretty good understanding of the subject. It wasn’t until near the end of my time at university I began getting a few clients which made me consider starting up as a freelance designer. I Think my first design job was the P-Cutta Street Wars 12 cover.

As for my influences, I’ve always loved looking at the artwork that came along with a CD while bumping the music so it’s always something I wanted to be involved in. Then when I discovered mixtapes I saw all these exciting new designs such as those early dipset mixtapes, that were creating these crazy scenes that really appealed to me. I knew I had to have a go myself.

SICKMANSICK: Your aesthetic has become popular for Album Artwork and Mixtape Covers, how did you get into specializing in this market?

I love music, hip hop in particular so I always wanted to be involved in it somehow, so I just gravitated towards that particular field. It’s just something I wanted to do so I went for it, I’m a firm believer that you can become anything you want to if you have the talent and drive.

SICKMANSICK: I noticed you have connections with a lot of American rappers as well as much of the UK underground and hip-hop scene, how did this come about?

The Internet is really the key to that, making the world a much smaller place it’s now possible to contact just about anyone around the world. In fact, thinking about how different it would have been 10 years ago I don’t think any of what I have achieved would have been possible back then.

My first major client was probably my boy Tricksta from Wolftown who really put me on in the UK scene and also gave me a few good connections overseas to get started with. From there it’s just been a gradual case of acquiring new clients from word of mouth and putting my work out there. Being consistent and trustworthy to your customers goes a long way in business.

SICKMANSICK: I feel you have an unmistakable design style and I notice you are very clever with both photo manipulation and type; how do you usually approach the design process for a new Album or Mixtape Cover?

I would say the main factor is the title or concept of the mixtape or album. Once I have that I can let my imagination do the work and start to think about a scenario or scene I can paint to put across this idea. It’s a very fulfilling experience to go from the idea in your head to the finished product on the screen. It’s also key to have a good imagination rather than everything looking the same time after time.

Of course a nice library of stock images helps and if your in the mixtape game you should really have a good collection of magazines at your disposal because you never know if your gonna be able to find a particular image online. It’s also good to start looking at EVERYTHING in terms of “can I use that in my work?” and building a collection of things you can look at for inspiration.

I don’t really use any gimmicks or special plug’ins although I always get asked what effect I’m using to get a particular look on my covers. The only thing I can say is it’s a combination of lighting, the right blending of colours and experience.

SICKMANSICK: Do you see yourself pushing your design work in new directions in the future?

I’m hoping too. I kinda just take things one day at a time right now and it’s going pretty well so far.

SICKMANSICK: Nowadays it seems your typical Graphic Designer isn’t just a designer in its traditional namesake; many are also involved in Illustration, Fine Art or other creative practices, is this something you also share?

Not really. I find a lot of designers who do that never really master any field in particular so at the moment I’m just trying to be great at what I do. I look at it similar to the music game where you have emcess and producers. You rarely find an artist who excells at both lyrics and production and so you have great producers like Dre and  Timbaland who have ghostwriters when they need to rap because they are not lyricists, they specialize in making music. And similarly you have emcees who try to produce but never really create anything incredible beat wise. Sometimes it’s best to stick to one thing and master that.

SICKMANSICK: When not working on a design project what do you enjoy doing?

I’m a big fan of movies which can be very inspirational for ideas. I also enjoy reading/researching about this crazy world we live in but it’s very hard to switch off from this job. You can be out having a drink and then a good piece of design catches your eye and your thinking about work again!

SICKMANSICK: If you could have a dream design project to work on or a dream client who/what would it be?

I’d love to work for one of the big record companies or even get into the movie poster industry. That would be exciting.

SICKMANSICK: I will leave these final words to you…

Shout out to all my customers of course! And go to www.skrilla.co.uk to check out my work. Thanks to sickmansick for the interview.

Rich.