Shaping the image of music

by Selina Makin

As he opens the door of his compact studio; a colourful graphic design toy box, Jack Featherstone, 23, is thoroughly apologetic for his late arrival.

“I’m so sorry you’ve been waiting, I had to quickly drop something off in Shoreditch,” he says and I immediately realise that it must have been this modest, polite and easy-going persona that has got him very far in the ever-so-competitive creative industry.

Dressed in three shades of blue and rolling his cigarette, Featherstone is every bit my idea of a recent graduate turned designer and artist with a clear passion for his work.

As I begin our now delayed interview, someone starts shooting a toy laser gun towards the other side of the studio. It turns out to be Kate Moross, Featherstone’s boss and the director of ISO - the company which has collaborated with the likes of La Roux and Simian Mobile Disco.

It strikes me at that point that ­­Featherstone is a lucky part of the ever-expanding team of creative, children-at-heart artists, who design the future of electronic music and take graphic design to a higher level.

Artist or designer?

Before graduating from Chelsea College of Art and Design, or even starting his education in the art world, Featherstone took a gap year snowboarding and that was when his initial interest in graphic design emerged.

An avid reader of skate and snowboard magazines, he discovered a whole new visual language associated with these cultures.

He talks of his foundation year at Falmonth College of Art in Cornwall being the place where his awareness of art and graphics began to form.“It was such an amazing year. It was really chilled, really hippy.”

Moving on to the University of the Arts London in 2006 to study Graphic Design Communication, he was soon chosen to work on a brief for Wonderland magazine, the luxury fashion publication launched in 2005.

This was his first major break into the industry and he has gone from strength-to-strength since then. Gaining his second internship with Moross in his third year, Featherstone left university with a First and became part of the ISO team immediately.

“I guess I tell people I’m a graphic designer but I don’t know how comfortable I am with that term. It describes what I do but I don’t think it describes what I’d like to do.”

While explaining the differences between art and design with regard to graphics and his concerns over the half-way medium between the two, Featherstone is completely enveloped by this thought.

This is a complex issue that seems to be of great importance to him and one that he himself struggles to define. Aiming to be known as a graphic artist, Featherstone still tries to underline the heart of the issue, saying that many modern media do not give graphics their due credibility.

By experimenting with graphics in his spare time, Featherstone found that his art would work well in terms of visuals, especially if linked with music.

He made his first break into the commercial market by working with music duo The Count and Sinden on his final project. “A lot of the work I’ve got has been through people I’ve met,” emphasises Featherstone.

However, working in this industry is not the most lucrative. “All the work I’m doing at the moment is for the music industry, more specifically underground, electro music so there’s not a huge amount of money in it, but that’s my main interest.”

An ardent fan of electronic music, he has been involved in designing posters for club nights and other music and graphics collaborations. “Music’s probably my main love really.”

Working with DJs and promoters through ISO also helps him to find a personal style with future aims to move towards more art-based interactive and visual graphics, as opposed to the simple commercial music market.

Having Karl Gerstner, the hugely successful ‘60s graphic designer as an icon and inspiration, Featherstone often bases his projects on exploration of typography and colours.

His first published piece of work in renowned graphic design book YCN was his widely-acclaimed ‘Play With Type’ project.

While in his second year, he experimented with the process and context of his subject, deconstructing the type and shifting it between the real and digital world through analogue and digital manipulation - thus ‘playing’ with it.

This gave him his first mass of significant exposure and ever since, he has gained recognition within the industry, going on to win a Design & Art Direction (D&AD) award, one of the most prestigious awards in the design field.

In his most recent project, Featherstone has been involved in designing a re-edit of a music video for French electro band Acid Washed. He re-tells the story of how he got to work with one of his favourite designers, Anthony Burrill.

“He [Burrill] did a video for Acid Washed and he’s been one of my favourite designers for a couple of years so I commented on the Vimeo page saying he’d done a great job and that it’s one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time.

"Two weeks later, I get a phone call from him asking me to do a remix of the video. It has been stressful, but it should be coming out soon and I can’t wait.”

Bright future

With these emerging client relationships and the experience gained from studying and working in the graphics industry, the future looks bright for Featherstone.

Speaking about his time at the Chelsea College of Art as an excellent grounding he says: “It was a struggle at times to be honest. The course wasn't really what I expected it to be. At the end of the day you can't rely on good teaching to get you anywhere - you have to do it all yourself.

"If you're not into it on your own then you can't rely on tutors to give you everything. They can be inspiring and push you in the right direction but you always need to have that initial interest, that initial passion for it. There is always a bit of luck involved. It was wicked. I wouldn't have done anything any other way, I don't think. It is obviously a really good course."

As for the future, no hard plans are in place. Eventually, Featherstone would like to take an MA in a related field. He is also considering a possibility of moving to Berlin at some point but for the moment, working with the ISO team is giving him the perfect starting point for what is already shaping up to be an interesting and thriving career - an inspiring example for many.