Aidan Barrett

The featured artist segment of the site was put on the back burner for a couple of months whilst we worked on getting the new design together. So the lucky artist to kick off this current version of null+void is Mancunian designer Aidan Barrett. Currently based in London Aidan has very kindly created a neon minimilist intepretation of the null+void banner space. We had a chat with him and talked about the London design scene, dubstep and why Christmas parties in posh bars are a bad idea.

Who are you? What do you do? And where?
My name is Aidan Barrett, I'm originally from Manchester and I'm a graphic designer/illustrator working in London. I work on all sorts of design briefs from potnoodle to l'oreal which can be interesting at times in between the stress and late nights.

Who or what are your inspirations?
My inspirations are pretty wide spanning from music to weird science stuff and things that are aesthetically amazing, which can be absolutely anything...
I see alot of nice design work just living and working in London which is an inspiration in it's self. Also I seem to have a lot of really talented friends and that pushes me to get better at what I do.
Whilst at uni I was really interested in the designer toy scene like Munny's, Dunny's and all that sort of stuff. I used to find myself staying up all hours making plush toys, sculpting and casting figures then painting them. So when that all started up I was hoping to become a toy designer but my efforts didn't really pay off. I had some panda plush toys in Magma in Manchester in 2004 or 2005 which went down pretty well but since then I've not done anything like that so I've pretty much shelved the idea for now.

Some people feel that the London-centric nature of the design industry is a bad thing. How do you feel about this?
I think it is a bad thing but it's only natural that graphic design is based in the capital city. It's the same with most industries, clients from over seas are likely to go straight to London. I can't imagine it changing any time soon.
Personally I had never planned to move to London but I realised that the chances of finding work elsewhere were slim. I just feel sorry for all of the graduates who are having to come down and work for free as placements because there's not enough work, I think we only have the universities to blame for over saturating the industry.

What are you currently working on?
Nowadays I'm concentrating on doing the odd illustration and producing dubstep and dnb which I love doing. I've always been torn between art and music ever since I was at school. I was only allowed to do one or the other so I chose art and have always done music as more of a hobby.

What dubstep acts have caught your eye recently?
There's loads of amazing producers at the moment. Breakage is one of my favourites but the most recent I'd have to say is Broken Note, I can't get enough of it! They just have the meanest sounds and a real clarity to the production unlike some producers who seem to just churn out choons.

Have you ever been in a fight and if so, what happened?
Too many to mention, I'm not proud of that fact at all. The one that stands out most because it was fairly recent was when I first moved to London. I'd only been at my new job for a couple of months and was out on a Christmas party at some wanky posh club when two guys wouldn't move from the seats booked by our boss. I asked really nicely and explained the situation but they took offence which was somewhat enhanced by their obvious coke binge. One of them pushed my brother (who I work with) and so he pushed him back and then the other one started throwing punches. I saw that it was going to be two against one so I dived in to help him out and landed a few good shots before being held down by a collegue. Once I got free I saw someone coming at me, so I hit out only to realise I'd punched the bouncer in the face as hard as I could. I shat my self obviously but he was professional about it and just threw me out. You should have seen my bosses faces!

Thanks once again to Aiden for taking part. Unfortunately he doesn't have much work on the web that we can link to; Instead you'll have to just look out for his work behind the scenes in the world of graphics design.