Biography

I’m a graphic designer based in Glasgow, Scotland.

I was born in 1976, the same year as both punk and Star Wars, I went to the UK’s oldest art school, in Derby, and I DJ at the world’s biggest burlesque club (Club Noir, here in Glasgow. It’s in the Guinness Book of Records if you don’t believe me).

I’m a very capable designer. I’ve always specialised in typography, branding and print-based communication, though I’m also capable and experienced in interactive media, exhibitions, interior design and experience design. I’m a great team member and an equally good team leader. Bouncing ideas back and forth in a lively, creative, and profitable studio environment is second nature to me. I thrive on client contact, getting under the skin of an organisation until I truly understand them and can advise confidently on strategy, identity, and practical applications thereof. On a more mundane level, I’m an expert user of all the usual design applications on a modern Apple Mac (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Office, etc.) and I can draw, too.

I love magazine design and typographic design a little bit more than is strictly healthy and am still not quite sure how I ended up in a more general design career instead of specialising in one of the two.

I’m fascinated by the culture of ideas and innovation that new technology and services foster (the Internet has changed how we communicate), but convinced of the importance of traditional skills and media in that brave new world (there’s still something special about physical objects).

I had CMYK registration marks tattooed on to my forearm thirteen years ago. It’s a good reminder that web design really isn’t my thing … I belong in print. Ink is quite literally in my blood.

You can contact me on tony@tonyblow.com and find me on Twitter as @poprock.