Dyna Moe + Mad Men + Interview

Oct 20, 2008 Author: Maria | Filed under: Art

An interview to make your Monday brighter!

You guys loved the Mad About MAD MEN post, collecting contemporary Mad-Men-esque products and other Mad-Men-related finds, and since one of those finds was the popular Mad Men desktop wallpaper and prints by Dyna Moe (the prints commemorate scenes, characters, or their drinks!) I thought you might enjoy a closer look. Or, okay, I wanted a closer look, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it, too!

THE AMAZINGLY FABULOUS DYNA MOE INTERVIEW

1. What inspires you about MAD MEN (or at least inspires you enough to create all of your drawings)?

Obviously, it’s a beautiful and meticulously designed show and it just happens to mesh with the style and era of illustration of which I was already a huge fan.

On a more selfish and practical note, I started doing this project because I had the drawings already so I was “making lemons out of lemonade.” Rich (from the show) commissioned me to work on this little illustrated recipe book to get printed and give to the cast and crew as an “end of shoot” present, but through bad communication and a lack of time, it fell through. So I had a stack of drawings and just put them up on the internet.

What inspires me to keep going is getting overly-kind attention from the public in huge numbers and the nice things the cast and crew of the show have said. I feel like I have to do a better job now that so many people are checking them out.

2. What’s your process for creating a drawing? What tools do you use?

They’re all done in Adobe Illustrator with a mouse, carpal tunnel be damned. I take screenshots of the episodes and characters I want to do and have those open as reference. I only trace face shape and mark the distances between eyes nose and mouth — otherwise it starts to look like the “Vector Cliche” portrait. The body and clothes are all made from simple shapes, warped and merged together… like colorforms.

I usually will have some period photos or drawings on hand two for inspiration. For a lot of the women I like to take poses from vintage sewing patterns, for example.

3. Do you have a favorite of all of your MAD MEN drawings? Does the “public” seem to have a favorite?

Sally Draper’s Cocktail Cheat Sheet got 6,000+ views on the first day it was up. It was very heavily twittered and blogged and is currently the one with the most views.

joan at xerox

Joan and the Xerox which was the first one in the series does pretty well and I’ve sold the most prints of it.

The one you put in your own blog before might be my favorite — Paul in the neckerchief with the cognac glass.

Of the full-sized ones, I like the Jimmy Barrett one a lot, too — I liked doing the TV equipment and that weird bar shelf as white on black. I’m doing them at an average rate of four illustrations a week so no “favorite” reigns very long. I can’t be sentimental… PRODUCE!

4. Favorite episode. Favorite character. Least favorite character.

The single criterion by which I judge all episodes as good vs. bad: did someone throw up in the episode? “Red in The Face” and “Nixon vs. Kennedy” both top my favorites for last season by this standard — copious vomit in both of them.

This season there’s a slight upchuck at the end of “The Gold Violin,” so I guess that is my favorite this season.

My least favorite character is Betty. My favorite character is Dale, who only appears in one episode this season… he’s largely discussed by the other characters, like Godot.

5. What’s your favorite non-Mad-Men art project you’ve done?
All these questions assume I like my own work, which is difficult for me. I’m a real gloomy gus.

Earlier this year I did the CD packaging for kiddie pop legends The Kung Fu Monkeys which came out really nice and was a huge challenge since I had to fit an 11 page interview into a tiny booklet.

In terms of not-client work, back in 2004 I did a portrait exchange where I’d draw anyone who drew a portrait of me, just for fun. (MARIA’S NOTE: These are so funny. Go take a look!)

What are you currently obsessed with?