This week we have a great interview with Canadian designer, illustrator, letterer, Darren Booth. He’s here to talk to us about the process of developing his own style and what he did to get the jobs he really wants.
“Part of it was catering to my own laziness.” -Darren Booth
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TRANSCRIPTION
Brandi Sea: 00:01 Hey guys, I’m Brandi Sea.
Michelle: 00:02 And I’m Michelle. Today we have a really cool episode for you. We have an interview with Darren Booth.
Brandi Sea: 00:07 Darren is a Canadian illustrator and you are going to, um, I dunno, maybe it’s like a drinking game. If you can drink coffee, a coffee, drinking game.
Michelle: 00:18 Or water
Brandi Sea: 00:19 Or, well that’s no fun.
Michelle: 00:19 Hydration is cool.
Brandi Sea: 00:21 Like how, how many times you can pick out like his little Canadian isms. I didn’t hear it at first, but he was like, oh, you will.
Michelle: 00:27 And then it came out.
Brandi Sea: 00:28 We did and it was pretty fun. Um, so he’s a Canadian illustrator and lettering artists. Um, he does a lot of like package design, book covers. He’s going to be getting into the world of children’s books, which is really exciting.
Michelle: 00:43 Yes.
Brandi Sea: 00:43 Um, he calls his style painterly collage.
Michelle: 00:47 Which is perfect.
Brandi Sea: 00:48 Which is, I can visualize that pretty easily
Michelle: 00:49 You gotta make it up.
Brandi Sea: 00:50 Yeah. I mean freelancers, creatives, we just make up our own titles. We’ve talked about this.
Michelle: 00:55 This is what I do. I made it up. Like it?
Brandi Sea: 00:58 So he’s had some pretty huge clients. He’s worked with Google, CocaCola, AOL, Target, Mcdonald’s, and even Disney.
Michelle: 01:07 Yikes, that’s awesome.
Brandi Sea: 01:07 So I think that you guys are really going to enjoy this. He’s super chill.
Michelle: 01:12 Oh, he’s had really high profile clients to Steve Martin, Willie Nelson. That’s really awesome.
Brandi Sea: 01:17 Yeah, so he’s a, he’s a great, he’s a great guy to follow. Check him out on Instagram. I think. I’m pretty sure it’s just @darrenbooth
Michelle: 01:24 It is.
Brandi Sea: 01:25 And a, you can see how he works and I hope you guys enjoy this conversation
Intro dude: 01:33 Welcome to Design Speaks. This lovely podcast is brought to you by a graphic design geek and a regular human being AKA a non-designer. We’re here to chat about music, pop culture, cool places, and basically whatever we feel is relevant.
Brandi Sea: 01:47 So we’ve both been been following you on Instagram and I’ve been following you for a few years. But for those listeners who possibly have not heard of who you are, what you do, can you just tell us a little bit about you?
Darren Booth: 02:00 Sure. Um, my name’s Darren Booth, I’ve been freelancing illustrating since 2001 now, which sounds like so long ago.
Brandi Sea: 02:11 That’s about when I got started too. It doesn’t feel like it was like 15, 18 years ago.
Darren Booth: 02:16 Yeah. And it doesn’t feel like that long ago. Um, and sometimes it feels like a hundred years ago.
Brandi Sea: 02:21 Technology wise.
Darren Booth: 02:23 Yeah, it’s kind of a weird time to get out because I think that’s a time when I graduated, it was kind of at that cusp of technology where, you know, everybody was just starting to kind of get on the Internet, um, and get websites and um, but still kind of work in the traditional ways. So, um, I went to school for illustration and graduated from an illustration program at Sheridan College. Um, and we learned everything traditionally. Um, so when I graduated I was still very much working traditionally. Um, and then kind of over the years, um, you a basically learned how to work digitally and learn Photoshop and, and now these days, and it’s just in the last couple of years I’ve started working digitally. Um, but, uh, most of my clients are, um, packaging design book covers, um, a little bit of editorial these days and it’s changed over the years. Um, so when I first started, um, I was doing a lot of editorial, um, and then it transitioned into books. And then, um, once I started building up a little bit more of a portfolio for books, that’s when more advertising work came in. Um, and that’s kind of primarily what I do now is a little bit more advertising, a little bit more books.
Brandi Sea: 03:38 Nice.
Darren Booth: 03:40 Yes. No, it’s a no, I’ve kind of got a wide enough of a portfolio that I can kind of pick and choose what I do now a little bit more.
Brandi Sea: 03:47 That’s like the dream.
Darren Booth: 03:50 Yeah. Yeah. Kind of. And then now it’s, um, now that I’ve kind of reached that stage, now I’m, and now that I’ve got, um, like a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, um, I’ve kind of reached a stage where I’ve, I’ve been interested in children’s books, so I’m starting to transition into children’s books as well.
Michelle: 04:06 That is so cool. I was saying, I was telling Brandi earlier that I love, I love your style. I love how everything looks. And I feel like if you ever illustrated a children’s book, it’s a children’s book. I’d buy.
Brandi Sea: 04:19 She literally said that this morning. So you already have one customer.
Michelle: 04:23 I’m in, I’m in.
Darren Booth: 04:25 Great. Great. Yeah, it’s been a weird transition or process to kind of get into that side of the market because I’d never worked in children’s books before. Um, and the most of my illustration work was always kind of geared towards packaging or editorial or hand lettering and book covers. So, um, it wasn’t really yearned for that younger audience. Um, so I think what, what I’ve kind of learned over the years cause I’ve always needed to, um, kind of basically if I wanted work for book covers, I had to kind of create a bunch of book covers on my own first and put those in my portfolio and basically build it. And then that audience will eventually come within.
Brandi Sea: 05:06 That’s literally like where I’m at right now is doing that exact thing.
Darren Booth: 05:09 And it’s tough because you don’t really, um, you know, know if it’s going to work and you, um, you know, it takes time to kind of build up that portfolio. So in between jobs of, you know, working on book covers and the advertising and my usual clients, um, I’m trying to build up that children’s side of the portfolio. So, um, and just trying to figure out what side of the portfolio is going to look like and I don’t want it to go for, it’s no, I want it to be a natural progression of my existing work as well. So yeah. Um,
Brandi Sea: 05:42 So, speaking of style, so you do, you do have like a very, a very distinct look to your work. Um, I would love to know like how you describe your style and also like how you developed it and kind of arrived at the style that you kind of are, are sitting in at the moment.
Darren Booth: 06:01 So I would kind of describe it as like a painterly collage approach. Um, and that’s kinda how I was describing it. I guess for the most part, for the best part in the last 15 years, um, and just in the last couple of years is become a little bit more graphic. Um, I think that’s just kind of where my interest is starting to go is just trying to simplify my work a little bit more. So it’s, it’s not so much, um, painterly anymore. Um, although I think some people still see, you know, the brush strokes and the textures and everything, so I think they would still, yeah. To me, it’s still, um, like I think I see the nuances and stuff and I realize what I’m eliminating from the work and what I’m adding to the work. So, um, I think, um, I realized how it’s changing, but I think to the wider audience, they probably don’t realize how he’s changing those trees, changing that as probably just still coming from the right. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, I describe it, it was just kind of painterly, graphic collage.
Brandi Sea: 07:09 So how have you, how did you get to this? This like look? What has your journey to developing your, your style looked like?
Darren Booth: 07:18 Well it kind of started in school where I always did projects, um, that were kind of painterly base and in different classes I would do projects that were kind of collage based. Um, and then just at one point in school, it just kind of like a bell just went off and said, well, why can’t I just kind of combine those two things that I enjoy doing?
Brandi Sea: 07:39 Which is not something that that is like obvious for people to do.
Darren Booth: 07:44 No, no. And it, it, it was kind of a challenge. I’m like, I don’t know how I’d combine, you know, photo collage or found papers with like, uh, uh, you know, a more of a painterly style. So it just kind of just naturally just kind of started to gel in my last year of school. Um, and part of it too was, um, just kind of catering to my own laziness. So
Brandi Sea: 08:13 What’s easy?
Darren Booth: 08:14 Yeah, in some ways in school because you, you don’t always seem like you were working on a tight deadline or what you think is a tight deadline in school until you get to the real world is all you had.
Brandi Sea: 08:24 You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Darren Booth: 08:24 Yeah you had all the time in the world when you were in school to actually work on a deadline. But, um, I was just too lazy to like repaint an area. Um, so I would just grab a piece of collage and just stick it on that area. And then that’s Kinda, that’s just kinda how it developed. I was like, oh wait, I can just kind of get away with sticking things on it, rather than repainting it. So, um, that’s Kinda how it started and that’s where the idea kind of started. But, um, and it’s just kind of grown and kind of evolved from there over the last say 20 years.
Brandi Sea: 08:59 So you said that you started to working more digitally. What does that look like? Does that mean that you are doing, you know, you’re painterly style, physically scanning it in and then paint, you know, painting over it or, or you know, designing something, printing it out and then doing collage on top of that? What does, what does that look like?
Darren Booth: 09:19 Uh, well for years I was always, um, it just kind of scanning as sketches. I’m printing out those sketches and then transferring it to like a treated paper and then actually painting and collaging on, on that treated paper, like a printmaking paper. Um, and then once I had that physical painting, I would scan that back into the computer. Um, and then do any sort of Photoshop work that I needed to do, but that was typically just cleaning up the scan. So about 95% of my work was actually just done analog and maybe 5% was done digitally where it might have to change, like, you know, one piece of collage where I didn’t really like the color or I needed to add a specific texture, um, that I didn’t have.
Brandi Sea: 10:05 Wow. That’s a remarkable percentage.
Darren Booth: 10:08 Yeah. So most of it was really traditional. So when I switched to, to, um, uh, digital, I wanted to basically just kind of save time on scanning. Um, because I, I felt like I don’t know how many years of my life had for waste to just kind of sitting there
Brandi Sea: 10:24 Just listening to the scanner?
Darren Booth: 10:26 Yeah. And just like, you know how it, like it often bog bogs down your computer. You can’t really do anything else.
Brandi Sea: 10:34 So you just have to wait.
Darren Booth: 10:34 Yeah. You could like check an email and then the scanner window pops up. So you can’t even really do anything. Um, so many years wasted years of my life wasted scanning. So I figured if I switched to digital, even if I just get away with scanning, um, then I can print those off and just still paint, that’ll be fine. But once it kind of switch to working on the IPAD, I realized, oh, I can do all my sketching here now. Well, I might as well drop a little bit of color into and see if I can at least do some color. roughs um, and then it just within a couple of weeks or a month I realized that I could just do all my full painting right on the IPAD. Um, and then a little bit after that I was still scanning, um, textures and everything, like the collage elements and bringing them in in Photoshop. But then I figured out how to actually just make them right in the computer. So now I don’t even have to scan anything ever again. Like I don’t even have my scanner plugged in for like the past year.
Michelle: 11:38 Did you throw a party when you realize that?
Darren Booth: 11:41 I probably should have, but
Brandi Sea: 11:43 And I was feeling like I wanted to ask you if you like felt like a fraud because I know when I, you know, anytime that I find some digital shortcut to something that I would normally do analog, I almost feel like, is this real? Am I really working?
Darren Booth: 12:00 Yeah, a little bit. Because you, you like, I was always very, um, not apprehensive too to kind of embrace the digital side, but I was so much of a purist for the longest time. Like I didn’t even use black paint. Like I always would mix
Brandi Sea: 12:15 Because black doesn’t exist in nature.
Darren Booth: 12:17 Like I always use my complimentary colors to make my, my shadows and everything. So, um, and then like I always felt like black paint was kind of, you know, cheating to get to a certain color. So um like, I don’t know where some of these, these weird ideas came from
Brandi Sea: 12:34 Art school, I’m telling you.
Darren Booth: 12:35 Yeah, probably be like a teacher, a teacher probably just, you know, said something in passing and you know, it kind of stuck with me and you know, that’s the way that I thought it was supposed to be maybe. I don’t know what, what’s thethe line of thinking was, but with digital, um, yeah, I kind of did feel like a lot of it was cheating and um like, I don’t even have a physical painting anymore. Where before, like I had drawers and drawers and drawers and flat files of physical paintings and sketches and now I just have a file and I thought it was going to miss not having the physical painting. Um, and I still kind of do, but I don’t miss it as much as I thought I was going to. Um, so I think that just kind of means I was out of the ready either ready to switch to digital, um or that’s not what I enjoy about making artists the process that I enjoy. And it’s the, um, the final product. Like just crossing the finish line is still what I enjoy. So it doesn’t matter how I get to the finish line as long as I get to it.
Michelle: 13:39 Yeah, it’s, it’s good that you, like you, came into thethe years that with, with technology and working on an iPad or whatever it is that you choose to work on. But it’s really cool that you have that, that bit where you could say, I used to do this all physically, this was, I used to draw pen to paper or whatever it was to paper. You have that. So it’s a little bit, it’s something that not a lot of people in the future we’ll be able to say.
Darren Booth: 14:03 And I think, I, I’ve, I’ve talked with some friends about both this, like who I graduated college with and I think, um, having that traditional background, I think that only strengthens your ability to work digitally. Um, you may have, it’s like there’s some traditional people who switched to digital and they have, I have no clue what I’m doing on digital, but their ability to handle the medium on digital like and then to know how to work it and how to make it look traditional
Brandi Sea: 14:35 Understanding of the total is a huge part of it because you know, they do structure the tools on things like procreate and all that stuff to mimic actual tools.
Darren Booth: 14:45 Exactly. Right. So if you have like if you learn on digital and then you switched to analog, it’s not the same. Like you, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of Bass-ackwards like it’s since it’s, you can’t, I don’t think you can go that way. Like if you started digital
Brandi Sea: 15:02 Not as easy for sure.
Michelle: 15:02 Yeah. I look at those programs, I’m like, what the heck is this even do? Cause I don’t know. So it’s, I, there’s no way I think I’d have to learn physical first before I even attempted that. I’m, I’m a wreck with that.
Darren Booth: 15:14 And I, and I think the traditional, like I think the art schools, like at least the art schools around me when I go in and teach a class or two, are still lecture. Um, they still seem to understand that and they still do teach the traditional way first. And a lot of the students, although they still work digitally, um, a lot of them seem to be kind of apprehensive too, to kind of grab on to digital so quickly. Like they almost want to put the computer aside and say, no, no, I want to work digital, or I want to work traditionally. Um, and just struggle with it for a bit. So, but then they get on the computer and they realize that it is so much easier to, you know, to mix cleaner colors in, in Photoshop or sketch or whatever app that they’re using
Brandi Sea: 16:01 Just cleaner altogether.
Darren Booth: 16:03 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 16:04 You don’t get so messy.
Darren Booth: 16:05 You have control z and you can undo, and you have layers.
Michelle: 16:10 I wish I had control z for my life.
Darren Booth: 16:12 Oh I know, I hear you
Michelle: 16:16 So you talked about it a little bit just now. But we, I wanted to talk about your process. I know you have one. Can you talk us through it a little bit when you’re in the middle of or in the beginning to have a project?
Darren Booth: 16:28 Um, so my process always starts with, um, like thumbnails, um, which I think probably most illustrators usually start with
Brandi Sea: 16:36 Designers too. If they’re good one.
Darren Booth: 16:39 Yeah, you got to start somewhere. Um, so even if it’s just kind of doodled on a napkin, um, or in a sketchbook or something. Um, so that’s basically probably the only time I’m actually not working digitally these days. Um,
Brandi Sea: 16:55 That was going to be my next question, do you still, you still sketch your, your thumbnails by hand?
Darren Booth: 16:59 Yeah, the thumbnails I do. Um, but once I just start to do the actual sketches after that, that’s when I jumped to the IPAD and um, and start working digitally from there. But, uh, the actual thumbnails and justthe, the concept side of things, I still do, um in a sketchbook or just on like an 8 and a half by 11 piece of paper. Um, yeah. And then just kind of once I do the concepting, kind of just pick a few ideas and figure out which ones you know, hold any water and kind of go from there. Um, and then uh, figure out which ones I’m going to kind of refine. Um, pick one or two and, and refine those and um, find the strongest one in present that hopefully that one to the client or maybe two. But I’ve learned over the years to like sometimes I’d have maybe three or four ideas or I wouldn’t know which one that the client is going to go for. So I would present maybe three or four ideas to the client or sometimes I’d be grasping at straws. I’d throw five or six at them.
Brandi Sea: 18:03 They always choose the one you hate the most?
Darren Booth: 18:05 Yeah. If you leave a turd in the yard, somebody’s going to step in it.
Brandi Sea: 18:10 It’s true
Michelle: 18:11 That is the best thing I’ve heard. I have never heard that before.
Darren Booth: 18:16 I dunno. I just, I don’t know. I just, I’ve always said that. I don’t know where I got it from, I probably like picked up from a grandfather or something.
Brandi Sea: 18:25 Please tell me that to your students when you’re talking.
Darren Booth: 18:29 I’ve probably, I’ve probably mentioned it. Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 18:31 So when you have a client. So, um, we’ve had, we’ve had discussions on this podcast before about the difference between execution, executions, and concepts. So, um, when you, when you present your different executions, do they all have an overarching like concept where they all have similar ideas and they’re just different executions or, or when you present, say for a book cover, um, are they all like varying versions of the same thing or do you kind of present really vastly different executions for them to choose from?
Darren Booth: 19:05 Depends what it is. Um, a little from column A, a little from column B. Sometimes I’ll, I’ll usually try to present vastly different ones. Um, and then sometimes I’ll present, um kind of like, you know, here’s one, two, and three, but here’s, um, or sorry to hear sketch, you know, one, two and three, but here’s one, two, and three B. You know what I mean?
Brandi Sea: 19:30 Yeah
Darren Booth: 19:30 So like here’s you know, sketch three, but here’s three different versions or here’s two different versions of the catch three or variations as catch three.
Brandi Sea: 19:37 Gotcha.
Darren Booth: 19:38 Um, yeah, cause sometimes like it might just be a slight variation in the composition, um, or a different colorway for that one. Um, or maybe just like a different typeface. Um, but yeah, I usually try to kind of present, um, you know, a couple of different, different options. Um, and it depends on what stage you’re presenting too, so if it’s just to kind of that initial stage. Usually, you’re just kind of, yeah, you’re just trying to just nail down or a rough direction and kind of figuring out what they would say like, um, and then you can kind of narrow it down from there.
Brandi Sea: 20:17 So what part does, does like graphic design, um, play into this for you as, as primarily an illustrator because you do layout and things like that for your illustrations?
Darren Booth: 20:28 Um, not much. You know what I like, I actually don’t, um uh, don’t do a lot of graphic design at all. Um, all kind of work with like the art director, um, or the designer or creative director for whoever I’m working with at that time. Um, I’ll try to work a little bit more hand in hand with them, um, just to kind of influence the layout a little bit more. Or I’ll ask them if they have layout, um, like kind of that they’re working with so I can kind of work with it.
Brandi Sea: 21:00 Work with the space that you have.
Darren Booth: 21:02 Yeah. Or, but a lot of times they’re just like, no, no, no, no. Just do your thing. And then I’ll work with it. And then, but a lot like, but um,
Brandi Sea: 21:11 That’s almost harder.
Darren Booth: 21:11 Yeah and I’ve kind of a people pleaser, so it’s like, I want to make them happy, but they’re like, no, no, no, just, just do your sitting and I’ll work with, you know, what she give me. So, and it’s, um, sometimes you can just kind of going in this vicious circle where you’re, you know, you don’t know what, what they want. So, um, eventually, you know, he just kind of do what you want and you know, they, they do come up with something great or they kind of mess it up. Sometimes you’re like going, that’s not really what I was like if you just showed me what you wanted,
Brandi Sea: 21:43 Don’t tell me I can do what I want. If you know what you want.
Michelle: 21:45 Yeah.
Darren Booth: 21:46 Yeah. So try to keep, I try to keep that communication open at least, um, or just say I’m kind of open to working with them. Um, or just say like, you know, if he can send me the layout after I send you the sketches, you know, I might be able to adjust it and just have the design process being a little bit more collaborative that way. Um, I find the results are a little bit better that way.
Brandi Sea: 22:11 Collaboration is key.
Darren Booth: 22:15 Yeah. Cause I find a lot of times, I think when I was younger I would just kind of send it, um, and it was a little bit more hands off. And then when the final product came out, I would be a little bit disappointed sometimes because there wasn’t that collaboration there. Um, so where, where, you’d miss out on some opportunities and you wouldn’t realize it till afterward. So I think just trying to eliminate that, some of those lost opportunities, um, just kind of
Michelle: 22:44 It’s key.
Darren Booth: 22:44 Yeah, exactly.
Michelle: 22:46 That makes sense. Um, when you’re, when you are working or you’re, you’re looking for some inspiration, where do you go to, what physical place do you work in that inspires you the most?
Darren Booth: 23:00 Um, I’ve got a studio, um, outside of my house, um, that I’ve been working in for the last five years, actually five years this month, almost to the day. Um, so why when we had our second kid
Brandi Sea: 23:15 You needed your own space?
Darren Booth: 23:17 Yeah, basically it was just too chaotic. At the house and like, I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t not work, um, with two kids in the house at the time. So
Brandi Sea: 23:29 I have an, oh gosh, she just turned 11, an 11 and a five-year-old, so,
Darren Booth: 23:35 Wow.
Brandi Sea: 23:35 I get it.
Darren Booth: 23:38 11 year that seems like a whole different, um, like a whole different, uh, world to me.
Michelle: 23:45 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 23:45 Yeah. She’s, um, she calls herself a preteen. I mean, no preenager, a preenager. So I don’t even know. Yeah. Pray for me. But yeah. So your, your studio, um, is this like where you do all of your work or is it just this just like where you paint?
Darren Booth: 24:07 No, it’s a, where I do all my work. Um, just when I first got into it, it was, the idea was just to have the studio for a year until my youngest were until the kids got in daycare. Um, and then I would move back to my home studio. Um, but once, like, like after a few months of being in the studio, um, the work-life balance seemed to just be a little bit better because I wasn’t working till two in the morning or I wouldn’t just run downstairs to the, you know, go check an email and then get lost down there for half an hour. So, um,
Brandi Sea: 24:40 Having a separate physical space really helps.
Darren Booth: 24:43 Right. So now at home, I’m just dad, I’m not, you know, dad and trying to work at the same time. So I’m, I’m, it’s a lot easier just to be able to turn work off.
Michelle: 24:52 Yeah.
Darren Booth: 24:52 Um, so, but I was always worried about, um, I think when I was at home I was getting about eight hours worth of work done, but it would take me 12 hours to do it because there were so many distractions. Like I’d be doing laundry during the day or you know, mosey into the kitchen and get something to eat or watch a bit of TV or whatever it was, check the mail, the dog would need out, whatever it was.
Brandi Sea: 25:16 Yeah.
Darren Booth: 25:17 But, um, with the studio I needed, I had eight hours to go. Um, and then, you know, pick up the kids from daycare or school or wherever it is. So I only have eight hours to get stuff done. So you kind of come in, you focus, you get what you need done, and then you’re gone, and then you turn it off. So, um, the space is quiet. It’s my time to just sit and focus. So it’s a good inspiration for me to, um, get everything I need to do. And it’s a, it’s a break from, from home and it’s a break from the kids and my wife and I joke that it, you know, we actually go to work for a break these days, but
Brandi Sea: 25:55 Hey, it’s real life.
Michelle: 25:57 I feel that same way. So
Darren Booth: 25:59 Yeah, you feel guilty. But that’s kind of how it is.
Michelle: 26:03 I would not be able to focus if I were at home. I have a four-year-old, I didn’t think about that. You have a four-year-old and so there, there is absolutely no way I’d be able to get anything done if I worked from home. So it, it, it doubles as I can get things done and it’s a break. It’s nice. I need that so I can go home and I feel refreshed and ready to be home and mom.
Brandi Sea: 26:23 You’re a better, you’re a better parent when you get a break.
Michelle: 26:26 Yes.
Darren Booth: 26:26 Yeah. Oh for sure. Oh yeah. 100% agree.
Brandi Sea: 26:31 So we have this list of questions that we ask everyone. So it’s sort of just like a, a little rapid fire round of, of little questions. So, um, if you’re okay with, I think we’re going to head into that phase of this discussion.
Darren Booth: 26:48 Okay.
Michelle: 26:48 Number one, what is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?
Darren Booth: 26:54 Um, probably check my phone.
Michelle: 26:58 You know what?
Darren Booth: 26:58 Sadly.
Michelle: 26:59 See, okay. You have answered this the same as everyone else.
Brandi Sea: 27:02 We’re officially like saying besides check your phone to everybody, but otherwise that’s everyone’s answer and that’s no fun.
Michelle: 27:10 I, I do too. So you’re not alone and I add sadly to that as well. So,
Darren Booth: 27:15 Um, just get up and go pee
Michelle: 27:18 Yeah, yeah. Realistic. That’s good.
Brandi Sea: 27:23 Okay. Next. Describe yourself in three words.
Darren Booth: 27:28 Um, I like to, worry, perfectionist, and quiet.
Michelle: 27:41 Mm, that’s good worry. That’s one that’s been kind of consistency across the board to some form of worrying or anxious or
Brandi Sea: 27:51 What does that say about creatives. This is very troubling.
Michelle: 27:54 Just freaking out all of the time.
Darren Booth: 27:55 Yeah. Is it a creative thing or is it a parent thing?
Brandi Sea: 27:58 Or is it a freelancer thing? Maybe it’s just who we’re talking to.
Michelle: 28:03 Like, did I do everything I was supposed to do? I don’t know. I don’t know. Um, the next question, what are you listening to or reading or watching right now?
Darren Booth: 28:13 Um, I’ve been watching Crashing lately
Michelle: 28:16 Ooo what’s that I’ve never heard of it
Darren Booth: 28:18 Uh, it’s like, uh, HBO, um, show. Uh, it’s got like a standup comedian, Pete Holmes, isn’t it? Um, so it was kind of like his, his, yeah, he kind of plays himself. Um, but it’s not like as real life, I don’t know how to describe it
Brandi Sea: 28:37 It’s like Seinfeld?
Darren Booth: 28:37 Yeah, kind of. Yeah. He like, he plays himself, but it not him. He’s not playing his real-life character.
Brandi Sea: 28:44 Interesting. I’ll have to look any of that.
Michelle: 28:45 I’ve written it down.
Brandi Sea: 28:48 Okay. Next question. What do you geek out about?
Darren Booth: 28:52 Um, hockey.
Brandi Sea: 28:53 Hockey.
Michelle: 28:54 Okay.
Brandi Sea: 28:57 What a good Canadian you are.
Darren Booth: 28:58 Such a Canadian answer. Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 28:58 It’s okay. It’s okay.
Michelle: 29:00 I have a good friend who’s really, really into hockey and so I sat across from her for like two or three years and I’ve learned way more than I ever anticipated about hockey because of it. And I’m thankful, but I was just like, I never knew I knew this much. So, um,
Brandi Sea: 29:15 And my niece, my, my family lives in Den, some of my family lives in Denver, which is the Colorado Avalanche. And they, they’re all about the
Michelle: 29:25 The ABS.
Brandi Sea: 29:25 Yeah. Yeah. All right. Um,
Michelle: 29:30 Oh, my next question. It’s me. It’s my turn. Um, are you a morning, noon or night person or a night person?
Darren Booth: 29:38 A night person. Always have been
Michelle: 29:38 Do you usually, do you go to the studio at that time or is that like family time you time?
Darren Booth: 29:46 Uh, no, it’s more me time. I think everybody’s kind of sleeping, um, usually by eight o’clock or nine o’clock. Um, so that’s like when I can sit down and, um, you know, just sketch on the IPAD and watch a hockey game at the same time. So
Brandi Sea: 30:02 That’s perfect.
Michelle: 30:03 Yes.
Brandi Sea: 30:03 Okay. Next. Um, so when are you most productive?
Darren Booth: 30:08 A mid-afternoon, late afternoon.
Brandi Sea: 30:11 That’s my worst time.
Michelle: 30:12 That’s like when I’m ready for a snack
Brandi Sea: 30:14 And a nap.
Darren Booth: 30:15 It’s like, and it’s like I know it’s like I’ve got to leave to go get the kids from school or to go home and I’m like, oh, I get something done
Brandi Sea: 30:27 It’s like that last minute deadline push.
Darren Booth: 30:29 Yeah. Or that’s like when the emails start coming in.
Michelle: 30:32 Oh shoot.
Darren Booth: 30:33 From different time zones. So I’m like, oh yeah, this has to get done and I’ve got an email that person, or it’s or you’ve been working all day so you can finally send the stuff off. So um, yeah it seems to be kind of late afternoons.
Brandi Sea: 30:46 You are officially our first-afternoon answer. Everyone’s either night or morning so far.
Darren Booth: 30:52 Yeah it used to be night and then kids came along. So,when when kids leave at all probably be a night owl again.
Michelle: 30:59 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 31:00 Or you’ll be old and tired and it will be morning cause that’s when you’re up early.
Darren Booth: 31:04 Well I already feel old and tired.
Michelle: 31:07 Does that happen like later or like now?
Brandi Sea: 31:10 I don’t know. Today’s Michelle’s birthday. So are you feeling?
Darren Booth: 31:13 Oh Happy Birthday.
Michelle: 31:14 Thank you.
Brandi Sea: 31:14 She might be feeling older and tired. I don’t know.
Michelle: 31:16 I feel old and tired always.
Brandi Sea: 31:19 All right, next question.
Darren Booth: 31:20 My youngest turned five the other day and I asked her, I’m like, um, now that you’re five, like do you feel any different? She’s like, yeah, I feel like I’m not living in the past anymore.
Brandi Sea: 31:34 No way!
Darren Booth: 31:35 That’s the best answer I’ve ever heard.
Brandi Sea: 31:36 Like, man that that could help a lot of adults
Michelle: 31:41 I feel like I’m not living in the past anymore. I love it. I love it. She strung these words and these thoughts, these thoughts together and it was really deep and now you have to like, you have to just like focus on that for the rest of the year. Like, man, what a statement
Brandi Sea: 31:54 That is brilliant.
Darren Booth: 31:55 It was great. I had to write it down in my, um, whether her name’s Avery. So I, I have all these Avery isms.
Brandi Sea: 32:01 I think we all do that for our kids. Most of the people I know do that.
Darren Booth: 32:05 I’ve got it written on my, in my notes APP on my phone. And then, um, I got some for my son as well. And I’ve just kind of, just, all these gems that they come up, I just kinda write like their greatest hits. I’m just putting recording them over the last, like ever since they were able to speak.
Michelle: 32:19 That’s awesome.
Brandi Sea: 32:21 I do that on Twitter.
Darren Booth: 32:21 Because otherwise, you forget them, right? You’re like, oh, what did they say? What did they say? And a lot of it, like I read back now and some of them aren’t as funny as I thought they were, but in some of them are still kind of inside jokes. But I read back some of them now and they are like hilarious. Like it might just be that to the family that they’re funny.
Brandi Sea: 32:41 I don’t know. That’s pretty good. I think that’s pretty worldwide
Darren Booth: 32:43 Some of the stuff they say is great.
Brandi Sea: 32:45 Awesome. What she said
Michelle: 32:47 That one deserves a t-shirt or something. Pretty Great.
Brandi Sea: 32:51 You can make that your children’s book.
Michelle: 32:53 Yeah, I’m not living in the past anymore. Um, are you an apple or android type of guy?
Darren Booth: 33:01 Apple, yeah.
Brandi Sea: 33:02 Good job.
Michelle: 33:04 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 33:04 I mean we’re biased.
Michelle: 33:05 Have you ever owned an android?
Darren Booth: 33:07 Um, no, but I’ve got um, relatives who believe that I can apparently fix anything. So something is wrong on their android device. They hand it to me.
Brandi Sea: 33:20 And you have no idea what you’re looking at it.
Darren Booth: 33:23 Exactly. And then my head nearly explodes when I’m like, I don’t know how to do anything on this.
Michelle: 33:26 I don’t even know how to turn this thing on.
Brandi Sea: 33:28 Everything is so difficult on this device
Michelle: 33:29 Whereof the buttons. What do I do?
Darren Booth: 33:31 I like, I told you to buy an iPhone
Brandi Sea: 33:38 I could help you if this was an iPhone
Darren Booth: 33:38 I’m like sorry, but I’m like, I only know how to fix apple stuff.
Brandi Sea: 33:41 That’s great.
Michelle: 33:43 Oh, that’s incredible.
Brandi Sea: 33:43 All right, next question. Who Challenges you?
Darren Booth: 33:46 My wife.
Michelle: 33:48 That’s good. That’s good.
Brandi Sea: 33:51 Good wife. My husband challenges me too, I think it’s, I think it’s a good thing
Darren Booth: 33:55 In a good and bad way. It’s um,
Brandi Sea: 33:57 You know
Michelle: 33:58 Sometimes they cross the line, you know, it is what it is.
Brandi Sea: 34:02 Challenge can mean so many things.
Darren Booth: 34:06 Well they usually call you out on your BS, right? So it’s like, you know, that’s the way it was always kind of explore. They expect more from you so
Michelle: 34:16 They call you out when no one else will.
Darren Booth: 34:17 Yeah.
Michelle: 34:19 So it’s good. It’s good. Um, what superhero do you relate to the most and why?
Darren Booth: 34:26 Oh Geez. I’ve never been like a comic book superhero kind of a guy.
Brandi Sea: 34:30 You don’t have to be, I mean, just on, you know, super surface level. Is there any, is there any, like if you were, if you were a superhero you would want to be
Michelle: 34:39 Or like what power would you have?
Darren Booth: 34:43 Hopefully invisibility.
Michelle: 34:46 Hopefully. Like it’s just a given for you. Hopefully, it’s invisibility.
Brandi Sea: 34:52 I’m not here. I’m not working.
Darren Booth: 34:53 I like just kind of being quiet and then, you know, like if I went to a party, I’d like to just kind of be the guy in the corner of the room. Just having a conversation with somebody.
Brandi Sea: 35:03 Blend into the wallpaper.
Darren Booth: 35:04 Yup. Just typical introvert.
Michelle: 35:05 You’re a chameleon. Done here.
Brandi Sea: 35:08 New superhero, the Chameleon.
Michelle: 35:09 I like it.
Darren Booth: 35:12 Yeah. Whatever superhero is an introvert. I’ll be that guy.
Michelle: 35:14 I like it.
Brandi Sea: 35:15 That’s a good question. I’d have to think about that.
Michelle: 35:17 Oh Man, I don’t know. I don’t know. Bruce Wayne’s pretty, he’s, he’s, he’s pretty in his own head.
Darren Booth: 35:23 He kind of would be
Brandi Sea: 35:25 He’s like the ultimate introvert. He just like lives in his bat cave most of the time.
Michelle: 35:29 And like he kind of only like saves the world cause he has to, I’ll do it. He was kind of like over it.
Brandi Sea: 35:39 Yeah.
Darren Booth: 35:39 You deal with it
Brandi Sea: 35:41 Ugh, I guess I have to save the world again today. All right, last question. It’s, this is the deep one, so I hope you’re prepared. How do you want to be remembered?
Darren Booth: 35:52 Um, are you referring to art or life or
Brandi Sea: 35:56 Whatever, whatever you feel like saying
Michelle: 35:58 We’ll go with life.
Brandi Sea: 36:02 Life and art, it’s all a part of you?
Darren Booth: 36:06 Um, just as somebody who is talented I guess, or was talented maybe.
Michelle: 36:14 Yes. I like that.
Darren Booth: 36:15 Yeah.
Brandi Sea: 36:15 I think that’s pretty easy. I think we could easily say that for sure. Yeah,
Michelle: 36:20 It has been so good talking to you, Darren. Thank you for taking your time to hang out with us today. I don’t know what time it is, where you are, but thank you.
Brandi Sea: 36:28 Yeah. What time is it? So it’s not, it’s 9:12 in the morning here.
Darren Booth: 36:31 Yeah, it’s just all 11:12 here.
Brandi Sea: 36:33 Okay.
Michelle: 36:33 I’m like, you’re across the world. I mean you kind of are just not time zone wise.
Darren Booth: 36:38 It’s 4 in the morning here.
Michelle: 36:41 Wow. Thank you so much.
Brandi Sea: 36:44 So we definitely did notice your Canadian isms throughout this or just like loving this and like it’s, it’s great and we love that you spent some time with us this morning and brought us a little bit of your Canadian joy.
Michelle: 36:58 We love it.
Darren Booth: 36:58 Thanks for having me. I appreciate you guys having me on. It’s a pleasure
Brandi Sea: 37:04 No, go ahead. I talk over people. I’m so sorry. It’s a bad habit.
Darren Booth: 37:08 No, you guys were a pleasure to talk to and great questions and a happy for to part of it.
Brandi Sea: 37:13 Well, I hope that someday I get to meet you in person. I love your work and I’m going to continue to follow you. Um, really weird, not weird. Side Note. Um, I had been following you for a little while, but I was in, I was in Denver at a bookstore about two years ago and I, I’m like a chronic collector of inspiration using my iPhone. Like I just take pictures of like typography or illustration or design, whatever, anything I see, especially book covers or like my world. And I can’t think of it right now what the name of the book was, but it was like had this like pink and Reddish, um, topography on the cover. And I was so taken by it and I just realized maybe like a month or so ago that that was your work.
Darren Booth: 37:57 Oh.
Brandi Sea: 37:57 And I was like, yes, I already loved this and I’ve already been following you, but I must have like missed that post on Instagram, but just somehow. So it was just like a really cool moment. Like, man, I’ve been admiring this work for a while and now I get to talk to you and tell you how much I appreciate what you do and how talented I think you are.
Darren Booth: 38:17 Oh, well thank you very much. I should do some more like, like flashback Fridays or something so I can post some older work. So
Brandi Sea: 38:23 Yeah, you should
Darren Booth: 38:24 So you won’t miss, uh, miss some of that older work then.
Brandi Sea: 38:27 Yeah, I bet there’s more people like me out there that are like, oh my gosh, that was you. That’s so great. So thank you again for spending some of your almost afternoon with us and, um, I’m hoping that we get to talk more in the future.
Darren Booth: 38:42 Sounds good. Thanks, Brandi. Thanks, Michelle.
Michelle: 38:43 Thank you. Have a good day, Darren.
Darren Booth: 38:45 You too.
Michelle: 38:46 Bye.
Darren Booth: 38:47 Bye now.
Michelle: 38:48 There it is. The interview with Darren booth. Go ahead and check him out on Instagram again. And he has his own website. It’s like
Brandi Sea: 38:55 darrenbooth.com
Michelle: 38:55 Is it, Darren Booth
Brandi Sea: 38:56 I think it’s just darrenbooth.com
Michelle: 38:57 You’ll find him.
Brandi Sea: 38:58 We’ll link it on our show notes too.
Michelle: 39:00 He is such a cool guy. We loved our conversation with him. Um, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @designspeaks Ooh, we haven’t even been talking about our Instagram @disignspeakspodcast, Instagram on Instagram. You can also find Brandi via those websites. Brandi Sea, spell your name for us.
Brandi Sea: 39:20 B. R. A. N. D. I. S. E. A
Michelle: 39:20 You can also email us brandi@brandisea.com and a huge thank you to Vesperteen as always for letting us use his song Shatter in the Night as the intro and outro to Design Speaks.
Brandi Sea: 39:29 And don’t forget to check out our Patreon. Even if you can give a dollar a month, we would appreciate you getting on there. There’s lots of really cool, um, offerings for support and we are getting ready to upload. Actually by the time this episode goes out, our, uh, our exclusive behind the scenes video will be up for a certain level of support. So go check that out. It’s Patreon.com/designspeaks.
Michelle: 39:56 I think that’s it.