Member in the Spotlight: Dan Bull

After learning Flash on the side while studying for a degree in Fine Art, Dan Bull got his first job in design making websites for the music industry and fashion clients. In 2007 he co-founded a small agency called Six with five friends, specialising in branding and digital design for clients in fashion, luxury and technology. He left Six in 2011 to set up Observatory, a small atelier working in branding for a diverse global range of clients across fashion, the arts, luxury and spirits. In 2020 he relocated to Amsterdam, joining Design Bridge as Creative Director. Let’s get to know Dan, this wee's Member in the Spotlight, a little bit more…

As the Club for Creativity, we’d like to ask you to get creative and create a self-portrait.

PERSONAL

What is your favourite piece of art and why?

The piece that’s probably the most important to me is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. When I first became aware of it during my foundation year, it blew my tiny mind. The way it subverted the self-importance and snobbery of the art world and challenged practically every aesthetic and conceptual norm was a moment of pure genius, and the more I read about it, the more devastatingly brilliant it seemed. It represents a single, incisive perception that split the art world neatly down the middle, and it’s still reverberating through all the creative disciplines over a century later.

Who is your style icon?

Motorcycle Boy

Who is your current art/design crush?

Alexander McQueen. Always. I always loved that he talked like a regular person, but the way he expressed himself visually was so bloody visceral it kind of transcended language altogether, his work is best described using a bunch of feelings rather than a bunch of words. He was a true artist.

What is the best gift you ever received and why?

My first electric guitar. Christmas nineteen-eighty-something. Didn’t appreciate it at the time (I wanted a skateboard), but it’s probably the gift that’s given me the most pleasure over the last 25 years or so.

Who is the one artist whose work you'd collect if you could?

William Eggleston. He confused the hell out of me for years with his ‘democratic’ photography, but I finally get it.

What object could you never part with?

Nothing. My mum always said I didn’t value my things, and it’s only relatively recently I realised that it was a compliment.

What is your favourite website/app and why?

I can’t imagine having a favourite website. I use Zwift a lot, but I’m not sure that’s the same thing. My iPhone tells me that I spend most of my time on the Chess.com app. I have a friend in the UK with whom I always have a game ongoing, and he’s currently considerably better than me. Up with this I will not put.

Do you own a collection and if so, what is it?

I seem to be surrounded by old art and design magazines. It’s not deliberate, so I couldn’t call it a collection. I have simply failed to declutter for twenty consecutive years. I also found a box with maybe 50 cameras in it the other day, so I guess I accidentally collect those too.

PROFESSIONAL

Which phase of the creative process excites you the most and why?

The blank page. I’m very much a ‘starter’, so the time from receiving the brief to arriving at the YES moment is my happy place. I guess it’s because it’s the time when that familiar uncomfortable feeling grabs you and you spend days doubting yourself and trying desperately to have better and better ideas. And then, suddenly, it appears. I find that journey endlessly surprising and satisfying.

What makes a great or hero client?

A sense of humour. You’re going to have some tough moments on any brief or series of briefs, and the ability to break character, laugh in the face of them and be a bit playful or irreverent is important. Otherwise the whole thing can become a drag.

What professional skill do you value the most?

The ability to get over yourself and actually do something different (this goes for creatives and clients alike).

Who is your favourite creative leader?

Too many to mention. I always made a point of never having heroes when I was young, but now I seem to collect them. Tony Brook, Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, Norman Foster, Eike Konig, Mirko Borsche, Jessica Walsh, Mark Denton, Paul Belford, the list is long.

If you weren't working in the creative industry, what else would you be doing?

I only ever wanted to be an artist, really.

What top tips do you have to help people get creatively inspired?

Inspiration is not to be found by looking at other people doing the same thing you do. Look everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) ‘else’. Reading > Drawing.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

From an actual gorilla. Peel bananas from the bottom, not the top.

What’s the first thing you do when you start a project?

Read and think. Then draw and think.

Who do you love/admire the most in the Dutch creative industry?

Experimental Jetset. 3 fonts and the truth.

Out of the campaigns/projects you’ve worked on, which makes you the most proud?

Not a project, really. In 2013 I decided to use the same typeface on every brief for an entire year (Akzidenz). It was amazing.

Through our Members in the Spotlight feature, we aim to get to know both professionally and personally the unique qualities of our ADCN Members. If you would like to join ADCN, the Club for Creativity, you can find out more here.