GrahamPhisher: Andrew Hart a 20 year old addicted to his work living in California better known on the web as “Dirt2″ for the fonts he published such as “SoulTaker” and “AristotlePunk”. Unlike many other designers Andrew does not strive for simplicity, in fact he does the exact opposite, for most people this would result in a complete cluttered mess, but not for Dirt2, just his website “Dirt2.com” is proof of this. So first off thank you for taking the time to do this interview for GrahamPhisher.com.

Dirt2: Thank you for contacting me, I know I was sort of flaky and didn’t reply in a timely manner but I had a mental breakdown. It’s an honor to do this interview and I am glad to get’r done.

GrahamPhisher: Do you have any inspirations in design? Any musicians, painters, drugs, photographers, or just whoever or whatever?

Dirt2: To be honest I don’t know much about inspiration but I do love the works of Andy Warhol and Don Ed Hardy, both very talented in their own way. There are also some font designers that I’ve leeched onto including Last Soundtrack, Billy Argel etc.. I have respect for so many different artists but I absolutely enjoy being my own person.

GrahamPhisher: I’m sure since this is a photoshop resource site everyone wants to know what are some of the tools you use? Such as cameras for photography, and software for creating fonts?

Dirt2: Well for starters of course there’s Photoshop which I use both version 7 and CS3, Mainly only 7 for converting resource files such as brushes so they work on many different versions. As for fonts it’s no secret that I love Highlogic’s font creator, One of the easiest programs for font design and literally anyone can do it. I don’t take my photography too seriously but I use the good little cliche Rebel XTI, Turns out it’s really the lenses that do all the work.

GrahamPhisher: How do you feel about the design world today? A lot of people take your work without giving proper credit, I personally think its very rude, but why do you think this is wrong?

Dirt2: I actually don’t mind it, A lot of what I do is just provide resources but I would never say “You must credit me”. Because if someones only using a simple resource who are you to stick your brand all over their newly created art? There are a few ways to look at it, I think the best would be if I had to choose for a credit I would say to leave a nice link to my site only so I can google my site’s name and see how my resources are being used (otherwise I will never, ever get to see my stuff in action). I’ve never actually gotten an email from anyone showing me how they used my resources for products or professional works. I do have an account on DeviantArt and these people often show me how they use it because I try to collect them all on my account to show people how they’re being used and maybe inspire some more people to try out my resources.

Maybe it’s just my way of doing things though, in all reality 80% of the people using your(our) resources probably aren’t going to credit the original sites/artists who they borrowed from and I don’t have a
problem with it. The only problem I do have is when sites will mass reproduce my resources, delete my credits on the actual .abr file and replace it with their own watermark and start claiming they own the rights and copyright to them. I’ve had this done a few times and then I would be getting contacted by people saying that I am a thief, it hasn’t happened in the last year as far as I know but then again I may not be aware of it.

GrahamPhisher: I wanna thank you again for doing this interview, but do you have any tips for people trying to get into the “design business”, people who want to get into “creating fonts”, or just any general tips?

Dirt2: If they want to get their heads into the graphic design field, they really need to isolate themselves so they can find out who they are and what they can offer. I feel as if I am not isolated yet because I still want to try to do everything, I want to be able to offer a little bit of everything from every genre. So really in any field you need to be aware of your competition if you are doing this for profit, Get something you can do well and focus on that to be your selling point (for some people it could be a wide range of things) and then start doing it. I’ve wanted to give up graphic design, photography and everything so many times because I have felt like I am going nowhere but when I compare the progress from now and 3 years ago there is really a lot to show and I can only hope that I do much better in the future. I have got a ton to learn in any field I am active in. I think the best advice I can give anyone and to myself is that when things become frustrating, you feel like giving up, put it on the shelf but don’t throw it away because that way if you ever feel like trying again it’s there for you and that way you won’t have to start over or forget about it.

You can check out more Dirt2 Resources and Designs at the following websites.

http://dirt2.com
http://www.dafont.com/andrew2-hart.d1547
http://keepwaiting.deviantart.com/