INTerview: Hey Studio
/Hey, a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, Spain, focuses on transforming ideas into communicative graphics. We stumbled upin their "Every Hey Illustration" series on Instagram, after first discovering their brand identity projects. Hey has been creating pop culture icons for more than a year in their own unique graphic style, posting one per day on an Instagram account. These icons are minimal, dynamic and incredibly unique.
In an exclusive interview with Interiors, we talked to Hey about the "Every Hey Illustration" series, as well as their other amazing work.
INT: How did the idea for the "Every Hey Illustration" come about? Was it always the plan to post a new illustration every day on Instagram?
HEY: These character designs came from an illustrated world map commission. I needed to add characters doing different sorts of things but the scale at which I was drawing them wasn't helpful so I decided to design these geometrical characters with the least amount of detail as possible.
Normally, I'll have all of the characters or objects drawn in a single file so that I can draw faster. The result is, more or less, the same look of the Instagram profile. Additionally, I thought it would be nice for me to grow the style and post one daily as a kind of drawing exercise.
INT: We noticed that the characters you have created range from movies, television, pop-culture and sports. Is there a method to choosing new characters or a list that you follow?
HEY: There no list behind it. Sometimes it is just what I want to draw or suggestions from followers or from trending issues. At the beginning, it was easier to do characters with recognizable features, such as superheroes or music artists. Even without something recognizable in the characters, people could still solve most of them.
INT: You've successfully been able to post a new character every day for over a year. How long do you think it can go? Do you think there will ever be a shortage of characters?
HEY: I’m very happy and impressed by how much the project has grown. I never imagined the amount of support that I would receive from people telling me to keep doing the characters every day. I've been doing this for them and for me, but to be honest, I think I'm satisfied. My interest is to find new things to do. I'm going to close some of the characters and think of a good way to close the project. However, the Instagram account could remain open and characters could be added occasionally.
INT: You've managed to create an extremely unique style with the characters you have made. Have you thought about creating more original characters and telling your own narrative (much like the Oh My God Exhibitions)?
HEY: In fact, the character style known as “every_hey” are part of a bigger representational style. This character style is still present in the professional commissions that we do. The only difference is that we try to adjust them by creating different narratives. I guess it could grow in several directions.
INT: Some of your Editorial Design work is absolutely amazing. We're curious if you've thought about doing the graphics or typography for a movie poster or a film's title sequence?
HEY: We actually started as a graphic design studio and later added a part for illustration. Also, we have been working on the type credits for a documentary of the glass blower artist, Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert, in collaboration with Jérôme de Gerlache.
INT: Is there a plan to put some of the more popular characters on merchandise and sell it on your store? Or a larger print featuring a group of characters?
HEY: This is a good question. We have actually been thinking about that for the past two months because we have received such a big demand. I’m afraid that most of the fictional characters have specific property rights. We don’t want to infringe on those rights so we are planning to properly format the work done on Instagram and give our followers the chance to have a physical piece. They deserve it.
Hey is a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, Spain. They specialize in brand identity, editorial design and illustration. They love geometry, color and direct typography. That's the essence of who they are.