Matt Lyon, aka C86, is a talented, vector illustrator living in London, UK. He has a background in teaching graphic design to young adults, he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London, and he has successfully transitioned into working as a full-time illustrator. He’s inspired by retro folk art, children’s illustration, abstraction, and other artistic styles and ideas, which you’ll learn more about in this interview.
Matt has numerous successful projects, like popular Threadless t-shirt designs and his “Typoquotes” series. Matt’s work is driven by his prodigious daily sketches, which he then colorizes digitally, usually as vector art in Adobe Illustrator. You can learn more about his process in his well-documented Vectortuts+ tutorial “Creating Imaginative Typography with Adobe Illustrator.”
In this interview, he talks about taking the time to develop his style, and how this transitioned into client/commision work and exciting projects. He’s a great believer in letting things happen and allowing his work to dictate its own evolution.
