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Brand Nu aka Radim Malinic is an award winning and internationally renowned illustrator and graphic designer. We asked Radim about his studio, Madonna, his new book and more. A must read!

Hey Radim, please introduce yourself.
Hola, my name is Radim Malinic and I am a freelance designer & illustrator working under the name of Brand Nu. Most of the times I am very happy individual, the rest of the time I am even happier. Quite easily amused too. Tell me a shit joke and I will no doubt laugh. I turned 29 a few months ago and my girlfriend got me a nice cake. No candles though. Actually I need to find out why.

I started up doodling and creating visual mishaps some 14 years ago, but never really thought much of it. Playing the bass in a band and djing was back then taking most of my time. Helping out with screenprints at my mother’s design agency was possibly the nearest I got to the world of design. It was fun, but possibly I needed time to really make my mind up on what to do.

Having worked freelance around my day job for years and years, I decided to quit my daytime job of 5 years as a Senior Designer in March this year. It was the right time to go on my own and I love every single day of it. I had to juggle two more or less full time jobs and it was getting a bit tiring. Now I have had the pleasure to work on the ‘big gun’ projects, but also on the smaller ones, where going against the rules was quite enjoyable and rewarding.

What does the Brand:Nu working environment look like?
We’ve recently moved into a 3 bedroom house on the sea front where I have a small-ish room just for my creations. Having only been full time freelancer for about 4 months I haven’t had the need of an office space. Xeon MacPro, a Wacom Tablet, 20″ cinema screen, a knackered scanner and b/w laser printer form my arsenal along with an overpriced glass desk from Habitat covered with tearsheets of my work. Nothing to really write home about though. At the moment it’s the peace and quiet that I enjoy the most. I had spent last 5 years working in a studio enviroment with various characters and I’ve got to say I like to be able to concentrate on my work now. Last month I started working as an art director for a local lifestyle magazine, I get my injection of the civilisation there. Man’s gotta have the balance in place, lol. After spending the last 14 years partying, it was time to slow down a bit too.

I read on your site that business is good and that the projects you have coming in are relatively open briefs allowing you plenty of room. This is of course a great position to be in. Was it a long and tiresome road getting to this point or did it come relatively easy?
It’s not been long and tiresome, but I’d done things differently it could have been even faster. I didn’t put my website up for quite a while as I didn’t feel the need for it. Since I launched however I haven’t really had a proper holiday yet. The commissions been coming from left, right and centre from around the globe. Most of the new commissions are wanting ‘a brand nu’ type of work. People don’t give me work for what I can do, but for the style I use. It’s very important to have a unique style of work to be successful on the current market. Young designers easily get inspired by the new trends and latest ideas and their portfolios look like a mash of many other designers.

I don’t say I don’t get inspired, but if I look at someone’s work I try to understand the reasons why they decided to solve their brief in that way. I look for the logic or non-logic reasons behind the piece.

With the internet opening doors to international business it’s very possible for a designer to acquire a job hailing from a different country. How do you deal with the downsides like not being able to sit down with a client face to face?
Some people can be difficult to work with without the face to face contact but on the other hand, some people can still be vague after a 2 hour meeting. Everything has got a positive and negative side but my experience so far has been very positive really. My first international commission came from the USA, less than 3 months after I launched my site. Since then I’ve got almost every corner of the globe covered. You learn to ask as many questions as humanly possible to narrow down what the client wants. Saves time, a lot of time.

It’s quite a random when you hear from an Ad agency in down under saying someone recommended my work to them. Who, what, where? :) Internet is a great and exciting tool. Whenever I have a chance I try to get my name out there, link my site in various places etc. It shows people you’re working your socks off and developing the style of work.

Looking at your client list I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you don’t have to pitch that often anymore. Nonetheless I’d like to ask you if you could give struggling designers some tips on this aspect of the job?
I’ve not pitched once. Well, technically once, but it was more about testing the water. There’s thousands of of other designers out there with an impressive clients list. Does it make them better than anyone else? I don’t think so. It’s more about being in the right time in the right place. From the beginning of my visual work, I decided to do the best work for any little client I had. I made it look a million dollar. They might not always have appreciated it but I stood firmly behind this principle and it came back to me tenfold!!! The work speaks for itself, the big gun clients will find anyone who is innovative, fresh and has the right stuff to offer.

What would my advice be? If you want to work for a big name client, stop wanting to work for a big gun. Do the best design ever for someone who has really shit ad campaing now. Knock their socks off, you will make a name for yourself.

Tell us a bit about the cover work you did for Drowned magazine which depicts none other than Madonna.
The magazine approached me via Myspace, offered no fee but a great opportunity. No time to ponder, it was a sure goer from the first moment. I only worked for free for charitable courses a handful of times but everytime it came back to me with truckload of new commissions. There’s some magic in it.
As the result of this cover a various people commissioned me, I will be redesigning DM website and heaps of other work. On the top of that, half of the design public on the internet has stumbled over the image and commented on the piece. All I had to do, was make it ‘Brand Nu piece’ :)

Freelancing has lovely benefits like overall freedom and choice of clients/briefs. There are of course some downsides as well. One thing that I myself would dread most is if the situation arises where a client doesn’t want to pay for the work done. Has this happened to you in the past?
I wouldn’t say I had a situation where a client didn’t want to pay. However, sometimes with a bigger ad agencies, it takes a while to get the payment processed. It has been relatively easy to get the remittance on time, but I had to use the name of British Trading Standard Office a few times to threaten various people around the globe. Most of the time, you write a nice and polite email even though you’d rather use the best swear words you know. This is business as any other, good reputation goes quite far.

You’re the initiator of a project called the Nu visual language which involves you collaborating with other designers and artists. Can you tell me some more about that?
Having been busy with a million of commercial projects, I’ve not been left with much time for personal work. There has been a number of collaboration requests from my favorite artists and designers over the years and although I really wanted to work with them I hadn’t had a chance yet. A couple of months ago my contact at BBC offered me an opportunity of a gallery space and a mini help to get an arts project off the ground. The ideas came from my previous work done for various record labels and artist.

The Nu Visual Language is a project where I collaborate with other 12 artists on 12 pieces of art based on a musical track. One day when I was sorting out my songs in iTunes I thought it would be cool to give some of my favorite tracks some sort of visual form. There’s a lot of great music album covers. We live in times where most of the original music is being remixed for various purposes. So I decided to create a visual mix tape of my long time favorite tracks with my favorite visual artists.

The whole project will be rounded off with a gallery exhibition, interactive website, a fair bit of printed material and possibly it will become an annual event. My plan is to get the whole project up and running and set a platform for other artist to collaborate on some other tracks in the next year. The results so far are outta this world, can’t wait to get it all finished.

More details will be soon available at Nu visual language

You’ve recently released your first showcase book. What was the process of putting such a book together like?
I always toyed with the idea of having a book, but to be frank, now it just kind of happened. I have been making random announcements on my site for about a year or two, but a few weeks ago everything slotted in the right place. Not much planning was needed, everything really went from the printers specification. The book is self-published so the budget was the decider. The only plan I had was to give the people out there something a bit special. The publication is packed with some very nice exclusives, some of the work won’t even see the light of the world til the next year. All in all, something to do me proud and to sum up two years of sleepless nights. I feel my work is evolving into great new directions and this book would be nice bridge to the past and the new.

Thanks for the time Radim. The best of luck in the future and make sure to give us a heads-up when the nu visual language project goes live. For more of Radim’s work check out his website .