The Collective Series: Hello Sam, give us a brief introduction about yourself.

Sam Sheridan: I’m a graphic designer and type enthusiast based in London. My work consists predominantly of typography and the use of type as a form of illustration. My practice is now moving towards and learning more about type design.

TCS: Describe yourself in three words.

SS: Bad at summarising.

TCS: Favorite song now on repeat?

SS: Recently, I’ve gone back to 2013 Arctic Monkey’s R U Mine? (PRESS PLAY)

TCS: Experimentation and creativity go hand in hand. What do you do to explore beyond your style of design and routine?

SS: Throughout my education years, I would find the artist’s work that I love and make a case study of it, replicate it, apply the same techniques and experiment that way. This really solidified the method for me, and I felt like I added a new tool to the belt. Also, Philosophy is a fantastic subject for opening up your mind; right now, I’m reading Alain Stephen’s ‘Why We Think the Things We Think’, which is great for bite-sized key concepts of philosophy.

To help us get to know the creatives a little more. We’ve created a series of questions to ask the Collectives to see what makes them so unique.

For the third edition, we speak to typography and graphic communications designer Sam Sheridan based in London, United Kingdom.

“You can’t rush creativity; sometimes things work out the first time, sometimes you need to go away and have another run at it, sometimes you need to let it be and do something else.”

TCS: What challenges you?

SS: Often, what challenges me is getting the client to pick the route I want them to go with; I think that’s an art that I’ll never be able to master.

TCS: Think of yourself as a creative therapist – what would you say to fellow artists stuck in a creative rut in the midst of COVID?

SS: It’s important to put your tools down every once in a while and don’t feel bad about taking breaks. You can’t rush creativity; sometimes things work out the first time, sometimes you need to go away and have another run at it, sometimes you just need to let it be and do something else. Also, you are not as good as your last piece of work, and I hate this saying because most of the work I make is far from inspiring.

TCS: What advice did you get that was the most rewarding?

SS: I’m not sure who told me this, but it was probably a mixture and paraphrase of some teacher’s advice back in school; if you’re doing what you like, then you can’t go wrong.

TCS: What made you laugh out loud?

SS: I was in the kitchen this afternoon with my family about to tuck into a nice bowl of caramel ice cream. As I gently directed the ice cream off of the spoon and towards the bowl, it simply flung up vertically and plummeted to the ground, sticking to the floor with a comical sturdiness. I had to be there, I guess, but I’m sure lots of people can relate.

TCS: What inspires you?

SS: Recently, old and vintage print ads from the golden years of advertising. It’s crazy some of the language and approaches they took to get people to buy products. Certainly wouldn’t be seen in this day and age, but really interesting to see how that world has changed, and so rapidly.

TCS: Your proudest work so far?

SS: Proudest work so far has to be the work I did towards GroupFont (www.group-font.com). I and 36 other creatives worldwide came together to design a font to raise money towards the research for Covid-19, Campaign Zero, Black Vision Collective, ACLU and Know Your Rights Camp. To date, I think there’s been £4k+ donated to WHO and £2k+ donated to black lives matter organisations.

TCS: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

SS: If I can get my head down, then hopefully a font is on its way, and certainly more work within type design. I don’t want to promise too much on this front, though, because then the pressure builds. But you will certainly see more typographic explorations.

www.sheridansam.com