Q&A: Pinartbutta – Featured Designer of the month
When I read the word Pinartbutta for the first time I had one of those moments of nothing but fresh air passing through my brain, but after a second glace it appeared to me that it was my favorite midnight snack, brown, smooth and creamy- peanut butter! Or maybe not? Getting into the mind of the man behind the name will ensure that you keep your thinking cap on at all times because you never know what might be behind a simple illustration… Click here to see Represent’s designer of the month’s portfolio.
Mzwandile Buthelezi is a designer slash illustrator slash street artist slash graffiti writer slash whatever you’d like to call a guy that spends mad hours with brushes, paint, ink, computers, toys…whatever people with these titles like to keep in their company. (He wrote that)
Represent commissioned Mzwandile to create the first 007 wallpaper (the fab picture you see as the backdrop of the site) and whilst he was busy with that, share with us some of the things that make a designer what he is.
RR: Where did you grow up?
MB: I grew up in Soweto, Johannesburg and that’s where I went to school as well.
RR: What is pinartbutta?
MB: Well, “butter” is actually a hip- hop term for something that looks good or when you all good, you’d say “I’m all butter”, I like making pretty pictures that make people feel good…
RR: What is pinartbutta all about?
MB: I developed a project back in college called pinartbutta where I used to make photocopies of my artwork with positive messages or just stupid stuff to make people’s days lighter and I’d pin them up on boards around college (they never stayed up for long though, I’d turn a corner and they’d be gone). I’m not sure how I got to call it pinartbutta… I guess I liked the sound of the name.
RR: Do you like peanut butter?
MB: Yes please, make the peanut butter thick with jam…
RR: Why did you get into design?
MB: I was a graffiti artist before I got into design; I still do graffiti; that’s where I developed my interest in typography. I studied Fine Arts for a while but it was boring and also a bit lame so when I found out about an exciting world where I could play with the alphabet and still draw…it sounded cool to me so I quit Fine Arts and enrolled for a course in Design. I also needed to take my art a step ahead…moving into new territory made sense.
RR: What are some of your strongest influences?
MB: Besides my great belief in Lego toys, comics, the news… I’m influenced by lots of other things…life, world sub- cultures and cults, music, politics…I’m actually realizing more and more that I can’t keep a tab on my influences I guess being alive is my major influence- I’m pushed to strive harder every time I realize I’m still breathing…
RR: What in your opinion is the difference between Design and Art?
MB: I don’t really understand why people insist on separating Design from Art, they live comfortably in the same space if you think about it. I make pretty pictures for a living, for fun, to piss people off or make them feel warm and fuzzy inside, at times I solve problems visually, I guess those times I’d be referred to as a Designer but then what do you call a design that does not solve a problem, is not for a client but just makes you feel a certain way?
RR: Why did you decide on this wallpaper for our January issue?
MB: The wallpaper is part of an art project that I’m doing with a friend of mine, we have not given it a name yet, but it’s social commentary on the brutal use of children as soldiers in numerous countries, basically, super huge people robbing kids of their right to live.
We decided to do this project in hopes of alerting people to kindly evacuate their comfort zones and do something about this “I smell a riot”…okay back to the wallpaper, what I was doing was creating a vintage pattern that would look attractive and inviting to look at, but when you are dragged closer it’s actually an illustration of child soldiers.
RR: What are the challenges of a designer in modern day South Africa?
MB: Eish there are mad challenges for designers in South Africa, one of the challenges that I’ve noticed a lot of people have, is trying to find a style that represents us without having to use the Ndebele etc. patterns that have been over- glorified as what represents us. So I see some of people really trying to work hard on this especially amongst the younger generation of designers, even though I see it coming through from a small group of people, people like LOVE and HATE, Bitterkomix and the likes, they are really coming through with some interesting work that is purely South African. Also… a lot of people cooking up some interesting work have not been seen yet…all I can say is the flames may not be visible now but on the core it’s already burning!
RR: What would really like to work on but can’t right now?
MB: Is this a trick question? There’s a lot I’d like to do…but as much as there’s things I can’t do I give thanks for the things I can. I recently developed an interest in three dimensional space and how people interact with it (part of my future project), that’s one thing occupying my dome these days. I’d like to focus on developing my personal style but time is always a flop but most importantly I’d like to create designs that change people’s lives. I always try to add subliminal messages to my work…what I call humble suggestions to a change of life style.
RR: Have you received any awards etc? If so what were they for?
MB: I prefer to stay away from competing and entering awards and stuff, I just don’t have a reason to and I don’t understand why people get so wowed about winning- in the competition world you are only king till the next guy makes a prettier picture. One thing I’ve learned is art is subjective so it’s a very difficult thing to judge. Why do people have to enter their own work into awards? I mean you get people (especially in advertising) that work the whole year on an idea to enter into the Loeries, I find that attitude quite a cheat and a bit lame, please evacuate your comfort zone!
