What/Who is Brand:Nu?

Founded in 2002 by Radim Malinic, Brand:Nu is an award winning design agency/studio based in the UK. Brand:Nu regularly works with a range of clients in all areas of fashion, PR, music, leisure, the arts and entertainment.

We saw Radim’s amazing work and decided to get in-touch for a quick chat.

FMCS: Hey Radim how’s things man?

Radim: Things are pretty good at the moment. Well, this year has been pretty good overall. I’ve got some wicked projects in the pipeline, can’t really wait for the Xmas madness to be over.

Can’t give out much detail till new year though. There will be new Brand:Nu website early next year.

Also next year will see me collaborating a bit more.

FMCS: We saw your work recently on the recent Photoshop magazine. Your producing some amazing artwork. How long have you been running Brand: Nu and where did it all start?

Radim: I have been ‘properly’ designing for about 4 years. I never thought I would actually design for living. I did lots of various things before but didn’t start till the age of 24. No official design education at all. A book on Adobe Illustrator 8 and that was all!

Brand Nu as such has been going properly for over a year. I put my website together last xmas to show the world what I was cooking.

Had such amazing reaction to my work that I haven’t really had a day off since!

FMCS: Describe your style of work a little…how did this particular visual style develop? We notice a lot of references to elements that can be found in nature in your work! Is this true from your perspective are you influenced by natural forms?

Radim: I don’t think I am inspired too much by the natural forms. I started using all them floral and tree vector shapes ages ago just because I liked the shapes which are quite easy on one’s eye.

The next natural progress was to use the same elements in bitmap form for extra texture. So where I started to put the vectors together with mixture of bitmap elements I realized I found my style.

FMCS: What made you go out on your own and not say work in-house for a design company?

Radim: Actually I still do have a day job. I work as a Senior Designer for a design company in Southampton. Brand Nu is my freelance project outside my 9-5 job.

However freelance stuff is really overtaking my day job and I will be going on my own in next 6-8 months. I am already employing people on bigger projects and things are getting bigger and bigger.

FMCS: What are the benefits of working freelance, as opposed say to working full-time somewhere?

Radim: Freelance is about being able to choose briefs you’d enjoy working on. Design companies take on jobs just for the money not the quality of the project.

I can’t really say I’ve turned too many projects down though. I’ve been lucky so far to be approached by the right clientele.

FMCS: And the down sides to working freelance?

Radim: Downsides? Juggling time. You need to keep in touch with clients, promote yourself a bit, look out for a new business, issue invoices, chase some fuckers for the money, answer all the emails if possible and if you’re lucky and have some spare time, you can start designing and creating!

It’s not all that bad though.

FMCS: Are you getting some good feedback from the magazine cover? On this subject do you actively market and promote your work? Or do you have someone to do this for you?

Radim: I think I have done quite well for myself with both Advanced Photoshop magazine covers. October issue 23 went down really, really well and I was asked to write a tutorial for issue 25. Surprise, surprise my design made it onto the cover once again.

I get numbers of emails daily from all over the world, asking where to get the mag, what advise I could give, tutorial questions etc. Last year I had a belter of a year (won a GDUSA Adobe Award) and didn’t need anyone to help me with promoting Brand:Nu.

One example: I’ve managed to bag a deal with BBC with no middle man! You know only top agencies get that sort of stuff. I am only planning to get my name even more out there next year and see how it goes.

FMCS: What are your thoughts on the UK design scene at the moment do you view it in a positive light? And do you see some good talents coming through?

Radim: Uh… A tricky question. I’ve been into the Myspace a bit and gotta say I lost the track of the UK scene lately.

There is some wicked talent worldwide and people more up my style street. Do Vault49 still count as UK scene or not?
They’ve done some good work and it will be interesting to see what’s next for them. I really like Non Format stuff, Studio Output scores high but all of them been going for a while.

New talent? Don’t know really but I’m sure there’s a lot of it around!

FMCS: What would be your ideal project to work on?

Radim: Depends how you define ideal project. Ideal project could be when only one person is making decision and amendments. When you get too many people trying to be clever about your design, job turns in to a nightmare!

An ideal project would be the one that would ideally make me quite famous and ideally quite well off… Only kidding! I like to be able to pick whoever I need for the job, have a generous budget and conduct my photo shoots for example. I’ve been lucky enough to have done all of the above so far.

FMCS: Thanks for the chat Radim, Any shout outs before we leave you alone?

Radim: Thanks for getting in touch and asking me all these questions! I remember when I stumbled across your site. You had me in stitches! I’m very easily amused to say the least.

Shout outs go to Emma from the Advanced Photoshop crew, Diego from Root Magazine, Norrb, Bram Trimmer, Transform, Diana Luganski, Extraverage, Raz from BBC and Oli from Soul Heaven.

FMCS: All the best!

Radim: And to you!

Brand:Nu Website
Brand:Nu My Space

More Interviews…

SWIFTY
Monsieur G
Strange Fruit Project
Cupco
Buff Monster
Plastic Kid

Full Interview List

Main Homepage