Interview with art director Lee Griffin

Art Direction: Lee Griffin. Paper artist: Emma Van Leest.
Client: Grove Juice Co. Agency: Publicis Mojo Brisbane.

A creative feature with Brisbane art director and copywriter Lee Griffin, has been a long time coming. This ridiculously talented guy has gone from strength to strength in recent years, and it is now with sad news that he’s packing up and leaving Brisbane. Along with his love for design, Lee is a passionate musician, as both a solo singer/songwriter, and more recently with the band The Triple B. Next month, Lee’s moving to “Music City” in the USA—Nashville, Tennessee to play a lot more guitar and start a new business with a friend.

Just to rewind back a few years… Lee threw himself into the design industry, designing anything and everything as a freelancer and in a team. Several years later, he jumped on board at Publicis Mojo Brisbane as a Creative and has since become a leading art director for clients including Eagle Boys Pizza, Grove Juice Co, V8 Supercars and Gold Casket.

For nearly two years now, Lee’s been a one-man-band creative, as an art director and copywriter. At the 2011 BAD Awards, he collected a swagger of awards for the agency, including: 3 silvers for Art Direction on the Grove Juice Co campaign, a couple of Bronze, and Finalists for Grove Juice Co and Eagle Boys Pizza.

Combining his two loves of design and music, Lee has a library of fantastic gig posters from his years playing as a soloist and with fellow musicians.

Lee’s last Australian gig is this weekend:

Farewell Brisbane. Hello Nashville.
Lee Griffin & The Triple B
Tempo Hotel, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
From 7pm

Check out the video of Lee’s debut single Ride On from his first album “Plums” released just last year. Pop over to like the band’s Facebook page for info about gigs and releases.

<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4787" title="Lee Griffin Art Director" alt="Lee Griffin Art Director" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee06.jpg" width="430" height="430" /></p> <h2>How have you got to where you are today?</h2> <p>I got into it all because I liked to draw race-cars in high school. They’re obviously smothered in logos, and I wondered who was the kind of person responsible for doing that kind of thing, then you meet with the Guidance Counsellor and one thing leads to another.</p> <p>So I started as a graphic designer in 1999, then migrated to art director in 2007, then went “art director / copywriter one-man-band” late 2010.</p> <p><span style="color: #d2232a;">Honestly – I constantly can’t believe I get paid to do this and that I’ve got away with it for so long.</span></p> <p>Same with music, really. It’s to my ears what colours are to my eyes – just much much harder to pinpoint. A real constant challenge. Or more like a constant piss-off, actually, with the occasional reward.</p> <div id="attachment_4792" style="width: 440px;" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-4792" title="Lee Griffin Art Director" alt="Lee Griffin Art Director" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee03.jpg" width="430" height="639" /> <p class="wp-caption-text">Art Direction: Lee Griffin. Paper artist: Emma Van Leest.<br />Client: Grove Juice Co. Agency: Publicis Mojo Brisbane.</p> </div> <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4788" title="Lee Griffin Art Director" alt="Lee Griffin Art Director" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee05.jpg" width="430" height="331" /></p> <h5>Art Direction: Lee Griffin. Client:Eagle Boys Pizza.<br /> Agency: Publicis Mojo Brisbane.</h5> <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4797" title="Lee Griffin Art Director" alt="Lee Griffin Art Director" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee10.jpg" width="430" height="639" /></p> <h5>Art Direction: Lee Griffin. Client: V8 Supercars.<br /> Agency: Publicis Mojo Brisbane.</h5> <h2>In a few words, describe yourself…</h2> <p>Not bad at pretending to know what I’m doing at all times.</p> <h2>What are you spending your time on at the moment?</h2> <p>Mostly the move to the USA. Turns out it’s a way bigger undertaking than I ever imagined.</p> <h2>Do you have a ritual for getting into the creative mindset? Or a creative process?</h2> <p>Not really – because I don’t think you ever truly switch off. So you’re always in it.</p> <p><span style="color: #d2232a;">It’s like that funny old bumper sticker “I’m always in the shit, it’s just the depth that varies!”.</span></p> <p>Or my all-time personal favourite, “Caution, former foetus driving!”</p> <p><span style="color: #d2232a;">But my true passion in a creative sense is music – I just can’t tame that bastard, and hope I never do. Not to say that I feel I’ve ever tamed the design thing either, but I feel like I can at least get a rope around it’s neck from time to time and take it for a gallop down the paddock.</span></p> <p>Music – it’s SO elusive. And shady. A bit of a creep, really.</p> <p>How I work? Randomly, I think – be it designing or music. I really haven’t figured it out, to be honest. The creative process changes each time. I like it that I can’t really put my finger on it – but I’ve learned there’s “ideal conditions” I can put myself in to at least inspire some sort of result. And if all that fails, a weighty deadline tends to be a great motivator.</p> <p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4785" title="Lee Griffin Gig Poster" alt="Lee Griffin Gig Poster" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee08.jpg" width="430" height="608" /><br /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4786" title="Lee Griffin Gig Poster" alt="Lee Griffin Gig Poster" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee07.jpg" width="430" height="608" /></p> <h2>What or who inspires you?</h2> <p>Honestly – absolutely everybody and everything. But on a consistent, daily basis – of late, the blame lies most with Andy Ward and Keith Richards.</p> <h2>What are you most proud of?</h2> <p>Probably finishing my record last year. That thing was a long time coming. I was so scared to commit some music to a disc and you know what, it wasn’t that hard in the end. I had great people around me to really help coax it out. And hey, if it fully sucked, at least I’ve got coasters for life.</p> <h2>When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?</h2> <p>I wanted to be a fighter pilot, a lifeguard (thanks, baywatch), a race car driver (all standard 10 year old boy shit) – and then a graphic designer. And I was lucky enough to get the last one and now that I’m older, I don’t want to grow up! Ha ha ha.</p> <div id="better-author-bio-div"> <div class="better-author-bio-div-info"> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://www.designmontage.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/JenicaAvatar_60x60.jpg" width="60" height="60" alt="" class="avatar avatar-60 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-60 photo avatar-default" /> <h4>Written by Jenica Smith</h4> <p class="better-author-bio-div-meta">Passionate about storytelling, design and creativity, Jenica is a Brisbane-based digital designer and founder of Design Montage. Follow on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/designmontage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">twitter</a>.</p> <ul> <li class="first"><a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/author/jenica_designwiz/"><br /> View all posts by Jenica Smith <span class="meta-nav">→</span> </a></li> <li><a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au" title="Read Jenica Smith’s blog">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="designmontage" title="Follow Jenica Smith on Twitter" rel="external">Twitter</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <p> </p> <hr /> <footer class="article-footer"> <p class="tags"> <a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/tag/brisbane-art-director/" rel="tag">,Brisbane Art Director</a> <a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/tag/copywriter/" rel="tag">,Copywriter</a> <a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/tag/gig-posters/" rel="tag">,Gig Posters</a> <a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/tag/interview/" rel="tag">,Interview</a> <a href="http://www.designmontage.com.au/tag/musician/" rel="tag">,Musician</a></p> </footer> <p> </p> <p></p> <p> <br /> </p> <p></p>