Meet Mateusz (Mati) Baran | Graphic Designer & Visual Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mateusz (Mati) Baran and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mati, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Bad jokes. Occasionally a good one. I guess in the end it doesn’t really matter – people just like jokes – and too much of our current landscape is already filled with negativity and dreadfully serious messages. My approach is pointing out those serious problems with a big, colorful stick in the shape of a Mickey Mouse hand, because why not? Mickey Mouse is cute, and I’m sure if I saw it pointing at something I would turn my head to see it. The truth is, humor is a magical tool of communication with pretty much anyone, from our close friends’ circle to the scale of an entire city population. I firmly believe that silliness and being lighthearted can make any topic approachable. Absurdity can have a strangely revealing effect on our perceptions of the world, breaking down all those barriers of roles or rules we’re meant to play by. Oops I just got deep here for a second… let’s go back to silly again! In my work, I like to have fun with what I do. In my work, I tend to not get overly serious, which I find works particularly well with communicating any message I want to say. In my work, I usually like to make light of things, which if I were to guess, probably comes from still learning how to make my work more ‘me.’ So maybe that’s the answer – making your work “you.” And if you don’t like jokes, I guess that’s fine… Wanna hear another one?

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m still finding where my voice in this world lies, and I’m sure it’s going to be a long time until I can firmly articulate it. For now, I am still all over the place with my practice, though there are a few things that continue to appear again and again. For one, it’s music – I come from a musical background, hence a large portion of the projects I make are related to it. As a designer/artist you quickly learn that combining your seemingly diverse hobbies can not only make you happier with what you do, but it also helps your work to truly embody ‘you.’ That’s how we stand out from others. It also makes you actually want to work hard… For me it’s music, and combined with my love for typography, writing, and anything that’s pretty and shiny, somehow a project is formed. The lesson here is a typical one, but oh well, I’ll still say it – make what you really want to make, trust your intuition, and the outcome will always be good, great even! At the moment, I am taking those thoughts with me while creating my final project at the Royal College of Art in London. Learning about the challenges that London’s local drag artists face daily inspired me to deeply research the topic, in aims to create a campaign that could hopefully provide a safer public promotional space for the community. The end is unknown, but it’s a safe bet to see some typography and writing that’s hopefully pretty and at least a little bit shiny.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If you’re visiting London, where I have recently moved to (still a new face in the city), make sure to visit Hackney Wick for a local atmosphere you won’t find anywhere else in town. While you’re at it, don’t forget to support the amazing local drag by visiting the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. If you have one more night, visit the Windmill Brixton Pub, a birthplace of countless underground music acts, that puts on multiple shows every evening, at a low cost.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to generically but lovingly extend a thank you to my family, who have always supported me in my weird creative endeavors. Since the start of it, I have met many wonderful and inspiring people from whom I still learn, and it’s all because of my family’s continuous support to do anything to help me be where I want to be in life. Sometimes you can’t do everything on your own. Special shoutout to my fab grandma, who still doesn’t understand what I do but always loves it.

Continued, thank you to Łukasz Solecki, with whom it all started for me – my first true design & arts mentor, whom I still feel lucky to have learned from. Thank you, you’re a horrible texter, but your brain is wondrous.

Thank you to Lady Gaga, no explanation needed.

Website: www.behance.net/matteorz

Instagram: www.instagram.com/matteorz