DAN POYNTON
DAN POYNTON WORDS | Emily Hobbs
“I think Dan’s the kind of artist you can see going somewhere. He has
a distinct style with a wide range, something that’s pretty hard to
do these days. It takes a lot visually to make me pay attention and
when I first saw his material I was like, ‘Wow. This kid’s good!’”
That’s the kind of praise any artist would love to hear, but I guess it means even on acid,” he says. Although it goes some way to describing his style, trying to explain
more coming from your boss – especially when they’re Metalheadz label boss, his dark and weird, colourful photo manipulations is, he admits, kind of difficult.
Goldie. Daniel Poynton is the very talented new designer currently working for
the Metalheadz stable, and despite his having only been in the job for the past six “I try to be as varied as possible,” he says. “I’m drawn to metal structures and just
months he’s making quite an impression by the sound of it. metal in general. I notice random things that normal people wouldn’t think twice
about, I can be on a train and notice a pile of rails leaning against few barrels or
His lucky break (apologies in advance for the pun) came when he broke his leg in a car something and think to myself ‘that would look sick in a design’ or ‘I want to turn that
accident. With nothing to do but sit there while he mended, he got behind the screen into a weird, dark, mechanical robot’.”
and got really, really good at designing.
As his muse once said; “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The
“I was pretty much stuck to my PC for a while”, says Dan. “So I designed as much as more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”. And Dan is certainly going places, with
possible and really pushed myself to be as technical as possible, I got my work out commissions already lined up for the future – most impressively, one for Pharcyde. “I
there and a week or so later had an email from Goldie asking me to ring him, which couldn’t believe it when I got an email from Bootie Brown,” he says. “I’m pretty proud
I was pretty stoked about. We had a good chat and he told me that he loved my to have been commissioned to design for someone who, in my opinion, is one of the
work and that he wants me heavily involved in the label, and I’ve been working with greatest hip hop legends of all time.”
Metalheadz ever since.”
Unfortunately the leg is still mending, but that hasn’t stopped Dan. As soon as he can
Dan cites music as a fairly obvious inspiration, but a less-obvious influence on his walk he’s planning on doing an exhibition, but until he’s bi-pedal again you can check
work is the surreal children’s author Dr Seuss. As a kid he tells me he was obsessed his limited edition prints on
www.visualescape.co.uk, or more examples of his work
with Dr Seuss books and he thinks this has subconsciously had an effect on the way on
www.myspace.com/diverseability. And to order canvas prints, commissions, or
he designs. “Maybe a good description of my work would be a dark, futuristic Dr Seuss just send get-well messages, email
dan@theability.co.uk
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