Army of Cats aka Graham Pilling, is a graphic designer, illustrator and silkscreen printer based in Leeds. Those of you prowling around with a creative eye open will be familiar with this cool cat’s striking designs on posters, tshirts and logos. He also produced the limited edition fantastic OK Comics 10 year celebratory print. Graham’s love for music, gaming and the great outdoors is clear in his artwork, but there was more to find out about this star of the silk screen. Wendy Denman shone a bright light in his furry face and subjected him to a Yorkshire Inquisition.
Who would be your chosen ‘Major Moggy’ in your Army of Cats, and what are you fighting for?
I think Muta from the Studio Ghibli animated film The Cat Returns would make a fine major moggy – he is never afraid to roll his sleeves up and get on with hard work but also always finds time for food and naptime. In true Muta style, I think Army of Cats is fighting for everyone who believes that art is a vital part of life; eventually when all members of the Army of Cats have surrounded themselves with beautiful and unique pieces of art, it will all be shredded to make a giant nest in which we can curl up and sleep for a thousand years.
Tell us about your design process.
In order to try and make the answer to this question more interesting than it normally is, I made a handy video showing the process of a poster I created for Icelandic band ‘Of Monsters and Men’, which you can view below. You can watch it now if you like, it’s okay, I’ll wait.
Have you been to an amazing gig you wish you’d created the poster art for?
I’ve always really enjoyed the live performances by the band Les Savy Fav. Their frontman, Tim Harrington, is a crazy genius whose spontaneous and often surreal antics never fail to entertain. As yet they are not a band I’ve done any work for but they are certainly on ‘My List’.
What’s the best thing about being based in Leeds, and what would make it even better?
The best thing about being in Leeds is that it is pretty central geographically speaking and therefore it is never too long a journey in order to visit the many other countless places which are far nicer than Leeds.
That isn’t meant to come across anywhere near as negatively as it probably does – It’s not an indictment of Leeds so much as an understanding of the things that I personally love and want to be surrounded by. The city has plenty of amazing characters and positive things happening but I find that it is also wearing me down, slowly but surely, and I must soon make my escape to somewhere secluded in the countryside where I can run screaming around the hills and frolic in the mud.
Why is it so important to keep print alive?
I think there is genuine magic in the art of printing; you can feel it in the tactility of the ink on the paper. Machines will not look after our memories and art indefinitely. Plus we will need printed art to use as fuel when the machines inevitably turn against us and we are forced to survive in an apocalyptic wasteland.
Silk Screen, Love Scene or Forever Eighteen?
Silk screen – although it’s a bit of a misnomer as these days screen mesh is made from polyester mono-filament low-elongation yarn. If this information excites you, you can find out more about screenprinting and the other work that I do over on my site www.armyofcats.com. Many thanks for the questions!