22nd February 2016

Interview: Therese Vandling and Luke Frost of Heretic Studio

– by Ali Gitlow

To many artists, screenprinting is a means to an end – a way of reproducing a piece of work in order to sell multiples or editions of it. However, for Luke Frost, Therese Vandling and Jon Rundall, it’s a medium in and of itself that’s capable of yielding unexpected, exciting results. Together the trio run Heretic Studio, a London-based design and illustration practice. A significant portion of their output involves experimental screenprinting: testing the limits of the process by allowing various colour combinations and technical interactions to have an effect on the outcome. They’ve turned the fruits of this research into an ongoing project called ‘Spectral Nation’ which has seen them produce a vast array of technicolor prints, each one unique and striking.

When they started out ten years ago, they set up a printing studio with t-shirt printing facilities purely as a place for like-minded friends to come together and collaborate under one roof; they didn’t have an overall game plan. Then, around 2007, Luke, Therese and Jon formally took on the name Heretic and started exhibiting, getting commissions, and producing prints for other artists. They’ve since put together solo exhibitions (most recently they had a number of prints on view at Stories café on Broadway Market) and have been part of group shows in the US, UK and Europe. In addition, they’ve created work for magazines like Print Isn’t Dead and Architectural Review, charities including Save the Children and The House of Fairy Tales, and record labels such as Sonic Cathedral, Need Want and OGenesis. Therese also maintains her own graphic design studio, and even counts Zetteler clients 100% Norway and Laboratory Perfumes amongst her roster.

For anyone with a penchant for fluoro, Heretic Studio is definitely one to watch. As huge fans of all that they make, we decided to chat to Therese and Luke about their life and work:

Why did you decide to found Heretic Studio?

Luke Frost: We’ve always seen the studio as a place to experiment. We all work individually as well, and the studio is where we can just let loose and try things out and have creative freedom away from working for people.

Therese Vandling: The whole process of setting up Heretic was quite organic, and the way I joined was very organic as well. I wasn’t originally a member but I kept collaborating on every project. And then I was like, ‘Well actually, I might as well be part of this.’

How did you get interested in screen printing and learn the ins and outs of its processes?

TV: Both Luke and I were really into screenprinting from our college days. We actually met at an advanced screenprinting course. We’ve always just loved the process, and loved the medium.

LF: We quickly grew uninterested in just replication of illustrations to sell, that kind of scene. We like to experiment. We manipulate any mistakes and embrace them. Obviously we’ve tried to perfect things as well. Through lots of trial and error we’ve found interesting irregularities, which are quite exciting.

TV: Also, a lot of the design process doesn’t necessarily happen digitally, it happens as we print. So we experiment with shapes and colour as we print. And that’s also why we never really do any editions bigger than ten, because it’s kind of pointless for us to keep printing lots of the same thing.

Is the process the main way you find aesthetic inspiration?

LF: A big part of the work we’re doing is about the process, so definitely the process informs and inspires the work. Most of the prints you see come from us trying out different ideas, different colour interactions, texture and form, all the relationships between those factors. And then, through those experiments, things suddenly click and we turn those into either one-off prints or small editions.

Spectral Nation came about as this idea to really explore every aspect of the process. It grew from there, and there’s certain perhaps abstract ideas that have evolved through it. We look a lot at how colours lay down next to other colours and how that affects other areas, and how it affects peoples’ moods. When the project started, we’d just come out of a phase of using lots of elements in our work, so lots of collage, lots of illustration, and mixing and melding them together. We all got really tired of that and took a back-to-basics approach. We’re really trying to use quite simple compositions and, within them, have interesting, complex happenings. So we’ve looked at how moirés occur, and how that can happen using perhaps slightly Op Art vector graphics, and how patterns over patterns create these strange moirés. With flat ink over flat ink you can still create moirés through the mesh of the screen, so we’ve been working with that as well, which is something you only see when you’re up close to the prints. But it adds an extra depth to the work.

What do you like about working together as Heretic versus working on your own separate projects?

TV: For me, being a control freak kind of person, being part of Heretic has really helped me in letting go. I think we’ve all become much better at collaborating and being respectful of each others’ ideas. For me, that’s been a good personal growth thing. But then I really enjoy having my own practice. I do a lot of book design and graphic design, and that kind of stuff I find really hard to collaborate on. You’re already working with so many other people on those kinds of things. But Luke and I also did a book together for Thames & Hudson – I designed it and we collaborated on all the illustrations – called The Duchamp Dictionary. That was such a great project. I think the illustrations are so much stronger from the collaboration than if I’d have worked on them by myself, or if Luke would’ve worked on them by himself.

Therese, you’ve done quite a lot of book design for Thames & Hudson.

TV: I love the book design work that I do. I really value that, and I’m so grateful that I have a good relationship with them.

LF: The Duchamp book went on for a long time, because the project grew as we worked on it. It started off with a collaged alphabet which was based on something Therese had done at college that she felt she wanted to freshen up.

TV: They wanted to use it and I was like, ‘I’ve used it so much, I’d rather do something new’ – so it was an excuse to do something new. It was a real labour of love.

LF: That happens on most projects. We don’t want anything to come out of our studio that’s not as good as we can get it. We ended up doing 64 illustrations. Therese had designed this beautiful dictionary format, and then the illustrations kind of subverted that. That’s quite unexpected when you pick up the book because the cover doesn’t give anything away, which adds a little playfulness.

What are you working on next?

TV: We just got a commission to do a big wallpaper job for a company in Sweden.

TV: I’ve been working on a couple of books for T & H.

LF: I’m also working on some record covers. This is taking me back to my mid-‘90s self: I’ve got a brief I’m working on with a friend of mine who’s signed to Metalheadz, Goldie’s label. Goldie was somebody I always had a lot of respect for as an artist. When I was a very young teenager we used to go raving in London in like 1990 and I used to see him about, so to then suddenly have a brief to be working on something for his label is exciting. Also to have something come into Heretic that’s totally different like that is really great; a creative freedom sort of project.

hereticheretic.co.uk

spectralnation.com

Top Image: Heretic Studio (photo credit, Bella Fenning) Below 1 and 2: Part of the Chromatecliptix series, 2015. 3 and 4: The 100% Norway identity that Therese designed for their 10th anniversary back in 2013. 5: Dechromium Egg, 2015. 6 and 7: The Duchamp Dictionary that Luke and Therese collaborated on. 8: Multitude Altitude, 2015.