8 Questions With: Matthew Welsh

8 Questions With: Matthew Welsh

Matthew Welsh is a designer, an amazing photographer, oh and a musician. He has a design company Killdisco Design and more recently began a blog, The Self Centered Man focused around the motorcycling culture. He’s an all around interesting guy who bounces from coast to coast, and we were able to slow him down and catch up with him to answer our 8 questions.

What are you currently working on?
Currently I’m working on a couple projects for eBay, designs for My Morning Jacket and The Who’s merch pages, continuing the ongoing pursuit of theselfcenteredman.com, as well as rebranding a third generation owned auto body business in the Washington D.C. area.

Where do you find inspiration?
I try to take one day a week and go to either a museum or art oriented book store here in LA to flush my brain a bit. Other than that I have my flipboard pretty well stocked for early morning online inspiration with a cup of joe.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Ironically I always wanted to be an artist. It started off with an obsession with Chuck Jones of Looney Tunes fame, and then Stan Lee of Marvel. I wandered a bit into music but now make my living solely as a graphic artist.

What are you reading at the moment?
Back issues of Cycle magazine from the late ’50s. I’ve been going to the swap meets and flea markets around LA since moving out here and picking up ’50s motorcycle mags and books. It’s interesting to see and read things that are period correct before analyzing the things that strive to be.

How would you describe your job?
Chaos. I run a small firm that works on great projects. The best part of my job is it is constantly changing and evolving.

What does your average work day look like?
Coffee, Flipboard, coffee, motorcycle ride through Griffith Park, 30 emails, 3-4 phone meetings, Photoshop, coding, blog edits, tacos, Photoshop, coding, emails round 2, breakdown, photo editing, motorcycle ride, turn phone off.

Is there any company or person who you’d like to work with?
I’ve been begging to get something going with designer Matt Lucero of Havas Worldwide for three years now. I think he’s a genius.

What’s your favorite post-work destination?
The Dresden around the corner… something relaxing about sitting at a bar that reminds me of the ballroom scene from The Shining for a night cap.