Ally Spotlight: The Glitch Mob T-Shirt Design Winner Babe Elliott Baker

We recently caught up with Babe Elliott Baker, the amazing winning design for The Glitch Mob’s T-shirt design contest on Creative Allies. Babe was kind enough to let us inside his world and show us how he created these stunning, complex visuals.

Creative Allies: What is your background as an artist?

Babe Elliott Baker: I’m a self-taught artist that experimented with several different mediums over the years, leading me to design, motion and sound. My major inspiration comes from inner and outer life experiences. There are several artists, designers and blogs out there that inspire me, such as Nando Costa, MK12, GMUNK, Kyle Cooper, Michael Cina, Josef Müller-Brockmann and Motionographer, to name a few.

CA: What do you do for a living? What kinds of directing, designing and illustrating projects do you do?

Babe: I work as a freelance motion graphic designer and director in different industries, which exposes me to a wide variety of clients and projects. I create concepts and art directions for commercials and interactive media. There are also times I’ll get booked to do branding, websites, illustration and print work as well, which makes things more interesting.

CA: What are your favorite kinds of creative projects to work on?

Babe: My favorite creative projects are for myself and other artists, for example The Glitch Mob. I’d rather not have someone telling me what to do when it comes to anything really, but especially when it’s creative or self-expression. Plus, I love music and experimenting with imagery and sound. Discovering the unknown always has a rejuvenating effect on my body, mind and spirit.

CA: How did you hear about Creative Allies and what did you think of the experience?

Babe: I heard about Creative Allies when Glitch Mob announced it. The whole experience was pretty exciting and nerve wracking when it came down to the voting [on Facebook]. I think the Creative Allies model as a social marketing tool for musicians is great, but the UI / Facebook APP needs some work as I found that voting was confusing for some friends.

CA: Describe your process for creating the winning TGM T-shirt illustration.

Babe: Firstly, I didn’t want to limit myself to the few colors used in typical screen-printed T-shirts. I liked the idea of winning a signed lithograph print of my design and took that approach. I listened to their album, Drink the Sea, on repeat, and the circle/triangle brand element [provided by the band] started to evolve. I used Cinema 4d to create a few of the 3d abstract elements with a goal to visually represent the range of sounds, patterns, and “glitch” that I was hearing throughout each track. The shortest distance between two points is a line … one that’s filled with random events.

Check out Babe online:

Blog: www.spiritform.com | Portfolio: www.babebaker.com | Twitter: @spiritform