Alec Doherty is a man of many talents... and contradictions. He’s an incredible artist (though I’m sure he’d flinch to be called that) and when talking to him it’s abundantly clear that he knows his craft and its history, yet he’s possibly the least pretentious person I’ve ever met. He delights in the physicality of objects - in an alternate reality he may have been a cabinet maker, yet the thing you’ll know him for in this life is his illustration. His favourite piece of work is the one he did most recently, for about 10 minutes, and then he hates it and moves on to the next. Ever evolving his style, getting stuck into his next piece of work (illustrative or otherwise) and constantly absorbing inspiration from world around him - Alec is a creative force to be reckoned with. He’s also a remarkably nice guy, full of laughter and spirit, as well as lot of self-deprecating humour about his talent - which is funny, seeing as the work so clearly speaks for itself.

Alec grew up in the small town of Darlington in North East England. After the revelation that being an illustrator was indeed a legitimate career path ("Draw pictures and make a living from it? That's just impossible!"), he went on to study Art and Design at college, and spent some time working summers in his sister’s Graphic Design studio, “cutting things out, doing mockups, playing with spray mount” etc. While studying Graphic Design at University, Alec was tutored by Mick Marston (of The Futile Vignette), and Mick played a big part in encouraging Alec to pursue his illustration more seriously.

After a good stint of post-graduation design agency work in London, Alec finally decided to take the plunge and try to make a living from his illustration. That was about 18 months ago and while he’s “not making a killing or anything”, things seem to be going from strength to strength.

When asked about his illustrative style, Alec talks about big colours and simple shapes and how that creates the required space for people to personally get involved with a piece. “Some of the most evocative books I’ve read were as a child, with 10 words on each page or something. It allows you to put your own self into it.” he tells me. This is where Alec is coming from with his artwork - wanting to strip everything back and give people their own way to engage. He takes a lot of inspiration for the details in his pieces from popular culture and sees that as a route to communicating with his audience - “I love the idea of someone procrastinating over a beer with one of my drawings on the label and being like ‘oh yeah, I can see that reference, that’s to do with this thing!’”

Simple but busy, it’s clear to see how Alec’s signature style is hugely influenced by 50’s and 60’s Graphic Design. He cites mid-century record covers and posters as playing an important role in what he does, and that’s easy to see when you look at the work of some of Alecs favourite artists, Jim Flora, Hans Schleger and Abram Games, alongside his own. Of course it isn’t just the past influencing Alec’s style - he’s a member of the Puck Collective, whose fantastic artists always keep Alec on his toes in terms of developing his own work and this is something that he’s constantly striving to do.

“It’s quite hard when people start recognising you for what you're doing and you become a bit entrenched in that.” Alec tells me, “Not that I’m recognised!” he quickly adds with a laugh, “But, y’know, I’d imagine that’s what would happen if I was. I want to keep adapting. I hope my work doesn't look the same in 6 or 12 months time, I hope it constantly evolves.” He describes a process of plateauing with something, then reaching a stage where you want to step it up, which I think will be familiar to us all. For Alec this also involves stepping sideways on occasion, into “anything that seems cool”, which perhaps explains why there is so much more to Alec than his illustrative work.

A man of many talents, Alec paints and works with wood - “but that will never see the light of day!” he laughs. He also makes films as one half of TwoFriends, which, rather unsurprisingly, is a collaboration with a friend, Morgan Spencer. They like to make films about people who are creating things too - so far we’ve seen a book maker, a biscuit maker and a beer maker (more on him later), and most recently they’ve been working on a film about a female ice sculptor - the only one in the country apparently. Alec also talks very passionately about music, the role it plays in his life and how it is so critically important to his illustration.

“We've all got big emotional connections to music, as people generally. It's kind of tribal really.” Alec explains. “Music can get you out of any situation, or even in deeper if that’s what you need”. It takes Alec a little while to zone in when he’s working on something so the right music is key to his process. As a youngster he listened to hip hop and reggae, but started to broaden his horizons when the internet brought a whole new history and world of music to his attention. He speaks in awe of being able to find some obscure Northern Soul record that his Dad hasn’t heard since the 60’s in a matter of seconds online. Alec feels very passionately about the positive influence the internet has when it comes to music, and how it's come to define a whole generation of music lovers.

If you’ve been out for a beer in London lately, you may have seen some of Alec’s work in the flesh, so to speak. He’s been creating labels for Partizan beers since they opened their craft brewery in 2012. With a couple of new beers launched each week and a new label required for each, Alec has his work cut out for him. Initially he approached the project by putting together a more traditional graphic design style for the labels, which friend and Partizan founder Andy Smith decided he hated in favour of Alec’s drawings. A staggering 147 illustrated labels and a tote bag design later, Alec tells me more about this project. “As a body of work the Partizan stuff is probably my favourite as it’s a bit of a diary. I can look back at labels and see where I was at the time.” He loves doing the work as he has complete creative freedom and limited time, as while that can make things challenging, it’s also very freeing as there’s not too much time to ponder.

“It’s just like doodling!” Alec laughs. He takes label inspiration from a combination of what was going on in the brewery when they are developing the beers and also any cultural and historical influences that feel relevant or current - for example the brewing date might have historical significance or there might be something going on in the world that Alec feels needs to make an appearance. “With any work there should be a little bit of personality there.” Alec says “You should find out a little bit about who that person is through their imagery.” When asked about narrative in his designs, Alec explains that initially with the Partizan labels there was some narrative running through the set - as the style of each beer label often stays the same, but the details change. At first there was a real New Orleans vibe to the story (a personal love of both Alec and Andy), with a girl that danced, then an affair that happened between two of the characters, but nowadays it’s all a bit more spontaneous, and motifs make an appearance more on gut feeling.

For a man apparently without a plan, Alec Doherty is certainly not lacking in focus and drive, and has creativity in spades. Personally I love the colour, energy and playfulness of his illustrations, which if his philosophy of finding something out about an artist through their work is true, seems to sum him up to a tee.