Blumoo is a creator of beautiful posters and record sleeves, and he recently took part in #36DaysOfType, making amazing typographic illustrations in his unmistakable, colourful and carefree style - and releasing a separate free font, Experimental BM. His work makes heavy use of silhouettes of hands and faces, alongside dripping psychedelic gooeyness, smoking and swirling patterns, and occasional nods to a y2k style digital aesthetic. Prints Against Poverty has pinned his work as "interpretations of the
universe, the cosmic, and the abstract" - and it's a lovely interpretation - upbeat, optimistic, and explorative. The level of detail that Blumoo can achieve does make viewing his work feel much like your own exploration. It's a joyful take on the existential, and a galaxy that anyone would like to get lost in.
Blumoo took the time to answer some questions we had for him.
What path in your life lead you to doing graphic design?
I remember that at home they had given my mother a Peruvian advertising book, when I was 15 years old, that book was the beginning of everything, it impacted me a lot, it caught my attention how they developed the graphics, how they did the montages, how they handled the type, the message, I was curious to learn all that, and so I got to know and fall in love more about the subject of graphics, I bought books, I started watching tutorials on the internet, as soon as I finished high school, I didn't think twice, I decided to study graphic design.
What is the process of one of your designs, from initial ideas, to final product?
My process begins with the sketch, fundamental, while I make the sketch, I hallucinate the graphic, I look for references, before going digital, I see if any element of my graphic will have a special texture, I generally create my textures on paper and a black marker, If that is the case, I make the texture, scan it and just start making the poster digitally in Illustrator, once finished I give the final touches in Photoshop.
What’s the story behind your font, Experimental BM regular? Do you think you’ll do much type design in the future?
In 2018 I participated in the challenge #36daysoftype, for work reasons I could not complete the challenge, I had stayed in the letter J. Some time later, reviewing my designs, I found the file of the letters, and it gave me that feeling of finishing the alphabet, In that process, while I was building each letter, I was interested in the topic of creating a typeface and thus Experimental BM was born, it took me almost two years to finish it, perfecting every detail. What I can anticipate is that I have already been working on a new font and in the future I hope to do many more.
Which posters are you most proud of making and why?
At first I focused on making posters for concerts, but over time I became very fond of the concept of posters in general, I am excited to work on any posters, because it is a challenge, you explore new tools to develop, each theme (music , museum, advertising, art) has a universe that transmits that message with my style, it is what I love the most about making posters.
What is your work like - are you freelance? What do you like about it?
I have been freelance for 3 years, what I like about being freelance is the freedom to express what you want, have no limits, be more artistic in terms of communication and above all the variety of projects that you can work on.
What inspires you?
What inspires me mainly is my family, then nature, the cosmic, the space, the abstract, I try to be inspired by many things, every detail of life analyzed carefully is incredible.
Do you have any plans for future work?
Yes, there are many plans for the future with blumoo, we are developing a new online course, working on some exhibitions, interesting things are coming for this year and next, we are going strong.