In April 2020, two months into the UK lockdown, artist Kieran Glennon was at home experimenting with typography, and in an impulsive moment of creativity, reimagined The Hundreds Bar Logo.

He uploaded his design to Instagram, and on the off chance of a response from The Hundreds, he tagged Bobby, Ben, and the brand then sat back while the likes rolled in. When Kieran checked his phone a few hours later, the last thing he expected was a like from Bobby himself, never mind a comment which read, “Let’s make this!”

Ten months later, as we prepare for the release of the second chapter of The Hundreds Spring 2021 collection, Kieren’s version of our Bar Logo tee is about to drop. In light of this, we hopped Across The Pond where Lynders meets with Kieran over Zoom to find out more about his work and inspirations.  

Kieran, I hear you reign from the same place in Scotland as me – Aberdeen aka Aberdoom aka The Granite City, aka the greyest city in the whole of the UK. Does being from a city known for being GREY influence the heavy use of colour within your work?
I was actually born in Illinois but I have absolutely no memory of that and I was really young when we moved from there to Aberdeen. We only lived in Aberdeen for a few years before we moved to England so I don’t know if I can credit Aberdeen for much, but who knows, maybe all of that grey did subconsciously encourage me to use as much colour as possible in my illustrations.

Your style has been quite varied over the years but has been more digitally focussed for some time now. Can you talk us through that journey?
I used to just paint, paint, paint and at one point even turned my nose up at digital stuff. While I was in university, my tutors used to say I was scared of programmes like Photoshop because I just refused to use them, which is ironic because now I use my iPad and ProCreate for everything.

I discovered ProCreate when I was staying with my Granny to look after her. I only had my iPad with me so I decided to give it a go. If you go back far enough on my Instagram page you’ll see the first character I ever created on ProCreate. From that moment on I became obsessed with ProCreate and have not painted again since.

From there  I took part in 36 Days Of Type on Instagram which is a project that invites artists to express their particular interpretation of letters and numbers.

As each day passed during those 36 days, my designs became more consistent and by the time I reached the last 9 days, where I had to design my take on digits, my style was heavily focussed around geometric and 3D shapes with all parts of the design weaving in and out of each other. The more designs I did, the more I honed in on what is now my style and I’ve stuck with it. It’s what I enjoy.

How do you describe your style of illustration?
It’s very satirical and inspired by what I see or how I feel every day. Sometimes it’s really that simple. For example, I recently did some type work using the words HUNGRY AGAIN because I literally was hungry again.

Some of the characters I draw don’t always have as much narrative drive. I just draw anything I think is fun. I start by drawing a cube or a wrinkly bloke and then create characters and a world around either of those two starting points.

Looking at your work I feel lost in a 1930’s cartoon or in the weird and wonderful world of Cuphead. How do cartoons and video games influence your work?
These days I’m not that into cartoons but growing up all I watched was The Simpsons. I often refer back to The Simpsons comics for colour palette inspiration or to check in on how they drew a leg or a specific body part or something. I definitely don’t like new wave cartoons. I like The Simpsons and The Ricky Gervais Show and that’s about it.

Video games have always been a big part of my life. Cuphead is definitely an inspiration, but not in terms of an enjoyable game, I just like their characters. Again I’ll often refer to Cuphead if I want to look at how they have drawn a head looking in a particular direction, for example. I love watching speed runs of Cuphead on Youtube – it makes me want to leap out of my chair and draw. 

What else makes you want to draw?
Seeing other people’s work really inspires me. I use Instagram a lot and recognize social media as a massively important part of my process. Not only does it inspire me but it allows me to share my work with a wider audience and ultimately it also brings me in work and clients.

Can you share your favourite Instagram pages, which you feel bring you the most inspiration?
David Shrigley has always been my favourite artist so I love following him. He has inspired me since my painting days, I love seeing what he comes up with and I frequently check in on his account to see what he is putting out there.  

Thumbs is another one of my favourite artists and a huge inspiration to me. I’m actually looking at an MF Doom print of his which is right in front of me.  

Locally, there is an artist called Superfreak, also based in Birmingham. We have a similar style but he is a few years ahead of me.  

Fockawolf is super cool. He creates fake news billboards and is brilliant.  

As far as brands go, I always check in with The Hundreds and Billionaire Boys Club – two of my favourite brands from both a personal and professional/ creative point of view. 

How did your collaboration with The Hundreds come about?
I used to draw Adam Bomb a lot but moved on to experimenting with type work and decided to play around with The Hundreds Bar Logo and reimagine it in my style. It was as simple as that in terms of creating the graphic. I uploaded my design to Instagram and tagged Bobby, Ben, and The Hundreds in the post, just in case they might see it. I wasn’t really expecting a like or a comment, never mind a proposal from Bobby suggesting that we turn it into a t-shirt. That was huge.

When Bobby put me in touch with David from the design team he asked me to send him over the vector files for my design. At that point, it was a bit of a mad rush on my side. I hadn’t taught myself Illustrator yet and I’d already flattened the image on ProCreate because I didn’t expect any work to come from the design. I had to spend 4 hours that night redrawing my design and all the colour layers so I could send him the correct files that were needed without it seeming like I didn’t have them in the first place. I was very thankful for the eight-hour time difference between England and LA.

I’ve only really been doing this properly for a year and at that point, it had only been a few months. Looking back I don’t think I was really prepared for a brand like The Hundreds to approach me and I had to learn how to work with a brand like that as I went along.  It was a huge learning process for me and I have them to thank for that experience and opportunity. Because of that I always have everything prepared and ready to go now, just in case any work comes out of any of my designs, even when I’m not expecting it to.

How have you been staying motivated during the lockdown? Can you share any other projects you’ve been working on?
Before lockdown, my main approach when it came to securing work was by emailing art directors to try and lock in some commissions or projects, but as we went into lockdown a lot of the projects I had in the works came to a halt because of the uncertainty of the pandemic.

I’ve been really fortunate to work on a few smaller commissions throughout the lockdown, which have been fun, and then more recently I’ve worked with TimeOut London and have had three illustrations featured. That was a really proud moment too!

What is your dream collaboration?
The Hundreds would definitely be one of them, so I’m very happy and excited about this one. I love streetwear and for me, it’s all about having fun. The Hundreds is a fun brand and I like to think my work is fun – what more could I want.  

You can follow Kieran on Instagram HERE or check out his website HERE.