Teefury

Tell us about yourself:
I'm constantly torn between wanting to live simply off the land like Christopher McCandless in Into The Wild (except without the dying of starvation part) and wanting to be Robocop (except without the getting shot to bits part).

Where are you located?
At the moment I'm living in a small town in Staffordshire which is right in the middle of England. But hopefully one day I'll live somewhere sunny by the sea.

What's a day in the life of Lee like?
Well at the moment I tend to get up, wonder why it's not the weekend already, then head to work. Get home, do some drawing, a bit of freelance work, answer emails and mooch about the internet. Then just watch a bit of tv, The World Cup being on at the moment is keeping me busy tv wise. That actually looks really boring when it's written down! I'm much more exciting than it sounds… Honest.

What do you want TeeFury fans to know about you?
"I have nothing to declare but my genius."

If you could go only to one restaurant for the next five years, which would it be?
Coast in Lamai Beach, Koh Samui, Thailand. If anyone reading this ever goes to Koh Samui you really have to go, it's awesome. Plus if I went there everyday for 5 years I'd be in Thailand for 5 years. Sweet.

How did you get your start in art?
I won a colouring competition when I was about 4 or 5. We had to colour in a marathon runner for some reason. My little artistic touch of sweat beads running down his forehead clinched it for me. I think it was then I realised I was creative and I've never really changed my mind since.

If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?
Probably travel… A lot. I travelled around the world for 10 months last year and it was the most amazing thing I've ever done. I also did it on a lot less than $1,000,000 but still had plenty of fun… So just think of the fun I could have had with all that money. That one night in Vegas would've been a whole lot messier for a start!

What advice would you offer to aspiring designers?
"Be a filter not a sponge." A little literary reference for the bookworms out there. Other than that I think just enjoy and love what you're doing. It's the same as anything, if you're not enjoying it then why are you doing it?

Also take advantage of the freedom that college or university give you. When you get into the "real world" you will no doubt end up designing a lot of things you think are boring. Uni is a great place to explore the art and design that you actually like and push projects that would never get commissioned in reality.

MAC or PC?
Every time I'm forced to use Windows I feel like a little piece of my soul dies forever. Mr Jobs, feel free to quote me on that, oh and you can send me an ipad while you're at it if you like.

What are a few of your favorite websites?

Well this is where the internet is getting a little too clever for it's own good. I've started using Bloglovin' to follow all my arty type websites. So I struggle to remember all of my favourites. I used to like FFFFOUND a lot, but it seems to have been watered down a bit lately, It's sort of turned into tumblr which is weird and I'm not sure why it happened. It's strange but all the design blogs I like seem to merge into one these days as they all post much of the same stuff.

I think the one website I use the most is the BBC.co.uk. I think I'd be lost without it.
Any shout outs?

Thanks to everyone who follows my work and sends me positive (and sometimes negative) emails and things. A big thanks to all the cool artists and designers I've met through sites like Flickr too, they're a constant source of inspiration. Cheers to topherchris of Tumblr for the interview (and massive exposure) the other day. And thanks to all my friends and family too, the world would suck without you!