‘Fuck Art, Let’s Dance’: An interview with Chris Morton

Abstract

Born in Singapore, Chris Morton moved with his family to England as a young child, settling in the north-east in the early 1960s. His passion and talent for drawing was reflected in his love of comics and animation, later with a combined interest in music leading him to underground magazines and posters associated with the hippie counterculture. After having to leave art college early in 1975, he found himself in the right place at the right time and was commissioned to create a graphic identity for a new independent record label based in London – Stiff Records. Still running a design studio in Newcastle, he discusses punk, new wave, typography, print technologies, humour, parody and graphic design with Russ Bestley.