I was very kindly invited to be interviewed for a the 'Imagination Edition' of London's uber-cool creative publication, 'Fabric-a Magazine'. It ended up being a first-up, fourteen page feature exploring many aspects of me and my most recent work. I hope it gives some background as to who I am and what I'm all about. It was certainly a very humbling experience and I am am very grateful to Creative Director Andrea Horne, and Editor In Chief Edyta Michalska for the more than flattering opportunity to share my work and outlook.

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fabrica
THE IMAGINATION OF
MICHAEL I. ROBBIE
Interview by Andrea Horne
Michael I. Robbie is a graduate of the elite London Design
University. He currently works as a freelance artist and
multidisciplinary designer in the Northeast of England.
He is fortunate to have worked in art, architecture, graphics,
fashion, illustration, interiors, furniture, and product design.
He was recently published in Australia’s Sneaky Magazine
with the cover and four double spreads. He has endless
enthusiasm for fashion and loves to merge the most disparate
of things into truly innovative and intriguing work.
food for the main event, the creative
process itself. I hope I reflect the
things my eyes have clapped on;
only I’d rather allow my own (and
that of any team or subject matter I
might be working with) visual and
You must have quite the vivid
intellectual sensibilities rule the
imagination to create the pictures
final result.
that you do. Where do you get
your inspiration?
Emulation is important, it better
I find mostly from a process of
helps us understand more advanced
exploration and experimentation.
and sophisticated practitioners in
I get myself in the right frame of
whichever respective field, but I’d
mind, and ‘get on with it’, or at least,
rather it merely informs my work
that’s how it seems to happen best.
rather than drives my creativity.
I find it’s more about me removing
the distractions as best as I can, and
How do you define the word ‘art’?
find your own path, ‘by walking it’
Well, to avoid the usual learnrather than thinking too much or
ed responses, I suppose to me, art
talking about it.
best exists in those moments when
something happens unexpectedly,
Certainly, I keep aware of what’s
and we are consumed by it. The
going on as best as I can, I’m sure
element of surprise, magic, intrigue,
I miss little. I’m in no doubt I’m
play, that happens every once in a
impacted by those things I come into
while. Art is ‘one of those words’,
contact with, but it is mostly snack
means a lot of things to a lot of
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people, and they often have their
own distinct views on it. I endeavor
not to define it, as any definition will
change as I grow and learn, it seems
frivolous and unhelpful to define it.
I’m not good with defining myself,
I have many consistent threads,
which are certainly coherent, but
they’re just subject to change over
time through experience. Though
I am inclined to believe that art is
life, and life is art. There seems like
there’s a finality in trying to define
art as there would be life, though
we’ll no doubt endlessly try to,
I’m not convinced it’s a virtuous
vocation. I guess I’m saying, I know
it when I see it, and I am grateful,
as a nightmare of endlessly painting
the same canvas so to speak, simply
wouldn’t do!
You are a graduate of London
Design University. Tell us about
your university days.
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