Rain or Shine

We caught up with the very talented and charming Justin Blampied, the man behind Rain or Shine, to talk Hollywood, commercials and bare knuckle fighting...

Picasso: What inspired Rain or Shine, where did the name come from?
Rain or Shine: Before my boys were born, my time was split between LA and London and I was looking for something that summed that up. Now they’re too old for me to leave for any length of time, so I’m thinking of re-branding to ‘Cold N’ Wet’.

P: Where in the world were you born/grew up?
RoS: I come from a family of 'London Gypsies' my Dad was an Architect, so there was a new house to live in every year or two. There isn’t a borough of London I haven’t lived in. Anyone today who calls me Gypo or anything similar, is immediately challenged to a bare knuckle fight in the nearest car park.

P: Where in the world do you currently live?
RoS: London, best place in the world.

P: How did you get into Design & Animation? When did you know it was for you?
RoS: By complete accident. A friend at college turned up with a copy of Premiere, before After Effects and Flame and motion graphics as it is now. There was a moment when we realised we could make our stuff move and that was it, ‘true love’.

P: Did you study Art /Design? If so, where?
RoS: Blackheath college of art, which went bust halfway through my foundation, then Camberwell.

P: How would you describe your style? How did it develop?
RoS: That’s a very tough one to answer, because I’m not sure that I have a fixed style. I illustrate and do children’s books as well as film titles so it’s pretty broad, I like and try to do everything depending on the brief.

P: Who/What has been your biggest influence in your career?
RoS:  Crumbs, that’s another toughy. My first true love was comic books, but we fell out when I started dating motion graphics. Since then I’ve flirted with victorian packaging, anything animated, particularly if it’s from Japan, Saul Bass, because I think he may well be God, Tron, Final Fantasy, stickers, badges, the seventies, the eighties, it just goes on and on. I think the things we like change as we change and I love seeing what other people are doing, whether it’s in animation, design or film.

If there was a single person though, it would have to be Robert Dawson, a legend in title design who I was lucky enough to work with in LA. ‘The Bob’ rocks.

P: Hollywood Movie Titles and Graphics; are Commercials a bit boring after that?

RoS: Not a bit. The aesthetics are usually very different. I was lucky enough to do commercials in LA along with the film stuff and I think both are brilliant, especially with the right brief, before the states I workied mainly in channel branding – so really as long as it moves, I’m all over it.

P: Award winning Childrens Book Illustrator – are there more books in you?

RoS: I’m working on a bunch at the moment, but apparently I’m not allowed to talk about them…But yes, definitely more books, it’s a lot of fun and a completely different headspace.

P: Is there one specific project that you feel best sums up your style?

Ros: Not remotely. Though my favourite gig was the titles for X-men 2. Sadly it has one of the ugliest Logo resolves in the history of animation ( it was a long time ago and completely my fault ), It took my first love of comic books and my motion graphics, and put them together – I did cartwheels when we came out of the meeting for that one.