Julian Mayor is a British artist and designer known for his sculptural works in welded sheet metal. Using high-tech design processes, the artist creates each piece digitally on a computer before building them by hand in his workshop. Born in 1976, Mayor graduated with a BA in Industrial Design from the University of Northumbria in 1998, followed by an MA from the Royal College of Art in Design Products under Ron Arad. After graduating in 2000, he moved to Northern California and worked for a design consultant agency as a product and interior designer. By 2004, Mayor returned to London to work for UK-based agencies, including Pentagram, and collaborated with British designer Tom Dixon. The artist’s work has been exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum London, the Museum of Arts and Design New York, MUDAC Lausanne Switzerland and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park UK. He has installed a permanent series of sculptural benches in a park behind the Tate Britain in Pimlico, London. Mayor lives and works in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK.

1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

I was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK. I live and work between Doncaster and West London. 

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

My dad’s dad worked as an estimator in a steel mill, but he was also a fairly serious painter. I spent quite a bit of time around him and his art as a kid. 

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field, and what led you to the design creation ?

I enjoyed art and design from a young age, and always hoped to be able to live by being a creator or artist of some kind. I’ve been making things since I was a teenager, originally with help from my dad (and mum), but then on my own. 

4. What led you to the design creation ?

I studied product design at Northumbria University and then design products at the Royal College of Art, where I was greatly inspired by Ron Arad (course director at the time) and his group of lecturers, who encouraged us to get out into London and see the breadth of great art being produced and shown here. It began my interest in seeing as many shows as I am able to in the city and when I’m travelling.

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

The process of developing a new design or artwork sometimes begins with an inspiration, an artwork, or an artist, but just as often it comes from spending time in focused playing around in 3D modelling programs on the computer until something good starts to happen.

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

I generally spend 3 days of each week piecing works together with Chris, my assistant, and then welding them in my workshop in Doncaster. I spend the other 2 days of the week developing new work and replying to emails. 

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

I started making things with wood, but I taught myself to weld metal around 20 years ago and liked the immediacy and feel of it. I have enjoyed making work with sheet metal in its many finishes and variations ever since. 

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

I think one of the techniques that is particular to my work is the weld lines, leaving them unpolished allows them to tell the story of the process of making a work.

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Have fun and enjoy it, it’s a privilege to work as an artist. But unless you’re independently wealthy, it’s also a job, and it’s important not to expect that every second will be a stroke of inspiration. Sometimes patience and perseverance are equally important.

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

3D modelling meets process-driven making.

11. What designers and artists have influenced you ?

I don’t really make a distinction between designers and artists because I think there’s quite a bit of overlap. Lynn Chadwick, a mid century British artist who was a pioneer of ‘additive’ (rather than cast) sculpture, Franz West the Austrian artist who is well known for welded furniture and sculpture produced in the 1970’s and 80’s and Lee Bontecou, another mid century artist from the USA whose sculpture is made of fabric stretched over metal armatures. These three artists bring the story of the making process into the artwork itself, which I find inspiring. 

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Tom Sachs and his bricolage approach, Thomas Houseago, his sculpture is powerful and visceral, and his smaller works have an unexpected design sensibility.

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

My design thinking and life thinking have been influenced by Karl Ove Knausgaard, the Norwegian writer. He has spent time thinking about the way one can approach life as an artist in the present day.

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

Craft Punk. 

PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

You’re good boys-I say it to the kids way too much. 

12. Which talent would you most like to have?

Perfect pitch. 

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d have confidence around strangers. 

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

The relationship with my partner. 

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

I’d like to be a bird, the act of flying would be amazing. 

16. Where would you most like to live?

London. 

17. What is your most treasured possession?

My phone. 

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Starvation. 

19. What is your favorite occupation?

Welding, it’s meditative. 

20. What is your most marked characteristic?

I would like to say originality, but you’d have to check with someone who knows me. 

21. What do you most value in your friends?

Stability. 

22. Who are your favorite writers?

Thomas Pynchon, Zadie Smith, Karl Ove Knausgaard. 

23. Who is your hero of fiction?

Tyrone Slothrop in Gravity’s Rainbow. 

24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

–

25. Who are your heroes in real life?

The gallerists who represent my work. 

26. What are your favorite names?

Lucas, Elliot. 

27. What is it that you most dislike?

Duplicity. 

28. What is your greatest regret?

I try not to live life with regrets. 

29. How would you like to die?

Peacefully. 

30. What is your motto?

Life is unpredictable.