Artist Highlight:
Tylor Macmillan aka Deep Gnome 

Our friend Tylor Macmillan is a graphic designer and illustrator on the rise. Predominantly known on the WWW under his pseudonym 'deep gnome', his designs have been integral in shaping the visual identity of Vancouver’s underground music culture in recent years. With his notoriety and influence continuing to grow, he’s also recently been tapped by NYC-based label Ghostly for a beautiful new merch collection.

As pictured here, Tylor's work for our inaugural 2019 release, On Love, is one of our favourites to date. We've also highlighted some of the iconographic works that helped birth the Specials brand and sat him down for a few hard-hitting questions.



Slide through for our conversation with Deep Gnome.

S: What is a deep gnome?

TM: I picked up the name from the Forgotten Realms fantasy series that I read in highschool. I chose it as a joke and now I think it's too late to change it.

Deep gnomes, called svirfneblin in their own language, were a gnome subrace that lived in the Underdark. While their surface cousins were known for their boundless optimism and cheerful mischief, the svirfneblin were serious and suspicious creatures. They survived in the Underdark by maintaining wariness of others and working hard to keep their underground society secret.

S: You’ve played a big role in shaping the visual identity of Vancouver’s underground music culture in recent years (Pacific Rhythm, Paradise, yours truly among others) and were recently commissioned by Ghostly to do a lovely merch collection. How did this go down?

TM: I've been designing and printing t-shirts and posters for fun since high school and ended up doing flyers for friends' shows and events that I was involved in while at art school. I've been lucky to connect with some like-minded people over the years and kept it going. In terms of the Ghostly collaboration, they hit me up to work with them after following me on Instagram. The WWW is a crazy place!

S: What’s something you do to get through a creative block or to seek fresh inspiration?

TM: For the creative block I like to log off, get away from my screen and go for a walk, look at trees, go out for a meal, see some friends, ride my bike, read a book. It's pretty similar for fresh inspiration, I like to listen to music, watch movies, play some video games, go to the thrift store, and look through books etc.

S: What's something you're looking forward to?

TM: Leaving the country for the first time in a few years, seeing all my talented friends do their thing, and the Raptors 2nd championship >:)

GENERAL INQUIRIES: hello@specialsworldwide.com
ADDRESS: 16 East 6th Avenue Vancouver, BC V5T 1J4