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Designer Interviews – Niels Shoe Meulman, Artist

by Corinne Smith

Niels Shoe Meulman is a Dutch artist, born, raised and based in Amsterdam. As Shoe, NSM earned his stripes in the global graffiti scene in the 80’s through his pioneering style, adding a distinct European approach to the discipline. In the 90’s Meulman trained with Dutch graphic design guru Anthon Beeke, ran the award-winning design studio Caulfield & Tensing, worked as an art director for the BBDO Group and as creative director for MTV Europe. In 2007 NSM made the decision to focus on his art again. Publisher FHTF, Berlin, published Calligraffiti, the Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman, which presents his own unique style of writing that combines masterful calligraphy skills with the speed and attitude of graffiti. Ever since, NSM has been travelling to spread the magic of his Calligraffiti around the globe. His recent painting style can be described as Abstract Expressionism with a Calligraphic origin.

- Unruly Gallery Press Release, January 2012

You’ve had a very successful and well-established career in design. Was there a specific turning point in your career that led you to focus on your art?

Yes, in a nutshell my career – if you can call it that – went like this:
I started out doing graffiti as a kid, and from that we had a lot of jobs e.g. murals. Out of that we formed a graphic design company called Caulfield & Tensing. After a couple of years doing that I wanted to be more on the more conceptual side. That was one of the turning points, when I sold my company to BBDO.
Afterwards I spent a couple of years working in advertising as an art director. At one point they wanted me to create advertisements for laxatives. Also, my friends who cared about me and were supportive of me were telling me I needed to get out of the ‘9-5’ role (or even ‘9-9’ in many cases). The people that know me have always viewed me as an artist and I guess all those years doing communication: graphic design and advertising combined… It did help me – I learnt a lot and I’m very visual. I always look at typography and have been very interested in type.
I tried to run an advertising agency by myself with a partner for a while, but it was very clear I had to go back to what I did before as a teenager and paint. Calligraffiti came out of all this knowledge and experience I’ve had.

Has your design and advertising background heavily influenced your creative process?

It has influenced me more as a person. Now that I’m painting I really don’t care about it so much. I try to analyse myself a little bit but not too much. But as an artist I think I should let things be as they are and tap into more personal things compared to working for a client; because there is no brief, which is the biggest difference.

Your Upside Down Tour includes site-specific art and live murals. Do you prefer the spontaneity of this method for exhibiting?

If I go back to all the exhibitions I’ve done in the last couple of years a lot of site-specific art has been going on and I like it. If I can give you some examples: in Los Angeles two years ago I had a show called Throw Ups. I enjoyed throwing paint at the canvas and combining the finesse of calligraphy with the roughness of graffiti.
I do bring a lot of work with me but still I think maybe it is a little heritage I got with working in advertising, all kinds of expressive things work better if there is an overall concept. I guess the really huge concept is Calligraffiti in itself. With every tour or exhibition it is nice to have a handle to direct myself as in a way I am my own client at the moment. You have to create your own boundaries and work, and it can be very hard at times. It is sort of schizophrenic because you are the client and the artist at the same time.

Working for yourself as a solo artist, do you feel it is important to collaborate with other creatives?

There are two sides to this. I do like to hear other people’s opinions and I soak up a lot of information. On the other side, being an artist is a lonely endeavor. Working in design or advertising you sit with other people, you have meetings and talk about what you do. But being an artist you have to do it all by yourself. It can be lonely; you are with your canvas and no one is telling you what direction to go with. I think there needs to be a balance of both.

How did Calligraffiti originate?

When I was a teenager I was very blown away by the New York graffiti scene. There was a graffiti scene in Amsterdam before we knew about the trains being painted in New York, but when I met all those guys in the eighties and I saw what they were doing with spray cans and it was mind blowing.
Just before that I had two passions: one was graffiti and one was calligraphy. I think the force of New York graffiti was taking over the world – particularly in the art world. For every teenager it was like skateboarding – it was something to do. I guess the graffiti took over my calligraphy passion and after so many years the calligraphy came back. I also realised graffiti can be a bit strict. It is a beautiful scene with crews and everyone knows each other and we all exchange photographs and ideas. For me it was necessary to step back and see the bigger picture about the art of writing, which in a way is what graffiti really is.
Since I’m from Europe I had to go back in time, but I didn’t have to go another continent to find the Monks who were doing their scriptures and illuminated books and writing. That always fascinated me. Maybe in a way those Monks were the graffiti writers of their time.

From graffiti legend to a successful career in design and advertising, and now to creating Calligraffiti; where to from here? How do you continue to challenge yourself creatively?

If only I knew! I’m not sure if I have a good answer. If you had asked me the same question ten years ago I wouldn’t know I’d be here right now. To go with the flow is part of my DNA. I have a saying: “unexpect the expected”. Whenever you expect something you should also be open to change those expectations. Sure, I have a goal, I have ambitions, but for me the freedom of being an artist and selling my work is probably – career-wise – the best job there is. If you don’t sell anything and you are super un-successful, and you needed to rent a container to put all your art in then it is really bad. Once you have a little bit of success then the sky is the limit.
The challenge is continuing to make new, fresh and interesting work. But I’m pretty confident about that.

Do you have any advise for any designers who want to transition into a career in art?

Maybe I can give you an example. My girlfriend Adele just started working at a graphic design studio here in Amsterdam. It was a pretty good job – she learnt a lot and had very nice colleagues. But I guess you have to work out what type of person you are. If you are a bird, you have to fly. If you are the type of graphic designer that is a bird then you don’t want to be in a cage. Being behind a computer day-in-day-out can be like being in a cage. Sure, some birds are perfectly happy being in a cage, and if you are then please keep doing what you are doing. But if you really are a bird then you have to fly.

Is there anything you’d like to tell us about the Upside Down Tour?

There is a lot of work that has a reoccurring visual theme, which is the repetition of one stroke. It is just a basic calligraphic stroke. If you look at any typeface, even the sans-serif typefaces are constructed in such a way, there is always something visual from the dark ages, the medieval monks that were writing with their quills and pens.
To go back to what I’m doing, it is like doing that one simple stroke over and over again. For me it is kind of practice. To repeat the same thing over again, I wouldn’t say it is meditative (because that is not me at all) but I can very much understand that this kind of Zen-type thinking and calligraphy are close. Even if you are throwing paint bombs it is still calligraphy and maybe it is a different kind of monk, however it is the same kind of connection.

Unruly Gallery presents: Calligraffiti Upside Down Tour
Wednesday February 8th, 6.30pm – 8pm: AUT / DINZ Lecture (free)
February 9 – March 1: Calligraffiti Upside Down Exhibition, Saatchi & Saatchi Exhibition
More information here