As soon as I graduated from university I took part with the rest of my class in a big exhibition called "New designers" in London. It promotes graduates from a vast range of creative fields from car design and textiles design to graphic design. That's where an italian restaurant chain called Zizzi saw my work. A few months later they asked me to paint a mural in one of their restaurants. Nothing too complicated when you know how to do it, right?

The thing is I didn't have a clue of how to do a mural, but I was so excited to get my first contract that I took it with both hands. I was definitely out of my comfort zone but I was determined to make the most of the opportunity.

Luckily my parents had a sort of summer house with a quite big wall at the end of the garden so I just went down there with paint and brushes and practiced. I painted over and over again on the same wall, trying to improve my technique, learning from my mistakes... I completely ruined their summer house! I learnt murals this way before doing the actual thing for Zizzi's restaurant.

It was worth it because Zizzi loved my work. Later on they asked me to do other murals and then they hired me to work in house with them. I'm also doing some freelance jobs on the side. I'm very happy to see how things have gone so far and I enjoy being in this industry.

Generally I don't really like advertising, but I feel that when illustration is involved in an advertising campaign, the result is usually more light-hearted, more characterful; it seems to communicate more positivity. It's not this boring guy in a white lab coat advising you to buy his tooth paste if you want to avoid getting sick...

When illustrators work on an ad the message is usually trying to make you feel better. And that makes all the difference!

Tobias Hall

Hand letterer and typographer.