Interview with AIDAN HUGHES [BRUTE!]
Interface Magazine, v.4.1
by Andy Waggoner

Most of our readers know Brute! as the person/entity who does the KMFDM artwork, but millions of people know the work of Aidan Hughes, whose BRUTE! Propaganda company is the external face to this multi-talented man. Whether they realize it or not, they've seen Hugh's artwork, even if they've never heard of KMFDM. Whether it's from the animation thai Hughes created for MTV or his animation work for Microsoft Networks that he is doing with musician Chris McRae ("it's going to he sort of like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari meets the Flintstones") to the video game ZPC that was Hughes' brainchild, his intense style is curiously familiar to many. Hughes' dramatic work, like Ihe image that graces the cover of this issue of Interface, has an incredible impact. It's dramatic images and hard lines epitomize the current state of western culture. With the collapse of the USSR and East Germany, and the past coming back to haunt us, Hughes' images reflect World War II propaganda and the stories they seem to tell are as hard as the world we live in: violent, greedy, murderous, and seedy.

Over the past 20 some years, Hughes' work has been mostly paintings that cross the line between graphic design and fine art, and yet push the envelope either way. Working with japanese brush pens he creates brash and bold images that do no less than jump out and slap one in the face. Taking those images into his computer, Hughes can then add refinements, detail and swatches of color that bring even more intensity to the aleady strikinq imagery. His work brings together the bold lines, larger than life characters and graphic elements of Russian propaganda posters, Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, Marvel Comics' Jack Kirby and woodcut artist Frans Masereel into a design sense that is more effective today than ever before.

Taking this powerful sense of design into a publication form, Hughes published the pulp magazine, BRUTE! in the mid-eighties under E' publications, a literary art group that Hughes formed wilh Malcolm Bennett, a poet from his hometown of Merseyville, England. Despite initial success with the multimedia performance art shows that E' performed, it was the publication of BRUTE! that truly launched Hughes' career.

This humerous magazine was a pulp commentary on the political and cultural environment of England at the time; the print equivalent to the Punk movement happening at the time. It's sharp blend of biting comedy and Hughes' style of imagery made BRUTE! an instant success.

Hughes was soon comissioned by Blitz magazine to write and illustrate a monthly short story in their publication. This feature was nly one of many other examples of graphic work Hughes had been doing for the British press, and his images attracted the attention of London-based TV producers. They gave him the opportunity to create a series of short films based on the characters in BRUTE! That was the beginning of a journey into the art of the moving picture that today Hughes considers to be his favorite medium to work in.