Mr Bingo (or Mr. Bingo), born in 1979, is an illustrator and animator, living and working in London, UK.

Biography

Mr Bingo works from his studio, in Shoreditch, London.” He describes himself as having a “slightly smaller than average” head and “girl’s arms,” plus “the same haircut as his mum”. He includes amongst his influences “[the] local ASDA supermarket, thick humans, fat humans, dogs who wear clothes, the British abroad, overheard conversations and juvenile graffiti,” and creative individuals including Geoff McFetridge, Marion Duechars, Graphic Thought Facility, Silex and Martin Parr. He says that an ideal project might be to design “a record cover for a band or artist that I’m really into”. His star sign is Aquarius.

Work

His first paid work involved “character and background designs” for the BBC Three animated TV series Monkey Dust. He has also produced artwork advertising the Suicide Girls’ first tour, and has also produced posters for the Scottish Food Standards Agency.

Among his many clients are such big-name companies as Oxfam, Orange, Nike, the BBC, Volkswagen, Virgin, Converse, Howies, Carhartt, Absolut and MTV. He also does editorial illustrations and other work for both The Financial Times and The Guardian newspapers, and has had work featured in magazines as diverse as Bearded, Dazed and Confused and GQ, while his art has also been featured in Creative Review and Icon magazines.

In 2006 and 2007, he provided the covers for the two QI books based on the comedy panel quiz fronted by Stephen Fry. The Book of General Ignorance and The Book of Animal Ignorance are both published by Faber and Faber. A selection of rough artwork and preliminary designs have since been showcased by the QI website.

A selection of his work can be found on his website, and he has created a number of limited edition silkscreen prints which can be viewed online, and (so far) consist of “Hair portraits” - famous “faces”, illustrated only by their hair. He has also designed a couple of T-shirts, including one for Club Compression, San Francisco-based club promoters.

He counts “beatboxing” and “Scrabble” among his hobbies, and collects pairs of trainers.

(Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bingo)