Billy Shrimpton has always had a “weird obsession” with pylons. “Walking to school as a kid and looking up at the connecting wires, imagining them as giant walking robots,” he recalls. “With pylons, it’s the juxtaposition between the beautiful and the raw brutal bleakness. A symbol of power in our countryside, a line of metal men walking across our fields.”

Shrimpton was born in the north east of England, and currently resides in Manchester. The graduate comes from a multidisciplinary background, having studied both photography and art in the past. What connects his work, however, are his obsessions: pylons, architecture and trees. He shapes his design work around how people interact with surroundings, and the emotions that spaces conjure up.

University was a formative experience for Shrimpton, who found that being mentored by a range of tutors from different backgrounds – with different tastes in design – was helpful in challenging and encouraging him as a creative. “Tutors like Adam Griffiths and Katie Jones pushed me to create more experimental designs and embrace my interest in the unconventional,” he says.

In his publication, Pylon Poetry, he chose to  “visually explore this idea of juxtaposition through imagery, generating images using effects and distortion to create an impression of static”.

He elaborates, “The poetry was something I discovered along in my development. I found that other creatives and writers felt the need to express their love and fear of pylons.”

Finding other creatives is an ambition of his now that he’s finished his university degree. “My current ambition is to find a group of people, who can help me grow as a designer,” he explains, “to have designers around me who can teach me the ways of the industry. To tell me how to navigate the current world of design.”

On his hopes and dreams, he says, “I want to continue producing publications, exploring unique and unconventional topics. I hope one day to see one of my publications in a magazine store or to have it featured. I just love to share and communicate conceptual narratives in visually exciting ways!”

It’s tough to know your own worth, and especially coming out of a degree there is a fear of rejection or wasting another’s time

As with most creatives, finding meaning in work is a driver for Shrimpton. “In every piece of design I do I try to make it matter, to have relevance to our world,” he says. However, of course, there are challenges in the current climate – and AI is a concern. “When I think about it deeply it does scare me a little, however I think there will always be a place for creatives in an AI-integrated world. I hope people will still want that human touch.”

Another area of improvement that the designer has highlighted for himself is self-promotion. “In the future I want to challenge myself at being better at promoting myself,” he says. “It’s tough to know your own worth, and especially coming out of a degree there is a fear of rejection or wasting another’s time. I want to make more connections and join with other like-minded designers.” Through it all, he sticks to his guiding principle through his work, which was his art foundation tutor’s mantra: “Art should have meaning.”

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