Mauro Gatti

By: Alessandra G

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are pleased to introduce to you
a super-talented Italian creative.
His honest, non-fashion, bright ideas and illustrations
make us smile, and he loves to smile and have fun too.
We are sure you will do the same looking at his work.
Welcome to the house of fun of Mauro Gatti.

MM: Please introduce yourself.
MG: I’ve never been to art school. All I know and all I’m able to do comes from my twisted mind, a youth spent playing videogames, reading comic books and watching cartoons all day long. The fun fact is that I always wanted to become a doctor! Then, one marvellous day, my brother started a course to learn Office, and a computer made its appearance in our bedroom. In two months I got psyched with the new “magic box” while my brother left the course (and a few years later, I left the university). Since that days I never stopped to think that a computer, considering that my drawing skills are limited to draw like a kid, is the perfect tool to shape my ideas into something that people can enjoy and have fun at watching.
I think that day after day I realized that I love to draw and daydream, leave my creativity free run, spend the night collecting textures, swear when the spinning beach ball comes on, meet creative and talented people, hope that my drawings make people smile, try to explain to my parents what I do for living and pretend that this Peter Pan syndrome will never leave my creative side.

MM: In 2004 you founded your own studio, Mutado. How do you manage the compromise with the clients and your illustrator nature?
MG: It’s not easy and it’s just thanks to my lack of sleep that I can handle all the “personal” work when the regular 10 hours work day is over. I love working at night when the telephone doesn’t ring every 5 minutes, you hear the dogs snoring and nothing distracts you from drawing and thinking.

MM: What doesn’t inspire you?
MG: Caos. I usually try to avoid crowded and noisy situations, they made my mind feel dull.

MM: Is Mutado Mauro Gatti? Or is your personal work something different?
MG: Mutado isn’t absolutely me. I founded Mutado years ago with my long time friend and business partner Lorenzo Manfredi and since then, with the help of great folks like Davide Saraceno, Davide Ragona, Roberta Cerri or Stefano Buffoni, the agency took the best of everyone and shaped up into something unique and magic.
Maurogatti.com is the place that I consider a playground for all my extra-agency work, a repository of ideas and illustrations to make people smile. The website header says “Welcome, stranger. While you are in my territory no boring thoughts will fill your head”.

MM: Looking at the Illustration world, what do you write down your blacklist?
MG: I don’t like trends periods. I hate to see young illustrators wasting their time to imitate someone else style, forgetting that if you truly put yourself in your illustrations and spend time developing your own style, your work will be good and unique.

MM: Do you feel you give something to the Italian illustration and communication’s panorama? Do you think you get something back?
MG: I don’t consider myself an illustrator, but more of a creative guy, because I don’t draw as much as I would and I do more interface design, concepts, videos and creative direction. But I hope that by looking at my works, people will see that what really matters is to express what you have inside and that simplicity sometimes is the key to reach people’s heart/brain and make them smile.

MM: Are you the kind of person born with a pencil in the hand, or your story with drawings and communication has got different roots?
MG: I always loved to draw and I always enjoyed making people laugh. I used to draw my own funny comics, because it was a wonderful way of telling stories and drawing pictures at the same time. Then I started to fall in love with digital and slowly moved my creativity and humor from paper to screen. Today my drawing skills on paper are average but all these years I worked hard (and still doing it) to find a good formula: simple style + humor + message . It’s like using a chisel to sculpt a block of stone, removing the excess to reveal the most iconic idea.

MM: Teleportation or tube station?
MG: Beam me up, Scotty!

MM: Your online portfolio is called “House of Fun”, and as you remark “you always try to capture the comical side of life”, and your illustrations reflect this. What amuse you?
MG: From my bio :) I take my inspiration from my quiet life, the sweet Giusy, our pugs Ozzy and Nena, my clumsy bullmastiff Cyrus, the Kiss music, vintage Playboy magazines, Seymour Chwast, Raymond Savignac, Ryohei Yanagihara, Alberto Sordi, Monica Vitti and every funny thing I come across.

MM: Should you stay or should you go?
MG: I like to stay.

MM: Thank you and keep up the good work.
MG: Thanks a lot for you patience :)