Brutal Inspiration

Aidan Hughes aka Brute! is a British born artist/illustrator. Predominantly known for his ongoing creative collaboration with the German industrial band KMFDM creating a vast catalogue of tour posters, album artwork and single covers over the past 36 years of their respective careers. He was behind two of the bands most iconic music videos Son of a Gun and Drug Against War, his visuals packing just as much punch as the jack-hammer beat of the industrial music they accompany.

The artists moniker Brute! was derived from the title of his 1984, self published pulp magazine. Hughes produced the anthology series with poet Malcolm Bennett, an anthology of graphic and prose fiction, satirically flavoured noir and described by the authors as:-

‘Sheath-bursting romance! Two-fisted action! Hard-boiled adventure!’

Bennet and Hughes circa 1984

The collected edition of the magazine is available in hardcover, unfortunately Bennett passed away before the publication went to press.

Brute! the Magazine

I like many others stumbled across his work seeing the KMFDM - Drug Against War video on a late night music television and was instantly drawn in by the distinctive style.

An visual aesthetic that is equal parts Jack Kirby and Soviet Connstructivism by way of hardboiled pulp styling (proven and developed in the pages of his Brute! magazine). The combined result, a distinctly punk rock vibe featuring angular, stylised characters rendered with sharp geometric line work, high contrast tones and an almost weaponised application of spot colour. Giving Brute’s imagery the impact of a brass knuckle shot to the eyes.

KMFDM by Brute!

His understanding of lighting and form really shines through by way his distinctive shading techniques, thick hatch lines reminiscent of linocut art prints provide his illustrations with a palpable quality of solidity and substance (this quality is a personal metric in judging illustrative and comic book artwork). Often employing juxtaposed areas of densely packed detail against minimal flat areas colour, dynamically thrusts his subjects forward and virtually out of the frame towards the viewer.

His illustrations carry a palpable narrative quality, every image delivered is a glimpse of a much larger story in progress, a story that’s often action packed, hectic and dark.

KMFDM Cover to the album WTF! Massive Attack vs the Mad Professor Vol. 02

Not limited to the medium of print and animation, 1996 saw Hughes venture into the field of video games, acting as art director and designer for the title ZPC(Zero Population Control). The game was built on the Marathon engine by Bungie (the triple A company responsible for the Destiny games today). A sci-fi themed first person shooter had Brute’s distinctive art,a minimal plot with strangely satirically religious overtones, fun gameplay and solid level design.

Menu Screen for ZPC

An advertisement for the game featuring the Christ styled hero of the game.

Also in the digital realm, Hughes contributed graphics to the KMFMS, an organisation dedicated to raising awareness regarding the evils of Microsoft and offering alternatives to their software. The website is still being maintained but also has the same UI design it had back in 1998.

KMFMS

From the digital frontier to the physical world, Hughes was behind a variety of large scale murals, most notably his 2003 effort in Barga, Italy. Reportedly produced in a single moonless night, the scale of the 75 metre long mural is impressive feat and the sharp graphic styling of the image is as equally striking. Unfortunately this mural was covered after a brief 5 days of visibility by a soil retaining wall.

The Barga, Italy Mural

Another notable work was a Brute art-directed promo for MTV entitled Rocky! directed by Mike Smith of FFake Animation. It first aired on the seminal 90’s animated anthology series Liquid Television amongst such visual treats as the live action adaptation of Charles Burns Dog Boy and the original run of the amazing Aeon Flux shorts by Peter Chung.

It’s a breakneck paced vignette in the tradition of the Brute! pulp magazine - delivering a fantastic, noir story in the pulp tradition in 36 seconds. Watching this I immediately thought of Frank Miller’s Sin City.

Overall if you like retro pulp themed imagery, propaganda posters or even German Industrial music, I highly recommend pursuing the work of Aiden Brute! Hughes. You’ll be entertained at the very least and hopefully a little inspired (as I am).

Brute! is still actively producing artwork, in the form of his collected Brute magazine hardcover book and original prints. You can follow him on his Twitter or check out his Official Site.

*A recent semi animated lyrics video for “Hell Yeah” by KMFDM