Eye Candy: Dom Sum (LuckyMe)

LuckyMe is a force to be reckoned with. It's a dramatic thing to say, sure, but there's something about the fam that seems limitless. From the music to the fashion to the parties to the artwork - everything they do is on point, 100%. Dom Sum, aka the dude that's sometimes seen slinging a mic at London's Thugs N Hugs parties, is the LuckyMe resident artist/designer, amongst other things (again, refer back to the word 'limitless')...and his work is currently causing a stir in other circles, most notably for Warp with Hudson Mohawke's hypercolour debut LP cover and for Planet Mu, with his creation for Mary Anne Hobb's  'Wild Angels' compilation. We sat him down to for a mind-opening chat about his projects and inspiration itself.

Please introduce yourself…
Hi my name is Dominic Flannigan but my friends call me Dom Sum. In partnership with Martyn Flyn I head the label LuckyMe, who release new strains of music, promote parties and art direct in fashion & music. I'm a producer in the group The Blessings, but for this lil' interview I'm wearing my art director's head.

How would you describe your art, to the uneducated?
I'm a musician first, I tend to observe the world with music foremost in my mind. With regards to our visual work, in a nut shell, I'm a Graphic Designer. That title allows me to change my work for every brief. I have worked in sculpture, photography, illustration, fashion, typography and environmental design to make work that is a suitable response to the brief.

How did you get into art? Was it something that you were always into, or can you pinpoint down a moment of realization (of sorts)?
I can remember a sun drenched Sunday when I must've been about four years old. My parents were smoking pot and watching a 'Lost in Space' rerun on Channel 4 and I was sat under the cloud of curling smoke drawing out the opening credits. I can remember asking how to spell 'space' and drawing the astronauts tied to each other on cable. I just remember being SO in the drawing. I used to crave drawing.

What musicians/labels have you worked with?
We've worked with Japanese Label Circulations, All City in Dublin, Planet Mu and Warp Records on artists as varied as pianist Luke Slott and Radio One's Experimental host Mary Anne Hobbs.



When you listen to music, do you picture it visually? And vice versa - do you ever attribute songs to things you see?
I think we all posses synesthesia in varying degrees. I definitely see mad colours when I hear music. Smells set me thinking about sounds. I think all our senses are tied so close it's hard to pick em apart. Or at least mine are. Like I said before, I sorta see the world in music now. I think in music. If I see a que to a club at night I think of the stretched out chords of our song 'Moranis Riding Ants'. I mean, all this helps with the design work because on a listen I will be pulled somewhere by the music. Man, hard question, all this shit is very vague and interconnected to me. I just see the music and the look as the same thing.


How did you come up with the concept for Wild Angels? (above)
For Mary Anne's Wild Angels we wanted to make it a more expansive campaign and identity than Evangeline, her proceeding compilation which I believe was designed in-house at Planet Mu. At LuckyMe we always think about surrounding media, even with a sleeve job, and for the title Wild Angels we all got together and brainstormed a few routes. The chosen route was to make a series of horror characters in the woods, playing on the gang connotations of the title but bringing our gang up to date with references of modern street gangs. So looking at some fashion sculpture and folk art for inspiration and we made three full outfits of wolves and skulls and a lead figure, the witch, and shot both video and still photography in the woods around Callander. We had full light rigs, smoke machines, neon scene lighting, fire torches and the shot looked amazing. Including models and assistants there were ten of us in that forest all freezing our asses off in one of the windiest nights of the year. It was clear on looking at the images that the feminine figure was most suitable for the comp, and to consider the compilation as part of a trilogy of covers each with female front covers made conceptual sense. In the end, we reduced our larger themes of gangs to just the one female model and from her outfit we picked the visual hooks of the zig zag woollen fabric and natural hesian to make our labels.  I treated the entire image to make it feel almost painterly and unworldly.

We were gutted not to use the remaining images on MaH's sleeve but undoubtably to reduce her cover to one iconic image made a better sleeve. The remaining images from our shot didn't get wasted, as were later approached by Planet Mu to look at the artwork for Terror Danjah's forthcoming record, and with the horror characters we had and key tweeks of the treatment, we made another good cover for a good record.

And Hud Mo’s album cover? (below)
I'll be shorter this time. Konx Om Pax is a designer and good friend who we often work with. Hud Mo's associated design was his job since Polyfolk Dance and he had been working on visuals and sleeve for the Butter LP. Because Hud Mo is one of my best friends I was already seperately working on logo forms and and designs for him. I spent a day making the sleeve I envisioned for the record, knowing fine well it likely wouldn't be used but when I showed Konx Om Pax and the label they all liked it and asked if we could work together to bring my airbrushed-hawk-carrying-butter-through-shimmering-nevada-valley-with-new-logo into Konx Om Pax's 3d generated-neon-hair-crystal-shapes.

Like I say, we were both friends and working together for the common goal of Hud Mo was a beautiful week of very late nights. The result is dumb, positive, unpretencious and honest. Which in my book is always the coolest way to be.



Who are your inspirations - be it artists, musicians, authors, film directors, philosophers, etc?
Werner Herzog, Ralph Towner, Wong Kiew Kit, Rustie.

Where do you go for inspiration?
My friends at LuckyMe. Really though, I'm not even just saying that.

Any upcoming exhibitions you’d recommend?
Yeah, I sound like a dick but I'm kinda not on any circuit for exhibited artwork. Few exhibitions rock me. I just don't respond well to galleries. My colleague Christina Kernohan has a show currently on at The Saint in Edinburgh, and we have a vague idea to make a touring exhibition of LuckyMe work, hopefully starting with our friends in Glasgow at Re:Coat Gallery and ending in Hollywood at Space 15 Twenty but you know, it's a pipe dream currently as we're just so busy it's hard to prioritise. One thing that can be said though is that we will be more than an exhibit and will be looking to make it a travelling project more than a showcase. This will let us make music and perform music along with the show.

What do you think of fabric? (cough)
I think any acknowledgement from Fabric means you're doing the right thing. It means what you do is credible and could be opened up to more people. It goes back to the whole underground isn't a lifestyle, it's a position. If Fabric give you some shine, then you've done okay. Playing Fabric was hella good fun. You guys looked after us well.