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On My Radar: FILFURY
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Untold Studios artist, designer and director FILFURY on why podcasts have taken a backseat to audiobooks, how Otis Redding has impacted his life, and why Back to the Future is the gift that keeps on giving.
What’s the most creative advertising idea you’ve seen recently?
Pastdown Store, jumping out of the car – just simple, real and very cool.
What website(s) do you use most regularly?
Pitch, Shotdeck, Chat, IG, YouWorkForThem, Flim, and filfury.com… building out ideas… life’s a pitch.
What’s the most recent piece of tech that you’ve bought?
Lil DV cam for a family trip back home – the kids loved it and are now using it for their skate vids.
What product could you not live without?
Probably my head shaver.
What’s the best film you’ve seen over the last year?
I’ve been traveling a lot, so some good plane watches have been Wasteman [above], Lurker, and I watched a wicked short film on a flight recently called A Beauty Supply in Queens.
What film do you think everyone should have seen?
Back to the Future. I know it’s not arty or intelligent, but there’s no other movie I can continually watch over and over and not get bored. It schooled me as a kid on the preciousness of time with loved ones, the decisions you make and their effect, and it got me hooked on Nike and Pepsi, and the power a good musical score has.
What’s your preferred social media platform?
Still gotta be IG. It’s how I began documenting my work, and I’ve met some amazing people through it. The creatives/makers, streetwear and sneaker community – it’s led to real-life meet-ups, real friendships.
What’s your favourite TV show?
People Just Do Nothing. It’s jokes, and too close to my youth – think The Office but in a pirate radio station.
What’s your favourite podcast?
I can’t do no more podcasts. I did three years of commuting on the 405 and now I’m solely audiobooks – usually biographies (2 Chainz and Bryan Cranston are recent favs) or real-life prison stories.
What have you been most inspired by recently?
My kids – their energy and innocence and passion for enjoying life. They never stop – laughing, fighting, running, skating, swimming – I’m enjoying seeing the world through their eyes.
If you could only listen to one music artist from now on, who would it be?
Otis Redding. His music has been present in so many important moments of my life. If I could only listen to one artist, then he would have to be it, so I could be reminded of the good and the sad… and I could always play it faster for a Kanye sample vibe.
If there was one thing you could change about the advertising industry, what would it be?
If there was one thing I could change, it would be to make bravery even more central to the industry. The work I care about – and the work I wanna make – is built on bold ideas. Ideas that take a risk, challenge expectations, surprise people and make them feel something.
I’d love to see even more ambition around that kind of thinking. Because the work that stays with us is rarely the safest. It’s the work that sparks conversation, shifts perspective and leaves a mark.
What scares you the most?
Time, wasted opportunity… not using my time here wisely to experience and make the stuff I love.
What makes you happiest?
Making stuff, usually the inception of an idea. I get a rush of adrenaline and excitement as a new idea takes shape. I can’t leave it alone. It doesn’t have to be a paid job, it’s anything from an art piece or rearranging our furniture at home or a sketch/doodle. I’m like a dog with a bone. I love new thoughts and exploring them visually.
Tell us one thing about yourself that most people wouldn’t know.
I’m really 6ft 1.5, but tell everyone I’m 6'2" – 6'3" with my cap on.
