I thought it would be fun to post some brief interviews with industry types, talented people and such, and so here’s the first: a short interview with Mikhail Bortnik of Mishka fame. He’s the Creative Director for one of the most interesting, distinctive, and well-executed brands in the game. I’m sure he has plenty of better things to do than chat with me, so it was very nice of Mikhail to take some time out for this. And yes, I sort of did rip-off the idea from the Killer Camel blog.

Where are you today? I’m at home watching juggling downloading music, watching football and working on some Bloglin best of lists.

What are you working on? Right now were finishing up our Holiday 09 collection and I’m about to switch focus to Spring 2010. There are also various collaboration and other projects that are being worked on all at the same time.

Can you describe your favorite recent design? Well from what most everyone has seen then as a graphical element it would be the Kill With Power face (KWP) for short. I really hope he catches on, I really love it. It’s simple, eye catching and just fun.

What about the best thing you’ve seen from another brand/designer lately? I really don’t know, I’ve just not been following design, and to be honest I never did… find it boring. Not the design, but just the aspect of keeping tabs on it as a designer. I mainly people watch and just get creative inspiration for clothing that way. That said though, I’ve always loved what brands like P.A.M. & Undercover do and continue to but I don’t really follow it. I see the new stuff whenever I do and it’s like “Oh that makes sense!”. Outside of that the design I’m most interested in is Kaiju design… I love what toy makers like Exo-Head & Bemon are doing.

Where have you been finding inspiration recently? As always music but also lately character design in comics and toys has ben this weird left-ball influence.

Is anything slowing down your productivity lately? Just growing pains in dealing with more and more responsibilities and my own natural inclination to weak things and try to have everything be as perfect as it can be.

Why does streetwear suck/rule in ‘08? For the same reasons it’s sucked and ruled since the late 80s. This is a continuous cycle despite what anyone else seems to think.

Anything else you’d like to rant about/speak on? Nope, because you’re not going to make me get in trouble.

*You can find ’08 Top Ten lists & more posted at the Mishka Bloglin