Interview: Mike Sullivan, creative director of Mister

"Five minutes with..." is a series of interviews with the freelancers and small studios driving Scotland's creative industries. The idea is simple: each week a different interviewee takes five minutes out to answer five questions and showcases five examples of their work.

This week, I'm talking to Mike Sullivan, Creative Director of Glasgow's Mister, an award winning multidisciplinary creative agency that provides graphic design, creative direction and consultancy for digital and print media: brochures, magazines, literature, web, screen, interactive and corporate identity.

What are you working on just now?

Currently working on the rebrand and website design for the British Society of Cinematographers. Also working on the redesign of a graphic design agency's website and their corporate stationery. In my spare time I'm designing marketing collateral for Creative Everyone for OFFF Barcelona 2011 and experimenting with design concepts for the iPad.

What's the last thing you saw that you really dug and why?

The Leica M9 Titanium. A special edition made in collaboration with the chief designer of the Volkswagen Group, Walter de’Silva. Its simply a work of art.

If you could save just one typeface from extinction, which one and why?

Haas Unica. Rather than save it from extinction I would love this to be released again. Unfortunately, when the face was released there were some legal problems as Linotype and Scangraphic both claim ownership. As a result it is no longer available commercially, which is a huge shame. Essentially, Haas Unica came about as a result of analysing the original version of Helvetica, its variants (as they were in 1980) and similar faces and seeking to improve them - to produce the ultimate archetypal sans serif face.

Why start your own studio?

Creative freedom. In house, agency work is great to hone your skills and develop relationships, but there comes a time when you just have to try it on your own. I was fortunate to have a lot of freelance work going so the leap was straightforward enough. Been going for 5 years now and it has proved to be a great decision. It's hard work but worth it; I get to experiment and push ideas.

What one thing should be done to improve Britain's creative industries?

Collaboration. We need to start working better as teams - brought together to answer briefs. I'm fortunate enough to work collaboratively with a number of individuals, both in the UK and internationally. What I find is that smaller teams can really push the brief. From experience, clients are engaging with this method of working and that can only improve the design output.