Good morning, Swansea!
A few weeks ago, a Mumbles artist stood in the middle of Apple's headquarters in California — champagne reception, a visit to Steve Jobs's old office — and spent most of his time showing everyone photos of Swansea.
That artist is Tom Mead, the man behind Silt, the eerie black-and-white underwater game built from his hand-drawn artwork. Released on consoles in 2022 and mobile this January, it earned him a trip to San Francisco as an Apple Design Award finalist — on a shortlist alongside blockbuster Cyberpunk 2077.
Now he's home and launching something new: Tin Fox, a surrealist game and animation studio he wants to build right here, with local talent.
This week, Tom tells us how a windowless cupboard in Bristol changed his life, why he's still scared of Beatrix Potter, and how he plans to turn Swansea into a "Welsh surrealist stronghold."
Catch you on Sunday!
Andrew.
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On the cupboard that started it all
Credit: Tom Mead
Before moving to Swansea, Tom spent around ten years in Bristol, where he landed a studio at Jamaica Street Studios in Stokes Croft — the heart of the city's creative scene. Out of about 40 studios, his was the only one with no windows.
"It was basically like a little cupboard in the middle of the top floor. And because it was so horrible, I went to town with it and just covered the walls with images that inspired me — masks, weird things I'd collected from travelling. It became a bit of a talking point whenever someone came into my room."
Every year, Jamaica Street throws open its doors to the public. At one of those open studios, a programmer wandered into Tom's strange little room, took one look at his work, and told him it belonged in games.
"Although I'd studied animation, I'd never thought about working in games. He kind of sparked it, and I've never looked back. It was a random encounter, I would say."
On a drowning game, basically
Credit: Tom Mead
That programmer was Dom Clarke — a bee scientist at Bristol uni who'd wanted to make games for years and needed an artist. The pair sat down at a café, and Dom flicked through what Tom was drawing at the time: a series of watercolour paintings of characters drowning in a vast abyss.
"He loved the idea of experimenting with an underwater game. Originally we were just going to do a really quick phone game as a test — a drowning game, basically. But luckily we didn't go with that, and we just developed it more."
That test became Silt, the debut game from their new studio, Spiral Circus. The partnership was simple: Tom would come up with ideas as paintings, and Dom would turn them into game mechanics.
"I cannot do technical, and I'm purely art — so we complemented each other very well."
Building the game meant drawing every single aspect of it, including around 1,000 different types of surrealist underwater plants — with plenty of 2am scribbling on the floor along the way. He originally planned to crosshatch the entire game by hand with pens. "Obviously that's mad," he admits, so it got cut so the game could actually get finished.
On being scared of Beatrix Potter
Credit: Tom Mead
Tom's work has always been black and white, inspired by old films like Metropolis and Tim Burton's early work — a style he describes as pop surrealism, or "the kind of art that doesn't fit in your average gallery." But his most recognisable creation, a recurring character called the Fox-Man, came from somewhere stranger: a childhood fear of The Tales of Beatrix Potter, the 1971 film of Royal Ballet dancers performing in full animal masks and costumes.
"It's the creepiest film ever, and my mum showed it to me as a kid, and it just ruined me. All these people dancing in a really creepy way, wearing animal suits."
Years later, sitting in a pub with a friend, Tom started sketching a warped version of one of the film's fox characters.
"I didn't really like it, so I just made it darker, and I coloured the eyes out. My friend really liked it — so I filled a whole sketchbook full of Fox-Men, and that became my recurring character, which I've drawn for years now. And I'm still scared of Beatrix Potter."
On champagne at Apple Park
Credit: Tom Mead
Silt's finalist spot at this year's Apple Design Awards — thanks to the mobile version, pushed hard by Swedish publisher Snapbreak — came out of nowhere. Tom got a random email one day saying he had a meeting, but nobody would say who with. After signing an NDA, he joined a call with a team from Apple, who congratulated him and told him he was being flown out to San Francisco.
"Apple Park is like a huge airport hangar — it's ridiculously big, and there's a huge rainbow in the gardens. We were there in the blazing sunshine, there was free food everywhere, everyone was dancing. It was all very surreal and strange."
Between visiting Steve Jobs's old offices and a champagne reception, Tom spent his time doing something else entirely: showing everyone photos of home.
"A lot of people had heard of Swansea, but they never knew it looked like this. One person said something that stuck with me — 'Whoever's in charge of the marketing of Wales is not doing the best job.' J.R.R. Tolkien described Wales as God's country, and a lot of Lord of the Rings was based on it — I don't understand why we don't capitalise on that. Cupertino is in the middle of Silicon Valley, and it doesn't have what we have here. I think I've basically convinced a lot of American people to come and visit."
On a Welsh surrealist stronghold
Credit: Tom Mead
Silt was just the beginning for Tom — he wants to expand on everything he learnt making it, and keep pouring his artwork into bigger games. So he's started Tin Fox, a surrealist game and animation studio, with a ten-year plan inspired by a Czech studio he admires: a company where four or five art directors, each with their own distinct style, push their own games out into the world. He's also in early talks about optioning his work for an animated TV series.
And he's clear about one thing — it will all be drawn by human hands.
"I didn't want to start a company that was AI dependent. I want it to be human driven — handcrafted art. Whether AI takes over or not, I'm still going to be doing that. I'll never stop drawing, and I never want anyone who ends up working for us to think they're going to be replaced by AI, because they won't be. I want to create a Welsh surrealist stronghold for the creative arts."
He believes Swansea is going through "a lovely little cultural revolution" — and wants to help keep the city's creative graduates from drifting away after their studies, and make a Welsh games scene that's a little less Cardiff-centric while he's at it.
"I think there's a lot of creative talent in Swansea. I really hope to either be a part of that or push it, or just champion this place really — because what other place is a city next to the sea? So any surrealist that feels they don't have a home, come and have a home at Tin Fox."
From a windowless cupboard in Bristol to champagne at Apple Park, we're excited to see what this next chapter in Swansea brings.
More about Tom
There is a follow-up to Silt in the works — Tom's staying tight-lipped, but promises "it will be in my style." You can follow what's next at tinfoxstudios.com and mrmeade.co.uk — and Silt is out now on consoles, PC, and mobile.
I’ll catch you on Sunday!
Andrew.
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