Mark Kulakoff lives in downtown Los Angeles in the Hellman Building, which was supposedly the tallest building when it was built in the early nineteen hundreds. He has one roommate and a dog that is his. Interview by Devin Dailey.
When you were teaching at BIOLA in La Mirada, how did you prepare students for the field of graphic design—and life—outside of college?
The school is really fine arts driven, so I’m just trying to help them separate their work outside of those fine art contexts and put their image making and ideas into a context where there are consequences. If I give them constraints they are going to be good at it, like living by the law. In some ways I don’t know if I should give them so many limits because a lot of the kids here are very religious and have lived with a lot of restrictions all their life. But they still need those limits with regards to the whole professional aspect of design. I don’t try to push the professional side of design, instead I try to push experimentation, within a given set of limits or rules. In the real world they’ll have even harsher restrictions. I believe education is a time where you are free to experiment, develop and grow. I want the students to be really founded and grounded in their mind and heart and learn how to articulate ideas by integrating type and image. I try to relay information so they can grow and become makers of ideas and images.
With regard to pushing the students’ level of experimentation, could you define that in your terms or what that means in the educational environment? What do you consider “experimenting” and how do you teach that?
It’s tough and cliché. “Experimentation” has become cliché and has to be made new. As a teacher, I’m there to serve each student and to look at each student individually, where they’re coming from and where they can go. Experimentation is new to them and I have no right to say it’s not experimenting even if it’s been done before. I consider each student and if it’s new for them and something they haven’t done before I think it’s good for them. I encourage them to look forward too. I try to push them to do things that are being done currently, but keep them ahead and not do the things that are now, but something further. It’s a hard and dangerous way to talk, but it’s more about being able to serve them and let them enjoy life and enjoy image making and practices. I don’t want to ruin it for them.
You graduated CalArts in 2004. What were some of the reasons you where attracted to study at CalArts?
I was attracted to CalArts because I had come from a very weak tools-based graphic design program. We really only focused on forms like brochures and pamphlets, which was a joke. We were never taught how to think or how to make an image and make it speak. It was a very shallow to some degree. I was at a school in Chicago and saw Ed Fella and Elliott Earls’ work and thought their stuff was amazing. I then I saw other work like Gail Swanlund’s, which blew me away. I had never seen anything like that before. A teacher talked about CalArts as if it were in the heavens, and after seeing work from the faculty I thought I had to go there. During my undergrad studies I wasn’t really conceptually-minded, it was just about beautiful images and making cool stuff. I was pretty naïve when I arrived at CalArts, but then I realized there was a lot more going on. I love the essence of the school, there was a spirit about the place that was very interesting. It was a paradox compared to how I grew up, for my background was completely the opposite. I had never encountered people like I did when I was at CalArts.
What were some of the skills that you acquired while at CalArts?
The best thing was starting to learn how to think. I had never been challenged to think conceptually and also think through image making. I learned I could work intuitively and use intuition to communicate and how to make my work more conceptual. I think intuitive people believe they aren’t very conceptual, but I think if you go back and understand your process, you find that it’s rooted in ideas. Sometimes your ideas can be more interesting than people who are conceptual right from the start. I have the storm before the calm—destruction—and when eerything settles down, it’s “Ah, that’s what it is.” I don’t want to separate the two but it’s more about how to think and how to make images. I had never really made images before; it was either clip art or Dingbats. Everything was different to me: the people, the books that people were reading, how people thought about life and what people thought about clean and unclean. Philosophically, Spiritually, Emotionally and Mentally it was very eye opening to me; I can’t even explain what it did.
Can you be more specific about your process and what that entails?
I never really think about my process. I guess I should probably think about it more but I’ve always just let it kind of happen. It’s not very interesting. All I do is think about an idea or a concept that need to be betrayed and try to find some sort of abstract metaphor or some abstract connections that are cliché or somewhat off the wall. Then I start building images from that. I’m much more image driven. I try to find essence then put it into a stew. I push those idea and forms off the nest. I poop them out like an egg and then push the babies out and let them fly. Then they turn into something; sometimes they absolutely crash and die onto the ground, but hopefully they end up taking off. I’ve always tried to not think and just go into the darkness. When you have darkness or some kind of unknown it allows you to discover things. Every time I have gone into something I’ve always known that I can fail really badly. It’s all about knowing that each project can fail and I’m open to that and ready for that. If I go into a project without thinking that I can fail my work doesn’t fall into place.
Do you set any criteria to make sure that you head in the right direction?
No. If I start feeling the fear that it’s not working and think “okay, I’ve got to get this working”, I go back and start asking: What is the image’s connotation? What are they signifying? Can people understand what the images mean? Composition? What are the most important things to have? I go back the basics. Foundations are always the key. Those are my guidelines. Even in communicating. I don’t how people can judge if you are thinking conceptually because I‘ve always thought that if you are conceptual what you make is communicated. I’ve always thought the images where to serve people. To edify them, to make them grow and become better people. If your work is conceptual it should be full of ideas. You want your stuff to build other people up.
You have been working on a personal project called Teenocide, Can you describe this project of yours?
There was this video that Lorraine Wild showed in her Design History class about this kid that was driving too fast and the girl driving with him was say “slow down, slow down”. Then the last thing you see is the girl’s face all bandaged up and it says “Teenocide”. I thought that represented our culture so well. When I think about Teenocide I think about this consumption of everything. I’ve always thought teens were kind of weird. When you are a teen you want to forget that reality and when you’re an adult you want to be a teen. Ladies are trying to look like girls. Men are trying to look like young dudes. Everyone wants to look young and be relevant. No one is content. This culture is very much based in the identity of being youthful. Teenocide also about teenagers being selfish and devouring everything they see. Everything is about them. Teenocide is just a hilarious commentary on people and people’s nature. Teenocides are killing themselves and never thinking about consequences. They are just thinking about Friday night and the weekend. It’s about that spirit of destruction, lust of flesh and lust of identity. Cultures’ narcissism and how it seems like it’s just going to destroy it. It seem like nothing is pure anymore, everything is tainted by something. I’m not really sure how it’s going to turn out, but it’s my way of making moving images. It’s teenagers destructing themselves.
Any wisdom that you can offer up to any students at CalArts to propel careers or themselves?
My confession in regards CalArts is that I was very selfish. I wasn’t able to serve my neighbors. I wish I was there for my fellow students and served them in greater ways. Try to help each other more and be there for each other. I think the best thing is learning how to serve, which will take you so much farther in the real world. Honestly, in regards to design education, you’re going to get that at CalArts. When it comes to going out in the real world it is really about relationships. I would say the biggest thing is learning to not always think about yourself, but learn to think about your friends around you. I think if you try to break free of selfishness it will be more enriching in the future.