FISK » Interviews

Environmental Graphic Design at SOM

Eileen — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 06:28:14 +0000

SOM | © Cesar Rubio. SOM designers used the typeface Quay for the Bible verses carved into the floor and walls.
They designed additional ligatures for the original set.

You’ve seen it everywhere but probably didn’t realize it had its own name. Environmental graphic design is graphic design for the built environment. This can include wayfinding, monuments, public art, and exhibition projects. A recent Eye magazine article investigates it. I became very curious about it too and got the chance to talk to some of the leading designers in this sliver of the graphic design diaspora.

Lonny Israel leads the Environmental Graphic Design studio at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM). He is an Associate Director in SOM’s San Francisco office and on the Board of Directors of the Society of Environmental Graphic Design. He spoke with me recently about his work.

Eileen Hsu: As for your educational background, did you study graphic design?

Yes, I studied graphic design at the Kansas City Art Institute. I was hired by SOM after graduating and in the beginning of my career I was involved exclusively in print work, but over time, the assignments evolved and became more and more three-dimensional. I think this is often the path for design professionals in the environmental graphics field. When I was a student, there weren’t courses specifically focused on environmental graphics. And even now, very few environmental graphics courses exist. The Society for Environmental Graphic Design has put significant effort into developing education programs that are helping to support the field’s development and awareness.

EH: With the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the architecture and environmental graphic design were so well integrated together. How do you all work together to create the design in a harmonious and compelling way?

It works well for us because Craig Hartman, FAIA, SOM San Francisco’s Design Partner, strongly believes in an interdisciplinary process. For the Cathedral, design excellence was our goal and Craig was the prime motivator. He created an environment where architects, engineers, interior designers, and graphic designers were all able to contribute equally. The Cathedral of Christ the Light is product of this collaborative process.

EH: The Client for the Cathedral of Christ the Light seemed very open-minded, in terms of design.

The leadership at the Diocese of Oakland was very inspiring and always supportive of embracing design ideas that would be of the twenty-first century. They aspired to have a new, modern cathedral that would speak to future generations of not only Catholics, but to people of all faiths and backgrounds.

EH: At the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the Christ figure, created through a pattern of perforated aluminum panels, was most impressive. The way the image is rendered, I thought, was a really great use of light.

The Bishop of Oakland provided us with a photographic image of Christ in Majesty–a twelfth-century sculpture–taken from Chartres Cathedral. The image was converted into grayscale and processed through an algorithm that we developed. The algorithm converted the brightness values of the image into circular perforations of various diameters. Brighter pixels create larger perforations and allow for more light to pass through the diagrid of aluminum panels that comprise the Omega window. Darker pixels create smaller perforations and enhance the overall tonal quality of the image. This solution was inspired by the work of artists, especially Chuck Close, who have experimented with deconstructing and reassembling images through collage and pixelation.

The strength and legibility of the image are constantly changing by the brightness of the light coming through the perforations and the amount of light on the interior surface. Depending on the light qualities, the image can be strong or fading and ephemeral.

EH: So there are resources at SOM for developing software to enable innovative design explorations?

One of the great strengths of SOM is that we have access to many different kinds of expertise within the firm. For the Omega window we worked closely with Neil Katz, a digital designer in our Chicago office to develop and refine the algorithm that converted the image for the Omega window.

EH: What were some of the other elements you designed for the Cathedral?

Working with our client, we incorporated passages from sacred scriptures into the ground plane to celebrate primary thresholds within the Cathedral. The inscriptions are comprised of stainless steel letterforms set into a resin base. We designed the Ambry screen behind which sacred oils are held. The design of the screen has a pattern cut though solid stainless steel plate. The pattern suggests the flow or viscosity of oil, as if it were to run down the surface of the screen. We designed the Reconciliation screens and chairs, as well as dedication candles. Each candle is engraved with the name of an apostle. These candles are lit when the Bishop of Oakland, a successor of the apostle, presides at festive gatherings.

EH: For someone who wants to go into Environmental Graphic Design, what kind of background should that person have?

Environmental Graphic Design embraces many design disciplines—graphic design, architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture and more. For this reason practitioners need to be well rounded and able to communicate and collaborate to be successful.

EH: Thanks so much for your time. It was illuminating!

SOM | © Cesar Rubio. The Cathedral of Christ the Light on the edge of Lake Merritt in Oakland, CA.

SOM | © Cesar Rubio. Note the dedication candles for the apostles’ names.

SOM | © Cesar Rubio. The Christ figure in the center is illuminated by daylight during the day and projects the image onto the outside surroundings at night.

© SOM. The image is produced from light pouring through a morais perforation on a freestanding metal sheet structure.

Interview with Paul Sizer

David — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:38:17 +0000

PAUL SIZER is a freelance graphic designer and comic artist living and working in Kalamazoo Michigan with his wife and fellow comic artist Jane Irwin. He self-publishes his own graphic novels, including the all-ages LITTLE WHITE MOUSE series, the Americal Library Association award-winning graphic novel MOPED ARMY, and his latest, the multi-media music based B.P.M. Paul also works with clients all over the world on design and illustration projects, including CD/album designs, websites, book/magazine covers, game graphics and logo/branding systems.

Hey Paul, I know you just finished some projects for electronic musician
Thomas Doblby, what else are you working on?
I’m actually still working on projects with Thomas Dolby, leading up to the release of his new album “A Map of the Floating City” late this summer. An online game that will lead up to that release is also going to launch very soon as well, and I’ve been working on all the graphics and design for that as well.

I’m also working on lots of other projects that I can’t talk about, that involve gaming companies and comic book companies, both here and overseas. I’m being kept very busy, which in this economy is a good thing!

Are there any other musicians you would love to have as clients?
I’ve done work for an indie pop musician in the UK named Frank Joshua, and the CD design work for Toronto based industrial band Defence Mechanism. As far as others, who knows? Too many to mention, although I’ve already kind of hit my holy grail with Dolby!

I have always appreciated your playful twists on letterforms and typography (BPM and Little White Mouse Titles, Moped Army Logo, Techno Deco typeface etc.), where do your typographic influences come from?
Designer Neville Brody was my first big type hero, and made me think about typography in a more illustrative sense, whilst still keeping the clean and disciplined approach to its use. I also like type from Japan, as the kanji letterforms make be see the type as forms to be used in the composition of a piece. I always say that I treat type like illustration and illustration like type. Both ways help energize the other’s needs.

Are there other designers, design movements or illustrators, either
contemporary or from history, that influence you?
I mentioned Neville Brody, but I would also say Peter Saville, Russian Constructivism, and Basel/Swiss design and Art Deco type are all big typographic influences in my work. My lists of illustrators is immense, but I’d say lots of comic artists influence how I work, some notables being Geof Darrow, George Perez, Chris Ware, Dave Johnson, Adam Hughes, Tony Harris, and the list goes on…

Pencil, pen or marker?
When I sketch, I always use marker, because it forces me to commit, to make a mark that I can’t erase, so I have to deal with it. For my professional work, I rely on being able to edit and refine, but in the sketch stage, being forced to make a mark and move on keeps me from getting mired in indecision.

Your vast knowledge of music enabled you to create BPM, could you talk about how your love for music influenced this book and what you think music means to graphic design?
The kind of music that I like is that which brings many different elements together in a new way, and that keeps it interesting, a hybrid that perhaps didn’t exist before but yields something more interesting than the component parts. Design tends to work that way at its best, and that was what made me want to tell the story in B.P.M.; often we are told that things must be one way or the other, but that blend, that new hybrid, may in fact be what we’re really looking for.

Is your process different when approaching client work vs. your graphic
novel projects?
Not too different; both are communication/storytelling processes. A client comes to me with information that they want to convey, and I have to make some decisions on the best way to tell that “story” in a way that a wider audience can grasp and connect with. The only difference with a graphic novel is that I’m the client with the story that needs to be told. And I’m much harsher with myself in getting to the best way to tell my own stories. Past that, and the obvious stylistic approaches, it’s really similar.

I read somewhere that “Freedom of the press is for those who own one,” did you launch your own publishing company, CAFE DIGITAL STUDIOS, for creative freedom?
More or less. I’m not against working with others, but I like taking risks when I’m not dragging someone else along for the ride. I can deal with screwing myself over, but not others, so starting up my own imprint/self-publishing company was more to have more control and be braver at taking some risks for things I wanted to do.And when stuff pays off, I get a bigger cut. I also take a bigger risk, but that’s part of the game.

So what’s up with this “Remake/Remodel” work on Deviantart?
Comic writer Warren Ellis is a very prolific and influential force in the comic world, and his web forums at WHITECHAPEL attract a very heady mix of smart, intelligent and scary people, a very active and exciting environment for someone like me. In the last few years, he’s taken to posting weekly challenges to the members of his boards, giving them the “assignment” of taking an established character from the comic or sci-fi world and re-inventing them for a new audience. Some times he will insist that we approach it as if we know zero about the character, to really get a fresh take on established characters. And we’re always given a single week to do it. Period.

It’s actually really good exercise in a conceptual and skill level, being able to move quickly, to come up with new ideas and execute them in a fast fashion and really make them stand out amongst all the other killer ideas. It’s really kicked my butt in getting my “A Game” to a higher level. And the speed keeps things interesting and makes you work harder, as deadlines always do.

Your Black Angel Poster received tons of attention on Deviantart, how do you think social networking sites will continue to influence illustratorsand designers?
They level the field and let me see other artists all over the world in a keystroke, which encourages me, and also puts the fear into me, as it shows me how high the bar is and where I need to be to compete with the world market. It’s also allowed me to get work from people who I never would have met before. Half of my freelance work is with overseas clients who I’ve only ever met electronically. That’s the power of the internet.

What advice do you have for design students that are just starting their educations and
ones that are about to graduate and enter the real world to start their careers?
Keep a foot in the digital and analog camp; never forget how to pick up a brush or pencil if that’s the right tool for the job. Find a way to make it incredibly easy for people to find you, and when they do, treat them well and act professionally. Find ways to take what you love doing and incorporate that into your work, however you can. Keep working; momentum will serve you well, and keeps you honest, rather than relying on one thing over and over again. And make your “house style” good work. A personal style will reveal itself in time, but the best style is doing work that serves the need of your client.

You’ve been in Kalamazoo (Michigan) for awhile now, what’s the best place
to get some grub and hear some tunes?
Best ribs: The Corner Bar. Best beer: Bell’s. The best pizza: Martini’s. Best sushi: Sushi-Ya. Best music venue: Bell’s Brewery new indoor and outdoor stages. Best overall restaurant: Food Dance Cafe.

Thanks Paul, I look forward to seeing you in KZOO!

Jon Sueda Interview

Chris — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:46:41 +0000

Jon Sueda is the co-founder of Stripe, a graphic design studio in San Francisco that focuses on print, identity, and exhibition design. Beyond being a highly recognized designer and a CalArts alum, he’s also the co-editor of Task Newsletter, co-organizer of AtRandom events and Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Program at the California College of the Arts (CCA). In between all of this and welcoming his new son Kai into the world (congrats Jon and Sophine!), he made time for a few questions about his latest project at CCA, The Way Beyond Art: Wide White Space at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Interview by Tim Belonax

“The Way Beyond Art: Wide White Space will investigate graphic design’s evolving relationship with the practice of exhibition making as it intersects with the visual arts and the work of both artists and curators … Wide White Space is the second installment in The Way Beyond Art, a series of exhibitions at the Wattis that closely integrates the institute’s programs with CCA’s non–fine arts faculty and curricula.” —CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Taking the Press Release from Wattis’ site and Emmet Byrne’s interview on the Walker blog as starting points, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the exhibit and Jon’s thinking behind it.

With the deluge of blogs and online image-collection sites (Design Observer, ffffound, pinterest, etc.) are more designers becoming hobbyist-curators? How do you think these online activities will affect the future of graphic design?
I have mixed feelings about all these sites that allow anyone to instantly and easily share a “collection” of anything with a large audience. I think it’s fascinating that there are large communities that dedicate so much time to posting, reposting, and commenting on images. It is amazing in some respects, and the functionality of these sites are sometimes quite interesting as well.

On the other hand most of this stuff is haphazardly gathered together without any serious research, rigor, or purpose. The multitude and frequency of these online collections are at certain moments pleasurable, but also instantly forgettable. The internet has me in a constant state of amnesia.

I think one thing these blogs really do well is accelerate graphic design’s “wheel of style” (a conceptual diagram Lorraine Wild created to explain the circular evolution/degradation/regurgitation of design styles). Today if anyone makes something visually interesting, it can be posted to fffound tomorrow, inspire countless imitations the next day, and become a cliché within months. Pre-internet, this process would take years! These websites also show design completely out of context (small thumnbnails, very little or no captioning)… the only value being pure form and style, which I don’t think is good for graphic design.

In addition to the exhibit itself, you’re leading a class that will design four more exhibitions (the next opening on March 31st). What are students learning in this class that they wouldn’t learn in other design courses? Are students outside of graphic design participating in the course?
This course is an extension of Wide White Space, where four studios featured in the exhibition (APFEL, the Walker Art Center, Project Projects, and Experimental Jetset) agreed to send us one large fedex box full of work that students would use as source material for creating four small solo exhibitions. We had the good fortune of starting off as a 4-week workshop co-taught by Claire Fitzsimmons, Jens Hoffmann (curators at the CCA Wattis Institute), and myself. Claire and Jens’ curatorial expertise bring a whole different point of view and level of criticality to the dialogue. Through analyzing the work and interviewing the designers, we want the students to develop a specific concept and narrative for each exhibition. We also want them to question the way graphic design is traditionally displayed in a gallery… in other words we were not going to be satisfied with a series of shows where the students just placed the work in some vitrines and called it a day. So far the results have been really interesting! In last week’s exhibition about the Walker Art Center’s Design Studio, the curators decided not to show any actual work! Their exhibit titled, Walker Without Walker, was a new work in itself and interpretation of the Walker Studio’s relationship with the Museum as a whole.

The students, who are from CCA’s Undergraduate Graphic Design and Graduate Design programs, are learning much more than just tasteful display techniques and how to create a solid graphic identity to represent it… we are really trying to make them think like curators first and build the form of the exhibition from that point of view using their skills as graphic designers.)

What is the main difference you see between the thought processes of a graphic designer and a curator?
Curating and graphic design can be a similar activity in some ways— I’m being very general here, and not explaining every variable or aspect of these complex practices, but in many cases a curator develops a concept, analyzes artworks and displays them in a meaningful way that visualizes that concept. Similarly a graphic designer often analyzes a given content (text and imagery) and develops a meaningful way to arrange or structure it to tell a story. Traditionally, curators do their work in 3-dimensional gallery space, while we do it in other formats…maybe a book, website, or poster.

In the context of exhibition making, the big difference to me is the position of the curator in the process. I would make the analogy that the curator is the conductor of the orchestra, the person who selects the score, controls and unifies performances, and shapes the ensemble sound. The designer, be it the graphic designer who designs the catalog/visual identity, or architect who designs the exhibition’s furniture, is a member of that orchestra in my opinion. In a well conceived exhibition, the curator will have a strong concept or exhibition narrative established, and the designer is there to support and create form that sympathetic to that narrative. When the person organizing the exhibition is both curator and designer, I think you have to be clear that they are two different roles that have different criteria.

So to answer your question, we basically didn’t want the students to just jump to the obvious role of the “graphic designer,” which would be easy to do… and it did happen in some cases anyway. On the first day of class some students brought in posters/identity designs and type studies and basically missed the step of analyzing the work, researching the designers… questioning what work, why, and how we can show graphic design in a new way. We backtracked and the first classes became much less visual and more conceptual in nature.  

Do CCA Graduate and Undergraduate students regularly work together? How is this working out?
The grads and undergrads at CCA don’t cross each other’s paths much, which is why I proposed a mixed class. I’m interested in setting up situations where cross-pollination can occur between the programs mainly because of my experience as a student at CalArts. I interacted quite regularly with undergraduate students… sharing classes, collaborating on projects, hanging out… I learned a lot from them! I think opportunity is here at CCA as well… the mixed grad/undergrad exhibition teams are collaborating surprisingly well. Each member brings different strengths to the table and hopefully they learn from one another and produce some interesting work.

The series of lectures that accompanied the show, aptly titled Wider White Space, incorporated the CCA design faculty in the discussion surrounding the exhibit. What interests or discussions did these lectures instigate?
Each presentation was themed differently, each faculty was asked to not do a typical portfolio talk, but to reflect on how their practice intersects with the content of the exhibition. To name a few highlights… Emily McVarish revisited the truly radical exhibition designs of El Lissitzky in the 1920’s; Rachel Berger spoke about the history of exhibitions emerging from the Yale MFA graphic design program; and Eric Heiman reflected on participatory design strategies that inform his own work. Other speakers were Martin Venezky, Bob Aufuldish, Wendy Ju, Michael Vanderbyl, Brett Macfadden and Scott Thorpe…all really great presentations.

The main debate that arose was if graphic design belonged in a gallery at all. Some of the panelists felt quite conflicted about this… others were quite comfortable with it. 

The exhibit focused on the graphic (2D), curatorial, and artifact-based contributions that designers offer exhibitions. How was three-dimensional exhibition design addressed? 
We chose to handle the challenge of being an “exhibition about exhibitions,” by creating a space within the larger gallery that held fragments of many different exhibitions together. Upon entering, the divisions are not obvious, but in the center of the room is a long vitrine that contains all the documentation, catalogs, or gallery flyers for these exhibitions and helped to separate and contextualize each fragment.

I also invited three designers to stage exhibitions within the Wide White Space exhibition. Hansje van Halem organized one of her Schrank 8 exhibitions both in her home gallery in Amsterdam and the Wattis simultaneously. During the opening, Mylinh Trieu Nguyen performed a project called Ships Passing in the Night, which was a live online distribution of an exhibition. Each piece in her show was available for view and download for the duration of exactly 5 minutes. During the opening, we downloaded, printed and installed these works in the gallery. Finally, Daniel Eatock and Vaska created an analog version of their Indexhibit website which invited visitors to display their own work in the exhibition.

San Francisco isn’t short on museum or gallery space. Did you receive any suggestions from the local curatorial community about your exhibition or your current exhibition class?
Leading up to the exhibition I didn’t talk to many people locally besides my colleagues at the Wattis. Early on I talked quite a bit with my good friend and fellow CalArts alum Zak Kyes, who had just completed traveling his amazing exhibition Forms of Inquiry all through Europe. Zak is quite active as a curator, and we had some very productive conversations that helped shape my early concepts for the exhibition.

The majority of participants in the exhibit were based outside of the US. Is American design lagging in this area of graphic design?
Well, to be accurate there were 5 American designers/studios, 6 Dutch, 5 British, 2 French, 2 Swiss, 1 Belgian, 1 Korean… so if you don’t just lump all the Europeans into one huge group, the exhibition featured designers from quite a few countries.

But at the same time, I think we are behind other countries when it comes to graphic design being featured as the subject of exhibitions and graphic designers participating in exhibition making. We have the Cooper-Hewitt, which puts on large institutional exhibitions made for a wide audience, but not so many smaller art spaces are interested in showing graphic design. This is a stark contrast to countries like France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and the UK, where along with small galleries, there are numerous biennials and large festivals dedicated to graphic design.

As for curating, only a handful of American designers not named Lupton, Abbott Miller, or Blauvelt have organized exhibitions that include graphic design. American studios/designers/schools that are doing interesting work in this area are Project Projects, Dexter Sinister, 2×4, the Yale MFA program (who has a great tradition of yearly exhibitions that really question the way graphic design can be exhibited), and of course Michael Worthington, Mark Owens, and Louise Sandhaus. Other than that there are not so many references I can think of.

With many exhibitions there’s an artifact that lives beyond the show’s closing date. Is there a catalog for the show? How could this exhibit reach more people? Would you ever consider having the show travel to other schools or galleries?
I’m in the process of developing a proposal for this… Being a designer of art catalogs, I’ve observed that the documentation of exhibitions are just as important that the exhibitions themselves. In this particular case, only a fraction of the exhibition’s audience was able to experience the show first-hand because of its short duration. This project will also be an opportunity to reflect and critically analyze the exhibition in the form of writing and interviews produced for this catalog. All these components would allow Wide White Space to have a life beyond CCA and enable the exhibition to enter the larger critical discourse revolving around graphic design and exhibition making.

As for the show traveling, this was talked about for a brief moment with some other institutions, but scheduling conflicts made it impossible. Again though, in the US the possible venues for housing such an show are limited. It was really fortunate that CCA and the Wattis saw value in this kind of an exhibition.

Thank you, Jon, for your time and input. We look forward to seeing more great work in the future. Jon will also be in an upcoming group show (with CalArts Design faculty, Caryn Aono, Gail Swanlund, and Michael Worthington) at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, opening May 15th, called Getting Upper: Graphic Designers and Artists Reconsider the Alphabet. His next curatorial project will be an exhibition at the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, Czech Republic in June of 2012.

“LUST poster wall inside Wattis”

 “Walker Without Walker exhibition poster by Caryn Kesler, Julie Mendez, Heidi Meredith and Ejay Sanchez”

“Project Projects ‘Meta Data’ exhibit posters”

“‘Meta Data’ Curators Margarita Silva, Renee Walker and Brice McGowan”

“The ‘Meta Data’ exhibit in CCA’s S1S2 Gallery”

“Emily McVarish”

Interview with Bjorky

Bijan — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:24:42 +0000

Aaron “Bjorky” Bjork is a graphic designer, motion designer, illustrator and Art Center grad living/working in the LA area.

Bjorky and I am an artist. I think art is great especially when it is done by someone who is good at it. It can make you cry or laugh and the other human emotions. Music is art and also makes you feel things. I like to feel weird sometimes, actually most of the time. The weird feeling you get when you see earwax in a stranger’s ear. And you want to tell them but you can’t because that would be rude and not so cool. But seriously you should check that before you leave the house.

Can you talk a little about starting a studio right out of college?
It’s something that isn’t very easy. At the time, it seemed like a very natural thing. We were already bringing in clients while we were still in college. My crew and I were all wanted to continue to produce work that we had ownership of. We chose to “pay our dues” by jumping in the deep end.

What are the advantages of running your own studio? What did you learn from that experience?
It is very rewarding to build something from the ground up. A common misconception with owning a studio is having creative control over all the projects. Taking on “bread and butter” jobs to pay the bills is normal. These jobs are always uncreative and boring, usually have a decent budget. All studios have them; they just don’t show them in their portfolios. When choosing to take on a project, it must have 2 of these 3 elements: good for portfolio, must build a relationship, has a competitive budget.

Can you tell us how Poo Man came about?
Poo man was a post-lunch gift for my friend. She asked me to draw something for her, I obliged by saying “I will draw you shit”. He got kinda popular so I made a little animation called “Poo Man”. I’m still waiting for it to go viral.

What are the differences between your personal and client work?
I approach them differently. With commercial work, you are obviously solving problems for somebody else. I have learned to put some distance between the work and myself. I used to get really attached to a particular direction, and was always discouraged when the client made changes.

My personal work is like therapy for me. I find the entire system of the universe; the world, life and the ability that we try to perceive it all incredibly fascinating. It is a lot to consume and a lot is very trivial. My art helps me to make sense of it all.

How do you function as a designer / artist now?
I work during the day, and work during the night.

What materials do you use for your work? How does the balance of pencil and mouse work for you? Do you think it’s beneficial to not be bound to the computer and experiment with more fine art materials in design work?
I like to work many mediums. Vinyl, pencil, paint, zerox, animation, photography, digital; they all influence each other. Ditching the computer can be very liberating. It is good to recognize when any medium is slowing you down. I will switch it up and find myself with some new ideas.

What designers/illustrators influence you today?
I try to gather my influences outside of the contemporary design and art scene. I’ve been really influenced lately by Basquiat and Keith Haring. I think the Japanese Edo Period wood block artists are really great too. Images depicting bathhouses, brothels and prostitutes. It was some racey stuff!

What is your driving force, what is it you want to say with the work you are putting into the world?
I am very interested in how the primal state of humanity is forced to live in an ever-changing technologically advanced society. And, no matter how far we push away from our primal beginnings, we are still constrained to the rules that nature instilled in us from the beginning. It is interesting to see humans struggle with luxury.

Does your design style reflect your personal interests or lifestyle?
I try to live very minimally and stick to the basics. One of my more popular pieces “Venice Bum” depicts a bum with I eat.

Dream client or job? Worst client experience?
Even with complete creative control, the project is produced according to the client’s agenda. At the risk of sounding selfish, making art for myself is the best! But I guess I wouldn’t mind working on some rad stuff for Nike. The worst clients are the ones that you have to hunt down to get paid. I’ve had to physically wait at a studio for hours until the accountant came to get paid.

Can you give a motivational quote or “ethos” for all of us hard-working, tired and starving design students? “Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress”. – A quote on twitter from Thomas Edison

How does your time in Japan affect how you approach your design?
It really humbled my view of the world and has helped me to make more meaningful art. I realized how much stuff is really just trivial. It was also interesting to see the underbelly of a culture.

Check out Bjorky’s contreversial blog here, his personal portfolio here, and his motion portfolio here.

Bill Longhauser Interview Pt. 2

Chris — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:34:42 +0000

Bill Longhauser is a graphic designer living and working in Los Angeles, CA. He is president of Longhauser Design, a design firm offering comprehensive visual communications services to a wide range of clients, from corporations and nonprofit organizations to educational and cultural institutions.

Was teaching a career path interested you from the beginning of your graphic design studies? Or was it something you realized you wanted to do post graduation?
Not really. Teaching as a career was less important to me than being in close contact with excellent and inspirational designers and educators. This is what attracted me to the department in Philadelphia and why I remained teaching there for 23 years. The faculty there consisted of excellent designers, gifted teachers, and creative people. These individuals had a major influence on my design and teaching. I would not have remained teaching for that amount of time at another school.

At what schools and what subjects have you thought? What were your expectations and reactions from the experience?
My main experience was teaching for 23 years in the GD Department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I was a tenured professor there and served for three years as the chairman of the department. In addition, I was invited as a guest lecturer to teach a ten week summer quarter at the University of Cincinnati in the College of Design, Art, and Architecture. In 2000, I moved to Los Angeles because my wife was hired to become the new Executive Director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

In my teaching career, I have taught design systems, letterform design, basic typography, expressive typography, color, communications design, and three-demensional design. In LA, I found a system of design education that differed considerably from my experience in Philadelphia, where the faculty consisted primarily of full-time educators. Design practitioners were always considered an important component of the department but their role was to give students assignments more directly related to the profession.

The system I found in LA was centered primarily on preparing students for a seamless entry into the design profession. The ratio of full-time to part-time faculty was almost the opposite as it was at the U of Arts. Most teachers in LA are design professionals who teach part-time. It is predicated on the strong belief that practicing professionals provide the best form of design education. It also relieves the school from the responsibility for paying benefits like health care. It’s a perfectly valid position to have but it’s not one that I share.

My teaching experience in LA consists primarily of a design class I taught at Art Center (with April Greiman) and five years teaching at Otis College of Art and Design. I want to emphasize that my comments are related only to my direct experience and I do not attempt to reflect the pedagogical position of every institution in Los Angeles. Cal Arts, for example, is a program that does not follow the model mentioned above.

What is the Outside Institute? Can you briefly discuss your intentions for founding this organization?
I created the Outside Institute in response to my concern that design education has become too focused on technology and training rather than creativity and education. The wonder, discovery, invention, and struggle that comes from the direct experience of physically working with tools and materials is being replaced by choosing from a preconceived list of default menu items developed to mimic visual language formerly produced by hand. This turns the students into spectators in a game of multiple choice. One of the many questions raised by this new way of working remains unanswered: In today’s high-tech environment, “What is a studio?” Prospective students touring educational facilities today may find the graphic design studios little more than empty rooms with long flat tables; the students can be discovered in one of the many labs where computers are arranged in rows, like slot machines in a casino. Unlike studios in architecture or fashion departments, which are alive with materials and activity, these spaces feel anonymous and temporary. In such a passive environment, important design issues become encumbered with technical trivia: corrupt files, missing type fonts, laser printers lacking toner, and time-consuming searches for ineptly marked files that require tedious opening of each one simply to identify the content.

The primary function of the Outside Institute is to provide workshops that function as a laboratory for experimentation without fear of producing results that may appear to have no immediate practical application. Students are encouraged to expand their frames of reference and to identify intersections between design, art, architecture, science, music, dance, biology, linguistics, and philosophy.

The workshops consist of exercises that focus on how to “see” visually rather than “recognize” things and categorize them by name. This process reinforces the unique symbiotic relationship between creativity and being human. Learning how to “see” establishes a new awareness that builds self-confidence and enables participants to evaluate their work with more objective criteria than like and dislike—becoming creators rather than consumers.

How do you find yourself adjusting to a world that is becoming more digital by the day? Do you stay up to date with all the new technology?
I came late to the digital world because I was taught to work with my hands. I found myself in the awkward position of being too young to ignore the computer and too old to learn it easily. Because I do almost everything myself, I had no choice but to learn how to use the software. Also, I felt it was important for my teaching to understand how to use the software the students were using. Today, I feel quite competent working with most software programs. I try my best to stay up to date with the new technology. Fortunately, the majority of the basic functions I need in the software already exist. Many of the software updates involve new capabilities that have no bearing on my design. My only interest with keeping up-to-date with new technology is if the new changes improve my capacity to design. I resist the temptation, however, to always have the latest version of a software program.

What are your thoughts on the idea of design for print becoming obsolete? Do you ever see yourself designing projects only for the screen?
America’s true religion is business. One of the main functions of graphic design is to promote events or aid businesses in selling their products or services to consumers. Until every consumer owns a computer and uses it as their primary source for purchasing, I don’t see print becoming obsolete.

Your question about design for print becoming obsolete brings back the memory of David Carson signing a stack of his book at an AIGA Conference titled “The End of Print: Graphic Design of David Carson”.

If anyone would like to expand on any of the issues or seek clarification, I have a blog for this purpose on my web site: www.longhauser.com, I welcome participation, questions and/or comments.

Thanks to Bill Longhauser for the interview!
See more of his work and writing here.

The Proxart Redesign

Bijan — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:14:29 +0000

Interview with Nathan Ryan, director of Proxart, an organization bringing art and culture to the suburbs. We were able to catch up with Nathan and discuss their websites new redesign by Artifice Studios.

You’ve been around for three years now and have already accomplished a lot. This new website is yet another accomplishment. What does this new website symbolize for Proxart?
For us, the redesigning of Proxart.org just further cements what we’ve thought all along: The suburbs aren’t as bland as everybody thinks. Because, the fact of the matter is, we wouldn’t be able to expose “good” art from suburbia if there wasn’t actually any “good” art in it. The new website just goes to show us (and everybody else) that there are people who are actually committed to transforming the cultural landscape here in the suburbs. Ultimately, this new site symbolizes progress to us – and we’re quite addicted to progress.

How important is it to have a strong web presence?
Unfortunately (or fortunately – depending on how you look at it), web presence is everything – and design plays a massive role in the amount of influence people will give you. For years we ran on a stock WordPress.com templated design and, because of that, I think there were a lot of people that didn’t bat an eye in our direction. Our content has always been the most important thing to us, so we’ve always had strong writing, strong artist profiling, and strong opinion. But, now that we’re able to house all of that inside a website that looks like we know what we’re doing, I hope readers and artists can begin to take us more seriously. Because we’re definitely serious about this thing.

How has the response been to the new website?
Phenomenal. From a design perspective, we’ve been given head-nods from quite a few web-design galleries – and others in the design community – thanks to the fact that our friends at Artifice*Studios know what the hell they’re doing. We’ve found ourselves wanting to write more, posting 2+ times a day since we launched last Monday. We’ve found people interacting more with the content because our commenting system is more open and user-friendly. And we’ve found that people just generally seem to be excited browsing around on it. The artists we’re featuring lately are fantastic, and it’s nice to see them even more excited to be featured than they were before.

What’s next for Proxart? Offline and online.
We’re a little over a week away from publishing our Winter 2010 issue of Proxart Magazine, so we’re nose-deep in production for that. We’ve got quite the line-up this time; artists from suburbs all over the country (some well-known, others less), and some fantastic contributors. It’s a free PDF, so I can’t think of a reason not to download it, and you can get it in print through MagCloud if that’s more your thing. We’re working on a few “bigger” gallery-type events for next year featuring some more well-known artists; trying to work alongside local venues to help them put on quality shows featuring good local art; and continuing to host our Meet-Ups in town just to make connections and build community with artists here in Santa Clarita (we hope to see Proxart meet-ups move into other suburbs in 2011). Oh, and we’re thinking about starting some kind of podcast, as well – video/audio, we’re not sure, but it’s up our sleeves. I said something about progress being addicting already, right?

Interview with Eric Smith of Live Now

Bijan — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 01:32:33 +0000

Eric Smith is a graphic designer, illustrator, optimist, and overall, a genuinely wholehearted person. Along with being a talented designer and a good guy, he’s also a great collaborator. He started the Live Now project, a community of happiness, which will be publishing it’s first book in April.

How did the idea of the Live Now community begin?
Live Now began as a method of healing after I was diagnosed with cancer awhile back. It has rippled out and turned into something much bigger than I could have dreamed of. I’m nothing but grateful to be a part of this.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this adventure is that true happiness isn’t for yourself – but to overflow and share with everyone around you.

Can you speak a little about what you’re trying to accomplish with the Live Now project?
We have started a movement – spreading our message of happiness and presence through multiple avenues. Examples include; artwork, literature, relationships, exhibitions and much more.

What have you learned from publishing the Live Now book?
The publishing process really came together on it’s own. This is one of those ideas that is much bigger than me. Im just along for the ride – gratefully!

HOW posted an article on their blog about the project. We then connected via email and discussed the idea that this project would make a great book. From there we began collaborating on the details, working on the art, art direction, copywriting, etc.

HOW has been incredible to work with and I want to thank them completely. Without their efforts and shared passion for this idea we wouldn’t be where we are today. A big thank you to all the collaborators as well, your hard work genuinely means a lot to me.

How important is community and collaboration for you and your work?
I really enjoy collaboration. We all bring our own experiences and beliefs to the table – which is then reflected in how we communicate visually. If we can knit together our strengths – then our work will only get stronger.

What is your driving force, what is it you want to say with the work you are putting into the world?
My driving force is the belief that we are all a part of something bigger than ourselves. That life is about investing in people and relationships. My life, my message, is that we all deserve to live an intentional life – filled with happiness and full of purpose.

What materials do you use for your work? How does the balance of pencil and mouse work for you? Do you think it’s beneficial to not be bound to the computer and experiment with more fine art materials in design work?
I use all kinds of materials, and constantly experiment. A few stand byes include; graphite(pencils and sticks), fine point ink pens, and watercolor.

All of my work starts analog – in my journal with my favorite #3 pencil. I’ve found it most successful to work through initial ideas away from my computer with my hands and open mind. I recommend this practice to everyone – the computer has many distractions and limitations.

I strive to use technology as a tool, rather than an answer. (Inspired by the great Mr. Picasso)

What designers/illustrators influence you today?
A big part of what inspires me is how other creatives carry themselves. Steven Harrington is a favorite of mine. I’ve talked with him a few times and he’s very mellow, open and present. My friend Will Bryant is always inspiring me. His optimism is contagious and it shines through in his work. Fellow Westsider Gavin Potenza is another – so good, so humble.

What advice do you have for design students that are just starting their design educations and ones that are about to graduate and go into the real world to start their design careers?
Get an Internship
Real world experience, contacts, build your portfolio – it’s good all the way around.

Find a Mentor
Reach out to fellow creatives you admire, tell them your story and keep in touch with them regularly.

Passion Projects
Start an ongoing passion project that you can use to balance your client work and feed your desire to create.

Pro-bono
Offer up pro-bono work to a company you’d like to work with as a way to connect and show genuine interest.

Balance
Don’t work too much. Balance work with other things you love. Travel, gain new experiences, then bring them back into your work and never stop growing.

Dream client or job? Worst client experience?
My dream client(s) are good people, doing something they believe in. As far as industry goes, I’ve always been interested in working with skate and bmx companies.

I’ve had some tough experiences in my career. My best advice for these struggles are to find the best in every situation. Find something good and hold onto it.

Do you wear patterned/designed socks, plain socks or no socks?
I wear thick, multi-color, wool socks – a Pacific Northwest favorite.

Thanks for the interview Bijan, keep up the cool work!

Below are some images from the upcoming Live Now Book being published by HOW.

Below are some examples of Eric’s work.

Julie Moon Interview

Bijan — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:21:35 +0000

Julie Moon is a MFA2 student in the School of Graphic Design at CalArts. She designed the cover (shown above) and end covers for this years Halloween Zine. Below is an interview with Julie, about how the cover design came about. Enjoy!

Is the way you designed this cover similar to the way you normally work? If not, how was it different?
Yes and no, it is a fairly new way of working, I learned about using tusche in Dansby’s printmaking class and I really loved the delicate grainy texture it produces when printed. I made a couple of prints for the class but didn’t end up using it in anything design related. When i was asked to design the cover, I knew it would be perfect for the project.

What was your initial concept for the cover?
My original idea was over lapping a super textured hand drawn mask on a image of a Rodin sculpture called mask of Camille Claudell. The sculpture still had jagged lines from being cast and it was very raw but beautiful, I thought there could be a interesting contrast between the hand drawn mask and image working against each other. but that idea was abandoned and when i started composing the elements in the computer.

Can you describe the process that occurred from idea to print?
It started by sharing my collection of images and ideas and then I just started making. I drew a lot type and face images with the tusche and a brush in the print lab. I then scanned the drawings and tried to come up with different versions/compositions using the elements I had. I liked the idea of fracturing the drawing and making a sort of kaleidoscopic image. then i thought of pushing the kaleidoscope affect a bit more by breaking it up into different sections of color which would be achieved during silk screening. It was great because we decided not to use orange or green ink early on in the process and we both liked mixing metallic into the ink. There was a bit of a scare about finding the right paper but everything came together and worked out really well in the end.

Chris Burnett interviewed by Proxart

Bijan — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 23:30:19 +0000

Chris Burnett was recently interviewed by Proxart.

Chris Burnett works alongside Bijan Berahimi leading the CalArts-based design collective FISK. Of course, it goes without saying that if you’re going to lead a design collective (much less one based out of CalArts), you’d better have some pretty strong design to show for yourself. Burnett certainly doesn’t disappoint. With clients like Emerica, and 9Star skateboards, it’s safe to say that his work is strong enough to get himself out there.

Read the whole interview after the break.

FISK is a “design community.” What exactly does that mean, and what prompted you to join up?

It means that we are a community of designers for designers. There seems to be a huge lack of community in the graphic design world, and FISK was created to combat exactly that. Our ideas have changed for the better since we first started the website/collective about a year ago. A new goal this year is to promote student work, because of how hard it can be to get your name out there and have your work viewed by a larger audience. This not only encourages students, but strengthens our community as a collective group of graphic designers. Bijan Berahimi was the brainchild behind the whole idea, and after some meetings here and there during the Fall semester of 2009, I hopped on board. I wanted to help out simply to empower this sense of community, but also to be apart of something that is not happening anywhere else. We have great resources, faculty, and students here at CalArts, and creating a community brings all of us together to share ideas, collaborate on projects and become better designers simultaneously.

How long have you lived in Santa Clarita? Did you grow up here, or move here to attend CalArts?

I was born and raised in South Los Angeles. After I applied and was accepted to CalArts, I moved up to Valencia to live on campus. I have been in Santa Clarita for the whole school year (past and current) and select parts of the summer. My preconceptions of the area were those of a peaceful suburban environment and I think I was about right. Santa Clarita is such a sharp contrast to were I grew up that it is actually quite refreshing to be here. After being here for a year, it is starting to feel like a second home. However, CalArts as an institution is in its own little bubble. The school is known for its wild and “free” atmosphere which sometimes doesn’t agree with the residents who live around us. There is definitely a major disconnect from CalArts and the rest of the Santa Clarita Valley.

Have you found the suburban environment of Santa Clarita to be artistically stifling at all? If so, how?

Yes, although Santa Clarita (based on my one and-a-half years of experience) has its pros and cons relating to its art culture. There are plenty of resources available that would help to improve the overall artist culture of the area. The problem is that we do not utilize them, and I believe a part of the reason why is because we don’t know that they exist. There is little if no promotion of art and culture around the area, therefore we do not take advantage of some of the services that the city can offer. So no, Santa Clarita is not helping to empower the arts as much as they could be. On the other hand, CalArts does that for us which is why most students stick to the resources around campus to promote their practice. Because we don’t know about the opportunities outside of school, we showcase our work here and do not look beyond the CalArts walls.

Check out more of Chris’ work at chrisburnett.us.

Interview with Frame by Frame

Bijan — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 00:14:30 +0000

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Daryn Wakasa, the curator of the Frame by Frame showcase. The event is this Saturday at 8pm at the Japanese American National Museum. Check out the interview after the jump!

What was the initial idea behind having a showcase including films produced by graphic designers and animators?
The initial idea behind the showcase was to juxtapose the storytelling methods between 3 fields of study: Character Animation, Experimental Animation & Graphic Design.

I also wanted to expose the diversity of talent within CalArts, which is why the whole showcase has been planned, organized, and designed by CalArts students or recent alumni.

Lastly, I wanted to display the multicultural aspect of the school by selecting 7 directors that come from fairly different cultural backgrounds. Our directors range from Bulgarian to Korean to Japanese American to African American and we also have a good mix of genders as well.

How does putting together an event like this go from an idea to reality? Who else was involved with the production?
First I needed to assemble a team so I went to Jackie Mahlum-Banks to see if she wanted to co-produce the event with me. She is in the MFA Theater production program and is an amazing producer so if it was not for her, then I would not have proceeded with the event.

The next pivotal part was to assemble a strong and responsible design team. I knew that I would not be able to handle the load by myself so I asked Devin Dailey to join the team as the co-Creative Director and then asked Lila Burns and Alejandro Hernadez to join as web designers and motion designers. Collectively we have been producing all the branding material: the website, the email blast, the viral videos, the show open, the director cards and the programs.

Once we had our team in place, Jackie and I had to look around for possible theaters, which is when we found the Tateuchi Democracy Forum in Little Tokyo. Because we had a connection to the theater, they graciously worked with us to give us a good deal on the rental fees.

While all this was going on, we had to look around and find ways to fund the event, which is when Student Council stepped into the picture. They gave us about 70% of the money we will need and might give us more. We are in the process of looking for more funding as we still have a decent chunk of our costs to cover, but we have some leads so hopefully we will find a way to work everything out.

Next we just had to market the event as much as possible so that we can fill the theater space so we emailed countless people and were fortunate enough to fill 85% of our seats so far. We also managed to get an article on the LA Times blog and now we are also blessed to get a featured article on FISK (who provided us with our web hosting space)

So where we are at now is to keep looking for funding and to design and animate all the branding elements that will be on display during the showcase.

What goals are you hoping to accomplish by having the showcase?
The goals that I am hoping to accomplish is to provide people with a different viewing experience. I think everyone is used to the animation showcases that CalArts annually organizes, but what will make this showcase unique is that graphic designers will be displaying their films in addition to character animators and experimental animators. Thus, I would hope that people’s eyes to be opened to the similarities and differences between the different fields of study. I would also hope that they begin to see graphic design in a different light because we are not normally labeled as directors.

Film is something that interests you as a graphic designer. Do you feel like you can help bridge the gap between the two disciplines?
Maybe. I people who know their film and graphic design history already see the similarities between both fields. So in a way, the bridge is already there, however I do think that in general, the two fields stay pretty segregated.

As graphic designers, I think it is important to study and analyze film because A) there are a lot of similarities between film and graphic design and B) as motion designers, we need to know the historical roots, which is film and animation.

What does the future of frame by frame look like?

Frame by Frame is a one night event… it has taken a lot of luck, support, generosity and hard work to make this one night happen. With that being said, I don’t see it happening again unless some organization takes strong interest in bringing this event to life at a later date.

The website will live on for another couple of years, so hopefully that will give a little more permanence to the event.

I want to thank Daryn for doing this interview with us during an extremely busy time.