All language subtitles for MasterClass David Carson Teaches Graphic Design_Full

You know, if everybody loves your work,

you're playing it much too Dave,

the type could have been a little

stronger. Red's a difficult color. It's

almost too strong. They had some issues

on this about readability. I said, "No,

what do you mean? What's the problem?"

If your friends love it, your family,

everybody loves it. It's probably not

great. I hate to tell you.

Uh, you need some detractors. You need

some uh some people not liking it.

And then you're probably on to

something.

I have a degree in sociology. I taught

it in uh high school for a number of

years and then one summer discovered

this thing called graphic design. I was

26 before I heard the term graphic

design. So when I decided I wanted to

give up my lifelong teaching job, my

parents of course thought I was crazy

and I thought about I said, "Well,

something tells me I need to do this."

And so I did. Holy [ __ ] everything

shifted. David Carson radically

transformed the world of graphic design.

Carson turned graphic design into a

cultural force. He unzipped typography

and let it be wild.

His bold, visceral work challenged and

upended the field, making him a design

hero or villain.

The readability thing has gotten way

overplayed, and his rule-breaking

approach inspired a whole new generation

of designers. I hope they're just

motivated to push their work in a new

direction.

The last decade, maybe more, there's

been kind of a shift to some real

generic, I think, kind of boring

graphics. We've taken a lot of the uh

excitement out of the field, and that's

not where we want to be. At its best,

graphic design can express what the

heart is trying to say. It's the feeling

we get from looking at something. And

I'm hoping this class can help bring

back some of the craft and the

appreciation to detail and get back to

more individual uh more meaningful and

and better work. We're going to be

looking at graphic design, typography,

photography.

We'll examine collage making, the

process of logo making. I'm also going

to bring you a small version of a

workshop I give frequently around the

world.

The best design comes when you put

yourself into the work. A large part of

it is learning to trust your own

intuition, something we all have, but we

don't always use. Your uniqueness can

actually be used in such a great way in

this field of graphic design or arts or

creativity. And that's what gives you

the advantage over anybody else's.

Nobody else is you.

I'm David Carson and this is my master

class.

as a designer, if you're going to make a

living from this field, you're you're

going to have to work with clients.

Sometimes people say to me, they say,

"Well, you've got all this fun, you

know, cool surf rock and roll stuff, but

I've got real clients." And I say,

"Well, no, I have real clients, too.

It's just a different set of

restrictions and challenges really is

the way to look at them. It's its own

skill really working with clients and

they're all different. See it as a

challenge and say, "Okay, I'm going to

do something that works for them, but

I'm still happy with as a designer." And

then it's a win for for both sides.

The brief is is extremely important.

That's almost all you have sometimes to

start to begin with. And in general, a

brief is what the ad agency and the

client agree are the goals for the ad or

the campaign or what you're working on.

You know, who is this client? What are

they trying to say? What are the

benefits of the product or the service?

What uh who is their audience? That's

where your ideas are going to come from.

You read that brief, you look at all

that info and right away your mind will

start thinking about, oh, maybe this

image or that or I even this font or or

something. But it gets it gets the

wheels spinning as opposed to just say,

oh, I'm going to look for some new cool

ideas today. It's like, no, read that

brief. Read it well and what do you get

from that? What are you seeing? What are

you feeling? And then then begin to

work. So, it really starts there.

Besides the brief, which which is so

critical, you also on your own need to

find out about the history of the

company that may not be in the brief,

their their previous work, previous

logo, previous branding. Um, I think

it's important to see what their

competitors are doing to find out what

your audience is is seeing and how can

you improve on that or how can you not

alienate their existing customers while

bringing in some new ones. And that's

that has a lot to do with your research

in terms of uh who are they? Who's their

competitors? What are the other products

doing? What is this demographic of

consumer seeing? How can I not just add

to that clutter, but actually elevate it

and and do it in a unique way that's

still true to who they are as a company,

as a brand, as a as a a service,

whatever it is. And then it's a matter

of letting your design mind go to work.

Once you have the elements that you

think are valid elements based on that

brief,

I encourage you to to follow the brief

and do what they need. Cover that stuff,

but then push yourself and and show the

client that they they they we have to

give them more more um credit sometimes

than we do. Just like the the consumer

as well, they're used to seeing better

stuff and more experimental and they're

probably not going to be shocked by too

much. This was Amtrak trains in America

and they came to me and said, "Well,

could we could we get a map of where we

go?" I said, "Okay, what about this?"

And they said, "Well, can we have some

of the cities where we go?" I said,

"What about these two?" I picked like

the weirdest ones. I thought they went

to Cheyenne and El Paso and a bunch

more. And they said, "Well, no, I we we

really need to show the cities we go

to." I said, "Okay, there they are." And

they surprisingly were kind of okay with

this. They didn't like the star, so I

had to take the star out. And if you

look at these cities, this is the final

one. They they don't line up with

anything. And these just go up on the

right. And I thought it it works. You

know, I figure if you're on the train

and you're reading the train magazine,

you should know where you're going. Um,

so maybe the map's not that critical at

that point and have some fun with it and

maybe it sends a good message about the

the new Amtrak or the new train system

that would do something like this and

and yeah, this is what they went with.

But again, if you don't show the client

the more outdoor stuff, they can't pick

it. So, with this client, Audi, they had

a car that they wanted to reintroduce to

a slightly younger audience, even

specifically a surfing, beachgoing

audience, that you could throw your

stuff in the back of this car. I like

the dual meaning they came up with in

this headline. They are the way ahead

and they're also way ahead of the

competition. There's something kind of

nice there. And I try to when I can use

photos I've taken and I would encourage

you to do do the same. and try to

integrate things that you've noticed and

photographed and kept. So, the photo I

took in the Caribbean, this girl on the

swing and just kind of fun and

irrelevant. And the same with the kind

of messy imagery. There's a hint of the

maybe a beach scene in the blue there

and these kind of black lines. I'm not

sure where that came from. The three I

actually took that off of elevator I got

off of. And then when I present, I

present a wide range of things. So if

they were thinking that was too crazy, I

want to show them something that's maybe

a little more technical or mechanical

looking. Anyway, some of the actual

gears and things on the car. And you see

the car is actually very tiny up there

on the right. But I present a wide range

of things to let them to see where

they're leaning and what they're liking

and then go in and fine-tune ones

they're liking. I'm very comfortable

with that.

There's a horrible trade in Australia

and other places in the world where they

chop off the fin of of sharks to make

soup, make expensive soup, and they

apparently chop them like all their fins

off and then they so they can't swim and

they they float to the bottom and it

takes like 3 days to die and it's a

pretty horrific thing and people aren't

really aware of it outside of of that

world. But as a designer, how do you

make people sympathetic to sharks? And

you know, we're only used to seeing them

menacing photos of of the of the fin

coming at you and and all these things.

And

I can just quickly show you. So, this

was a starting point with the shark

campaign. And we're just describing the

fins a little bit or the different types

of sharks. And so, here they are in

their kind of still ominous position of

up like we're used to seeing them. And

then I thought, well, this is this is

kind of an information poster where

you'd have to be right there to read it

or get it. Here you see that font I'm

liking kind of edgy. And here's this fin

as represented in just a graphic mark.

And so now that I've introduced this fin

cut off, well, maybe to experiment with

the size relationships.

And I thought and you know, still this

idea of how many they actually killed

was in my mind. So I thought, okay,

maybe multiple, maybe three.

At some point, it was a little thing,

but it turned out, I think, to work good

is I just turned the fin around. And

it's less menacing going down. So now

I've added some type and some shapes in

here. But the basic starting point was

the fin, which you see on the bottom

left, going down instead of up. And the

red maybe a hint of what's happening.

They're chopping these things off. and

then a mixture of upper lowercase and

size of font. So I went here. I thought,

well, I'm going to turn these fins

upside down and show that there's a lot

of them. They It's a crazy amount every

year that these sharks are killed. So by

turning them upside down, doing it in

watercolor, and still you have the hint

of red without being gory, I thought,

okay, this is getting closer. There's a

lot of these fins. And then I thought,

you know what? I I really believe my

work works best simple or complicated.

And when it's in the middle, it's just

not working uh as well or as effective.

So, if I'm going to show a lot of fins

to represent the number of the sharks

that are killed, I need to really go

there. Okay, that maybe gives you more

the sense of the absurd number of these

animals that are killed for soup.

But then, you know, like sometimes you

can it can have the opposite effect when

you go in this direction. I think

sometimes the magazine covers or openers

and they'll have like eight great photos

of of whatever. And so they show all of

them. And the effect is that they all

take away from each other. They have no

impact. And maybe that's the case here.

So I finally decided, no, you know, busy

at first is kind of shocking, but then

it grows old pretty quick. Uh, so maybe

I need to just go here and just show one

fin. And this is what they ended up

with. And you see the logo there and

just kill the fin trade was a saying.

But but I think the simplicity here and

the fact that they're all slightly

different helped the campaign a lot. So,

as especially as if your students are

new going into the field, you want to be

able to you have to be able to tell the

client why you did something and not

because it looked cool. If I said,

"Well, just cool shape. I like it."

You're not going to sell those. You need

to be able to explain the work on some

level. And and so pretty much on selling

this idea, that's I would have said what

I just told you. It's just well there's

a fin in there and it's turned around

and I think there's a hint of of cutting

off the limbs and and that's why so it's

not just arbitrary. You won't be able to

explain away a bad design, but if you've

got a good one and there's reasons for

it, you have a much better chance of of

selling it.

in the late uh '9s I guess in America,

Microsoft was kind of getting a bad rap

and they were kind of the first and the

biggest and they were seen as by a lot

of people as too competitive and out to

take over the world and there was a lot

of negative feeling towards Microsoft.

One of the things we wanted to do and

they wanted me to do specifically was

see if we couldn't soften their image a

bit through through design and through

type use. And what a fascinating concept

you know my degree is in sociology. So

this whole idea how can design help

soften the image of this company. I

remember coming from New York um where

my studio was and and I remember even

saying that I had had all they called to

see if I was ready and I said yeah I've

got all my fonts and and they said

somebody whoever said fonts well

Microsoft has a font which was basically

like a thick Helvetica kind of thing

that they had rounded some edges and

called Microsoft Gothic I think. So, you

know, I could have said, "Well, screw

that. I got all these cool fonts." Or I

thought, "Wow, that's interesting. This

would be the first time I've restricted

to using one approved font." It's like,

whoa. And they want me to be human, help

humanize them and do all these things

like, but I I saw it as a real

interesting challenge. So this campaign

ended up of course using their font as I

had to but in unusual ways for them

especially at that time maybe even today

but combining upper lower case italic

with nonitalic spacing issues dealing

with each word kind of separately and

try to through the use of design and

type humanize them a little bit and

that's what you can do as a designer.

Take a font that you're given or or a

very basic one and use it in ways that

somebody else wouldn't. That's the

challenge and that's the fun part and

that's that's what we did here. And then

I was also able to they wanted images

from the software and partly because

when I started dealing with them I

couldn't get the backgrounds to go

clear. I thought oh jeez it was early

and a lot of times that was a problem.

It's long since been solved, but when I

was trying to get isolate an image and

um finally I just put them into the

layout with these kind of jagged uh

weird white shapes and explained to them

that I thought that was helping humanize

and blah blah blah and and they stayed

in, but it was just a result of me not

being able to get rid of them. But but I

do think they they work. And so the

message is not love us, we're friendly,

we're good. But it's like no, but

hopefully you get a feeling that they

Microsoft has a little sense of humor.

They're they're a little more human than

we thought and they're not only out to

take over the world and and some of

that. So again, a really hard thing to

measure, but these went in all different

languages all over the world,

billboards, uh, bus shelters and ads in

magazines and and I have to think it in

in some way it helped soften their

image.

This idea of of small victories is

something that I I come across and I

think all designers do. You know, how

much will a client let you do what you

really want? And so this is some work

for bows. For them, it was starting to

be a big deal where type touch type. It

wasn't all lined up. Just little things.

And it became about little victories.

And some of the work was was okay. Um,

you know, it was a very simple new

remote they had. And so, of course, it

wanted to be a very simple ad to help

bring that idea out. And this might be

one of the ones I'm most pleased with.

They had never started a title with a

lowercase letter. They had never had

words touch each other, which had been

done for quite a while at this point.

But more importantly, they'd only used

white males in their advertising. And

this wasn't that long ago. For me, this

became about small victories and maybe

in this case a pretty big victory. Uh

that that not only some experimentation

with the type, but being able to get

away from white male only in ads, solid

design, but what we accomplished is was

more important.

In a lot of my recent work, I've been

using more collagebased imagery when

that feels right or feels correct for

what it is we're working on. And that

was the case in this recent work for the

whiskey brand Mallen. So, it wasn't so

much a matter of me looking at at this

particular client and saying, "Oh, they

need collage." It was like a combination

of them coming to me because they'd seen

some of that. and then me spending time

at their distillery in Scotland and the

things that struck me were the nature

and the handsonness of the people from

the from the whiskey tasting to the

patching the casks. I mean it's very

human uh hands-on work. So I really felt

when I presented some ideas that well

collage makes sense for this particular

client and they had been pretty uh

conservative. I think they would they

would agree with in their advertising

for quite some time and their branding

and I just know there's there's a room

for for a little more hands-on human

kind of interaction and so collage seem

to fit pretty well and it's pretty

abstract. Um we we did a series of them

for uh for the holidays and uh this

particular one is just using their name

and my name and the fact that we're

working together and helping reintroduce

them uh to some people or introducing

them possibly for the first time and in

addition to the Macallen work I was

fortunate to get asked to work on a John

Cold Train box set using collage.

I was on the road. I was in Amsterdam.

But to me, it's it's not so much where

you are, it's your mindset and what

you're working with and your ways of

working. So these covers were all done

on the floor of the Zoku Hotel in

Amsterdam. So if you're doing collage or

you're doing what you call personal

work, um uh people are wanting that more

than ever. you know, this whole movement

to kind of feel there's a human behind

the work that plays really well to

individual artists and graphic designers

who who do your own kind of thing uh on

the side. Maybe, you know, there there

there are places for that, probably more

than there's been in quite a while.

You know, editorial work has has its own

kind of advantages. And early in my

career, I was drawn to magazine design,

which is graphic design,

whether it's the image or the type or

the white space or the whole layout. How

can I reinforce what I've just read

through color, through texture, through

shape, through my choices?

That's when design can be so powerful.

It's always been, and it may be more

than ever, hard to get somebody to jump

into a gray page of type. And that's

some of your job as a designer is to

help with that and help them get in.

Otherwise, they may miss a a great

article or some important information.

And so, if you're not dealing with the

type in the body copy, then could be a

real disservice to the writer because

their information doesn't get read and

to the reader who misses this important

information.

In this article, it was on the techno

dancing

and uh this is some imagery I was

provided and it just seemed to lend

itself to some experimentation with

movement or or shapes of these columns

of type. So, two columns on the right

are touching or almost that's not a big

deal. I just feel the white space and

the movement in here. And I just can't

see any reason why you would take this

and let the computer make those three

columns even flesh left the same space.

Everyone's like, "Oh, that's deadly.

That could be screaming don't read me."

Okay, this one's just playing with

letters. It's actually a pretty basic

font here. The word wedge is called the

wedge people. Has a E at the end of it,

but I've dropped it down to become the E

in people and still seems to kind of

work. So, I'm intrigued by that type of

thing. Just hopefully makes it more

interesting and promises to the viewer,

this might be worth your time. There's

something going on here. This is Super

Chunk and another band. And I've also

realized I could take the words super

and actually reverse it out of the body

copy creating chunks of type. I found

that kind of interesting. So, it doesn't

wrap around the word super. The type

there simply disappears, but you still

got to gesture the article.

Here's a very simple layout for Tony

Hawk and Beach Culture magazine. I'm

just playing off the squareness of the

illustration where there's actually some

nice movement, but uh that against the O

in his name and hopefully some reference

of maybe wheels or movement or or

skateboarding in that and uh the by

line, the X there is plays a big part in

this arrangement. If you take it out,

the the spread isn't working. So they're

all elements and that's that's what you

do as as designers.

Contents pages traditionally I haven't

put page numbers on them but with this

issue of Surf Portugal I decided you

know what I'm going to really go with

the page numbers. So here they are very

big and they were actually what you

would uh where the articles appeared. So

for instance, this is the article on

page 92 and the page number becomes a

very important graphic element and I

think adds to the spirit of not only the

layout but the the whole magazine and

and their audience in a sense. So this

would have been page 76. So contents

page photo by Albert Watson, amazing

photographer and no page numbers. I just

list things in order that they appear

and I think people kind of go through

magazines from the back anyway. So, and

another contents page, another great

photo by Albert Watson. I've always

thought the the main thing I want to

accomplish with a cover is is to

get somebody to pick it up. I want to

get somebody's attention on the news

stand. I don't want to list everything

that's in the issue politely down the

side and maybe down the other side. I

want them to react to it. Whoa, what

what's going on here? The cover lines

showing what's in the issue. The fourth

line down happens to be Tony Hawk, the

world famous skateboarder and uh at the

time just beginning, but his name is

upside down. So that's not a big deal,

but maybe some of his fans or people

following skateboarding hopefully got,

you know, he was famous for some of his

upside down tricks. And so it's just a

matter of not automatically uh doing

your work, but but really paying

attention to the details. Here I' I've

decided to after kind of a crazy cover

on the issue before, go pretty simple

and pretty clean. This is a photograph

by Anton Corbin submitted for an article

in the magazine. But when I saw this and

I knew we were doing a kind of end of

summer issue, I thought, "Oh, that's

perfect image for end of summer." And it

became the cover. So every cover and

every page a whole new design

assignment, which makes all the

magazines I worked on a lot more work,

but it also makes them a lot more fun to

work on and I think allows it to end up

at a more interesting place than if we'

simply drop things in.

You shouldn't use the always go to the

obvious word to highlight. This was

about a book called The Fear Project.

Talks about all the things this guy has

tried and he was afraid to do and how he

conquered them. And at some point I

realized, wo, look what happens when I

make fear really small. And maybe maybe

by making fear smaller than the it's

actually becoming a little more fearful

in a way. There's something there. It's

not maybe that direct, but uh and at

some point I landed on on what you've

seen. And for me it's kind of foroding

or fear somehow in there. So I think the

the bigger message is don't be

restrained to the obvious choices and

well of course fear would be the big

word and you'd probably make it big and

black and fearful but not automatically.

surfing Portugal. I did some covers and

the the thing here is a 25 year

anniversary and that's what it says in

that type in in the towards the bottom

there are those two shapes and

originally I would have had that in the

middle because that's where it seemed to

want to go and I think with this

audience and the subject matter it's

fine that the type is down touching the

black and not perfectly centered in

between those two shapes. I'd like to

encourage you to not put things where

they seem to want to go. Don't put them

in the obvious place. Maybe there's a

more interesting place that only you

would would find and not the obvious

one.

You know, people used to say early

issues of of Ray Gun, oh, you can't read

any of that, or oh, it's illegible. Of

course, it's not. Readability has so

much to do with what you're interested

in reading. And with that audience, some

of the more extreme experimentation

probably helped them

identify or like the magazine even more.

Was it unreadable? No, of course not.

Um, was it a science medical journal?

No, it was skateboarding and surfing and

rock and roll. And luckily, I was

fortunate to be able to take some of

that mindset and and move it into some

client work. So legibility alone doesn't

guarantee communication.

You know, there's a saying we have,

don't judge a book by its cover. And I

say, "No, that's so wrong. If the

designer's done their job, you can judge

a book by its cover. It means they've

read it, they've gone through it, they

understand it, and they show it in the

cover. So this whole idea, oh no, don't

judge a book by its cover." No, no. If

the designer's done their job, if you've

done your job, yes. So it's easy to say,

"Oh, yeah. Trust your intuition. That's

great. But but it's um you know,

everybody has it. It's a matter of

trusting it and listening to it. My

father was a test pilot in America. And

at that time, of course, precomputer,

pre- everything, they would the

government would make a new plane and

and they'd say, "Go see if that one

flies, would you?" I remember my dad

telling me they were they were finding

that they were often blacking out at a

certain altitude and angle and speed.

He realized that if he started screaming

at the top of his lungs, he would stay

awake. So, he told the other pilots, "At

this degree or this angle, start

screaming, you won't pass out." So,

that's a long entry into uh some people

tell me, "Oh, I see why you take chances

in graphic design. Your your dad was a

test pilot." And I say, "Uh, I don't I

don't think it's the same thing. I mean

some of these decisions I have to make

between like say serif versus sand serif

and you know not real life threatening

stuff. So why not take some chances? Why

not put some of yourself into the work?

Why not push yourself?

The first assignment we looked at who

are you and then we looked at how's your

life going and now we're going to look

into the future. Where do you want to be

10 years from now?

Okay. How many would want this future?

Me?

Yeah.

One, two, three. All four. Well, that's

interesting. Why?

It's uh really optimistic. The use of

color and u the message

the texture of the paper sort of like

being on top and sort of wrinkled makes

it seem like there's room for mistakes.

That's interesting. Okay.

And don't take life too seriously maybe.

Okay.

Willing to just keep on keeping on.

Yeah. It's pretty hard not to focus on

the type. You know, it's repeated here.

May this may have been a bit a bit

literal. Anybody not want this future?

You can trade it for yours. This is

guaranteed. Yours is unknown. This is

for sure. If you pick it, would you go

with that?

No.

No. Why not?

And not for no reason. Just I want my

future.

No. I'm sorry. You have to take this

future.

They didn't tell you at the beginning of

class.

What else? Is there anything? I mean,

it's clearly happy, but is there

anything else there?

The sentence keep on. Okay.

Does it seem like they're not happy all

the time?

Okay.

They're willing to keep on fighting. I

wouldn't say it screams happiness. I

would say it's a balance.

Good. I would agree. And the black is

certainly contributing to that.

Um and and so is this actually. It's not

a super happy kind of thing. Yeah. And

then I and then I think and then I think

we I don't know that we get farther.

Let's find out whose is this.

This is mine. Okay. How how are the

comments?

I think that more than it being like

about me, I sort of made it, you know,

to me, I think this is like my take on

like a little self-help poster. It's

like a hang in there, but on a different

level. But

so you took a little more of a which

which I like that kind of a mental uh

evaluation where what might be going on

as opposed to in the mountains or the

city or the river or something like

that. So I I like that. Um, and again,

none of these can be right or wrong.

They're just sending different messages.

I will say I think the type could have

been a little stronger. It's almost too

literal. I get it and then I you kind of

move on. So, if we were to rework this,

I'm feeling it's kind of placed there

and maybe there's there's so many

interesting shapes and angles. Maybe

there's some other way we could explore

and make it feel less of kind of tapped

on in the middle there. You're free to

agree or disagree. You're free to agree

with me.

I think it's a good point.

And I might even say when you get up

close says keeping on. Maybe that's all

it needed. This is pretty nice. This

feels like it deals with the rest of the

collage. This doesn't so much. Good. So,

let's look here. How many would want

this future?

I'm not sure. It's kind of mysterious.

I'm attracted to it, but you know, the

use of color, the orange and the yellow.

So, yellow and orange. Is it happy?

Less happy. was a different kind of

something about the hard edge and a torn

paper.

Yeah, it's kind of serious even though

it's

serious. Yeah, I would agree. It's like

it's wanting to be happy. Yeah,

but it's not certainly not this yellow

happy.

Like the whole thing feels very intense.

That's interesting. Yeah, we have a a

variety of elements and they're all

about equal weight. So, your eyes not

even sure where to go. And what do we

think about the type? What's going on

there?

Very mysterious. Yeah, maybe it's the

two u same letters cuz you can't see the

rest. I don't know.

I'm tempted to look behind it, but

that's not how we're seeing it. So, I

can't do that. This one might need some

more type or some more information.

Okay. Who's is this?

Yeah, this is me.

Okay. How are the comments?

Well, it says order behind there. I hit

it with a blob of chaos.

Yeah. So, the green is an O.

Yeah, the green is an O. I also thought

of it as something that was balancing.

So, I see green as a sort of like a wise

color.

Green is a wise color. Yeah. Oh,

interesting. And I really like the

phrase that came before in the other

assignment when someone said um

predictable chaos.

Trying to be a little chaotic, but it's

also kind of orderly. So, it's it's in

that direction for sure.

So, I think that's where I want to be in

10 years. I want still want some chaos,

but hopefully I'll be a little bit

wiser.

Nice. Okay. Okay. Well, I think it gets

better with that explanation. Maybe

there's some ways that we could have

gotten more from that or of what you

describe.

Yeah, I agree.

Well, I can't, like I say, I can't say

no. That's the wrong future.

Okay. What do you see there?

Peaceful.

I see a window. Obviously,

I'm getting a waves from it.

Is there motion in here?

Yeah.

What direction?

Oh, good point. I would say to the left.

I would say to the right.

Really? Yeah.

Wow.

Did they use type?

No,

it doesn't appear that they did. So, I'm

curious to hear about that. Okay. Whose

is this?

That's mine.

Okay. What can you tell us?

I see myself in 10 years just being more

calm. It's more mental than physical. I

guess it's quite literal using the

window. So, I was not finding the

solution to use type

in in that communication. Well, I like

the thinking on that. He said basically,

screw the rules.

I thought maybe there was a T or

something in there. I still would have

liked to seen now you incorporated a

little type in there just just kind of

the challenge, but but a great start.

Maybe a little too literal on the

window. Maybe there's ways to hint at a

window.

Okay. Well, I say overall we're not bad

place to be in a decade or 10 years.

Let's go over here. How many would want

this future?

I'm curious about it.

Me, too.

Curious about it.

How come?

Because of the bright colors and the

shapes, it feels very positive and

exciting. But then the dot dot dot, it

makes me a bit scared like I don't know

what's coming.

So, does it change the poster much if I

could cover that up?

Maybe. But it's still um exciting.

I feel it's pretty animated as well.

like you kind of feel the movement in

it.

I would agree.

Okay, that's not easy to do. Can you

imagine this as a real poster somewhere?

Yeah, but I still don't know exactly for

what.

Okay. Well, no, I could for sure, but I

would tend to agree with you. Yeah, we

probably need a little more information,

and that's something to work on in

general. I mean, I still work on it is,

you know, incorporating type into a

great image and and making it stronger.

Does it look like it was thought about

or just done quickly?

Thought about.

Yeah, thought up. Why would you say

that?

The details you see is a mirroring

image, but they're not equal. You see

the craftsmanship. It's cut out, glued,

straight lines. I would agree with that.

Whose is this?

Mine.

Okay. What can you tell us?

Um, it actually says grow on the bottom,

but I placed it so that you could also

read it as row because to me that both

means like moving forward and like

growing as a person. Maybe the blue was

supposed to represent hopefully my

professional life like going upwards and

then the orange and yellow is like the

happiness and the personal life going

and the dots they were supposed to mean

like you don't know what's

like continued or

yeah cuz it's the future I don't know

yeah very strong you know if I had said

for these assignments so get some

colored paper and do a nice collage okay

none of these in my mind would have

become as interesting or good but

because there had some personal

information that had some meaning to

you. They ended up in a place there's no

other way you could do that. You know,

this you have total freedom and very

little at stake. Now, the trick is going

to be to get some of that into your

other work, steal some of that

uniqueness.

I hope with these exercises you realize

that design has a lot of functions.

Before somebody starts reading, does it

intrigue them? Does it send a message

that's consistent with what they're

going to then read or experience or

hopefully walk across the street and

read the small print on that poster

because you intrigued them. I hope you

had a chance to do these at home and I

really hope that you're encouraged to

push yourself a bit. Put some of

yourself into the work. Experiment more.

Hopefully you got some of that from the

class. So, thank you.

I think if I didn't take risks, if I

played it safe, we wouldn't be here

today.

So, we've looked at who are you, how's

your life going, where are you going to

be in 10 years? Okay. And now that would

lead to this little closing exercise.

So, just at the top of your page, I'd

like you to just we'll title this

lifeline.

And then I'd like you to simply draw a

line across your sheet, leaving some

room on each end. Now, on this end, put

an X, this will be your birth date. And

then on this end, I'd like you to put

how old you'll be and what year that

would be when you die.

Okay. Now, I'd like to come in with a a

third X. And that one will be today's

date, but put it in perspective where it

should fall on that line.

I'd like you to take a few moments here

and and simply stare at this line. Just

We're not used to seeing our our life

like this, but just just stare at it

quietly for a few seconds.

What What were some of your thoughts as

you just looked at your lifeline?

How short I've lived. How short you've

lived. Okay. How about you?

How bad I am at math.

How bad you are with math. Okay.

Also,

yeah, how short I've lived as well.

How short? Okay.

Okay. This is jarring. Yeah. I feel like

I've already gone through a lot and now

I'm just like, well, there's a lot left

as well. Um I don't know what it's going

to be like, but you know. Exactly. A lot

left. That's mostly it.

Okay. Okay. How about you?

Yeah, the same. I thought more of like

how much is left than how young I am.

Okay.

Yeah.

And how old are we going to be? How old

will you be when you die?

90.

90.

Yeah.

I said 85.

105.

Wow.

105.

80 something.

The purpose of this is is to not to end

on some negative note or anything, but

hopefully to realize the only thing we

know for sure, nothing's guaranteed. The

only thing we know for sure is this is

gone. Okay? You're not getting that

back. Um, and we don't know exactly when

this is coming, but it is coming. And

when I taught sociology, the there's a

big study where they interviewed people

on their deathbed really in nursing

homes, try to find out what in their

life did they regret doing and see if

there were some patterns and things. And

what they weren't expecting to find is

that very few people regretted things

they had done in their life. But almost

unanimously they regretted the things

they hadn't done. It was everything

from, you know, why didn't I take that

job? Why didn't I move? Why didn't I ask

her to dance? You know, what was I

thinking? So, if there's things you want

to have accomplished by this point, what

are you doing now to ensure they happen?

Okay. If you're hoping they happen in

here, well, good luck. But if there's

some things when you get here, you want

to be able to say you did this and this

and this and you don't regret the things

you didn't do. So, it's it's a positive

note, even though it's it's odd. We're

not used to looking at such a thing, but

I hope you'll hang on to this. And then

I hope you do this at home. It's it's I

think uh worthwhile to kind of stare at

and cuz the only thing, like I said,

this is for sure. And if you're just

hoping stuff works out, good luck. But

but you don't want to get there and and

have these things that you didn't do

kind of haunt you.

You know, one of the things that makes

this exercise, I think, powerful is just

it simplicity. Take it as a positive

thing. It is going to end, but wow, look

how much time I have left.

And that's exciting. That's unwritten.

And you can write that. You will write

that regardless, but you should write it

in a way that you won't regret not

doing.

Thank you for your participation. Yeah.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Everybody has intuition. It's not a

matter of of teaching people to have it,

but it is a matter of

teaching yourself maybe to listen to it

more. If you can become a aware that

it's out there and it's important and it

usually has good answers for you to to

listen to it and and utilize it as a

design tool.

For this part, I'll be showing my work

and explaining why it looks the way it

does.

Let's go.

But the point is to show you that

there's a reason what sometimes appears

chaotic or random is almost never the

case. graphic design has gotten pretty

conservative and automatic and I think

has lost a lot of the rebelness is that

a word rebellioness

that word there aren't as many rebels um

in graphic design and it's gotten so

clean and sanitary and so I think for

the profession to stay kind of vital or

or important that we still need somebody

says oh says who why not why can't I do

this Because a big part of design is to

get somebody to want to come into your

store, to pick up your book, to click on

your site, to walk across the street and

read the fine print. You know, if you've

done your job as a designer, people will

do that. They'll want to do that. I have

an example here. This was a window

display for a store in a shopping mall.

And they had some issues on this about

readability,

but I think this in a boring shopping

mall window display would have gotten

people's attention and maybe they stop

and maybe they they look in the door,

but we'll never know. They it never came

very close to being accepted, but I

think a bit of a missed opportunity.

I was asked by a hotel in in Amsterdam

to come up with some the numbers for the

floors. You know, we see here the word

to, but it says nothing. That's

nonsense. That doesn't say anything in

any language, but we all read it. And

you know, really the word is an image.

And maybe it's more interesting,

especially getting off the elevator in a

hotel that's trying to be kind of hip

and current and fun. And of course, you

get it right away. I am trusting my own

judgment and intuition on that. I know

it's a three. I know it's a four. I know

they're all readable even though I say

it's not a word. Okay, this works really

good. The I and the X are shorter and

the I in the middle. The five was pretty

great, but this is maybe even better.

People looking at existing things and

using them in new ways. Sounds kind of

trit, but but I think that's a big job

of the designer. It's get people looking

again, noticing again. I'm never without

my phone. And if I go for a walk in a

new city or something and I don't have

my phone, I have to go back because I'm

going to see something, some shape, some

texture, some color, it registers. And

then I'm doing a layout and somehow I

think that works this way into your

work. What we're seeing here is just

something that caught my eye. And this

is a shape, color, texture. It's not to

copy them exactly, but it it registered

as something that your mind sees that

somebody else might not have seen. So,

here there's a nice field of of blues

and grays and whites. And kind of how I

start my collage work is gathering

things in groups of color combinations

that I think could go together.

This is my kind of humor. I just love

this. I I forget where I saw it posted,

but one alert accordion and then the

little things just say no thanks.

There's no number or anything, so

somebody stops and and reads it. No, no,

I don't. And they take it and put it in

their pocket. Anyway, just absurd, but

great. And you know, I love this kind of

thing on a couple levels. Somebody took

the trouble, number one, to design this,

number two to print them, number three

to wild post them around the city one

night. And there's no other message on

there other than it says, "Holy shit." I

love that energy that somebody took the

time to to do that. and and get it out

there for no obvious advantage or

reason. Okay, guy's got a great hand

lettering and it's pretty clear. I I

think I get this message and then I saw

another sign saying basically the same

thing. Both don't want you to dump

there, but here's a little different

approach. So, you know, which one would

you dump in front of? Would you dump it

here or there? They say the same thing

basically, but a very different message

largely because of the design.

So, I saw this at an airport. I thought,

"Wow, I'm just not really sure this is

I'm getting a real good feeling of

security with with with this company.

It's it's the letters are taped up with

blue tape." So, stuff again that catches

my eye. If you have a friend that has

one of these, just solve it for them.

4x4 is 16. But I love the idea of

somebody coming in in the morning to get

in their truck and what the it's 16. 4x4

is 16. So part of my my whole approach

is just noticing things around you,

noticing things in your environment. And

and I this is just one little example in

my world. Normally I would ask if

anybody can tell what this is, but it's

going to be pretty hard to hear you

there at home uh wherever you are. Uh so

you know maybe what is this? It's kind

of interesting shape. Here's another

one. There's something kind of familiar,

but not really about it.

Okay, I'll show you where it came from.

So, something I see every day. This is

my actual laptop. And somehow I must

apparently I use AS and E quite a bit

and a bit D uh cuz they're just worn

away, which I I just find really

intriguing. When does that happen? You

don't you don't see it. doesn't come off

on your finger, but somehow that wears

away, like stone uh stairs that are

woven down. But the point is, use your

environment. See things that nobody else

sees. That's really where where you want

to be is bringing what only you can

bring to a project because nobody has

your background, your upbringing, your

parents, your whole life experience.

Everybody can buy the same software and

do a reasonable

uh newsletter, business card or

something, but nobody can pull from who

you are and use that. And I would

encourage you not only in graphic

design, but any field to to use that

because something is an accident doesn't

make it good. But it's a huge part of my

process. Always has been. Unexpected

things along the way. something falls,

something gets stuck in a in a printer,

something whatever. You got to be open

to that stuff and aware of it. And most

of the time it doesn't work. But every

now and then something you weren't

expecting happens in the process. It's

like, wo, that's even better than I

thought. When I started it was all paste

up, art boards, uh, Xacto knives. And

this is a very early work in beach

culture. some of the first timer

actually printing out a type from the

printer, not having to send out for it.

And this came back all messed up. And at

some point, I thought, well, you know

what? Maybe I'll just use it like this.

And that's the case here. So, you can

see the word mixed messages. I started

to mix the font, uh, the MI and the X,

and then you see another X, and you see

two E's. So, that was my starting point.

Well, mixed messages. I may I wonder if

I could mix some of the the words or the

letters of the title. Those are kind of

interesting. Well, at this time in the

whole process, I like to print it out

and look at it and stare at it. So, with

this, I had to print these four sections

out cuz the magazine was oversized. And

I would have put them on the floor cuz

it had to come out in four pages. And

I'm looking at it and I would have gone,

"Oh, wow. That's that's even more mixed

message. Look at that." And I'm sure I

very carefully picked it up and maybe

taped it together or something. And so

the white line you see kind of coming

down through the X's to the S and then

going horizontally through the S and the

A, that's the border of the smaller

sheets of paper that wouldn't print,

wouldn't bleed, but it became the whole

layout cuz I thought it even reinforced

this mixed message idea. So I think

intuition in design is is actually one

of the most important ingredients. Um

it's something only you can pull from.

Uh, everybody can use it, but

everybody's is going to be different.

That's, you know, it really does have to

do with your whole life experience, how

you were brought up, your parents, your

everything. And somehow that influences

what you see, your decisions on things.

And you have to be able to listen to

that in design to or probably a lot of

fields to do great

I'm interested in the various ways

typography can can send a message and

can communicate and some of it's through

reading but not most of it. Most of it

is the feeling we get from it and that

really intrigues me and how can we

emotionally affect people through the

use of typography. It was, you know,

William Burroughs once said that a word

is an image. A word is an image. And I

think that's how I feel about

typography. It's an image. It also

happens to spell something. But before

that, it's sending a message and how

it's arranged and how it's worked uh

into a design or layout. And that to me

is an excitingly powerful tool.

We have a few things that we can use to

help send a message and and I start

really with the font choice. Don't

overlook the message behind each font,

what you get from that. They all have

their own personality and you have to

decide as a designer which one fits your

particular project the best and doesn't

simply

uh carry the information. It'll help you

um reinforce a message and and that can

be

well any anything really stability. It

can be fragile. It can be quaint. It can

be loud, you know, and without

necessarily having to say that. And it's

it's a subtle thing, but it's a huge

part of the craft of graphic design. So,

did you look at the space between the

letters? Did you decide maybe it's a

little elegant or classier if I open

that up a tiny bit and maybe here I

could go to a caps but that cap doesn't

feel right. Maybe I should make a tall

condensed one that I can find. So make

those decisions. A lot of it is just

don't get lazy and yeah it's there. It's

readable. It's okay. But that's not

where you want to be. That's not where

you're going to have the most fun doing

it. You're not going to do your best

work. So I would look at a of you know

kind of the obvious categories of fonts

bold thick serif sans serif

itallic nonitallic the basic category

see if something hits you there strikes

you is feeling right for the message and

the other information whether it's

photograph or graphs or whatever you

have and if you have a very unique one

you can only use it usually once or very

few times because then it becomes more

about the font and everybody can use it

and identify it. So I just stay away

from anything that um feels too

popular

uh too common, too forgettable and after

that it just has to feel right to you

for that particular project, that

particular client. And that's a

subjective call but it's a huge part of

your design process.

This work early work for Armani was at a

time when there was a ton of type faces

which we're kind of seeing again which

is exciting. I thought well you know

what rather than grab the newest coolest

latest font I'm going to take an old

existing font and a new one and combine

them and that will be the look for

Armani and it became their look for that

year. So there's two fonts. There's an

old one, a new one.

Another example of very traditional type

face with the serif, a newer font, and

then also combining some italic and

upper lower case. So just little stuff.

And there's no right or wrong to this

other than again when it feels right to

you and dictated by the photo. So it's

not only about picking the font, but but

how you use it. And maybe you can

combine a couple. Maybe you go back in

and change one word, one letter to a

different font. Something that makes it

yours. And maybe people aren't even

exactly aware why it's kind of

interesting, but the fact that you did

that and maybe one letter is a little

bolder, but whatever whatever seems

right to you, I would encourage you to

make things your own. Have have some

ownership that nobody else would do.

The tone set by hand lettering is is

just all over the map. You know, it can

be happy, it can be sad, it can be

angry, it can be urgent, it can be calm.

But what it's mostly is human and sends

that message that a person was behind

this. And some of the reason you should

never use a font that is made to look

like hand lettering. handletter it or

get somebody that does to to do that.

It's like kid art agency sometimes will

use somebody in the agency to do a kid

art ad and no, get a kid to do that. You

can't beat that. And when I see hand

lettering, the first thing I do is check

two letters and see that they're

different. Make sure it's hand lettering

and not a computer font. I've always

done some part of hand lettering and I'

maybe kind of even gotten back to it

more, but this was done with a

watercolor pencil held up too high at

the wrong angle and probably with my

left hand and it says beach. The hand

writing here contrasts nicely with the

squareness of the photograph. the um

juxtaposition of something very

obviously human and a more formal

portrait I think works together well.

But because something's hand lettering

doesn't make it good. It's still as

subjective and intuitive as other types

of graphic design, it has to feel right

for what it's what it's working for.

Here you have an article on the band

Sonic Youth and the illustrator, he

wrote on the right Sonic Youth. And so

that was my influence in doing the title

on the left. I thought, "Oh, there's

something kind of nice in that hand

lettering." And I took the hard copy of

the article they actually gave me uh and

wrote right over it with my left hand to

make it even stranger. And uh fits in

and that's very subjective, but um but

pretty rewarding when you get it. And

again, I think its main message is

there's a human behind this. There's

some people involved here.

At some point obviously the color is a

huge part of of also reinforcing the

message and sending it. I usually don't

want to color to overpower the the

design. It should complement it. In this

particular case, you know, this is an

article, songs in the key of life, where

different musicians talked about songs

in their life that when they heard them

took them back to a different time or

place or an event, you know, a love, a

date, a kiss, a summer, a storm,

whatever. So, the coloring here to me is

maybe a little bit of all that, you

know, the overlapping and the kind of

dirty yellow. this place of melancholy.

It's kind of hopeful but not not really

happy or sad. So, this was a Channel

Island National Park series of posters

to get people excited about the park.

You can barely see it there, but it says

discover. And that's kind of what they

want you to do with a national park and

what I want you to do in the poster. And

because it's an island, the the color

reference is largely blues and greens

and ocean related. The pink was largely

because I'd never used pink like that

before and found it kind of interesting.

It offset the other blueish watery

colors nicely.

So, what I'm trying to do in a title,

this is a very scary, cold, sharkridden

place to go surfing. It's actually the

first time it was exposed, a place

called Mavericks in Northern California.

the title pretty good title cold sweat

but and I wanted to give it a not very

friendly not very welcoming feel so it's

been black it has the spacing the tea

being the only one in white all that

kind of hopefully adds to the feeling of

what the article is about so that's the

starting point for me read the article

in in magazine work listen to the music

look at any images and say okay what am

I getting from that and what would that

look like

maybe because I didn't have the

schooling. I I never used a grid, never

knew what they were and still don't use

a grid or any kind of system. By the

time I did learn about them, I thought,

"Wow, why would you want to do that?"

Uh, you know, I always start maybe

because I started on art boards with a

blank piece of thin cardboard, basically

a blank a blank page and start arranging

things to where they feel right and help

send the message I'm trying to send. So,

I did some work for a clothing company

called Eddie Bower. I did this cover. I

think it's kind of reasonable. And a

couple ads, you know, this was again was

a big deal for them to break up words.

And then they did ask me to do some more

of their catalog work.

Um, and they showed me this and I

thought, "What? I've never seen so many

freaking guidelines in my life." And I

couldn't I couldn't work with that. It

was too much info. I took it all in.

It's all part of the design. I have to

to eliminate them. Um, I have to delete

guidelines. You know, never snap to

guides. That's a horrible command

because you should be making those

decisions. The idea that a computer sets

that up is to me is just all wrong. This

is uh Wow. I think this is where you end

up with boring design and boring

designers and probably a boring

audience. So I would encourage you again

get you know never snap to guides. You

know when you start a page this is how

it should look. You're bringing your eye

to it. You're not following somebody

else's guideline guidelines. I mean come

on. Um like training wheels or

something. So this is how you need to

start. You know never snap to guides.

Never snap to guides. Never snapped a

guy. I just can't say it. We want your

mind.

Photography is a huge part of graphic

design. In the photos you choose or in

the sections of the photos you choose.

That's where you can give some life to

something that otherwise might be so

perfectly focused and colored and

balanced that it's totally forgettable.

What hints can you take from the

photography? A line, an angle, a white

space, something that helped tie this

together as as one piece.

I think because I started on a

skateboard magazine where we had very

limited well like no budgets and photos

just submitted by people in the office

or skaters themselves which is a cool

idea but it often didn't work. And so I

was forced to kind of look at each photo

and maybe find a section that I thought

was more interesting. I'm going to go in

and blow this section of the photo up

and whoa that got really strong. That's

really nice. And so I started working

like that. And even if the skate

photographer photography was good, then

maybe again it was a major article or it

was a cover article or you had six pages

or eight pages and all I have are a

couple good skate shows. Well, I want

more atmosphere. So, it it got me

searching for things but always within

what I was given. So, maybe type got

bigger, maybe this one little photo they

thought would be used small, got bled,

or any number of decisions like that.

And I think I still kind of work in that

way. People lay out magazines now and

they leave a box for when the photo

shows up. Say, "No, you can't just drop

that in when it shows up. Let's look at

that photo. Maybe it needs to be

enlarged. Maybe it needs to be a bleed.

Maybe there's a section of it that's

more interesting." But the idea that you

just drop it into a pre-arranged box is

probably going to kill all the the

impact.

This is a really tight cropping which I

like and I've done in a variety of

sports from the skaters to the

snowboarders to surfers and that's the

case here. So I've cropped extremely

close in on on this photo of 11time

world champion Kelly Slater with the

idea which see was was revolutionary at

the time. Wow. I wonder if we could use

this print media to get people to go to

this new website thing, you know. Do you

think do you think would that work? It

basically says, so this is shot number

five of a photo sequence of Kelly

Slater. And if you want to see the the

whole ride, go to this web address. But

that's taking kind of two concepts. one

that I like to crop and and uh severely,

but this is probably even a little more

severe because it had that other

intention of of teasing people to want

to go to the website where they would

not only see the whole wave, the whole

ride, but of course product information

and and everything else. This was a

publicity photo which we often used,

which I hated doing because everybody

else has the same photo, but it's free.

And so this would have been a nice photo

of PJ Harvey and I just thought, "Oh

man, another PR photo. Everybody's gonna

see the same photo. You know what? Maybe

I could just crop in." So I ended up

cropping in very closely and just her

eye. And I think with the type became a

more striking cover than her simply

staring at the camera that the original

PR photo was.

Bark was a paddle board company in uh

California. And like I often do,

starting with the skateboarder magazine,

I'm I'm given a a photo and you would

have seen the whole paddleboarder here.

And I thought, nah, it's okay. I've seen

this a lot. And then, oh, well, this is

kind of interesting. As I start cropping

in, get a little more dramatic. And

there's a hint of going into the

brochure into the magazine on the right.

And hopefully it does that. So, I want

people that don't know this company to

be intrigued, to want to know more. And

hopefully this starts to send a good

message about the company that maybe

they're they're experimental, they're

current, they do things in a different

way. There's a lot of messages your

design sends.

So, just some mood stuff inside the

catalog. I think it's nice when the

client doesn't demand you always show

product. And then I really like this

tagline, keep paddling. It just applies

to everything. Keep going, keep

paddling. And the original photo was a

lot bigger again. And then here the

guy's kind of leaving and you just see

the foot and there's just something

where I think it got stronger. So, so be

aware of the entire

wholeness of of what information you're

given, especially in photography. And

can you make it better with your eye as

a designer? That's why you were hired.

This is a page from uh Beach Culture

magazine and uh it's a little bit about

the cropping and it's also about found

art and using things that maybe weren't

intended. And when the photographer for

this article, uh, the singer Lyall Love

it, uh, actually sent me all the

official shots. So, well, perfectly lit,

all above, all the expected stuff. Um,

and they were fine and they were focused

and they were, and somewhere in the

package, I found this little test

Polaroid that I don't even know if they

knew they sent. And in that test

Polaroid, the singer Lyall Love it, he's

standing on his X that had been taped on

the ground for his spot to be standing.

And it's that, you know, silver duct

tape, but his boots are right on right

in uh behind the X where he's supposed

to stand for his photo shoot. And it's a

little Polaroid in amongst all these

perfect shots. And I just thought, "Oh,

that's so cool. Look at the way he's

standing. Look at those boots. Look at

the pants. It just it just seemed to

fit. It just seemed to say so much about

him and and maybe the experience and and

later you still get a shot of him and

you see his face and all that. And so

this article talks about what's all this

noise about. So I'm interpreting that

title a little bit, but I just just love

this photo. And I I actually posted it a

year ago or something cuz I'd run back

across it and uh and I saw a message

from Lov It himself to the photographer

saying, "I love this shot. How come I

never saw it?"

You know, so it's not the obvious choice

for the opening photograph, which of

course makes it the obvious choice.

You know, don't go always for the

expected one. With this one, I read the

interview, which is always the starting

point for me. I have no other place to

start on an article. Sometimes editors

are surprised. What? You read the

article. You have to read the article

and you have to look at all the material

and you have to listen to the music.

That's that's where you get inspired.

This photo was was another publicity

photo. And I read the interview and the

guy was was super negative in the

interview. He hated interviews. He hated

magazines. Yeah. Just like kind of a

downer interview. And at some point I

decided, you know what? I'm just going

to use this picture upside down

and that's what I went with. So this is

early work for Burton Snowboards. I

developed this bar logo for them. And

then at the time it was a big deal to

break up the logo. You didn't break up

logos, much less change the size and the

color. They showed me all these these

photos of of people doing the obvious

tricks in the air and things. And there

was just this one real photo of the guy

looking back at the camera. He's going

across a a lake that's half water still.

And then I just thought, "Wow, that's

just so cool." And it showed the jacket

and the gloves and the product pretty

well. And I had to argue for this one

cuz I really wanted another high air

photo, but I thought, "No, there's

something real about the way the guy's

looking back." And then this one, I just

I thought that I cropped the guy out and

just used a shadow. I thought it was

more interesting. He probably wasn't

real happy and his parents, but hey, I

got the cover. Wait a minute. What's

this? It's your shadow, man. It's your

shadow. It's cool. So, this was an

action uh what do they call it?

Adventure Lifestyle magazine when they

came to me and wanted to start this and

and they were calling it Adventure

Lifestyle. And I said, "Oh god, that's a

corny title, Adventure Lifestyle." At

some point, I said, "I don't know, call

it Blue or something, but but not

Adventure Lifestyle." So, this was the

first cover. Of course, I I don't never

going to make the word Blue. That would

be way wrong. And I had this photo of

photographer Laura Lavine had sent me

many years earlier as a contact sheet

for Beach Culture magazine and I

couldn't find a use for it. And it was

all these kids diving and swimming and

jumping. I thought, "Wo, this is so

cool. This is I didn't crop this. This

is how she had gotten it." And uh I I

circled it, put it away, and it would be

I don't know four or five years later

when this opportunity came up for this

magazine. And I thought, "Ah, I've got

that one image." And was able to track

it down and her down to get the

original. And I I think it I think it

sends a nice message about this new

magazine

with the Nest Nails cover. I didn't just

say, "Oh, this looks cool. Oh, this

looks cool together." I mean, I think

they got there, but um but there was

some meaning that came out of the

lyrics. This was the cover of The

Fragile and it's a photo I had taken

actually on another video shoot. I got

down in the in the bushes in Austin,

Texas and uh took it into the uh local

photo shop. The guy called me back the

next day when I was supposed to pick up

the film. He said, "Uh, listen, I got

some really bad news. We have a new

person here and and he used the wrong

chemicals and the film is ruined." I

said, "What?" Cuz I knew I had had some

cool stuff. And he goes, "No, no, it's

okay. Good news. we're going to give you

a roll of free film. I say, "No, no,

that doesn't do it. Those were very

important pictures." And he said, "Well,

I'm sorry, but we will give you a roll

of free film." I'm just just so bummed

out. I pretty much demanded it. Well, at

least show me what you got. He No,

they're they're ruined. I I can't even

show I want to see what you got. And I

went down to the place and he brought

out this this plastic bag with these

photos and this was one of them. And I'm

looking through these going, "These are

freaking great. This is amazing." And of

course, I'm going, "Yeah, I see what you

mean. Yeah, you really screwed up.

Where's my free film?" Um, but the point

is, that's what you're seeing here.

That's what became the one of the covers

of the CD. I mean, I've cropped it and

stuff, but somebody else's screw-up that

they weren't even going to show me uh

became the cover of this of this top

selling album. And so, there's something

about being open to things you're not

expecting. And I wasn't expecting this

this tone. I mean, now you could do it

in and a program or something, but these

were analog photos and this is how they

look. And they were various shades of of

messed up, but some got so much better.

And uh I doubt the guy ever knew that.

But last day before these were going to

be printed all over the world, Trent uh

said to me, he goes, "You know, I've

looked at these. is I looked at this

cover and I looked at the back cover and

you know the back back cover kind of

irritates me but I like it at the same

time and that's a lot truer to the

music. So I think we have to swap them.

So at the last possible moment he

swapped the front cover for the back

cover and picked his second favorite one

because he thought it was truer to the

music even though it wasn't his

favorite. And I thought wow that's

that's pretty strong. I I like working

with somebody that has that kind of

beliefs. These are not just cool random

photos. When I listened to the lyrics

and read the lyrics, there's a lot of

water reference in these. A lot of water

reference. And and that's kind of my

starting point here. The top is a

waterfall. The bottom is kind of like

you don't know what you're looking into,

but it's actually just a closeup I took

of a seashell. But both water and sea

references, which the album has a lot of

as well. And that led to another album.

The next album was Live. This was done

right around the time of 911. And I

think it's influenced kind of the gray

and bleakness of the work. I took the

photos and I discovered I had a bomb

shelter I didn't know about in my

backyard and climbed down in there and

and took some photos and just I I often

thought it reflected the times we were

living in and maybe even made it a more

striking cover.

And so push yourself, experiment, and uh

try things you haven't tried before. And

that's when it remains fun and exciting.

There are a lot of board designers out

there, but you don't want to be there.

And the good news is you don't have to.

This is a workshop I've given all over

the world to show that design can

communicate before somebody starts

reading.

I've gotten together a small group of

international students. I hope you'll

try these at home as well. So for the

first assignment, I've asked the

students to only using the letters of

your first name and only black and

white, arrange them in such a way that

we'd get a pretty good sense of who you

are.

Well, welcome. Now, all of these are

going to be sending messages. What we

want to look at, is it the right

message? And if it's not, that's fine.

We're going to show that it's impossible

to not communicate. And even the ones

that may not be right are still

communicating. And that's what we want

to look at today. And then they'll their

next assignment will grow on this one.

They'll be given a lot uh a different

assignment and a little more freedom in

a sense. And then the third one will

wrap them all together. For this part of

the assignment, the students did not see

what each other were working on. So I

think that brings a kind of a freshness

to it. Let's go here for no particular

reason. What kind of person is this?

Experimental maybe

experimental person.

I would say dreamy person.

Dreamy open. Experimental. Dreamy. Open.

But then there's like a big uh dark

area. So there's some darkness in there

as well.

Some darkness in their life.

Okay. Look at that already. Just in in a

30 seconds we go. Oh, they're

experimental. Oh, some darkness in their

life. Oh, they're What was the other

one?

Open.

Shortly open. Okay. So, right away we're

making these decisions and this is black

ink on paper and and so that's really

interesting. What else? What hit you

I could say about it. Someone who's

trying to make connections for sure.

Somebody's trying to make connections.

Okay. And I think what we want to do and

we want to do in the artwork as well is

try not to get too literal. And then

that

I want to feel that as much as we see

it. If that's what they're trying to

say, there's probably a way to do that

that's maybe not quite so literal. So,

something to keep in mind as we go

forward. What else? Is this a a shy

person?

Yeah.

Mysterious person.

Mysterious.

Yeah.

Overthinker, maybe.

Overthinker.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's a lot going on.

So, if you're doing a poster and it

turns out that these are right, we don't

want to say an overthinker. Who's

mysterious? No. We want to feel that.

And then you can work those words in.

but they wanted to be reinforced with

what they're feeling when they first see

it. All right. Well, let's find out who

who's is this.

Um, okay. How were those comments?

Pretty good. Yeah, I was um surprised

about the like the darkness thing cuz I

think that um the element in front like

it's less noticeable to me. Maybe

because I've spent more time looking at

it, but I thought it was interesting and

the overthinker comment. I like that for

this.

Okay. What did you hear that was totally

wrong?

I don't know about mysterious. Okay.

But on some level, yeah, maybe.

Okay. Well, and since you did it, in a

way, you can't escape that you're you're

you and you made these decisions and

there were a lot of decisions.

All right. Well, what I what I enjoy

about this this starting in this place

is in a way, you know, we have four

personalities here and we have them up

here, too. And what we're trying to

decide are they meshing and how they're

communicated. And I think we're we're

going to see a mix or not, but so

overall, this sounds like it was fairly

accurate.

Yeah. Okay. But we got a lot of

discussion out of this black ink on

white paper. So I'm I'm happy to hear

that. Let's go. Well, let's let's let's

go here. What kind of person is this?

Same as the other person?

No. No.

So you were given the same assignment,

same restrictions. Do any of these look

alike?

No.

Definitely not. And that's something to

keep in mind as we go forward that if

you're given the same assignment for a

logo or branding or something, even

though it's the same um topic you're

working on, they should all look

different for how you see the situation.

Okay. What do you suppose the floor of

the back seat of their car would look

like?

Clean. Yeah. Very clean.

Very clean. Okay. So, right away, even

something as abstract as that, we're

making decisions on.

Yeah.

It doesn't matter. right or wrong, it's

that you got that. And that's the power

of just these marks. What else? Is this

a friendly person?

Yeah, I would say a friendly person

because of the white space.

Yeah. And the lines, they're kind of

like white space.

Yeah. The lines are bit rugged.

What else would you Would you want to

know this person?

Yeah. Yeah.

Would you be afraid to meet this person

at 3 in the morning in an alley?

Uh,

no. I think it's fairly neat and like

polite, I guess.

Polite. Okay. Okay. So, we're not

getting, you know, we got a pretty dark

place in this one. Maybe that's

a little literal again, but I think it's

not only that. There's nothing spooky

with that's a bad word, but with the

with the background too, the gray, but

um Okay, so we're gotten pretty

friendly. We don't mind meeting him at

at 3:00 in the morning in an alleyway.

This This is a pretty feel-good piece.

It feels energetic but at the same time

like it

it's got sort of a like mixture of like

a traditional take but then like a very

unique spin to it.

So like still feels like someone who's

like pretty clear.

Yeah.

But still interesting in their own way.

Okay. Okay. I would agree with that. I

like how it leads off. You know, there

were some real distinct decisions made

here.

I'd say there's definitely confidence

there.

That's a nice one. We haven't heard yet.

Confidence. I I would agree with that.

Is it a loud confidence or kind of quiet

confidence?

Loud.

Yeah, I would say loud because the text

is so big.

Yeah,

it might be both. It's very organized.

Um it's not solid black, which would

have been a whole different message.

Mhm.

Um but I think overall they've all been

pretty descriptive. So normally with a

bigger class, so who's is this?

Who in the world did this one?

Um, okay. Yeah.

Can you tell us?

Yeah, it's pretty obvious it's me.

How are the comments?

Um, it's u pretty spot on. I'm I'm

fairly open, but maybe of the first

impression I don't look like it.

That's interesting. I think that kind of

comes through. Open, but maybe first

impression is it's kind of bold. It's

not really welcoming.

Yeah.

As a as an image. Some of these others

we're going to find are a little easier

to kind of get into in a sense. Although

the the bleeding off does allow us in.

We're not trapped in there. So that's

interesting.

And you might think the edges are kind

of rough, but they are soft. So at first

maybe you think they're rough, but

they're soft when you get to know me.

The edges are rough, but he's actually

kind of soft. Does anybody see that in

here?

Yeah, now.

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Anything in here that was

totally wrong?

Big personality.

Yeah, in a way. Maybe in certain

situations, but

more on the quiet side or

Yeah, I would say so. Yeah.

Okay. I I love the part about you um

maybe look kind of difficult at first,

but once you get to know you, it's

actually kind of a soft person. And so I

think that comes through really well.

All right.

Okay. Good. Let's go here. What kind of

person is this? What hits you

immediately?

Fun person.

Yeah.

Oh, two people right away. Fun. So, this

one's communicating pretty well. Mhm.

What else?

I want to say like a sort of a critical

or creative thinker.

What makes you say that?

Just the sort of fun perspective and

clearly looking for more than their uh

might be to see for others.

Yeah.

Yeah. A lot of sense of humor. A good

sense of humor.

Experimental like with all the different

styles of every letter.

Would you say this person is organized

or unorganized?

Organized in her own way, but probably

unorganized.

Okay. Organized in their own way.

I think it's thought out. I don't think

that it's organized, but I think that

like the strength is in how chaotic it

is.

Okay. I would say there is a certain

order to this and a certain

organization. And so if as we go

forward, we're kind of if we were able

to redo this, I'd probably want it

pushed even further. And that's what you

do as a designer. You notice things that

other people don't. What do you think

the What can I say here? How about the

top drawer? Or if they have a chest of

drawers in their room, what what what

does the top drawer look like when you

open it?

A lot of stuff.

A lot of stuff.

Yeah.

Is it organized?

No.

No. No.

When I say it's definitely one of those,

we're deciding what their drawer looks

like and we're not even debating it.

Who's is this?

It's me.

Okay. How How were those comments?

Um, very spot on. Like all of them.

Very spot on. All of them. Okay. Class

dismissed. That's it.

So, it's communicating a lot even though

it's simply her name. Um, what else?

Uh, my top drawer is definitely messy.

And full of stuff. I'm a collector.

You're a collector.

I'm a collector.

Does anybody think that comes through?

Yeah, cuz you like couldn't decide which

one was nice. All of them.

I think for sure she's a collector. But

but But we didn't get that. And you

know, maybe there's even a way we could

have gotten more into that. But but what

else?

Um

I like that you said I was a fun

character. Um I want to agree on that.

Um

and also I am organized and then

disorganized as well. So, I think the

comments you made about it being very

organized and thought through, but also

messy made like perfect sense.

Sounds like we were pretty close. Well,

you said spot on. I can't really do

better than that. And again, somebody

that just walked in might say, "Well,

what what are they talking about?" No,

just somebody's name or somebody ink or

just like, "No, they're all

communicating a lot." And we're finding

pretty accurate. Not not totally, nor do

they have to be, but I think that's

pretty interesting. So let's let's go

over here. What kind of person is this?

Smart.

Smart.

Organized.

How many would say organized? Yeah.

Okay, everybody. So that's pretty clear.

Structured uh and dynamic.

Structured, organized, dynamic. That's

pretty strong stuff.

Clean.

First time we've heard that. In what

way? What do you mean?

Like the top drawer is probably very

clean.

I got you on that top drawer thing,

didn't I?

Okay. organized and clean. Okay. Okay.

Is this a friendly person?

No.

What's making you say no? There's a lot

of white space. That's usually a kind of

a positive thing.

I would say because it's so structured,

but it sounds more of a serious sort of

idea than a friendly.

Like building on that, it just kind of

feels like it might take like a little

bit of time to get through.

Okay.

At first. Yeah.

Might take a while to get to know them.

Yeah.

Um I I would agree with that. It's kind

of uh is it a shy, quiet person?

Yeah, I would say so.

You would say so. That's interesting

because it's so bold on on these

strokes. What makes you say that?

Yeah, I would say that because it's so

uh there's so much white space on it as

well.

So, I feel like the person is a bit

taking a back, but then it has the

contrast of the the big black um blocks.

I think that's really interesting to

have something so bold and yet get shy

out of it.

I agree with that. The use of whites

space

Yeah.

indicates that

all this white space is absolutely as

important as the black and you know the

shape around letters and in letters and

all of that.

I know it feels like the white space

also says to me like leaving a lot um

left unsaid.

Okay. Leaving a lot unsaid. That's the

first time we've heard that.

Yeah.

Makes you want to know more which is

very powerful stuff. You want people to

want to know more. If you know if you

tell them everything really simple they

lose interest. You know, you there's a

danger in going too literal. It's like,

okay, I get it. What's the big deal? And

that's a huge part of graphic design.

Okay, who's is this?

Mine.

How are those comments?

Uh, pretty accurate.

Pretty accurate.

Yeah, like uncomfortably accurate.

Completely accurate. Well,

like I love uh days that I have

everything planned from when I wake up

to I go to bed and I'm really organized.

My house is kind of minimalistic and

very clean. the house is minimalistic

and clean. Does that kind of come

through in there? I would say

absolutely.

If this was a book cover about her life

or about a lecture she's giving, it's

certainly in the right direction. We got

some really interesting diversity.

Again, same exact assignment, same

materials, and none of them look the

same. That's the power, a little bit of

the power of what we do and work on. And

then something to keep in mind, well,

yes, I may have said this and put all

the right information, but what are

people feeling when they first see it?

And am I reinforcing that? Did anybody

do have a couple that they couldn't pick

from?

Uh, I did.

You did.

Is it Andy? Can we see it?

All right. So, let's see. You know, is

this is this the same person?

No.

No.

No.

Very different approach.

So, I I I I'm very intrigued by that.

Very different messages.

There's more mystery, I would say, and

the more black one on the on the right

side.

I would agree. I'm much more curious

about this. This I almost get too much

information and like you said, so

literal.

Yeah.

But that's really intriguing.

Maybe mysterious, but more it's like I'm

going to have to go further to find out

information. So, I'm going to have to

check out that movie or, you know, go to

pick up the book, whatever it's doing.

But it's that's pretty powerful. So,

okay. Well, again, I didn't want to I

don't want to imply any of these are

right or wrong, but it's very intriguing

how accurate they were and especially

the areas that you weren't trying to be

accurate about and still came through

cuz it's you. So, we looked at the most

basic form of communication uh in our

field, black and white and although we

got some gray in um and you weren't able

to use any other ingredients that can be

really powerful. Anybody want to guess

what those might be?

Colors.

Color. Absolutely. So, color for sure.

And now you have no restrictions for

texture. For this next assignment, I

want to get a sense a pretty good sense

of how is your life going right now.

And when I say now, it it could be

today, it could be this week, but no no

broader. Just in your life right now,

how are things going? And we want to be

able to

get that without being told what it is

and and with nothing to read.

Okay.

Okay.

So, if you're at home watching or

wherever you're watching, I hope you'll

you'll do the assignments as well. So,

we want to look specifically at the

power of color, shape, texture to send

messages. All right. Well, thanks. Great

work. I think we're off to a good start

and I'm anxious to see the next two

phases of this.

A logo is an image just like a word is

an image. And a logo is something we

want to recognize from a I think from a

distance that people want to put on

their hats, on their t-shirts, and

certainly their website and maybe their

expensive car, too. But it's it's

knowing something about the company,

their audience, and going in and

representing it in a way that uh people

notice, people remember that separates

them from their competition. Are they

experimental? Are they conservative? Are

they, you know, whatever it is. Um, and

without getting too literal, I think the

more literal the logo gets, the less

interesting it is. If you're a coffee

shop and you show kind of a far away

nice shot of a coffee cup, well, that's

okay. That's probably what a lot of them

do. But maybe there's a more interesting

angle. What is the coffee cup see? Maybe

that's a cool angle. What does you see

if you're looking down at the coffee

cup? What do you see if you come inside

to it? What does the coffee machine see?

And then in doing that, you can hint

that, hey, this is no, this this coffee

shop's kind of different or this is

worth checking out or this is not your

typical blah blah blah. It's it it can

send a message that that there's a lot

that hopefully is then followed through

when you go into the store, when you go

on their their site. Um, but you can

hint at that. You can intrigue people.

You can give them a good feeling about

that brand. This particular company

didn't want something too crazy or too

out there. And to be honest, like a lot

of them, they didn't really know what

they wanted and they wanted just some

ideas. At some point, playing with this

particular logo, I realized, well, the

magic seaweed. So, the W, I could just

use the M and turn it around. So, it

helps give some continuity to the logo.

And then the S, something as simple as

just turning it on its side to me

emphasized a bit of the motion of

surfing or waves. There's just something

there and stayed very readable. One of

their requirements is they needed the

name on there because people weren't

sure if it's two words or three words,

but I think it works as part of the

whole logo. If you took any of that

away, it wouldn't work quite as well. So

the word is actually touching the

letters. It's just clean. It's simple.

It's a nice font. I I think it works and

it's held up pretty well. In terms of

ways of working, I often still think,

okay, are people going to want this on

their shirt, on their t-shirt, on their

coffee mug, on their and if they do, you

probably stumbled upon a pretty good

logo. So, with the Sea Skins logo, I

knew that it's a crowded field and these

wets suits that they're off and on are

traditionally black and there's a lot of

them and they're maybe far away in the

in the ocean or foggy day or or

whatever. And how can you get yours to

stand out?

You know, simplicity is is hard to do

sometimes uh with with real impact, but

it's uh it's a it's a great way to work

if you can accomplish it.

I did a political logo for the mayor of

Charleston, South Carolina some years

ago and um they said but he's getting

pretty old and we're kind of afraid he

might after

100 years he might not win this next one

and what do we do? Riley, Joseph P.

Riley III that who was running for

reelection and I said well Jesus you

know if you're trying to get younger

people and you got Joseph P. Riley the

third vote. It's like they're going to

get it. We're a little concerned. This

guy's getting too old. And so what I

suggested and they agreed to it is we

took that that they were getting ready

to launch and just turned it into Joe.

And of course now with with the recent

politics that doesn't seem like a big

deal, but but it but it was at that time

for this particular candidate. And we

put it in green which may be a little

easy but just circle and said Joe. So it

I think it helped I hope humanize this

person Joseph P. Riley III. You can vote

for him or you can vote for Joe who kind

of understands you and knows you. And so

again it's really hard to quantify those

things but but it is important but it

can also have a negative effect too. And

I for me personally, I think we we saw

that a little bit with the the Hillary

logo, which if you remember was just an

H with an arrow. And as a designer, I

look at that and think, "Oh, it's kind

of uh it's kind of cold and kind of

sharp and kind of not inviting me in,

not very friendly." Well, these were all

the qualities that that people didn't

like about Hillary Clinton. And this

logo, in my mind, represented all of

those things. It was distant. It was

kind of cold. It was very hard edge.

Like, you know, it didn't help humanize

her to people who didn't didn't like

her. And it would be naive to think that

affected the the outcome. But but it

certainly didn't help. But as a designer

and someone who works in that area, I

think, oh no, we could have we could

have uh done something with that.

it works for you to go right to your

screen. Do that. The screen has become

the sketch pad of today.

The thing for me, I find that I want to

do a lot of logos, a lot of ideas early

and give the client a lot of options.

One of the things that allows me to do

that is that I work in primarily in a

very basic page program. This is a

program called Cork Express that some of

you may remember.

The name of this company is Lab 78. I've

picked a font that I think could work,

could be visual but clear. Then I'll

start moving things around. Here I'm

realizing I don't have all the letters.

Although what strikes me that seven

could maybe work as an L.

I'm just trusting my own instinct in a

way. When does it feel right? I don't

mind if it takes you a minute. I think

people actually enjoy to something to

figure out. It's it's a thin line

between figure something out and pissing

them off. I'm seeing here this seven

isn't working so well. So,

oh well, maybe I'll mix things up a

little bit like that. So, maybe I break

things up with a Serif A. And of course,

we're looking at it in black and white

as I think all logos need to work first

in black and white. They need to work

small, tiny, they need to work huge. And

once I've got one approved or that I'm

really happy with or the client's happy

with, then I'll go in and start

exploring color. That to me comes after

the basic arrangement in just black and

white. You can see the idea there. So,

this was a group out of Los Angeles

called Erase the Hate. The starting

point for me would be to go in and take

the main letters or words in the logo

and just start setting them in different

fonts that I think could work. You know,

this idea of erase, you have to be

careful on things that are uh cliche and

so erase the eight so you erase the

words. It's like you could still do

that. There's ways to do it. So here's

one with some bits maybe starting to be

erased.

There's something nice here. Maybe he's

not erasing. It's It's got a little

different feel. Nice.

So, I'm moving these by eye and hand. I

don't like to use the buttons on the

computer to incrementally move them

over. I think you should be able to do

that with your eye as a designer. And

also some of the reasons I don't use

grids or any kind of system with that.

Maybe it needs to be a little over

there. Or maybe it should break that

probably had no chance. But you know,

they can't pick the more experimental

out there stuff if you don't show them.

So, put it in there. Again, I want the

client to see all these options. I would

encourage you to show a lot of ideas.

The Dolly Museum in in St. Petersburg

was a really fun assignment and logo to

work on. And the last thing I'm going to

do is some kind of expected dripping

letter, but hopefully there's an

attitude that is consistent with Dolly.

And here's some of many, many I would

have showed them. They ended up going

with something pretty close to the blue

one. Yeah. So, it's a very basic type

face, but it's how you use it as a

designer. It's rare that a font alone is

going to solve anything for you. It's

how you put it to use. When you bring

motion to your type, that's the last

phase of it. I don't design it thinking

this is going to move. I solve it as a

stationary logo. And once that process

is gone through, client's happy, you're

happy, then it becomes the next kind of

fun stage really. Where was the viewer's

eye before this type came in or is there

a natural sequence for them to keep

reading? So, it's a whole new set of

problem solving in a sense, but you

already had form, color, shape, but now

you've got movement, which is huge in

provoking emotion. And it's pretty fun,

pretty exciting. And the whole way it

comes together.

Logos.

What is most important to you? Is the

work most important or is where you live

the most important?

That will influence your decisions

whether you know it or not. So if work

is the most important thing to you, go

to where that work is. If you want to do

Hollywood movie posters, you probably

need to go to to Hollywood. If you want

to do only record work, maybe you need

to be in New York. Maybe you want to do

country music posters and go to

Nashville or or something, you know,

figure that out. If the work is not what

drives you, then your decision is where

do I want to live? and you say, "Well, I

want to live by the beach or I want to

live in the mountains." Well, that's

fine. Then you go there, or you want to

live wherever in a little town in the

Midwest. Um, and you find what work

there is. You you pick up what you can,

but it's a fundamental decision you're

going to make whether you know it or

not. What is really driving you

terms of workspace? I think you have to

make what works for you a priority. And

for me, and I think a lot of you, I've

just gotten so comfortable on my laptop

that I pretty much can work anywhere. I

work on planes. I work on the beach in

the Caribbean. I work in my apartment in

Amsterdam. It I guess the only thing

that's really consistent is I have to at

some point isolate myself and really

concentrate. When I work in my apartment

in Amsterdam, I don't have internet in

there for the very reason that I don't

want to be distracted by it. And I can

do that during the day and I can go to

my places where I work and and some of

the the work share places even. But if

I'm really concentrating and I know I

need to, then I don't have I turn off

the Wi-Fi

and just don't be disrupted. You know,

your work environment has so much to do

with your work. If you're working

away on something and and maybe the

night janitor walks by and says, "Oh,

you're you're putting that there." And

you go, "Well, yeah, why?" No, no, I

just I just wondered. And they keep

going, "Well, that stuff registers. You

know, people in your office go, you're

going to make that blue."

And you know, there there's something

for some early collaboration, but at

some point, you got to trust yourself.

And hopefully that's why you were hired

and that's where the best work comes

from. Committee design never gets great

work. It can get solid work and okay

work and it's rarely horrible because

you got enough people weighing in that

it's like reasonable but I don't I don't

want to live there. So I would encourage

you at some point in the process after

you've had the meetings and you've read

the brief, you know, isolate yourself in

a place you enjoy working, maybe get

your favorite music on and just and

that's when I get in kind of my zone and

all of a sudden 3 or 4 hours are gone

and I just and the best work comes out

of

you could be the best designer in the

world, but if nobody sees the work um

it's going to be difficult there. There

good chance they won't find you. So, you

have to actively promote yourself and

whether that's one of the various social

media programs. I mean, it largely is

today, but you've got to get in front of

other successful designers or other

magazine designers or other website

designers. I did that. I I sent out to

people I read about issues of the

magazine. I entered the competitions and

at some point I started getting some

acknowledgement and it just added to

work and clients and allowed me to keep

doing what I love doing. And it may be

more than simply going to the obvious

social media programs. Maybe there's

some other inroads to a client or to a

decision maker or something. So look for

those because you also obviously can get

lost in the maze of Instagram and some

of the others. And as much as they can

help you, you can also get lost there.

And so be creative and and how you get

your work in front of people because

that's how you continue to get to do

what you enjoy doing. Got to have the

ability. It won't matter if if you

don't, but if you do and you feel it,

you feel this is your thing. Just help

people to see it.

The spec debate is a big one in graphic

design and um and there's a lot of uh

strong emotion on both sides and I have

to say I

uh I totally believe in spec. Um if you

got an opportunity to get a lot of

freedom and really experiment and little

or no money, I think it's worth it. I

still think it's worth it. I think it's

been worth it my whole career and I

still do it actually. Wow. Well, what's

this project? Is it good for the

environment or people? Is it just fun?

Is it going to be seen all around the

world? There's a lot of factors and I

have no problem with that. If somebody

wants you to do like grunt work or or

just lay out endless catalog and there's

no thinking or something and they don't

want to pay you, that to me doesn't make

any sense. Only you can decide that. If

you feel you're being taken advantage of

and you don't you're not going to do

that, well that's fine. Don't. But I

would encourage you to look at the

opportunity. Does it give you a lot of

freedom? Push you as a designer. People

are going to see it. May may bring you

more work. It's worth a shot.

The second assignment, let's see what

happens if we add color.

Color is a huge message sender and

emotion sender. I want to get a sense of

how things are going in your life right

now. using only color, no letters, no

words. And just a little peak of the

power of color in your design.

Let's start here. And what do you

think's going on in this person's life

right now?

It seems a bit chaotic.

Yeah, agreed. Yeah,

I think so. There's a certain amount of

organization here. It's not out of

control chaotic.

There's opposites involved that are

playing off each other with the colors

and with the textures.

How do you think that would manifest?

Maybe some emotional highs and lows

lately.

Okay. Having some highs and lows lately.

All right. What else is this person

happy or sad right now?

It's kind of hard to tell.

Yeah, the color seems happy though.

Generally, orange and especially lighter

blues are happy colors. They're

festives. Why? Why? What's keeping us

from that?

Just sort of this rough energy.

And what's making you say rough energy?

Maybe the nature of the brush strokes.

Yeah, the scribble

doesn't seem like it was done

delicately. It feels like it was done

with a lot of energy.

And what about the way these things are

cut out?

They seem ripped more than cut out.

Would this indicate to you maybe things

are going smoothly or maybe not so

smoothly?

Not so smoothly. uh because of the edges

and u how it's like she said ripped

instead of cleanly cut.

It makes a big difference whether you

cut something out or you put it on a

grid or you tear it. It sends a very

different message overall. How many

would say they they'd want this going on

in your life right now?

I don't know about that.

Why not?

I think the lack of predictability like

it makes it interesting but it also uh

is a little bit like nerve-wracking.

Yeah.

Okay. So, is this person like in a

really bad place this week?

Not if they know what to do with that

energy. I think

I don't think we can say, "Oh, having a

horrible week." Okay. If think if it was

dark reds and dark blue and some other

colors. Whose is this?

This is me.

How are those comments?

Um, really true.

Really true.

Yeah. I' I've been feeling both happy

and sad and stressed.

Happy and sad. I think that comes

through.

Yeah. And stressed and juggling.

stressed

um many things.

Yeah.

Was anything completely wrong that you

heard?

No.

No. So they were right on. So this is

communicating a lot and pretty

accurately from from our comments. So

the only thing we I could add to that is

that when you did go in with a you know

this was a a book cover about your life

or a poster about a talk you're giving

with the right words and the type this

becomes very powerful. Okay. Well, let's

switch.

How many would want this week to come?

It just seems formed and kind of happy.

I see some positivity in there in the

use of colors and how they interact with

each other.

So, there's some energy there that

Yeah, positive energy.

I think the blue would be sort of like

trapping in the yellow. And because it's

a square,

I feel it's really confined and maybe

some pressure. What's intriguing is

what's normally not a very open kind of

expressive situation in terms of you

have a rectangle inside of a rectangle I

would say even inside of another

rectangle which can be kind of

um restricting in a way but but there's

this is funny because it has a border

but it still feels like there's there's

movement in and out.

Um how many would would say I don't want

that week. I don't want that going on.

Seems like a good week. Seems like like

it sounds really bad, but plant fun.

Like the lines are free, but they're

within the box.

How many would want to know more about

this if you saw it as a poster or maybe

a book cover or

Yeah, because I feel the movement. It's,

you know, exciting.

Okay. Some excitement. He feels the

movement. A very different type of

movement than we saw here. But I would

agree. There's something intriguing and

nothing's totally out of control. and

it's still contained even though there's

a lot going on. So, who's is this?

It's mine.

And it's sometimes I I really don't

know. It's like there's only four

people. You should know.

But okay, how were those comments?

I wasn't sure if people were going to

read it more as positive or not. So, I

Yeah,

we definitely got more positive than

negative for sure. And that would be

largely the color. Imagine if this was

in black,

you know, and any other color. Mhm.

Did anything you hear was totally wrong

or

um Yeah, maybe how often like positivity

or happiness was mentioned because um

like it's been a very like lively and

vibrant time more than a happy one

necessarily.

Huh.

Yeah.

The difference between lively and

vibrant versus happy. That's

interesting.

That's tricky.

What else?

And I mean the framing I chose that

specifically to communicate trying to

keep things organized while a lot is

going on. So, a little bit overwhelmed,

but still kind of, you know, keeping it

together.

Yeah, definitely keeping it together

with a lot a lot going on. Okay, nice.

We'll come down. Well, no, I'm going to

go over here actually. How many would

want this going on in your life right

now?

I'm not sure.

Okay, that was unanimously. We're no

takers. I'll keep my week. Thank you

very much.

Why is that?

The gray of O of course the color. Look

at the Look where we just came from. I

mean these two and then very distinctly

different color range that is sending a

very different motion. And what else?

Very balanced shapes in there. It's

harmonizing kind of pretty well.

I'm really happy to see that they broke

out of the square a bit and then you had

that option. So I think that's a nice

design touch and way of thinking that

let them do that.

I think the pop of colors either I can't

decide if it feels more hopeful or more

ominous.

That's a really good good observation. I

mean, we have bright orange. That's a

happy color. We have some yellow in

there. We have some white. Why aren't we

feeling happy?

Maybe it's too organized or too

Well, it's very organized. Absolutely.

And what's happening to that happy

orange, yellow?

It's very confined.

It's confined and overtaken by grays and

similar colors. So the the overlying

takeaway is a darker kind of color thing

and what message that sends. How many

would want to know more?

Oh yeah, for sure.

I'm very intrigued. Do you think does

this feel like a very personal piece? Do

you think they thought about this one?

I feel so. Yes,

I'd say absolutely. There I don't I

don't get it. I'm kind I want to know

more. I want I need some more

information. And uh and I don't think

this is something you quickly Oh geez, I

got 10 minutes. I got to have that

ready. Bof. No, it doesn't feel like

that, you know, and the amount of time

you put into something is often directly

related to the amount of time somebody

will spend with it. So, if you spend 10

minutes get something out the door,

probably when the audience or whoever

the client even sees that, their

reaction is going to be about the same.

So, okay, if you've really spent some

time and thought about something, the

work's going to be stronger and and

people overall will feel that and

they'll they'll get that. That's why I

want to know more about this and all of

these really. I could tell they weren't

and I've done enough workshops that I I

can tell they weren't quickly done on

your way to class.

Okay. Who's is this?

It's mine.

How were the comments?

I chose the colors because I just chose

samples of colors that I have in my

storage which are like water paints that

I have actually in my house which I felt

were the actual colors of my life

instead of buying bright colors that I

don't use.

Okay. Okay. Good. Good. And I tend to

plan my weeks on Sunday. So

you plan your week on Sunday.

Yeah. So I guess it is really planned.

Yeah.

Okay. I think that kind comes through.

Yeah.

And then like the little black uh

triangle pit thing is a bit of anxiety

and stress that I have on some days.

It's not that big. It's just

okay. There might have been a way we

could have felt that a little more than

this is doing. So again, these aren't

right or wrong, but um but that's a

that's a pretty strong concept. There's

still some little anxiety even in this

overall organization and planning the

week in advance. I love the fact that

she used colors from her house that that

mean something to her. Um, and what did

you hear that was totally wrong

about the colors being bland because

they're like balanced and content to me.

Okay. Okay. Content. Content. Yeah. So,

so we didn't we didn't we didn't get to

contentment. And I don't know if it got

too busy for content with too many lines

and the the rigid borders. So there

there there would be ways we could

soften this a bit to maybe be more

accurate. Um what else? Other comments

that stuck out to you.

Uh the bright color.

Well, that would be that's the one I'm

most curious about actually.

Uh that's my pregnancy which makes me

really happy.

Oh well congratulations.

And my otherwise normal life I guess.

Uh, I would have liked us to have gotten

that a little bit more to be a little

more expressive. Maybe there's a way we

could have felt, oh, there's something I

think there's something really positive

or exciting

go or going on just like the anxiety

that could have been a little more

expressive, but certainly intriguing. So

great. Um, let's go down here.

How many would want this week?

I don't know about that.

You're not sure?

I don't know.

Why not? Why not? It's happy colors

again. We've got red, we've got circles,

we've got orange, we got a lot of white

space. That should be pretty happy.

But it kind of feels like it's falling

off edge, though.

Falling over edge.

Yeah, like the orange is the edge.

It's a sharp edge. And it goes off the

page, so you have no idea what's down

there.

Okay. Okay. And this one's maybe a

little tricky not to read literally.

Feels a bit lonely.

Lonely. Interesting. That's the first

time we've heard that. It seems like

it's kind of central, but there's

something like messing with it.

I think that's really strong

interpretation. Yeah.

Something something missing.

Mhm.

Who's is this? You think I would have

figured it out? Uh, how are those

comments?

Um,

there's a, you know, positivity going

on, but at the same time, I feel a lot

of tension um this week.

Positivity and tension. I think that

comes through really well.

Mhm.

Um, the loneliness. Um, interesting

comment. Um, been doing a lot of work,

so I guess. So,

anything you hear that was totally wrong

or that we missed?

No, I mean I mean it's not that dark. I

mean, they they said they didn't want

the week, but it's just a challenging

week.

Challenging. I like the word challenging

because I didn't get overly negative. I

didn't think, oh, I don't want to go

there. So challenging is kind of a nice

uh and then the isolation comment I

think is is is nice too and and you

backed it up.

Yeah. So overall pretty

pretty accurate. Okay. So we've

communicated a lot and I hope you're

watching it at home or in your own

studio. We'll we'll experiment with with

the same type of things and using color

that has some meaning to you and and

arranging in such a way that that you

feel it's representing your your week,

your life right now with with no words

at all. We got a lot of from these. Um,

great. Well, I'm really happy with the

the result. Okay. So, now for the third

version, you have no restriction. You

can add type, you can add color,

texture, shape, uh size. It's wide open.

Okay. And this is when in theory they

should get the best because you have no

restriction. You can add type to these,

but it's tricky sometimes, like I said,

to add a type and not somehow lessen the

effect. So that'll kind of be your

challenge. I want to see, but more

importantly, I want to feel where you

see yourself in 10 years.

push yourselves, have some fun, remember

what we've done. And great work today.

Very, very happy. And and those of you

at home, your stuff is really good, too.

Okay. All right.

In the last two years, I've started kind

of rediscovering uh collage work and

it's been really invigorating to get out

from behind the screen and work with my

hands.

I'm happy to say some of this work is

starting to work its way into client

work. People are really reacting

strongly to things that feel like

there's a human behind the work.

Some of these new clients, they were

drawn to something of mine they'd seen

and thought, "Maybe that could work."

So, if you have your personal side of

artwork or something you're doing,

there's very often a place you can use

it.

The starting point for me is is usually

by some color combination of something I

think could work color-wise. And so I

start to see some things. This red's

probably too bright. And um I don't want

anything too literal. I don't want you

to be able to see like there's a boat

here and that sort of thing because

that's not the message.

But I'm drawn to some type

possibilities. And

there's something I'm liking about this

red thing that's starting to happen.

It's not quite working yet. And that's

often why I'll have a couple going at

the same time. Here, I'm going to get a

little blue thing going.

I might find something interesting. And

so I I want to cut it out. But what

often happens, the thing I think I'm

cutting out for

is okay. But what's even better, oh, is

what's left.

I don't want to be able to read anything

or I don't want a straight edge.

I like using white on white and the back

of something. Sometimes it gets a nice

texture

and you don't want to be too too

precious about it as you kind of get

what you get.

And I'll just go some blue. Some nice

type here happened.

That's kind of something nice going.

Red's a difficult color. It's almost too

strong.

Maybe we could bring some more type into

this one. Now there, a little hint of

the color is pretty nice.

And maybe a hint of another letter over

here. Now, this one's getting close.

It's not quite there. Maybe an

unexpected little hint of some color.

That's getting better. Little color

here. That was actually a nice accident.

I looked on the back.

So, when they get into final position,

there's usually been a lot of minor

minor tweaks, and that's something only

your eye will see or notice.

If you have source material that's good

or that you like, you're going to have

better results. That's the bottom line.

Maybe some unexpected. There's a little

too sameness here. I need something a

little bolder.

The best work comes if if the individual

pieces have some significance to your

life, to your existence. So, I'm trying

to add something to this red thing

that's not quite working.

Maybe turn something over and get rid of

so much color that's distracting.

Something there. Maybe

it's gotten a little better.

Oh, there's something. You know, this

red one has never been working. So,

maybe it just wants something really

simple.

That's probably my favorite right now.

It's got some white space.

That one might be done. These guys are

close. They're screaming that there

there's a good collage in here. I

haven't unraveled it yet. So, I'll just

add some texture with the white on

white.

Oh, now this got better right away

because it got simpler. And maybe the D

and the yellow is too strong. So, I

might try to break that up a little bit.

Maybe we'll just move this one up a

little. And maybe it'll something will

move and it'll get better. Oh, that's

already kind of interesting.

They're all starting to work. So I would

usually look at them from a little

different perspective.

Well, you know, I used to say collage is

new to me, but in some ways I've I guess

I've almost always done collage. I

really was arranging things still by eye

and by hand. But in terms of physically

doing it like I have, that's new and

it's it's refreshing and it's uh it's

fun. And I'm always photographing them.

And when I go to photograph it, I'm

becoming much more aware of light source

and realize the effect of having shadows

that the paper does. And they're not

fake shadows. They're real. Because if

you're always on a screen, you don't

have that.

And the last thing I do, very last, is

paste it down.

And they always move slightly. Sometimes

they get better. And when it feels right

to you,

it is.