Grand People

Underspray website-featured interview with Christain Bergheim, designer for Grandpeople.

How did you get into art?

I can not remember ever making a conscious choice about picking up art or about going to art school. I was constantly drawing and making stuff as a kid, and somehow I just continued.

How do you get inspiration for the pieces you produce?

It´s a bit of a mystery to me how this works, but generally I´m inspired by nature, art, good craftsmanship and popular culture. An Idea for a specific project however, can in my experience be sparked by just about anything.

What has been your best creation to date?

I dont´t know, It´s difficult to assess one´s own work. It always feels like the last one is the best, though it never feels quite good enough. One of the most recent and enjoyable projects is the Vagant covers and illustrations. This was pretty much a carte blanche job, and people seem to like the result.

How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good art is?

Hmm, I´m not sure. It probably has a huge effect in terms of stirring up attention, reaching large audiences etc, but it seems to me that there are no single public perception of what good art is, but rather a whole lot of different trends, movements and art scenes flourishing side by side. There can´t be any objective rules about what makes good art, so any hype is at best a suggestion or an indication of what some people think is good, and I hope most people see it this way.

Last CD you bought/downloaded/shoplifted?

Justice, Cross.

How did you feel when you realised that art could make you some money?

Privileged and relieved.

Why do so many people spend money on music yet so few buy art?

I sometimes feel that the art world is a bit introverted - that it´s some kind of club with a complicated set of rules you have to know in order to understand what´s going on. Being a serious art buyer is time consuming and expensive. Music is immediate, affordable and social. Besides, music is of course also art.

Where would you be without art?

In a hydrodynamics lab perhaps?

What makes you happy?

My girlfriend, chopping wood, good food.

What makes you sad?

The state of the world.

What's it like to be interviewed?

It´s interesting. A nice chance to think through your position on things. Soup, for example.

Sex, drugs or rock n roll?

Guess I´ll have to go with sex.

Last time you cried?

I wanted to when I saw a this documentary about a flock of elephants. The baby elephant lost track of everyone, roamed the desert alone, and died.

What's your favourite soup?

Soups that are opaque. Transparent food doesen´t seem right.

Tell us a secret?

I am superfast.

Quote us your favourite song lyric?

"I slept all day
awoke with distaste
and I railed,
and I raved
That the difference between
the sprout and the bean
is a golden ring,
it is a twisted string."
Joanna Newsom, The sprout and the bean.

Is there a downside to being so talented?

There is one downside that probably has more to do with being human, and that is the constant question of how to put yourself and your abilities to best use. I always feel like there is a million different things I should be doing, projects I should be pursuing etc.

Daren Newman...

Interview I found with Daren Newman:

An interview with Daren Newman...

What moved you to be a designer / illustrator / typographer
Been into all 3 for as long as I can remember - don't have a desire or the capabilities to do anything else!

What motivates you to do what you do?
Producing what you think is right for the brief/subject

What inspires your work?
Anything and everything

What do you love the most about being a creative person?
Being aloud to be creative, having the freedom to let your mind spill onto a page!

What do you hate the most about being a creative person?
People who don't understand think your a lazy bas**rd!
Having to be creative when you just aint in the mood!

What is the happiest moment of your career so far?
Setting up Funnel Creative 7 years ago & illustrating 'Which Will' with Si Scott

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Just give it a go, you'll probably regret it if don't!

What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Learning how to walk and talk as a child

What makes you happy, makes you smile?
My family
Katherine Beefheart (me misses)
Nature
Fine music
Drawing letterforms
Illustrating
10p crisps
Rotring Pens
My new Dahon bike

What makes you depressed, makes you grumpy?
Cruelty
How they've now made a lot of 10p crisps 15p!
When you just aint in the mood and you just cant get your head into a project/brief
Hangovers

Where would you most like to be right now?
In bed

What is the worst job you've done?
Making food beneath the Mc Golden Arches!

What (or who) is your favorite...

Pizza
Dave Walsh Special

Band
Pentangle

Book
Anything about nature or Attenborough preferably both

Smell
Freshly cut grass (which is a nightmare as I'm allergic!)

Movie
Wickerman (original)

Word
Balloon or Vestibule

Color
Black/white

Super Hero
Wolverine

Beer
Erdinger Dunkel

Website
Google

Keetra Dean Dixon...

I managed to get a great response from Keetra Dean Dixon, she answered all my questions perfectly.

This is the response I got from her:

ok - PHEW! Finally got a sec. Thanks for being patient.

1.How would you describe yourself in three words?

Overly-excitable, Spastic, Analytical

2. How would you describe your work in three words?

Social, Irreverent, Bright

3. As a designer what do you specialise in?

Experience

4. Where does your inspiration come from? Who/what are you inspired by?

The everyday married with the amazing. Everything inspires me (not kidding, I am shocked by how tickled I get by the random & mundane)

5. What agencies have you worked for in the past?

(these where the full time gigs - most of the cool ones have been partnerships with my studio)

Future Farmers, Carmichael Lynch, Wolf Motel, Brand New School, Rockwell Group

6. Is there anything you would suggest I do to really get my foot in the doorway to becoming a Graphic Designer?

Make AMAZING WORK (I know, too obvious) Experiment a lot, take risks.

7. In what context is your work mainly used for?

Do you mean client based or independent? Or do you mean the platform/context? Event, architecture, interaction, etc. Either way - my work spreads over almost all arenas within the graphic design world. I have also been doing a lot of installation that falls into the art realm.

8. Finally are there any quotes that you live by?

I have a whole list!

•Make the work I wish I where making.

•Be courageous & vulnerable.

•Keep learning.

•Never settle.

•Fail often & I will progress.

•Invite disruptive change.

•Choose to believe my own opinion as much as I believe in others..

•Recognize my strength & be honest about my weakness.

•Invest in the fantastic - it can someday be real.

•Fail often & I will progress.

•Invite disruptive change.

Hope that is what you where looking for.

HAPPY MAKING!

many wishes

kdd

Other responses...

Craig Ward

This is the response I got back from Craig Ward and he said a lot of the other questions i had asked had already been answered so I am going to look on his website for the answers.

In brief:

I'd describe myself as industrious, optimistic and tired, my work as 'harder working typography'. You know exactly what I specialise in, my inspiration comes from anywhere you see type doing something it wasn't meant to: peeling painted signs, torn posters, badly printed newspapers, street markings, environmental typography etc etc. I worked at, in order, CMW, Elvis, MCBD, CHI & Partners and now Grey in New York. In terms of advice, do one thing well and eventually someone will take notice and you can never do too much self promotion - as long as the work is worth it. I made a lot of work straight out of uni but my work sucked so no-one paid any attention. I didn't send out another email or mailer for 3 years. My work is used primarily in publishing and advertising and the only quote I live by is 'Moderation is great in moderation'.

'Moderation is great in moderation'.

'Do one thing well and eventually someone will take notice'.

Jessica Hische

Jessica emailed me back and just directed me straight to her Q&A page so I guess ill just find the info on there...

Are you a serif or a sans-serif kinda girl?

Hard to say, I think generally sans-serif. Everything I draw starts as sans-serif and then I decide later if I want to make it have serifs.

What fonts do you like?

I have short love affairs with certain fonts, most of them coming out of H&FJ. I had a torrid affair with Archer a few months back. I can’t stop using Gotham on everything I make (for the tiny type that isn’t worth hand-lettering). I also love Coquette, though it can be a little funky. The numbers are GREAT. Bulmer is a great text type which has an AWESOME italic. Neutraface’s italic is really good too.

• When do you know that you’ve “made it” in the typography world?

  I don’t know when you can say you’ve “made it” in design/type, but I think the ultimate goal is to be able to say “I pay my bills by making pretty things”.

• Why do you think people get so passionate about fonts and typography?

  I think people generally love language, words, phrases, and quotes so to see a great word illustrated appropriately typographically can be beautiful. Illustrated type is a very accessible kind of art. People with no background in art or design can look at a really beautifully drawn word and appreciate it and you don’t have to be on some higher cerebral plane to get the meaning of it. I think designers get passionate about fonts because to be an “expert” in font use and recognition makes them feel as though they are “expert” designers. But like anything, just because you have the knowledge doesn’t mean you can apply it perfectly in every context. In my opinion, the really great designers are ones who have a good working knowledge of fonts (but maybe aren’t a walking font encyclopedia), and are really just good at using what they know appropriately for each project.

Describe your design in one sentence.

“Jessica Hische’s work combines equal parts design, typography, illustration, brown sugar, and heavy cream.” (Thanks, Jason from the Heads of State, for that one!)

What is your favorite Letter?

R or K

How has internet exposure helped promote your work?

Internet exposure has helped immensely. I get a ton of emails from clients that have found my work on design blogs or have been passed my site from a friend or co-worker. The only downside to a lot of internet exposure is that you get a ton of requests for work from people that want a logo for $200.

What advice do you have for a young illustrator or graphic designer?

When you’re not doing client work, do a lot of personal work. It takes a lot of practice and exploration to be a great designer, so do it in any way possible. When looking for a day job, decide what is important to you. Jobs at big places or advertising firms tend to pay better but the work is less creative. Jobs at small studios pay less (much less sometimes) but the work can be really creative and rewarding. Plan ahead. think of the kind of work you want to be doing and try to find the most direct path to that.

How do you work? What is your process?

Almost everything I make is made in Adobe Illustrator. All the work is done in Illustrator, even adding textures and whatnot. When I send finals to clients I send tiffs, because the files are usually too complex to hand over as is. For illustration work, I do sketches first which are REALLY rough and mostly to communicate ideas rather than a direct composition interpretation. For type I usually don’t do sketches unless absolutely necessary as most of my experimentation happens on the computer. I don’t use any fancy tricks or even a wacom tablet (I hold a pen like a child holds a crayon (in a tight fist that will only catalyze the carpal tunnel)). I use the pen tool to draw all of my type and don’t use any magic tool to make my curves. I usually work with the grid on at first, starting with a single weight line and then adding thickness or ornament later depending on what I’m trying to achieve. I make general decisions at the beginning to figure out what kind of type I want to draw (a script? slanted or upright? thick or thin? sans serif? retro feeling or more modern feeling?) and then add decoration / ornamentation after the “skeleton” is drawn.

What other designers / illustrators inspire you?

So many its hard to say. I have a major design crush on Marion Bantjes and a brain/concept crush on Christoph Niemann (you should reread the illustrated article he did for Print a few years back (2005? 2006?) on being an illustrator). I have a really talented group of friends that also keep my motivation high. I see work every day on sites like ffffound, the dieline, etc. that makes me seethe with jealousy. Envy can be a big motivator.

My first response...

Alison Carmichael

My first response was from Alison Carmichael, she explained to me that she really appreciated the fact that I was inspired by her work and had taken an interest to it and explained that she gets a lot of emails of students asking her similar questions so she gave me a set Q&A for me to have a read through and some of the stuff is really handy.

How did you become a hand lettering artist? what is your background?

I studied Graphic Design at Ravensbourne where at the time, they still taught a bit of hand lettering as part of the course. I specialised in hand lettering and calligraphy for my degree. After leaving college, I worked in various creative fields as a directors assistant, assistant art director, model maker, story board artist (a very bad one!) and then got a portfolio of hand lettering together and started going around to all the design consultants and ad agencies trying to get freelance work. Gradually I built up my client list and my range of styles and I have been doing this now for around about ten years.

Keetra Dean Dixon

I then heard back from Keetra Dean dixon, this was here response...

Interview from Siouxfire:

http://siouxwire-annex.blogspot.com/2006/07/interview-keetra-dean-dixon.html

Interview from file magazine:

http://file-magazine.com/features/keetra-dean-dixon

Alex Trochut

I then heard back from Alex Trochut, well his assistant and she was really helpful and gave me a link to websites where Alex has previously answered popular questions.

In Alex Trochuts email his assistant recommened looking at this website below which shows a previous interview from Trochut...

http://www.subaquatica.com/en/index.php/2007/12/03/alex-trochut/

I got this information below from :

http://www.designtaxi.com/article.php?article_id=100722

Design taxi:

http://think.faesthetic.com/?p=2388

“I think everything changes fast, and expires faster if you start feeling too attached to it.”

Alex Trochut has the advantage of being able to do anything. In a world where specificity, and uber-division of labor is not only the norm, but a growing pattern, we decreasingly find craftsmen and artists who can execute a wide array of design approaches. Aesthetically, his graphics and illustrations run the gamut from acid-dream liquid movements, to angular, symmetrically based work. In either case, proportion and space condone the art, and yield a poignancy that requires a closer look. Despite his obvious talent, it’s the concise and reliable nature of his art that makes him sought after by a diverse slew of clients; the spectrum of which is represented by everyone from indie-rockers The Decemberists, to corporate giants like Adidas and Nike. His versatility has opened doors to various projects, and inspires an evolutionary attitude toward his craft, his very own, “more is more” approach.

EL: You have an impressive list of clients. What type of work did you do when you started off?

AT: More or less the same stuff I’m doing today, illustration, lettering, graphic design…..

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/003869.html

When I went to visit Alex Trochut in Barcelona I got the opportunity to see his studio and the environment that he works in and he told me a little bit about the work that he was doing at the moment which was a personal typographic brief. He also introduced me to Superveloz which was invented by his grandfather and his website is a great way of understanding how type is made and formed.

P.O.A.....

I am planning to email my selected designers initially and try and collect responses that way but if I have no luck I shall phone them which I think may work better.

These below are the designers contact details that I have collected.

These are the questions i have prepared to ask my selected designers...

This is a draft of one of the email that I sent to Shaz Madni... obviously for each of the designers I have contacted I have introduced myself differently... these emails will hopefully bring some helpful, inspiring information for me to add to my design context book.

Email to Si Scott above.

Email to Alex Trochut above.

Email to Alison Carmichael.

Email to Keetra Dean Dixon

I would like to email Masha Karpushina but I am struggling to find a email address for her, I am going to see if I can contact her through Behance.