Hillman Curtis’ The Artist Series offers some wonderful insight into the wacky minds of these great graphic designers. The overall take away, especially from Paula Scher, was to follow your intuition when it comes to design. Unfortunately, my intuition doesn’t always lead to good places design wise. Technology, I get it. I like to figure out the problems and work to achieve a goal. When it comes to words, I feel I’ve got a good grasp. But when it comes to the visual world, I lack confidence and sight.
I enjoy being a part of the brainstorming process and thinking about how to visually communicate an idea, but when I create, I don’t usually achieve what I envision. I think much of my issues revolve around over thinking. My tendency isn’t to let go and just see what is created. These graphic designers inspire me to try that a bit more: to stretch my imagination and have more self-confidence as a designer. It may not be the chosen path I intend to go down, but working on design skills will be key to pursing a more technically-drive career as well.
In addition to the inspiration I got from what these designers had to say, I was enthralled by the video production of the series. The videos really succeeded in capturing the multifaceted characters of the designers. The use of footage that is often left on the cutting room floor was really compelling. From seeing the tracks in the Lawrence Weiner tracking shot to the jump cut quality of James Victore and the extended shot of the door opening in Espirito Santo, these choices set the tone for each video which directly matched the aesthetic of each designer. It was cool to see how the technical quality and editing choices could create such a complimentary video design.