Artist Series

It was extremely interesting to hear these various artists discuss their careers and philosophies. I’m always intrigued to hear why someone does what they do:  what led them down a certain path, colleagues that influence them or helped mold their professional style, the social responsibilities with which they hold themselves accountable, etc. With that in mind, there are four of these videos that I really want to touch on.

I’ll start with David Carson. I think we were all intrigued by his part in “Helvetica,” especially his use of Dingbats. It’s an interesting concept that, as he noted in this video, his lack of conventional training is what really helped him early in his career. He just did things because they made sense to him, and only later did colleagues criticize his non-traditional strategies and concepts. Now, I think it helps even more that he is aware of key principles of design. Those that consciously break the mold garner attention and really see success, I believe. He uses some traditional tactics to his advantage, but he abandons many, and that’s what makes his art so unique.

I was already minutely familiar with James Victore. Anything that speaks with such a political tone is going to catch my eye. I blame it on my growing up on punk rock, but it’s hard to tell why those things attract me. I love how Victore defended his use of social commentary, saying that’s what graphic design is meant for. He says it can be used to “sell socks,” and it’s pretty good at doing so, but graphic design “is a big fucking club with spikes, and I want to wield it…”

I chose to watch the ‘Illustrating Malcolm Gladwell’ video first, actually. The process of illustrating a book has always interested me. I really liked that I could hear from Malcolm here, as well, and that he was so involved in the process. On the contrary, though, I loved his take on being involved. He mentioned his father, the mathematician, whose view had it that he would only speak up about the three things which he thought he knew more than anyone about (math, gardening, and dogs), and he would otherwise admit he is a subordinate and just shut up and listen. That’s the approach Malcolm took when dealing with the illustrators. I think they did a great job of designing the books abstractly, but not too abstractly. They also said the decision to go abstract was because specific illustrations require more direct attention from the reader, thus distracting from the actual content of Gladwell’s work. What they did was subtly play on the peripherals of the reader, enhancing the material.

Milton Glaser spoke in a more grandiose fashion about design and art, as providing a universal common ground for cultures that brings people together. In order to connect in such a way, he said, social commentary is part of the process. He spoke a lot about getting old and seeing the majority of his career in his rear-view, and I thought he offered great perspective on that. He was elated that he was still capable of being astonished by the line of work he had chosen, even in “the third act,” as he called it.