Q&A
What began your interest in graphic design?
Growing up, I always enjoyed drawing. Whether I was drawing my favorite cartoon characters or emulating my older brother, who is a talented visual artist, I found it relaxing, fascinating and challenging to figure out the elements making up whatever I was attempting to draw.
It was not until high school that my interest in graphic design began, which paralleled my growing interest in music. When I use to listen to music, I flipped through the cd booklet and discovered that, sometimes, the overall feeling of the sound of an album was captured visually on the album cover and throughout the booklet. The experience of seeing the emotion of an album or song as I listened to it gave me the desire of wanting to be involved in the creation of similar experiences.
Briefly, can you describe your design process?
Normally, I begin by brainstorming and researching. This mainly involves a lot of writing and quick sketches of anything, relevant or irrelevant, that comes to mind. Next, I go through many cycles of experimenting, refining and developing ideas.
After that, I select ideas that effectively solve the problem at hand and again, I go into my cycles. I try to stay away from utilizing the computer because I feel it can limit the creative process, especially in the early stages of it. I don't start using the computer until I have five to fifteen (depending on the project) strong ideas that I could clean and polish.
What designer or designers do you admire and/or are inspired by? Why?
Stefan Sagmeister because of (1) his creation of memorable typography, (2) his attention to how time, location and outside forces may affect his work, and (3) his sense of humor. Paul Rand because of his intelligent, fun, rational and functional approach to design.
Also, two of my favorite graphic design movements are the Swiss Style because of its focus on typography and page layout, and the Bauhaus because of its attention to harmonizing function and design.
What type of graphic design work excites you the most?
Anything related to music (especially album covers and posters), layout and branding projects.
Outside of graphic design, what are your interests and/or hobbies?
Mainly, listening to all types of music, playing baseball, watching baseball, playing video games, playing guitar and spending time with my wife.
Lastly, what is time?
A concept.
