[This is an old interview from the early days of the Web and the late days of print-only, when I was the Creative Director at New Hampshire Magazine. About 1997 I think. It's a little long (my longest post ever), but hopefully entertaining reading. I dug it up of an old Zip Disk (remember those?) on this snowy night.]
Resumes and portfolios just don't tell the whole story. If you really want to know what somebody's about, sit down with them for a cup of coffee at their favorite diner and you'll get the real story. We caught up with Al not at Al's Diner, but at his favorite diner, The Red Arrow in Manchester, NH, which he claims has great "diner" coffee, the best chocolate cream pie, and "real" turkey sandwiches.First, you're a creative director...is that a designer, or...what?My role in the creative process is to help people see possibilities -- to supply the vision component and build consensus among all the involved parties for a workable solution. Those people might be clients, account executives, or designers who work for me. Then I have to communicate that vision to the creative team and guide it throughout the process.
It means I ask a lot of questions and spend quality time thinking and testing ideas in the early stages. Sometimes that means I am a designer, sometimes that means I am a copywriter, sometimes that means I am devil's advocate.
I started out as a designer but I found I had to back up a few steps in the creative process to influence the work in a meaningful way, which has brought me to creative director.
OK. When did you decide you wanted to be a designer?I remember making a deal with a friend of mine who had just graduated from Art Center in Pasadena, CA that I would get a job in design within six months. That was in December 1987 and I was had been selling advertising space at the local newspaper for three years and feeling quite unfulfilled. I ended up getting a job at an ad agency within three months and since then, design has been the core of the work that I do, even though my focus has shifted to more strategic matters.
Did the experience selling ad space help you as a designer?I think it was vital to the work I do now. As a designer I am now keenly aware that design must solve a business problem. I usually ask for alot of detail on the business and what they are trying to accomplish before I even think about design.
Ideally, the business need and the design go hand-in-hand. Use of quality design should not be considered optional for business, and understanding of business should not be thought of as optional in design.
Achieving some success at selling early in my career was also useful because even as a designer, you need to do some degree of selling -- that is, making a case for the validity of -- your idea to clients or colleagues.
What do you consider to be the key elements in developing a design?You have to know the medium, know the audience, and know the information you're working with. If any of those are missing you're dead in the water. The best situation is to be involved in defining or developing those three elements as well.
Of course you also need to know what the budget and schedule are. But a good design, in my opinion, should be adaptable in terms of budget or timing. The basic solution should work as well with a budget of $1000 as it does with $100,000.
What about the visual elements, the look?I like typography, and simplicity. You can do a lot with a headline a good photo, and some body text. That's what I started with when I got into this business. And to me those elements are still the classic ones to work with. The Web introduces some new elements and has it's own demands, but typography and simplicity are still the building blocks even if you're talking about a navigation system.
The details are what make the difference between a design that works and one that doesn't. A slight change in spacing, balance, proximity of elements. A sensitivity to those things is necessary. If there's one point I could make to the designers that work for me, this would be it.
Another technique I use is getting all the elements toether and then eliminating the ones taht aren't necessary. If thereÕs something in a design thatÕs not necessary it's either a mistake or it's there for somebody's ego.
One paradox I have noticed is that the best design is one that does not announce itself as a design, but makes the subject or the informatiuon the star. Otherwise the design is self-indulgent or design for the designer's sake. That doesn't mean you can't have a field day with the design -- just don't make it the whole point.
What was the most difficult thing about the transition to creative director?The most difficult thing has been letting go of the actual designing of things and allowing or encouraging others to push the limits and throw out their preconceptions and really work the details and find or execute the solutions.
I still design things myself in some cases, but I'm a real believer in the growth of others and like designers who work for me to have the opportunity to have ownership of a project.
It's sometimes very tempting to jump into the middle of a project and say "Do it like this." I've had to get comfortable with appreciating other's solutions even if they aren't what I had in mind. Actually I kind of enjoy it now.
The bottom line is I have to trust them, and they have to trust me. Sometimes I do have to say "This is how it's got to be," and I really can't go into an explanation at the time. I think they understand those cases.
What was your first supervisor in design like?Very supportive and fair. He gave me opportunities to do my own projects. But my attitude was that I was there to learn from him. In fact the day I started (this was before computers--just before) I didn't even know how to rule boards for pasteup. Fortunately I was sitting behind him and just did what he did. I learned quickly. I should add that I was clear about my lack of experience in production -- I was hired for a few good ideas in my portfolio, some good marker comps, and my eagerness.
What were some of the things that influenced you while growing up that you can see evidence of today in your approach to work?Basically as a kid I spent alot of time asking, "Why?" But it wasn't "Why is the sky blue?" It was more like "Why do people like blue skies?" or "Why do people say the sky is blue when it's really purple or orange -- I mean, it isn't ALWAYS blue?" I was always very curious about why things are the way they are and "what if we changed them?" And quite often I just thought about it on my own before asking.
My father was a history professsor at the United States Naval Academy. I spent many hours at the other end of the kitchen table as he graded papers. He would often show me eample of good writing and not-so-good writing. He was very meticulous in his reading of the papers, and concerned about each and every one of his students.
In the summers he and his twin brother would collaborate on writing history books. There was alot of give and take. Arguing the merits of one word over another. Some heated discussions about structuring of a chapter. That sort of thing. I learned that it was OK and necessary to disagre in developing a creative project.
And my friends and I built rather elaborate roadways and towns in the back yard for our Corgi cars and Matchbox cars. There was alot of teamwork, decision making and compromising in terms of where a road would go, and splitting up the work to get it done was a factor too. One time we built most of Washington D.C out of dirt, including the Pentagon.
What were some early influences on your sense of design?We drove from Maryland to Seattle to California and back to Maryland every summer. I was intrigued by the signs along the wayÑthe big neon motel and restaurant signs from the 50s and 60s. And the maps. I was always checking the maps, monitoring our progress and planning the next day with my father. My mother would have been happy to fly by the way.
Then there were the National Geographics at my grandmother's house. She had all of them going back to 1913 or so. While other kids might have looked at photos of topless african women, I looked at the ads, especially from the 40s and 50s. (ok, I looked at the women too). But I was drawn to the ads for US war Bonds and cars like "the all new Ford Zephyr." And the later National Geographics had some great information graphics, which I always enjoyed.
I spent many hours building plastic model kits. Planes, ships, cars, literally hundreds of them. It required following directions and attention to detail and seeing a project through from start to finish in kind of a self-managed way. I would do extremely detailed painting on these things. Actually one summer I built about 15 World War II airplanes for my father to use in his lectures the next year. It was like a production line in my room, complete with a deadline. Then they had to be transported 3000 miles unbroken back to Maryland. I still have some of them to this day.
Do you have any favorite designers or creatives?What I am most impressed by these days are people or organizations who are great collaborators or have the ability to work in a variety of mediums. Pentagram does some great work in that regard. And Charles and Ray Eames. They did everything from furniture to film to museum exhibits.
Then there are the classic ones: Raymond Lowey, Paul Rand, David Ogilvy, Bill Bernbach. They're all kind of stand-alone greats and definitely deserving of recognition. But you don't have a sense of their working with a team or whether they collaborated with others.
If I can expand my answer to include people who I find inspiring I'd say Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Feynman, Alexander Calder, Frank Lloyd Wright. They all went outside the box. Had a completely different view of things.
Where do you see yourself in five years? What lies ahead?That's a rather involved subject...that's another discussion. Call me.
Labels: creative director, design
