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[ May 3, 2004 ]
If you're wondering what an "interrobang" is, check your nearest Webster's. According to the dictionary, it's "a combination question mark and exclamation point that's designed to be used at the end of an exclamatory rhetorical question," such as: Is it any wonder that since its inception in 1997 Interrobang Design Collaborative has received so many honors, including a book award from the AIGA and a Gold Award for Product Interface Design from the IDSA?!
My father was a commercial artist in New Jersey, so I grew up around 'the business.' My mother was a high school English teacher who encouraged creative writing. The combination of the two led to my appreciation for words and pictures. Lisa's parents are both creative, although neither worked in artistic trades. She grew up in a New England mill town known for its woolens, appreciating the textures and colors of the textiles, and apprenticing as a sign carver during high school. What are some of the challenges of partnering with your wife? Because we met in design school, we learned early on. We went through the days of literally seeing each other at the beginning of class at 8 in the morning and putting stuff up for the crit. Inevitably there were those moments where maybe Lisa was the hero of the crit. She pushed herself, pushed the project, pushed everything, and I sort of got my nose rubbed in it because I wasn't on at that particular day. I got the lumps and she got the gold star and after it was all over we'd walk out of class and be like, 'Okay, do you want to go to lunch?' Our relationship is bigger than both of our successes are and failures are. She can come up to me and say, 'That is some of the worst typography you have ever done.' It might be an experiment I tried and if she doesn't think it is right we will discuss it. And sometimes it's an uppercase discussion, you know it gets a little loud and sometimes it is a lower case discussion.
I tend to be the one who travels. I am the one responsible for probably 65 to 70 percent of what goes on in the studio; as far as client work, meeting deadlines, art directing illustrators and photographers, going to photo shoots, juggling a lot of different balls and keeping things in the air at the same time. Those are my responsibilities. Lisa's side of things is that she handles the projects that might be a little broader in scope, for example, it might be a book project or some of the projects that require you to think them completely through. She is really good at giving birth to strategy, theory and direction on a broader scope. That is sort of how we intermix. It's not that if something like that comes up she's the one who has to do it. She can kind of slow me down and I can sort of speed her up. We cross-pollinate pretty well in that respect. We try to align the projects as to which one of us has the personality for it, and so far we've been really lucky. Tell me about a project that best shows what you can do? White-Packert Photography web site...www.whitepackert.com... This was an example of us doing less to make more. We had to organize and structure the site to present a diverse and ever-changing range of imagery so it remained connected, accessible, and relative without the organization overshadowing the imagery. Minimal design elements, color, transparency and classic typography support the wide range of images and video presented on the site. Rather than sequester the images to one portfolio section, the whole site shows the photographer's work as it relates to other necessary information. Having worked together for so long, do you feel that some of your differences have merged? Years ago one of our undergrad professors actually commented on this. While he was looking at our senior work and laughing to himself, we both asked, 'What is so funny?', and he said, 'You guys have shifted color palettes.' When things started out Lisa was doing more sort of fall colors, much more grounded, natural New Englandy colors, and I was definitely more on the bright, intense sides of things. But it is not like we completely swapped color palettes. There was definitely more of a vibrancy to what she was doing and there was a more of a muted grounding to what I was doing. I think we definitely bump into each other. We definitely influence each other in the fact that I'll be working on something for a project and Lisa will be working on something completely unrelated and we'll reference each other. The studio and the house are just places where design lives, so we do trade-offs.
Not coincidentally, Charles and Ray Eames. Their unwavering integration of design into their - and future generations' - lives never looked like work. They were the original multimedia artists. Design was Life. Other than Charles and Ray, we tend to look outside of graphic design for inspiration. Art in all forms, from pre-school drawings to Dale Chihuly sculptures, from Edward Weston photography to timber framing and metalsmithing. Lisa experiments with color and textures through quilting. I experiment with architectural woodworking and furniture design in my small woodshop attached to the studio. Looking back, what are you surprised to have discovered in 'the business?' That some clients don't enjoy the design process. Most of our clients love the discovery, the play, the challenge, the finding and the failing, the regrouping and success of the creative process. We feed off of that and put their energy into the work. The ones that don't enjoy the process, we don't force the process on them, or berate them for not enjoying the process. Rather, we show up, wipe our feet at the door, and do our job. And we get called back to help them the next time they need design. Have you reached the place you want to be? We define what we do by what we did yesterday. We have a past to be proud of, and great opportunities in front of us. We continue to learn how to learn from our experiences, and weave all these experiences together. Each of these moments, as they happen is where we want to be. - Contributed by Mary-Beth Holland >> See more work from Interrobang >> See other member spotlights on the member spotlight index >> Find out more on how to become an altpick.com member |
