Launching creative careers
Bridging the gap from being a Student of Design to being a Professional Designer can be a difficult path. Rebecca Blake talks about the benefits of joining a professional design association and how they can help you avoid many of the pitfalls that many young designers fall into.
© Caroline Kessler
Founding partner and creative director of Mucca Design,
President of the Type Directors Club
‘I became a graphic designer because i bought a laptop.’
‘Precision is what really makes the difference between good and bad design.‘
Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Matteo’s grounding in architecture, graphic design, illustration and typography facilitated his early business successes and inspired his decision to create a New York agency.
Bologna came to the U.S. from Italy in 1944 because he wanted to escape having to use innuendos and photos of sexy women in his designs. Although he started as an illustrator at age 18 and became a graphic designer because “he bought a laptop,” his company has made designs for grocery stores, restaurants and food packages.
Principal and Creative Director | Tolleson
“Good design is clear thinking and clear thinking is good for business.”
Tolleson Design is a creative agency located on San Francisco’s historic Jackson Square. Throughout their 31 years, they’ve delivered branded experiences at a range of marketing touchpoints for clients large and small around the world.
‘there is only one new york city. there is no one new york city.’
Willy Wong is one of today’s outstanding talents.
Completing his MFA at the Yale University in 2005 and his AB at Dartmouth College in 1999, he successfully started his career in designing brands. With his innovative idea Wong won the 2003 Adobe Design Achievement Awards focusing on Experimental Design.
His ADAA submission, The Weather Resort, imagined a visual identity for a conceptual hotel chain. The project used still, moving, and interactive components to create a particular kind of mood without creating an actual architectural site. Willy Wong describes the idea behind his project as “engineering an experience around the weather.
Designer + Director | GMUNK
‘As a creative professional, I want my work to connect with as many people as possible.’
Bradley G Munkowitz ( GMUNK ) is a Graphic Designer by foundation who has over a decade of experience functioning as a Design Director for the motion graphics industry. He’s also remained passionately involved in the global design community, giving lectures around the world about his Process and Experiences.
He’s collaborated with distinguished International Brands via his work at top tier outfits BUCK, Prologue Films, Transistorstudios and Bot&Dolly and has designed UI and Holographic sequences on the feature films TRON and Oblivion with Joseph Kosinski.. His work is characterized as a hybrid of Science Fiction themes informed by a Psychedelic visual palette.
“Good design is design that either helps people or delights people.”
Stefan Sagmeister (born August 6, 1962) is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. Sagmeister co-founded a design firm called Sagmeister & Walsh Inc. with Jessica Walsh in New York City. He has designed album covers for Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, The Talking Heads, David Byrne, Aerosmith and Pat Metheny.
Sagmeister’s work have been mounted in New York, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Paris, Lausanne, Zurich, Vienna, Prague, Cologne & Berlin.
Sagmeister received a Grammy Award in 2005 in the Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package category for art directing Once in a Lifetime box set by Talking Heads. He received a second Grammy Award for his design of the David Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today in the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package category on January 31, 2010.
Interaction Designer | Ralph Appelbaum Associates.
‘ To win the Adobe Design Achievement Award has given me an advantage in my professional career.’
Nina Boesch is a Manhattan-based artist and designer from Germany.
Janina was born in 1978 in Bremen, Germany. After completing an apprenticeship to become a digital media designer. In 2001 she moved to the U.S., where she did a one-year internship at 4 Corners, New York. In 2003, Janina began to study graphic design at Rhode Island School of Design. At RISD, she was not only taught the beauty of typography but also learned to combine her previous interest in interactive media with her new love for clean and thoughtful designs.
She started to work for the New York Pentagram office, where she became a full-time Interaction designer after she graduated.
Today Janina works as Senior Interaction Designer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates.
