Intervista: Robin Uleman

Robin Uleman

Born in the Netherlands, Robin Uleman specializes in editorial design that requires a distinctive character and identity work for people and organizations that have a story to tell. His aim is to translate strategic objectives into meaningful design solutions by creating a visual language that communicates in an authentic and intelligent way. Robin took some time out of his day to answer a few questions for AisleOne.

How long have you been designing?
Guess you mean by ‘designing’, designing and getting paid for it? That I’ve been doing since 1994, so that’s almost 14 years since leaving art school.

Who or what turned you on to graphic design?
Before turning my interests to graphic design I wanted to become a draughtsman or a car designer, but when I found out that a serious accomplisment of maths was required for the latter I settled for the first. Admittedly that is a naive choice growing up in the eighties; nobody needed a draughtsman, but I just happened to love drawing. The other thing that interested me was literature and history, so for a while I considered going to university, but then I had to let go drawing, a thought I couldn’t bare. When I was 15 I heard of graphic design as a professional occupation. To be honest, I only had a vague notion of the activities it encompassed, but from what I could understand drawing was part of it, next to dealing with language, storytelling, photography and alongside those basics came a lot of topics that could be a subject for a graphic designer, so all together it made great appeal. The fact that I could unify a couple of native interests in one profession made the choice. I no longer had to choose.

Who or what are your influences??
There are many, but when I stick to the graphic designer’s hall of fame—which is the easiest—I can say I’m inspired by Herbert Bayer, Herb Lubalin, Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Alexey Brodovitch, Will Burtin, Lester Beall, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Wim Crouwel and Karel Martens. The order isn’t fixed, but this is how my top 10 is structured at the moment, starting with Herbert Bayer as my number one. A shame there isn’t a proper book on his work around.

What is your favorite typeface??
To be honest, I find it hard to pin down one in particular, it very much depends on the thing I’m working on. The context counts, but in general I have a nack for typefaces that have a genuine presence, a distinctive character so to speak, like Akzidenz Grotesk, Avant Garde, Futura, Franklin Gothic, American Typewriter, Plantin, Clarendon, Arnhem… I’m not a big fan of type that is contrived, mannered or too neat. Apart from that, a likeable flaw or even a bit of clumsiness can be just the quality a job requires.

Robin Uleman

What is your favorite color palette to work with?
I like to use CMYK as it is, or when mixing I use very crude combinations, simply because I want colours to be solid, or at least have a solid appearance. In process print I often end up using the raw inks and their pure overlaps combined with a muted grey of some sort. Most of the time I choose one colour to play the leading role next to black. It’s all very simple. If I use PMS colours it’s either very bright, fresh, dayglow, together with black or very muted and subtle or a combination of these, not much in between I guess. In general I like contrast.

Can you explain your creative process from brief to completion?
Think my answer to this will be somewhat of a cliché. There is no recipe for creativity, and every project demands a different approach and therefore develops in a different manner. Nevertheless there are certain routines. Things simply wouldn’t work without them.

More specific: there are things that re-occur, like the number of stages a project usually takes to be completed. While cleaning up and archiving some projects lately I discovered a distinctive pattern in my computer files: most projects seem to build up to the constant amount of five consecutive folders, each of them containing between four to ten documents—regardless of the nature of the project, be it a poster or a brochure. Alltogether these five folders cover the digital part of design process—I say, digital, since I always start with drawing, which may not come as a great surprise. I very much need to have a hand on things to understand it. I love the screen and it’s possibilities, but sometimes it stupifies, then I switch off and move back to the drawing board, or I print the stuff I have and start playing with it, tearing it up, folding it in different ways until It tells me how to move on. Especially in editorial work I make a lot of rough mock-ups to understand the flow of things. Spreads aren’t just incidents, they relate. So it’s all about making things tangible: printing on different paper stock, making variations, cutting prints, folding them, all help to understand the true nature of the project. I guess, it starts with eagerness and curiosity, I just want to get my hands on the outcome—so drawing, printing and mocking-up all help to bridge the gap between briefing and the moment the stock arrives from the printer.

Apart from that, I more and more acknowledge the role that dialogue can play throughout the process. Asking the right questions and being responsive is of growing influence to my practise, the interaction with the people that happen to be my clients being an important ingredient. I like to involve them instead of treating them as an audience to a slick presentation. I prefer to work with them, instead of working for them. Also I’m more inclined to ask difficult questions instead of working around them.

When I started working, I was 25 and I thought I had to solve all problems by myself and superimpose my ideas upon the client, regardless of the thing he wanted to get accross, if people raised questions or made a comment, I thought I had failed.

Do you use a grid system when designing and how do you feel about them?
Grids are very handy, but should never be an end in itself. When I discovered how to use them I was thrilled with their possibilities; it created a well of opportunity which otherwise wouldn’t be explored. Grids allow you to make music and help to create rhythm and pace and be articulate at the various levels of understanding a lay out requires. Still I discover new possibilities with every project, but I stepped back from using them lately in the initial stages of the process, since they tend to stiffen as well. When exploring various ideas and approaches, grids can be quite limiting and there is a risk they keep you from making a powerful gesture.

There was a time when I still worked in Quarck that even first sketches were made with grids underneath; so eventually I found myself adjusting and changing and adjusting and changing… Fascinating alltogether, but it caught me up in the wrong kind of details too soon, but one could say I probably needed that laborious method to make grids my own. Today it’s second nature and I take a free approach.

Who do you feel is currently doing innovative work?
I don’t have a clue. To my opinion there is a lot of repetition going on at the moment. But then again, the level of that repetition can be quite high. In a way graphic design—or visual communication for that matter—has long passed the stage that things were first defined and invented, therefore It lacks a fresh view. That’s only natural.

At the moment our profession seems to be very self-consumed and busy refining and responding to codes, trends and fads that emerge as quickly as they disappaer. It’s hardly about ideas and new approaches. To me that’s a great loss.

The web supports that mechanism by prolifying the latest hit with an ever increasing speed, thus equalising all graphic design output to a thick stream of nice pictures that is appreciated and valued for the sensation of seeing it first. Flicking through a book or a magazine, visiting an exhibition, touching and unfolding, the context in which the project functions, let alone other subtle qualities like the use of material, space and pace, faculties that are part of a designer’s palette of expression are all left out, so that makes our judgement of what’s good or innovative very poor. All these overview books with the designers that make the world go round in 2008 leave out context and flatten our idea of what is good design.

I believe, true innovation has always stemmed from individuals that followed their own path and fascinations without losing the broader perspective. Styles have more or less become a library we can pick from to suit our intentions. In the end innovation will come from designers that are able to rethink these intentions and their role in society, perhaps partly as producers of content, perhaps as people that create new ways of connecting to people’s interests again. For that matter the fixation on trends is a dangerous one.

What are you working on now?
Just started working on a book about the work of Satyendra Pakhalé. He is a very interesting product designer. It’s our own initiative, so we also have to pull the project off in financial terms, which is quite a challenge.

Robin Uleman

What is your favorite color?
Same as with type, but I guess you could say I have a weak spot for yellow.

What is your favorite album?
Impressed 2 with Gilles Peterson. Rare, classic & unique modern jazz from Britain 1963 – 1974. At least, that’s what’s on the cover. Anyway, the music hasn’t gone stale since I bought it last summer.

What is your favorite movie?
I was very impressed by Capote by Bennet Miller. I appreciated it’s precise approach to all aspects of the movie. Saw it on DVD and also enjoyed the extra’s. While most of the time the supplied interviews with director and actors are about rubbing each others backs, these talks were truely interesting and inspiring. They confirmed that attention to detail in photography, sets, atmosphere and acting can make a difference. Love to take example to this. All ingredients are well balanced and the result could not be anything else than film. Think most graphic design—apart from some good exceptions—is lacking that intrinsic quality at the moment. I mean, most graphic designers are not using the full potential graphic design has to offer as a language in itself.

Intervista is a series of interviews conducted for AisleOne with some of todays top talents in graphic design.

       

Intervista: Duane King

Duane King

Duane King’s style is unmistakably new-generation, his comprehensive knowledge of the history and heroes of design make his vision timeless. As creative director of Santa Fe based studio BBDK he’s produced solutions in print, packaging and interactive that have earned him great recognition. Duane is also the creator of Thinking For A Living, a collection of recommended readings and online links for the modern designer, it’s an ever-growing platform dedicated to the concept of open source design education. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for AisleOne.

How long have you been designing?
It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been 15 years. I actually began my design career before computers were a staple in the industry. My schooling included no computer training and I had to relearn the business once I hit the job market.

Who or what turned you on to graphic design?
When I was 18, I was hired by a t-shirt shop because I could draw. Once I actually had to draw by hand each character of a font, I was simply amazed by the subtle differences between each letter form. It was at this point that I fell in love with typography and first understood that, as Ellen Lupton said, “Typography is what language looks like.???

Who or what are your influences??
My design influences are Josef Müller-Brockmann, Paul Rand, Otl Aicher, Wim Crouwel, Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase and many more. In order to facilitate my personal attempts to at creating relevant design I have tried to better understand the history of our craft. I feel that it is only by making references to the past and mixing them with your personal interpretation of the future that we as designers have any chance of obtaining our own place in the timeline of the history of graphic design.

What is your favorite typeface??
Helvetica. No other font has the flexibility of this particular typeface. Even with it’s familiarity this font can be distinguished or insipid at will.

Duane King

What is your favorite color palette to work with?
All of them. Full color spectrums are particularly exciting to me. Technological improvements in printing and screen displays has allowed for increasingly complex usage of gradients.?

Can you explain your creative process from brief to completion?
I suppose that the real beginning of the creative process starts with the decision to be a designer. From that moment on, everything you see, hear, taste, smell and touch will contribute to your design vocabulary and life experience. Travel, listen to music, talk to all kinds of people, read the newspaper, surf the web; keep your eyes, ears, and mind open. The richer your experiences, the more tricks you’ll have up your sleeve and the broader your design vocabulary will be. Have a viewpoint, believe in something, trust your instincts.

Most jobs begin with a creative brief, even if you’re doing a project for yourself. Sometimes the brief is simply a verbal discussion, but usually it is in written form. Having your client put things into writing adds clarity and focus as it forces careful self-examination and helps to defi ne project deliverables. Without a brief, a designer is susceptible to his or her own whims as well as those of the client. If your client can’t or won’t write one, do it yourself and submit it to them for approval. It’s good practice and forces you to walk through the problem solving process in greater detail. This also establishes you as an expert and illustrates the value and differentiation offered in your creative solutions. Briefs can be sloppy, but it’s your job to offer clarity and insight and turn them into great briefs. Milton Glaser once said, “The key is to ask questions, for the answers will result in responsible decisions. Without responsibility, talent is too easily wasted on waste.???

After defining the deliverables and creative challenges of a project with a brief, it’s time to move on to the research phase. Most of us naturally look at visual references for inspiration, but this does not qualify as research. Research, fused with cultural awareness, drives great ideas. It opens up creative possibilities and informs our rationales for why we made something look the way we did. It’s never appropriate to say, “I did it this way because I like it.??? You must support your ideas with objectivity and sound reason.

Most of us begin our research by assessing the competition. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this but you must be wary of duplication of concepts. Remember, that there is meaning in an original vision but once copied, it loses its soul. Just as a picture never captures what you see in real life, or how a copy of a Xerox that gets copied so many times becomes unintelligible. Never look sideways. Clients tend to want to follow, but it’s your responsibility to meld creativity and research to create distinctive work. Marty Neumeier in his recent book Zag reminds us of the words of baseball legend Willie Keeler’s sound advice. “Hit ‘em where they ain’t.??? Willie knew to use brains instead of brawn and looked for the spaces in the outfi eld. Great designers do the same thing. They search out the white spaces in order to help set their work and their clients apart from the competition. This requires an understanding of what the competition is doing, but only so you know what to do differently.

Do you use a grid system when designing and how do you feel about them?
I tend to gravitate towards methodical approaches to most any design solution, but I typically only use grid systems when I have large amounts of text to deal with. A grid is always helpful in creating hierarchical systems that aid legibility and give a design an underlying structure. They can be cumbersome and restrictive if they are over-thought, but with some freedom and flexibility they are invaluable tools for creating order from chaos.

Who do you feel is currently doing innovative work?
Joshua Davis, Universal Everything, Made Thought, Surface to Air, 2X4, Parra Janssen, Karlsson Wilker, Graphic Thought Facility and too many others to list.

What are you working on now?
An ecommerce site and packaging system for an Italian glass company, a self-initiated product line called Beautiful & Useful, a new version of the Thinking for a Living site, and holiday cards for the Museum of Modern Art.

Duane King

What is your favorite color?
At the moment, it’s Rubine Red. There’s something about intensely pure pigments that I am drawn to.

What is your favorite album?
London Calling by The Clash.

What is your favorite movie?
2001: A Space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick has always been an inspiration to me.

Intervista is a series of interviews conducted for AisleOne with some of todays top talents in graphic design.

       

Intervista: Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina Roth Eisenberg

Tina Roth Eisenberg a native of Switzerland, grew up influenced by the renowned Swiss design and a lot of fresh air. After studying in Geneva and Munich for 5 years, she crossed the Atlantic to find herself designing and running her own design consultancy in Brooklyn, NY. Her aesthetics reveal her Swiss roots – Tina is a firm believer in white space-driven, clean, elegant design solutions. She took a moment to answer a few questions for AisleOne.

How long have you been designing?
Ever since I was able to get my hands on pens and paper. I officially started making a living of it about 10 years ago.

Who or what turned you on to graphic design?
A family member: My wonderfully crazy aunt Hugi was seeing a graphic designer at the time. He was incredibly creative and was drawing 24/7. Seeing him in action, and seeing how his creative mind worked made a huge impression.

Who or what are your influences??
PAST: Every day swiss design that I was surrouned with growing up.
NOW: Countless inspiration sources on the wonderful internet + every day vibrant NYC.

What is your favorite typeface??
Helvetica, of course, followed by FF Din and Trade Gothic.

Tina Roth Eisenberg

What is your favorite color palette to work with?
Lots of white + subtle grays + a dash of bright orange.?

Can you explain your creative process from brief to completion?
Instead of explaining my complex process I’d like to refer to a process diagramm by a company called And Partners NY.

Do you use a grid system when designing and how do you feel about them?
Yes, In my opinion, they are the necessary structure for any design. I second Khoi and Michael in their Grids Are Good presentation: “The grid is the most vivid manifestation of the will to order in graphic design”.

Who do you feel is currently doing innovative work?
Marian Bantjes – her work amazes me. AND I love her story. How she left her successful business to start doing her own design work. She’s a truly inspiring woman.

What are you working on now?
I am currently designing the User Interface for a complex content management tool for Scripps Networks, owner of several TV channels such as the food network, HGTV, diy, etc.

Tina Roth Eisenberg

What is your favorite color?
White. It is the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum.

What is your favorite album?
FEIST, The Reminder.

What is your favorite movie?
Playtime by Jacques Tati. A fabulously choreographed nearly wordless comedy about confusion in the age of technology.

Intervista is a series of interviews conducted for AisleOne with some of todays top talents in graphic design.

       

Intervista: Xavier Encinas

Xavier Encinas 1

peter&wendy is a graphic design studio based in Paris that was founded by Xavier Encinas and Cécilia Michaud. They value close relationships with their clients and approach each project with a unique process. The studio produces a mixture of graphic projects in print, publishing and identity. Xavier Encinas took a moment to answer a few questions for AisleOne.

How long have you been designing?
Well I‘ve been designing from almost 10 years now. I started designing a website for some music I was playing with. We needed something to communicate; I was the one good with computers so I started to make a simple one. I enjoyed it so I decided to do more. I discovered print 3 years ago. It was a revelation for me. To be able to do such great “real??? things. The touch of the paper, the colours, the effects… all of it.

Who or what turned you on to graphic design?
The work of Michael C. Place and The Designers Republic really gave the inspiration to go on designing for print. I was very attracted by the modern and shiny way of TDR’s design and also the power of the simplicity in Build’s work.

Who or what are your influences??
My early print work was really influenced by Build and TDR. Now my design is very grid and type oriented. I admire the swiss graphic design and pioneers like Müller-Brockmann, Max Bill, Max Hubert, Wim Crouwel… today I try to get rid off all this history to find my own way.

What is your favorite typeface??
Helvetica

Xavier Encinas 2

What is your favorite color palette to work with?
Black & white, sometimes grey and pink.??

Can you explain your creative process from brief to completion?
When a new project comes to us, the first step, of course, is to understand the brief but then try to conceptualize the project as a whole. I take the time to try all of the ideas I have and experiment with different ways of executing them, before I put them on paper. Sometimes my first idea is the good one, sometimes it is not… our design is very grid-oriented so the grid helps to organize all of the elements of the design, in a way that is easy to understand.

Do you use a grid system when designing and how do you feel about them?
Grid is my way of design. For me it’s a fundamental basis for all my design from poster to business card and books. In a sense it’s a very safe environment but also very rough path. It’s always challenging to design using a grid because the need to accept to be free. For me form needs to serve the message.

Who do you feel is currently doing innovative work?
I don’t know really. I believe more in sincere design than in innovating design. For the past 50 years nothing really new appears on the graphic design field. It’s only old and fundamental design put in the “todays way???. The design technique are changing so are the designs but this doesn’t means its new. In the field of print design innovation could come from the production specifications : new material, new effect… but Helvetica is still Helvetica…

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on several projects for a UK film maker CS Leigh (http://www.myspace.com/museumfilm): Limited CD packaging, 1 posters, 2 books. Also working on my wedding invitation: A1 poster + A5 invitation.

Xavier Encinas 3

What is your favorite color?
Black and pink.

What is your favorite album?
There are so many album I love… Can’t say anyone in particular. I listen to jazz, hip-hop and some electro. These days my playlist included:
Patricia Baber – Verse
Stacey Kent – Breakfast on the morning tram
Jaocb Young – Evening falls
Common – Fiding Forever
Kanye West – Graduation
Nils Peter Molvaer – Khmer
Arve Henriksen – Strjon

What is your favorite movie?
Lost in translation from Sofia Coppola. This movie is just perfect. I never went to Japan (I will next year) but the feelings the 2 actors shares are so authentic and pure. It’s beautiful. The direction of photography is perfect too. I could watch this movie hundred times… I did it, anyway.

Intervista is a series of interviews conducted for AisleOne with some of todays top talents in graphic design.