blok design
StrawberryFrog
Bryce Duffy
Sterling Hundley
EVB
Environmental Graphic Design
Exhibit
March/April 2008 Eight Dollars www.commarts.com
Sterling by Matthew Porter
Fresh Face. Old School.
HUNDLEY S terling Hundley is earnest. His passion for his work— teaching and illustration—is palpable. At 31, he has achieved a level of prominence in American illustration rare for his age. He’s a big guy, but he moves with grace and ease. A man like this could intimidate, but he’s more the gentle giant. “Thank you ma’am,” he says to an older woman in the highway tollbooth. He opens the car door for his beautiful wife, Shelly, whom he refers to often as “my dream girl” and credits with his happiness and peace of mind. He insists his guests go first. He has manners. Southern manners.
Hundley’s presence is easy and unpretentious, but his confidence is clear. “I can paint my way out of anything because that’s what experience has taught me,” he says. He’s old school. Over the course of three days in conversations with Hundley and his wide network of family, friends and colleagues around Richmond, Virginia, the value of education, the importance of mentoring and the dividends of good old-fashioned hard work come up again and again. One Hundley fan is Tyler Darden, fellow alum from Virginia Commonwealth University (vcu) and one of Hundley’s most loyal clients. Darden is art director at Virginia Living, a sumptuous lifestyle magazine that has won national awards. For five years Hundley has created Virginia Living’s prized “Departure,” a full-page illustration feature on the last page that covers a wide variety of topics. “Illustration is the perfect counterpoint,” says Darden. “It softens photography. It energizes editorial. And Sterling is so skillful, confident and reliable that I am never concerned about what he’s going to produce. I don’t ‘give’ him freedom—he earns it.”
Former teacher, colleague and friend Robert Meganck puts it another way: “I know a lot of talented people flipping burgers because they did not know how to capitalize on the talent they had. In illustration, ‘talent’ is just a small part of it. To make it, you’ve got to work. Sterling Hundley understands this.”
Lead by example vcu sits in the middle of Richmond and despite the lamentable ’70s-beige architecture, it feels more like a small town than a big institution. It teems with faculty, students, workers, vendors and all manner of construction and commerce. Hundley teaches three classes a week in the Department of Communication Arts. He also teaches seven weeks every summer with The Illustration Academy at Ringling College in Sarasota, Florida. Hundley says only 35 percent of his life involves teaching. The remainder he devotes to commercial illustration and painting, at his studio, inside the spacious suburban Richmond home he shares with Shelly. The balance appears to suit them: vcu gives them financial stability and excellent benefits but leaves Hundley plenty of time to pursue his illustration career. Sure, he grouses about “lazy” and “unprepared” students, but you know he enjoys young people. “Once in a while,” he says more to himself than me, “you come upon someone who has what it takes; you want to push them in ways that you know will help them make it as a commercial artist.” Indeed, Meganck, a delightfully fuzzy-headed raconteur, says Hundley’s talents have surpassed his own. “He’s my teacher now,” said Meganck, “I go to him with my work for critique.”
Right: Stevie Wonder. “Stevie’s movement is iconic, and I tried to capture that, without relying solely on his likeness.” Joe Newton, art director; Rolling Stone magazine, client.
68
March/April 2008
SPACE INFORMATION E N V I R O N M E N TA L G R A P H I C D E S I G N
AND
by Rebecca Bedrossian
A
t the intersection of graphic design, architecture and industrial, interior and landscape design lives environmental graphic design. Its boundaries are blurred, its definition elusive. According to Leslie GalleryDilworth, executive director of the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers (segd), this is one of its strengths. “Defining the field would limit it,” she explains.
environments as the space for technology and new media to shine. “Dynamic environments further blur the edge between architecture, graphics, signs, public art and advertising. The skin of buildings may be a dynamic message board—not applied but integral to the fabric of the building or enclosure. It might change throughout the day or season. It is not a static material with static information,” she says.
“Environmental graphic design involves communication, telling stories, defining a message, navigation, information, branding and identity,” says Gallery-Dilworth. “Achieving clear communication requires considerable analysis and research. It is far more than a pretty picture. For those trained in graphic design, it requires additional skills in understanding structures, construction and three dimensions, as well as analytical thinking. For those trained in architecture, additional education in typography, color and print media is needed.” Collaboration is key; thinking outside your discipline is essential.
“Possibilities have opened up with cell phones, maps on demand and edited information on demand, but there is still the basic need to understand and determine which information to include, how to edit the available information, how to find the available information, and in what format,” she continues. “With so much information and technology available, it is even more important to be able to easily find your way.”
To help designers navigate through this complex field, the segd (www.segd.org) made its debut 34 years ago. Its first conference, held in 1980, had 150 attendees, segd co-founder and its third chairman Richard Burns recalls, “At that first meeting, we were launching a new profession.” Today with 1,500 members in 25 countries, the segd has evolved from a gathering of designers in sign programs to what segd president Steven Stamper says is an educational foundation that is the international source for research, content and education for those practicing communication design in the built environment. While museum exhibitions continue to serve up groundbreaking experiences, Gallery-Dilworth cites dynamic
From the glamorous to the mundane, the entire spectrum of environmental graphics holds tremendous responsibility. It is multilayered communication that shapes our sense of place and understanding of information. “Every time you get confused finding your way in a medical center, in a city, on the highway, in the airport, on public transportation or on a campus, look to the client, the building manager or transit officials who do not understand the importance of user-friendly information and the necessity of maintaining a system of information,” reminds Gallery-Dilworth. For this feature, we invited designers to submit environmental graphic design projects; the amount of work that came our way—from across the globe—astounded us. In fact, narrowing the selection to eleven projects was a challenging task. The following examples—from exhibition to retail, and the spaces in between—represent just a small portion of this innovative field, where multiple design disciplines converge.
Right: “Inspired by the mall culture in Hong Kong, MEGartSTORE is an alternative exhibition exploring the different ways of defining, appreciating and presenting art,” said Tommy Li Design Workshop in Hong Kong. “MEGartSTORE is taken from the words ‘mega-store/mega-mall’ with the purpose of displaying more than 300 pieces of museum art collections under one roof suggesting new ways of seeing and appreciating art. Shopping is a popular daily habit for Asians, who shop on average 2.5 times per week. We transformed the museum into an institute of desire, attraction and seduction, just like the mall. The first experience for consumers (visitors) to shop around at MEGartSTORE (museum), but all products (art) are ‘Not For Sale’ (exhibition).” Thomas Siu, art director; Joshua Lau, designer; Tommy Li, creative director.
84
March/April 2008
Communication Arts
85
fresh
1
Jessica Hische
© Jessica Hische
2
Location: Brooklyn, New York, www. jhische.com and www.sturgesreps.com. Duration:
May 2006 to present.
Staff: Me, my computer and about a dozen, half-filled sketchbooks. Education: bfa in graphic design, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia.
Popsicle-stick jokes, terribly wonderful action movies, hearty meals, trashy celebrity news, my friends, Victorian and other vintage type, paper, books on tape.
Cultural Influences:
I work from my loft apartment, which is constantly under construction, at a desk covered with half-filled cups of coVee, candy wrappers and random knick-knacks. I’m surrounded by technology, life ephemera and thoughtfully gifted art that is mostly taped and tacked to the walls.
Environment:
Philosophy: “I ain’t got time to bleed” —Jesse Ventura, Predator.
106
March/April 2008
4
3
5
6
1 “Hand-lettering for an article about water related summer activities in Boston.” Emily Reid Kehe, art director; Boston Globe Magazine, client. 2 “Cover for a quick tips book about integrating a cat into your life. The interior was also designed and illustrated by me.” Jessica Hische, designer; Alethea Morrison, creative director; Storey Books, client. 3 “An editorial illustration for Wired magazine’s ‘Posts’ section about a high-end dog hotel offering spa treatments and individual suites.” Christy Sheppard, art director. 4 “For the cover of Broker Dealer Journal about small companies quickly becoming large and successful. All type is handlettered.” Helen Steiman, art director; Qualified Media, client.
7
5 All Girls Private Schools. “One of several illustrations for an article titled ‘Best Private High Schools’ explaining the varieties of private schools and which work for each kind of student.” Grace Saunders, art director; Cincinnati magazine, client. 6 Parochial High Schools. “One of several illustrations for the ‘Best Private High Schools’ showing one of the first things people associate with private schools (particularly parochial): uniforms.” Grace Saunders, art director; Cincinnati magazine, client. 7 Eight Maids-a-Milking. “One of twelve cards (each representing a different day of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’) sent as a selfpromotion. Printed offset in a limited run of 250.” 8
9
8 “Endpapers for a tutoring service’s promotional brochure. The brochure was designed and illustrated by me at Louise Fili Ltd. All type is hand-lettered.” Louise Fili, art director; Bespoke Education, client. 9 “A full-page illustration for an article of New Jersey facts. All type is hand-lettered. I elaborated on each title (shown in the brain sections) as subheads within the article.” Donna Panagakos, art director; New Jersey Monthly, client.
Communication Arts
107
fresh
Andy Batt
© Therese Gietler, andyBATTstudio
1
Location: www.andybatt.com and Portland, Oregon. Damn it’s good to be here. Portland is the place that creatives dream about living. There’s growth here, in photography, music, film, art, food and architecture. Portland is going to be a pivotal place, a place where creatives help kick-start the next revolution in commercial art.
2
In 2005, I found my vision and direction: sports/motion and humor/ lifestyle.
Duration:
Staff: There are two of us, my producer and wife, Therese Gietler, and me. We have an amazing network of freelancers and vendors that allow us to scale to any production needs we have. Our studio is represented in Chicago by Button Represents (www.buttonrepresents.com).
I spent four years at rit getting a degree in photography and the next five years as an assistant learning how much rit didn’t teach me about lighting, business and people.
Education:
Cultural Influences: It’s an ever-changing mix. Currently it’s filmmakers: Errol Morris, Robert Rodriguez; music: kexp.org, Gogol Bordello, the Ramones, dj Spooky, dj Shadow, dj bc; humor: Monty Python, Steve Martin, The Office; authors: Neil Gaiman, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson; magazines: Wired, Fader, American Cinematographer; photographers: Cindy Sherman, William Eggelston, Gregory Crewdson; graphic novels: Sin City, The Watchmen, Transmetropolitan; spoken word: Henry Rollins; TV: Battlestar Galactica, Rome;
108
March/April 2008
4
3