BARON & BARON, Inc.
Since 1990 Baron & Baron have produced design solutions for various clients:
Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, and French Vogue to name only a few. The firm’s founder Fabien Baron works closely with his design team to create collateral for clients that are of the heavy weight, high profile variety, many of whom have had a longstanding relationship with Baron & Baron. Through out their career their layouts have been fresh, daring, and innovative in blending typography and photographic layouts and in doing so have influenced and changed branding and packaging in the worlds of both fashion and design. Clockwise from top: Calvin Klein logo, YSL perfume, French Vogue spread
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Simplicity, boldness. Directness. Like a stop sign. Very Grabby. –Fabien Baron
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Fabien Baron born in the Parisian suburb of Antony in 1959. Baron attended college at the Ecole des Arts Appliqués à l’Industrie in Paris, which has since become the Olivier De Serres School of Art and Design. In 1982 Baron had come to New York City and found himself, in a very short amount of time, at a high up position in the ranks of GQ Magazine. Soon after that he became the art director at Italian Vogue and worked there until 1990 when he returned to New York City and began the design firm Baron & Baron. Baron & Baron’s Fabien Baron describes their work as I think that this is an excellent description of what Baron & Baron do. Their layouts in editorial work, for example characterized by elegant type surrounded by ample white space which is then balanced by photography. The firm is known for their use of Modern typefaces like Didot as well as specially crafted type that have excessive thick and thin strokes done in a way that pairs excellently in the fashion magazines that they’re featured in. I believe these typefaces are inspired by the ultra skinny models that are found in fashion magazines, which is interesting to realize because I find skinny models to look unhealthy and now that I have drawn the correlation between models and thin type it makes me think about skinny type as being potentially unhealthy. I don't know if that’s a stretch, but I’m sure it had occurred to the designers at Baron & Baron.
Baron & Baron has done design work for a laundry list of clients in editorial: French and Italian Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Interview; in fashion: Calvin Klein, Balenciaga, Burberry, Miu Miu, Hugo Boss; in beauty products: Armani, Prada, Lancome, YSL, Helmut Lang; in branding: Diane Von Furstenberg, BCBG, Club Monico, NARS, Pringle of Scotland; and even television commercials for various perfume and cologne. However impressive their resume, I think that the Ideas and design philosophy of Baron & Baron’s Fabien Baron are as interesting as the design work they have created. Fabien Baron is the firm’s spokes man, any interview involving the firm is handled by him. Baron’s interviews are usually more oriented toward who the firm has been working with or what gossip happens to be happening due to the firms racy campaigns. Though the gossip is juicy and usually untrue, according to Baron, when the firms ideology and philosophy of design get brought up some interesting ideas get thrown into this mix of celluloid cellophane fashion. Though Baron has been quoted as saying, “Putting too much interpretation into design is not good… For me, the reasons behind it are more primitive than philosophical or sociological.” which pretty much pins down the firms design approach. They make sexy advertising that is very simplistic in its delivery and intent. It's strange to see this side of design where sex and primitive thoughts sell and design changes with the new clothing styles of each new season. It's hard to know if it's right to design with the intent to play on peoples weakness of wanting
What’s wrong with “having a product that looks great and that people want?
–Fabien Baron
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Clockwise from top: Hugo Boss perfume, NARS make-up, Helmut Lang Cologne
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There’s definitely a lack of quality going on, a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of intelect.
to be wanted, wanting to be sexy or thinking if they have that new perfume that it will help them to get a newer sexier partner. Design is always a psychological tool that can turn you on or off to a product, but when does it go too far? I think that as designers we must know when we should play with a viewers emotions and when we shouldn’t. All though I’m not sure if it really matters because there are people who don’t have a conscience when it comes to those ethical decisions. One of the things that haunts Baron & Baron is that being successful in design, their design becomes commercial and critics degrade it by saying it's too commercial. Fabien Baron retorts, “Saying something is too commercial is bullshit because there are a lot of things that are too commercial and ugly, but when something is commercial and very good, it’s the best.” I think it’s a very interesting sentiment that Baron expresses in this quote because he almost has to justify his design firm for being successful. It doesn’t seem right that success is rewarded with critics bashing it, but when something becomes as recognizable as the CK One logo you’re bound to have some backlash. I think it is true that when something is commercial and well designed it makes it enjoyable to see again and again. Mac’s are a perfect example, their design is extremely commercial, but also extremely enjoyable to see again and again.
–Fabien Baron
Fabien Baron got his start making mechanicals and paste-ups for magazines and I think that his old school graphic design sensibilities and attention to detail show through into the work that Baron & Baron produce. It’s even mirrored in his commentary on design in the twenty first century, “There’s a definitely a lack of quality going on, a lack of craftsmanship, a lack of intellect.” I must say that, looking at this quote, brings up a lot of things that I’ve been struggling to bring into my own design by going back to basics, actually drawing up designs, taking the time to get my layouts right and studying the philosophies of designers that I find inspiration in. I think it’s much too easy to make a design on a computer and what gets created in five minutes used to take hours using drafting tools. I think that there is a mental disconnect from using computer programs to draw a shape throw some text on top and presto there's a print. It’s a lot quicker, but the design solutions are not as good as they used to be and the craftsmanship is almost entirely lost.
Brochure for the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan.
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Saying something is too commercial is bullshit because there are a lot of things that are too commercial and ugly, but when something is commercial and very good, it’s the best. –Fabien Baron
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Branding logos and logo types.
Baron & Baron not only design for print, packaging, and perfume bottles, they have even ventured into the realm of industrial design. They have produced chairs, desks and even dressers for clients like Dune, Cappellini and Bernhardt. Fabien Baron says, “Design is a philosophy, an idea applied to 3-D, what you’re trying to communicate is more important than the medium, the means do not mater, it is the idea that matters…” I think that this is one of the most insightful quotes that I have read by Baron. This speaks to all levels of designers, students and professionals. Other than aesthetics it’s the most important concept that we must leave design school with. Our ideas are what take us to the jobs we want, we can’t rely on the fact that a design simply looks cool, we have to be foremost concerned with the idea and intent behind every one of our designs.
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Design is a philosophy, an idea applied to 3-D, what you’re trying to communicate is more important than the medium, the means do not mater, it is the idea that matters…
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–Fabien Baron
Baron & Baron have only gone higher and further in the design field and things are still looking up. There has been some talk of Baron starting his own magazine after leaving his position at Interview magazine earlier this year. I think it’s funny that in an article about Baron from 1994 they say that he ought to bank his money because he was going to be over shadowed by David Carson, after Carson’vs success at Raygun. Now, more than 15 years later, Fabien Baron and Baron & Baron are still creating breathtaking work and David Carson is not even on the radar. Baron & Baron are beyond fads and are in it for the long haul. Written and designed by William Hart for Pete McCracken’s Design Studio 2 Fall 2010
Editorial photography for iD magazine’s horror issue
the Elvis Presley “He’s of graphic design. ”
–Glen Lutchford
Clockwise from top: Cappellini chair, Bernhardt chair, Interview magazine spread
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I’m flattered to be in the mainstream. I had so many doubts for so many years, so I was not that wrong. The look doesn’t belong to me any more,
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–Fabien Baron
Clockwise from the top: Interview Magazine spread, Interview magainze cover, Burberry advertisement spread
Bibliography 1. Hint Magazine, “Fabien Baron: One-Man Brand”, “http://www.hintmag.com/hinterview/fabienbaron/fabienbaron1.php” 2. Wikipedia, “Fabien Baron”, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabien_Baron” 3. Creative Review 21, no4 april 2001 4. The New York Times, “Fabien Baron: The Art Director as Star”, “http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/fashion/28FABIEN.html” 5. Newsweek, “Fabien Baron's Grand Design”, “http://www.newsweek.com/1992/11/29/fabien-baron-s-grand-designs.html” 6. The New York Times, “Noticed; The Message of the Bottle”, “http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/style/noticed-the-message-of-the-bottle.html”
BARON & BARON, Inc.