The Start of MOD
Matthew Cremoux
The Start OF M.O.D.
Matthew Cremoux
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to Michael Osborn & M.O.D. for being very helpfull during this project.
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f this is my job as a graphic designer, owner of the graphic design firm, about this much of it is design, and this much is a whole bunch of other shit.� ~Michael Osborn
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I would like to thank Michael Osborne for being very open and ready to have me over for interviews, photos, and even take care of his bees. I would like to thank Andy Switky for aiding me with taking photos of bees, making sure I was always safe. Thank you to my sister Julie for making my life a lot easier by helping me find Michael, and by helping me work on layout for this book. Thank you too my mom for helping me, and taking me to interviews. Thank you to my friend Abraham for taking photographs during my interview. Thank you too all Freestyle Teachers for helping me create this beautiful book. Thank you to Mr. Greco for helping me during the long and hard process. Thanks again to all the people in this list you were all important factors in the creation of my book The Start Of Michael Osborne Design.
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Preface
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Intro
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Chater 1
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Chater 2
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Chater 3
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Conclusion
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Preface
I wrote this book because I found Mi-
chael Osborne to be a very interesting man. He was very open and easy to interview and just talk to person to person. He had many stories to tell and the things that he does on a day to day basis is more interesting than any other person of his age. I’ve learned so much about graphic design in the few hours I have spent with Michael. I have learned how calm and peace he is from the time I went to see his bees. This book taught me alot about how to become a designer and the process of becoming a designer. He has showed me the power of being your own boss.
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Introduction In 2004, Michael went through something that no parent should ever go through. His son Joseph Michael Osborne passed away at the young age of 24. After a few years after, Michael decided to channel the pain he was feeling into something truly amazing. This thing was a non-profit organization that was designed to help young kids in need of care. The company is called Joey’s Corner. 2018 will be the company’s 12 year and Michael has been designing for it t . Michael Osborn is a graphic designer, a business owner, and a beekeeper. He has been a graphic design influencer for the past 25 years, as a boss or as a teacher. He has greatly impacted the lives of many young and up coming designers. As Michael impacts the lives of people, he also learns and uses their talents to push his company forward. Since he started his company, he has become one of the best designers in the Silicon Valley, working to create packaging for some of the biggest companies around. Michael has worked with companies such as Costco, USPS, Bevmo, and EA Sports. He is most well known for many of his beautiful designs made for a large variety of wine sellers. He is also a professor at Academy of Arts in San Francisco and has been since 1991 until his stepping down in the fall semester of 2017. Throughout the years, he has spoken at many different conventions to young designers. Not only is he creating the next line of incredible designs, but he is creating the next line of legendary designers. His entire company is created by his former students that he sees a special talent in during his class, and later invites them to work for him in his graphic design firm. This is a great owner, as Michael has said it isn’t easy for him to work well alongside of other people. Michael Osborne is a man of many talents and, has been one of the greatest and most influential graphic designers of his generation, pushing graphic design to a whole new level.
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Chapter 1
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he start of Michael Osborne’s amazing career started at the Art Center College of Design where he completed his bachelor’s degree, and also coincidentally was the same school as his present wife. Not only that, but it is also where he meet his mentor that helped him get to where he is today. He told me that the greatest thing a designer can have is experiment, “When you don’t have it, then you need to find people that have it and stay near them.” After leaving school he immediately created his own business. MOD, or Michael Osborne Design is a local graphic design firm that consists of three employees. At the launch of MOD in the early 1980s, the company was very large, having a total of about 50 employees but has since slowed down. Today there are only three employees, himself, his wife, and trusty junior designer Julie Cremoux. In the begin of the company he would take on many projects alone and wouldn’t be able to do them to the best of his ability. He said never to do that, ”I learned you can’t do everything well, because I would go get the jobs, I would do the work, I would send the bill, I would pay the bills, I had to go get another job somewhere, do the work, and etc.’He soon realized that he needed other people that could compliment his attributes well. He created a team of designers and soon found out that it was difficult to communicate what he wanted to do for the customer. Luckily, after growing in popularity during the 1980s, he became one of the best pack-
age design teachers in California. He taught at AAU, better known as Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. Once he became a professor, he was able to work with and teach many young and up and coming designers. He said “being able to teach people the right way in school really helps me when I’m working with them because it’s almost like they can read my mind when I need something.” All of his designers have stayed with him throughout their careers, unless they have started their own graphic design firms. Around the 1990s, Michael became very well known for being the best wine label designer of all time. He has created labels for many companies such as Fess Parker, Bevmo, Canoe Ridge, Clos Du Bois, and Freedom Esta. He also started working for large companies like Costco, Target, USPS, Walmart, Williams Sonoma and Safeway. He is very well known for his work in food labels. Now that he is slowing down his company’s works workload, he is able to pick up many hobbies that he has been unable to do with the responsibilities of being a business owner. Some of his favorite hobbies are skydiving, traveling with his wife, being a beekeeper, sculpting wood, and making wooden spoons or bowls. All aspect of Michael life involve creative from his job to his everyday activities, Michael uses some form of design to help him and others around him live better and improved lives.
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Chapter 2 Over the years Michael Osborne has created hundreds of wine labels, food packaging, and even stamps for USPS. Some of his most recent work is creating wine labels for Freedom Esta one of MOD’s frequent customers. They are currently redesigning their red wine bottles into white wine labels. This is a very interesting process because Freedom Esta want to keep the same style as the red wine but, Michaels team still needs to change the theme. Another project that he is doing is the creation of a promotional pamphlet that represents all of Mouquin’s printing styles. This process takes a long time due to the fact that Michael’s team of designer have to create many different pamphlets to give the customer many choice to choose from. Julie Cremoux Michael’s junior designers Julie Cremoux was in charge of taking on this project and learn alot about working with customers. The last project going on in MOD offices is with Heart to Heart Global Cardiac Care. Michael has the task to completely redesigning the doctors business card, the company’s logo, their website, and mailing cards and letters.
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Chapter 3
Michael is a great mentor for anyone because of his talent in overcoming anything
and using people around him to better their lives and his. For his company, good employees are the key to good business, that is why he works to molding students from AAU into great designers that will perfectly co-design with him. Not only does this help him but it also creates a creative environment for the student to grow and improve their design skills. Not only is he helping himself by creating great products but he is also helping the new designers get the experience they need to make it big in the world of design. Michael sees his students just as he sees his bees. He creates a safe nest for the student or larva to stay and prepare to become the queen bee’s pupa or helper. The queen bee teaches everything they know about making the best honey or best design. Then Michael shows them the ropes by giving projects in school that directly relate to the real world. For instance one project was to create a brand and labels for a cooking company. If the queen bee see that they are ready to become designers then he invites them to the team, from there he knows perfectly how they act how they work and that helps Michael with creating the best possible honey he can make. Michaels uses his position as a teacher in a positive way by improving his own work and helping student to start their design careers.
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Conclusion Over the years Michael has innovated and evolved the design community. After doing over 1000 projects he has completely change the ways of design for the better creating the next line of legendary designers. Michael has used his incredible skills with design and people to create a company that is pushing other companies to adjust to the ways of MOD. Since the launch of MOD there has never been a project that Michael’s team wasn’t able to do. From his work to the work of his carefully picked staff they create nothing but perfection project after project.
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“Michael Osborne Design.” Michael Osborne Design, www.modsf.com/. Case study by Michael Osborne October 07. “Case Study: Joey’s Corner.” AIGA | the Professional Association for Design, www.aiga.org/case-study-joeys-corner. “Poster Designs by Michael Osborne.” HOW Design, 13 Sept. 2015, www.howdesign.com/designcreativity/poster-designs-michael-osborne-design/. www.linkedin.com/company/michael-osborne-design. “San Francisco Art School.” Animation School - Visual Effects Degrees | Academy of Art University, www.academyart.edu/.
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“I learned you can’t do everything well, because I would go get the jobs, I would do the work, I would send the bill, I would pay the bills, I had to go get another job somewhere, do the work, and etc.” ~Michael Osborn
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Matthew Cremoux is a 16 year old attending Los Altos High School and Freestyle Academy. He grew up in Los Altos with his mom, two sisters and a brother. In his free time, he enjoys to play video games and play competitive volleyball. He would like to further his knowledge in design and to go to college for computer science at Cal Poly.
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The Start of MOD
Matthew Cremoux