Jessica Walsh

JESSICA WALSH

JESSICA WALSH By: Iris Hills

3/ Jessica Walsh

Iris Hills is a sophomore at American University double majoring in graphic design and public representation. She couldn’t have done this without out the help of Professor Anna Leithauser and her peers in Introduction to Typography.

Contact the author at irisrobbinshills@gmail.com

CONTENTS 6–7 biography

28–29 social media

Childhood Schooling Jobs

Professional Image Personal Life Art Blogging & Feminism

8–9 inspiration

30–31 award & honors

Fantasy Worlds The world Around Her

Awards from the Community Published Features & Accolades

9–27 work projects

32–33 future projects

Branding and Advertising Film and Commercial Digital and Print Packaging and Products

Civil Right and Activism Creative Arts Agency School of Visual Arts in New York

5/ Jessica Walsh

childhood Walsh was a very curious kid and loved exploring new things and using the world around her to create art. Her childlike wonder has remained throughout her 32 years of life and continues to inspire her whimsical works. Both of Walsh’s parents were entrepreneurs, so she grew up in a business oriented household. Despite this, her mom saw her passion for art and encouraged her artistic talents, frequently buying a variety of art supplies for her to experiment with. This support allowed Walsh to flourish and become the skilled artist she is today. She always had a fascination with design and visual arts, but her upbringing helped her marry this passion with related business ventures. At only age five Walsh established her own business. She found rocks on the side of the street and used her natural design skills to package each stone with a description of its unique power. Like a true marketer and designer, she turned trash into treasure making a seemly worthless stone a must have item, and by the end of the year, every classmate could be seen with an original Walsh stone. She developed her raw talent into technical skill, beginning to code her own websites at the young age of 11. She developed a website that taught kids how to use HTML and CSS which brought in substantial revenue and resulted in her securing a major contract with a prominent design company.

schooling

jobs

Before even graduating high school Walsh was offered a $200,000 gig but ultimately turned it down to go to college. She knew she wanted to study graphic design, but had to decide which specific path she wanted to pursue. She was left with the difficult decision of choosing between technical coding or visual design. Walsh looked at various schools such as, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and RISD. She ended up going to The Rhode Island School of Design, a challenging design and art school with high rankings and low acceptance rates. RISD had a focus on fine arts and physical art making. This was a big change for Walsh. Her artistic training focused mostly on digital design and website creation. Although this wasn’t the obvious choice for her, something inside knew that this was the school for her. While this was definitely an adjustment, it ended up being the right decision. Walsh’s hands on approach makes her work stand out from the crowd and gives her a unique perspective in the design world.

After Walsh graduated from school she was flooded with numerous job offers, the most impressive being a coveted job at Apple. While she marveled at the chance to have a high paying job right out of college, her gut told her it wasn’t the right place for her. Instead of moving to California to work for Apple she returned to her roots in New York. She got the opportunity to intern with the well renowned, Paula Scher a designer Pentagram. Not only was this a highly competitive position, but it offered Walsh an unparalleled learning experience. Although there was definitely a lower paycheck, the experience and knowledge she received from Scher more than made up for it. Although she loved New York, her first months there proved lonely. Most of her friends were abroad leaving her with no one to really talk to or share her interests. This enabled her to immerse herself into her work. She often would pull all nighters working on assignments, earning a reputation for being diligent, hard working and an exceptional artist. After just a month of working for Pentagram, Walsh began developing a loyal client base and had an abundance of freelance commissions. After years of dedicated work, Scher was able to help Walsh score a job at Print Magazine. She enjoyed her time there, but after a year and a half, she decided it was time for a change. This lead her to her current job at Sagmeister & Walsh, where she is now a partner.

7/ Jessica Walsh

Biography

Walsh’s success in the job market stems from her unique artistic style inspired by surrealism and magical worlds.

One of her earliest inspirations was Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland. She loves that while it seems simple at first glance, it has a myriad of underlying meanings about life philosophies. Walsh enjoyed fantasy worlds so much that she even began believing that our world had things“ we couldn’t see or understand”. She thought that she possessed special powers which allowed her to communicate with otherworldly beings. While this belief dwindled with age, she still loves Alice in Wonderland and its combination of fantasy and realism. She loves the avant garde perspectives which allows viewers to release the creative potential of their unconscious mind. In addition to Alice in Wonderland, Walsh enjoys a plethora of fantasy classics such as the Wizard of Oz and Labyrinth.

They all of have a childlike wonder, but at the same time a hidden sophistication. Walsh also appreciates the unique graphic elements of fantasy films, as they don’t adhere to typical color schemes and compositions. Walsh carries this fairytale whimsical quality throughout all of her works and she is even referred to as a surrealist by some of her peers.

She not only takes inspiration from fantasy, but is also inspired by the world around her. Rather than remaining pigeonholed by only looking at other graphic artists, she chooses to get inspiration from other fields. She has said that her “Ideas and inspiration come from everything she has ever seen or done or dreamed in her years on Earth”.

She is inspired by various creative works such as painting, sculpture, fashion, furniture design, and photography and frequently visits museums and fine art shows to see what other artists outside the graphic design community are doing. Her inspiration also extends beyond just art; She draws new ideas from psychology and science to inspire innovative ways of thinking about materials and technique. Walsh believes that great art comes from making “unexpected connections, and oftentimes mixing existing ideas in new ways.” This technique has proven very useful throughout all of Walsh’s career and has especially helped her when she started working at Sagmeister & Walsh.

9/ Jessica Walsh

Inspirations

Work Projects Walsh loves her current job, constantly saying that she feels honored to work with such a close knit innovative team. She never feels stifled because of Sagmeister & Walsh’s perspectives on a variety of projects, ranging from exhibitions to branding to book design to design for products. Despite the studio’s success, the design company still maintains a small client base and are very selective about which clients they chose to work with. Walsh has worked on an expansive collection of projects in many areas such as Branding, advertising, Film, commercial, Digital, Print, Packaging, and products. She is extremely invested in the vision of all the companies she works with and ensures that their image reflects the spirit of their product.

11/ Jessica Walsh

aizone

With her team’s help, Walsh worked on a pop art inspired campaign for Aizone, a Middle Eastern department store.

Aizone was one of Walsh’s first campaigns at

looked back. Her work at Print Magazine helped

Sagmeister & Walsh. She had enjoyed her time

prepare her significantly for her first campaign at

working at Print Magazine, but missed the energy

her new job. Due to budget cuts at Print Magazine,

and charisma within a studio environment, so

she was forced to wear many hats, working as

she sought other work opportunities. She emailed

a graphic designer , web designer, illustrator,

Stefan Sagmeister, New York based graphic

photographer and model. Although this experi-

designer, storyteller, and typographer, and asked

ence was trying at times, it helped with her new

him if he would look at her portfolio and talk

leadership role in the Aizone campaign. Walsh

with her about job opportunities at his studio.

was in charge of the project as a whole and was

He loved her work and offered her a job right on

specifically titled as the Creative art direction

the spot. She accepted immediately, quit her job

designer. She had help with the extraordinary set

at Print Magazine the next day, and has never

production from Adi Goodrich,Melanie Chernock, and Stephanie Gonot, who moved the fashion forwards using photos that brought the campaign to a new level. The team took inspiration from Roy Lichtenstein, an American pop artist, and pared loud graphic patterns to contrast and compliment the Aizone clothing.Ultimately, Sagmeister & Walsh created a campaign that emulated Aizone’s irreverent eye catching brand.

13/ Jessica Walsh

milly Walsh engaged a new client, Milly, a New York based fashion company. She transformed their image from old school retro to feminist inspired high fashion.

Milly specializes in women’s clothing and was founded by fashion designer Michelle Smith.

This brand is known all around the world and sells clothing, online, in department stores, and boutiques. Smith realized that Milly needed to revamp their entire marketing plan and adapt for the upcoming styles. Jessica Walsh was the creative director of this project and helped Milly rebrand their entire company to match their edgy new image. The fashion company used to have an old school elegant retro vibe, inspired by a French atelier style. Walsh knew that in order for the company to stay fresh they would have to recenter their imagery and transition to a bolder, more eye catching concept. The team kept the

original intricate geometric m shaped logo but changed almost all other aspects of their image.

Walsh explains that the rebrand was in response to “the tumultuous political climate” and aimed to “display the empowerment of rebuilding oneself from fractures and finding the beauty and mending within those fractures” They created over 400 images for this campaign to give consumers an endless waterfall of new and exciting images and animations. While Walsh was the creative director of the whole project a village of people were involved in revamping Milly’s brand.

Angela Iannelli, Matteo Giuseppe Pani, Yu Chen, Gabriela Namie, Fumi Omori, Vittori Perotti, Valentin Breyne, and Daniel Forero all assisted

15/ Jessica Walsh

Walsh in the overall design of the campaign. Arielle Casale provided the eye catching set design and props for the innovative photographs taken

by Charley Parden and Henry Hargreaves. Anastasia Durasova fashioned the brightly colored makeup and Frank Nitty, Yaya Xu, Heejae Kim, Pierre Bourjo, Clive Biley created the playful animations. With Walsh as their fearless leader, Sagmeister & Walsh transformed Milly into the colorful gritty feminist inspired brand it is today.

by the sea campaign

Walsh was commissioned by Aïshti to create a new design campaign that celebrated the intersection of fashion and art while also emphasizing the sea.

Tony Salamé, the owner of the Aïshti retail empire, asked Sagmeister & Walsh to head the campaign for their new foundation at an exhibition space by the Mediterranean coast. Aïshti is a successful Lebanese luxury department chain store. Aïshti dominates Lebanon’s luxury retail market and has worked with Sagmeister & Walsh throughout their success. Salamé specifically wanted Walsh’s expertise in regards to the Aishti Foundation, in which Salamé featured his innovative fashion designs. He wanted the campaign to embody the location of the

exhibition space, which is a short drive up the Mediterranean coast. In the end, Walsh and the rest of the Sagmeister & Walsh team created a playful and visually striking campaign. Walsh used her signature style, making the design spreads with popping complementary colors and surrealist techniques to wow consumers and make them stop to take a second look. Erik Johansson produced the photography, Matteo Giuseppe Pani helped design the visuals and Dagher styled the clothing to make each piece pop.

17/ Jessica Walsh

no filter “Sorry I have No Filter,” is an online store that sells merchandise to raise money for Walsh’s feminist initiative, Ladies, Wine & Design.

This store began asan Instagram account, meant to unite female artists and help them share their work and connect with peers. She realized that the world of design was dominated by men and wanted to create a space where female graphic artists were highlighted. As time went on the Ladies, Wine & Design Instagram account gained traction and soon had a substantial following.

Their followers began to request merchandise and Walsh couldn’t refuse. The online store, No Filter, now makes shirts, jackets, pins, cushions, socks, hats, mugs, stickers, phone cases and more, all aimed towards uniting women and furthering the intersectional feminist initiative. No Filter uses

funds from it’s sales to host numerous workshops all around the world, in over two hundred countries . The No Filter campaign was definitely a team effort, with most people taking on many responsibilities and jobs. Erica Gubman and Hee Jae Kim were in charge of the production.

Arielle Casale did the set and prop design which helped bring Emily Simms and Sarah Hopps photographs alive. They also all helped with the wardrobe, type design, makeup, hair, and retouching.

19/ Jessica Walsh

pins won’t save the world Walsh created Pins Won’t Save the World as a protest against the Trump administration. All of the profits go to liberal organizations that support minority groups.

Walsh makes it abundantly clear that she is not a Trump supporter and she wanted to channel her anger. This inspired her to create a website to support groups that Trump openly attacks on a daily basis. She wanted to give support to women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and refugees, letting them know that the president doesn’t represent everyone’s beliefs. This project raised over a hundred thousand dollars with 100%of profits going to charities such as Planned Parenthood, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, International Refugee Assistance Project, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the Trevor Project. Walsh has always shown her passion for politics throughout her work and she utilized this company as an example to encourage others to do the same.

She wanted to focus this project on enamel pins because they appeal to millennials, the most liberal generation. She hopes that her website, Pins Won’t Save the World, inspires younger generations to vote and remain politically active.

Walsh played an integral role in every aspect of the “Pins Won’t Save the World” campaign, helping design both the website, merchandise, and production. Although she did a significant portion of the work, she couldn’t have done it without her team, Stefan Sagmeister, Felipe Rocha, Daniel Brokstad, Ange Iannarelli, Yu Chen, Kim Corti, Harry Butt, Emily Frank, James Lunn, Timothy Goodman, Molly Brunk, Olivia Hamilton, Aron Filkey, and many others.

21/ Jessica Walsh

baboon Baboon is a new fun and fresh company that sells high performance luggage that is marketed towards people who want to travel in style. They hired Walsh and her team, knowing she would be able to achieve a fun irreverent image with lots of weird surprises.

Sagmeister & Walsh wowed consumers with their offbeat image collection and design. Walsh was the head of the creative direction and even created the name for this spunky company, Baboon. The beauty of this campaign lies in its utter randomness. So much of our society is based on logic. Baboon is a departure from this mindset and inspires consumers to think outside the box. This company and campaign was specifically geared towards the slash generation, adults from 21 to 35, who are new to the workplace. Walsh’s outlandish design concept separates Baboon from the pack and draws consumers

who aren’t afraid to make a statement. This design concept doesn’t follow any conventional rules with its clashing patterns and off brand theme, but it all seems to somehow work. Although Walsh was the leader, she was by no mean doing this alone. Erica Grubman was in charge of production, Daniel Brokstad was Walsh’s second in command, in terms of overall design, with assistance from Ryan Haskins, Matteo Giuseppe Pani, and Chen Yu. Yaya Xu, Jessie Zeus, Blaise Cepis, Henry Hargreaves, Chris Swainston, Vivianne Lapointe, and Nadja Monique.

23/ Jessica Walsh

Social Media professional instagram

@jessicawalsh

As a young graphic designer, Walsh realizes the importance of social media and uses Instagram to advertise her work, post inspiring art, and showcase some of her favorite projects.

She also uses Instagram to promote social issues and further advance her personal brand. She has received attention for her outspoken viral hashtags such as #JessicaWalshHasNoFilter.

This popular social campaign grew and encouraged everyone in the Instagram community to changing their hashtags to #SorryNoFilter. Walsh uses social media as a forum to expand her image andalso inspire people to break social norms and embrace their physical flaws.

personal instagram

@theotherjessicawalsh Walsh decided to create another Instagram account so she could share a more personal side of herself. She uses this account to post pictures of numerous travel adventures, her adorable dog, fashion forward outfits, and her husband, cinematographer Zak Mulligan.

art blogging instagram

After creating two popular Instagram accounts Walsh realized that social media was a powerful tool that could be used to give exposure to other artists. The field of Graphic design can often feel like a boys club, so Walsh wanted to let female designers know that they are not alone, by creating an account that praised female artists, giving their work exposure, and creating a virtual community of like minded individuals. She received such a positive response that she expanded this idea into an organization giving support and resources to female artists and a website that sells feminist merchandise, No Filter.

25/ Jessica Walsh

@ladieswinedesign

Awards & Honors live independent lives on their own terms. In 2012 she continued to receive praise for her work receiving the Type Directors Club Award. This was one of the first awards that praised Walsh not only for her design and coding skills, but also her typographic skills. With her impressive resume and collection of awards and honors by 2013, she was asked to feature in more articles. People within and outside the art community were beginning to realize that Walsh was a force to be reckoned with and thought her story and life was worth sharing. One noteworthy feature was the 25 People Shaping the Future of Design in the magazine Complex. This feature praised Jessica for her forward thinking designs and out of the box approach to life. Following this interview, she was featured in a GD USA article, People to Watch. This was a segment that featured young individuals that were clearly destined for greatness. Jessica lived up to the prophecy, winning yet another award the following year for best homepage at her current workplace Sagmeister & Walsh.

27/ Jessica Walsh

Jessica has gained a lot of recognition within the design community due to her perseverance and exceptional innovation. She attributes her success to hard work, passion for her craft, her mentors, and support system. Throughout Walsh’s life, she has looked up to many graphic artists such as Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Chip Kidd and more, aspiring to gain their talent and success.

She achieved her goal, receiving highly coveted awards and honors at only 20 years old. In 2010 she received the New Star of Design and Computer Arts Award, which honored up and coming artists who showed potential in their artistic fields.

That same year she was awarded the Society of Publication Designers Award, an organization that dedicates funds and resources to promoting and encouraging excellence in editorial design.

The following year she received the annual Young Gun Award hosted by the Art Directors Club, an organization that has been inspiring young artists since 1920. She also won the New Visual Artist Award, from Print Magazine, her place of work at the time. If that wasn’t enough, she also was featured in an article at L Magazine called “25 Under 25”. This feature celebrates young people who choose to follow their passions and

“ I’m always

hungry for new work & challenges. ”

Future Projects ing that she thinks that this perfectionist quality is common among creative types and drives artists to continuously produce innovative work. She uses this model to inspire her new projects. Now that the Sagmeister & Walsh studio is established, she can begin to spend more time perfecting her personal projects while also combining her passion for civil rights issues and visual arts. Walsh currently teaches design and typography at the School of Visual Arts in New York. As a professor of the arts, she advises budding artists to embark on projects that they feel passionate about. She believes that one’s work environment should be a combination of fun, passion, and hard work.

Throughout Walsh’s life, she has followed her heart and chosen to participate in projects which she was truly passionate about. Walsh’s motto is to, “Work your ass off; be persistent; stay curious; challenge yourself; and most importantly, have a lot of fun. If you have fun and enjoy your work, other people will pick up on that and they’ll enjoy it, too”. Jessica Walsh is an inspiration for all designers looking to make a difference with their art while also supporting themselves financially and having fun while doing it all. She hopes that her legacy will continue to teach, inspire people to keep growing, and think about how their works can change the world.

29/ Jessica Walsh

Walsh ’s heart and soul have always belonged to New York City and that is where she plans to stay.

Walsh thrives in the creative energy and diversity that New York offers and is constantly inspired by upcoming artists in the community. Even though she grew up in Ridgefield Connecticut, about two hours away from the city, she was still practically a new york local, going to shows and restaurants with her family regularly. She now lives in Chelsea and plans to continue working in New York at her studio, Sagmeister & Walsh. Walsh wholeheartedly believes that design can be used to effect and change the world and that is the direction she plans to move towards. She recently focused her design skills toward charities. Walsh is interested in using art and design to communicate important messages she believes in and creating platforms for people to be heard and communicate their own messages and ideas. She wants to push this idea even further and create things that reach out to wider audiences and touch not only the artistic community but other communities who aren’t exposed to the visual arts. Walsh believes that art has an essential purpose in our world and thus should be accessible to alle. Even though she loves working at Sagmeister & Walsh, and is thankful to have a workplace where she can express herself freely, she still yearns for new challenges. In interviews, she has often said “I’m always hungry for new work and challenges. My work can always be better.” She continues by say-

Colophon This publication is set in two fonts, Baskervill, a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville and Futura, a geometric sans serif typeface designed

by Paul Renner and released in 1927. This book was printed at American University in the Katzen Arts Center and printed on white printer paper with saddle stitched binding. The publication design, illustrations and text are by Iris Hills with Jessica Walsh’s inperation.

Image Collection All illustrations by Iris Hills and Inspired by Jessica Walsh’s creative direction for Milly, Aizone, The Sea, No Filter, Pins won’t save the world, and Baboon, campaigns.

Photography Hargreaves, Henry. Milly Campaign. 2016. Segamester&Walsh.com. Web. November 4.

Gonot, Stephanie. Aizone Campaign. 2015. Segamester&Walsh.com. Web. November 4 Johansson, Erik. Aïshti Campaign. 2017. Segamester&Walsh.com. Web. November 4 Simms, Emily. Sorry I have No Filter Campaign. 2016.Segamester&Walsh.com.Web. November 4 Filkey, Aron. Pins Won’t Save the World Campaign.2016.Segamester&Walsh.com.Web.November 4 Cepis, Blaise. Baboon Campaign. 2018. Segamester&Walsh.com. Web. November 4

Bibliography Brewer, Jenny. “Sagmeister & Walsh Launches Sorry I Have No Filter, Selling Merch to Champion Creative Women.” It’s Nice That, 2 May 2018, www.itsnicethat.com/news/sagmeister-andwalsh-sorry-i-have-no-filter-merch-ladies-wine-and-design-020518.

Essmaker, Tina. “Jessica Walsh on The Great Discontent (TGD).” The Great Discontent, 18 Sept. 2012, thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/jessica-walsh.

Neilson, Laura. “The Inspiration Issue | Jessica Walsh.” Design Bureau, 29 Aug. 2013, www. wearedesignbureau.com/projects/the-inspiration-issue-jessica-walsh/.

“Sagmeister & Walsh.” Sagmeister & Walsh, sagmeisterwalsh.com/.

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Walsh, Jessica. “Work Inspiration with Jessica Walsh.” Luke Choice: Multidisciplinary Designer from Sydney, Australia | Velvet Spectrum, Workspiration, 6 Sept. 2014, workspiration.org/jessica-walsh.