What difficulties did you face at the beginning of your career?
My work was bad. The economy was bad. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My degree was useless. My expectations were too high. I had a bowl cut.
All those problems worked themselves out over time; now I have a different set of problems.
What should a young designer do in order not to get hired by anybody?
Do this: I emailed my dream employer every day for three weeks, including weekends. Finally their poor HR person politely but firmly told me to go away forever.
Are there any things you wish you knew at the beginning of your career?
If I could time travel I’d seek out mentors whose work I admired. Actually, if I could time travel I’d invent Snapchat and be a billionaire.
Are there any rules or habits that help you do your job more efficiently?
Hot tips for working at home:
1) Take breaks and make sure to go outside at least once a year even though you will miss your computer a lot.
2) If you feel groggy or tired, splash cold water on your face and look at yourself in the mirror like you’re in a movie and you just killed somebody. This may not work for everyone.
3) Get a big dog. Any time a client is pestering you, call them on the phone and have the dog bark at them.
4) Gather eye of newt, worm’s blood, and a raccoon’s tail together in a black cauldron. Boil under the full moon. The next day, you will wake up with a great idea for a personal project.
5) Meditate (this one’s a lie, I don’t do this, but I hear it’s great).
1) Take breaks and make sure to go outside at least once a year even though you will miss your computer a lot.
2) If you feel groggy or tired, splash cold water on your face and look at yourself in the mirror like you’re in a movie and you just killed somebody. This may not work for everyone.
3) Get a big dog. Any time a client is pestering you, call them on the phone and have the dog bark at them.
4) Gather eye of newt, worm’s blood, and a raccoon’s tail together in a black cauldron. Boil under the full moon. The next day, you will wake up with a great idea for a personal project.
5) Meditate (this one’s a lie, I don’t do this, but I hear it’s great).
Would you recommend some books that young designers might find useful?
Ed Emberley: Make a World. Teaches you how to draw anything using circles, squares, triangles and lines. I know it’s for kindergarteners, but I reference it all the time and I’m a grown-up.
Grandma Moses: My Life’s History. GM is a total badass. I wish I had one percent of her talent, humility and focus.
Barbara Kruger: Remote Control. A radical, relevant, eye-opening collection of essays on mass communication. It’ll make you go “woahhh” every few sentences.
Jean-Philippe Toussaint: The Bathroom. I bought this lil’ French novella because I liked the cover, and it became one of my faves. A lesson in the importance of book cover design!
Ed Ruscha: They Called Her Styrene. Hundreds of decontextualized phrases, painted by a master of that kind of thing. Surprisingly inspiring, and adds a lot of character to the bookshelf because it’s a really odd shape for a book.
Julian answered the questions on March 19, 2015.
The answers were published on March 20, 2015.
The answers were published on March 20, 2015.