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A Wilderness of Error by Errol Morris
The Penguin Press
Designers:
Michael Bierut, Yve Ludwig
Illustrator/photographer
Pentagram
2012
Graphic design is no longer just graphic design. How do you explain today's profession?
I know that people tend to have an expansive idea of what graphic design is, but I tend to come back to a definition that isn't that different than what it would have been when I first picked up that copy of Aim for a Future in Graphic Design, 40 years ago: graphic designers combine words and pictures to convey a message. The way we combine them has changed, and the messages are always changing, but I still think the basic challenge is the same.
Cathedral of St. John the Divine Signs
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Designer:
Michael Bierut, Jesse Reed
Illustrator/photographer
Pentagram
October 2013
What's next for you?
I don't know, but I hope it will be a surprise.
Stephen Doyle
On Being Selfish – in a Good Way
Stephen Doyle, proprietor of Doyle and Partners in New York, admits that he began studying graphic design because he got thrown out of his painting classes at Cooper Union and needed more credits to graduate. “But I liked it,” he notes. “The idea of design as a storytelling medium was much more appealing than painting as a means of self-expression, especially since my version was not being tolerated by the guys deciding pass or fail.” His first job was as a designer at Esquire magazine, under his teacher Milton Glaser. “I think he hired me because he confused me with another kid, but I loved reading articles and then translating them for the reading public by making layouts that were responsive to and expressive of the content.” Thirty-five years later, Doyle is still telling stories, but now in more public ways and in a wider range of media.
Truth
Illustrator: Stephen Doyle
Client: The New York Times, Op-Ed
Art Director: Nicholas Blechman
2001
You've had your own studio for close to three decades. What is the key distinction between then and now?
Having run a studio for 28 years, it is interesting to observe that even though our media and processes have changed exponentially, we are still working within a conceptual sensibility that is true to our starting point. Our work tries to hover in a zone of humanism and sparkle, never addressing vast audiences or demographics, but rather seeking to engage just one person at a time, with a wink or a gesture, or, if we're lucky, a little moment of wonder. Having a small studio allows us to be selective about the work we take on, and one of our mantras is to try to take on projects that only we can perfectly solve. We are less interested now in graphic design per se but chase the grail of engagement and pleasant surprise.
Are you in fact freer now to do the projects that most appeal to you, or do you have to keep the studio fed?
Another advantage of a small studio of 10 is that we get to consciously push away from work that might lie in our comfort zone. If we have a track record of breakthrough mass-market packaging, our instinct is to search out projects that need environmental graphics or to create a video for a conference. That's what makes it worthwhile – and scary to get up every morning. Frontiers!
Is the studio a creative expression of your sensibility or not?
Someone who I'm married to once commented that my way of practicing design was completely “selfish. But, um, selfish in a good way,” she backtracked. Pressed, she clarified that I had a way of hoodwinking my clients into being “patrons” – people who finance my explorations into art and unwittingly sponsor my personal fulfillment as part of the design process. Ultimately, this means that my interests and sensibilities infiltrate the studio and the projects we take on. Aromatherapy!
Fresh Dialogue Poster
Designer: Stephen Doyle
Client: AIGA
2009
Teaching Grit
Designer: Stephen Doyle
Client: The New York Times Magazine
Art Director: Arem DuPlessis
Photographer: Stephen Wilkes
2011
You do your own art – 3-D objects, – often using books. How did this come about?
The sculptures that I make from books spang from a satire that I was making about the subject of “hypertexts.” I was trying to illustrate the ridiculous notion that one message might lead to another (via hyperlink) regardless of sequence. However, this exploration of setting text lines free of the pages that held them jumped up and bit me with the bug to set lots of ideas free from their books and to explore sentence structure in a whole new light.
Is there a problem or not in retaining boundaries between Stephen Doyle designer and Stephen Doyle citizen?
As a designer, it's very hard to separate work from life, travel from research, real from Memorex. It's actually the blurring of the borders that keeps things interesting for me. When something as private as a sculpture can invade my professional work, it is thrilling. It's the curiosities and passions that fuel a creative life, so why wouldn't one try to allow those to flourish in one's design practice? When a paint color that my wife and I mix at home becomes a part of a color palette that others can buy, it is gratifying. My wife and I have turned our home life inside out so that others can share our taste and style and ideas, so public and private, art and design are all woven together. One rule, however, has proved helpful: Never talk about work.. in the bedroom.
What is your creative management style around the studio?
My motto is never to ask if it's okay to do something. So, in the studio, the designers are encouraged to do everything they want to do. There is nothing off-limits, and there is no creative ceiling for creating work or experimenting. Not all experiments see the light of day. They have to work, hold up, and communicate. We do not have any special regard for reason, if abandoning it can lead to a solution that has lift. For us, levitation is the better part of design valor.
When hiring, and I presume you do the hiring, what do you look for?
When we look for a designer, we consider the usual qualifications: smart portfolio and good footwear. In a small studio environment, a personality match is really critical. We like designers who read the paper and whose work is an invitation to get closer. We are not wowed by style but by thoughtfulness with an occasional spark of brilliance. We try to keep our team diverse, having some members who lean toward science, and some who lean toward art. I look over shoulders a lot, and shape a direction in tandem with a designer. I help them craft the details and sharpen their intuition.
Here Is New York Hypertext
Designer: Stephen Doyle
Personal work
2012
Do you see the studio as