Design HeroesCa Nguyen

WHY HEROES?Heroes are someone who save the world from the bad, who fight and sacrifice for something they believe in. That is why great designers are heroes. They are the ones who follow their passion in creativity and design to fight against the ugliness, to make this world a lot more beautiful and exciting, to communicate ideas and connect people. The world without them is like rainbow without colors. Their incredible works and stories inspire and encourage me and other designers to keep learning, to work harder and never give up on my dreams. For me, they are Michael Bierut, Jessica Walsh, John Maeda and Milton Glaser.

Ca Nguyen

particularly reading and books. I found graphic design to be a perfect way to combine art, usefulness, and literacy. to this day I work on lot of different kinds of projects: books, large signage programs, identities. I take a real pleasure in seeing the things I’ve designed out in the world, coming into contact with people who have no idea there was a design process at work behind the scenes, and improving their lives in even the smallest of ways.

Do you think it’s important for a graphic designer to be able to draw?

To be honest, not any more. I would take someone who is able to read over someone who is able to draw any day.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?

Vignelli told me early on that ‘if the work stinks, no one cares if it’s on time and on budget’ but he put it more elegantly than that.

MY HERO

It wasn’t easy for me to summarize Bierut’s career, positions, and awards because it is an endless list. His works are fabulous and innovative. But above all that, I admire and respect him for his enthusiasm in teaching, sharing knowledge, promoting and helping younger generations of designers. His design journals on Design Observers are extremely inspiring. I found myself reading one article after another and it was hard to stop. His writing isn’t just about design, it’s about life. It’s not about how to be a successful designer, it’s about how to be a dedicated, thoughtful, responsible designer as well as a human being. Paula Scher, his partner at Pentagram, said “He absorbs and retains everything and pulls it out at the appropriate moment and uses it to its maximal effect. [...] Mention a designer or architect and he knows the most recent project they’ve completed and their first project, how they’ve changed, how they haven’t, who influenced them, who they influence, and he sometimes will make a little sketch or diagram of their work. If knowledge is power, then Michael Bierut is the most powerful person in the entire design community.”

INTERVIEW (designboom.com)

Please could you tell us how you came to be a graphic designer?

As an enthusiastic young high school artist 40 years ago, I found that I was happiest when I could use my artistic skills in the service of some practical goal: getting people to come to the school play, for instance, or decorating an ugly hallway. I was also always interested in lots of things,

Michael Bierut is a graphic designer, design critic and educator. Currently, he is a partner at Pentagram, director of the Architectural League of New York and of New Yorkers for Parks. He is

also co-founder of Design Observer and senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art. He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art {MoMA}, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many other museums all over the world. He has served as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts {AIGA} from 1988 to 1990 and president of AIGA National from 1998 to 2001.

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“ Not everything is design but design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: be ready for anything.”

Michael Bierut

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MY HERO

I admire Jessica for her talent and fearless spirit. At age 5, she hot glued moss on rocks and sold them to classmates. At age 11, she taught herself HTML and CSS. At age 14, she made a couple thousands dollars monthly for putting Google ads on her website. After graduating college, she refused to work for Apple to do an internship at Pentagram. At age 23, she reached out to Stefan Sagmeister and asked for his feedback about her portfolio and ended up working for him, which led to being his partner, at age 25. Beside her design career, her personal project “40 Days of Dating” that she did with a friend, Timothy Goodman, was a huge success. The blog appealed more than 5 million visitors in less than a year, Warner Bros purchased the film rights, and she is also writing a book version for it. Jessica is a young, talented and beautiful designer that inspired me to follow my heart, work really hard, speak up for myself, and never settle for less.

INTERVIEW (thegreatdiscontent.com)

Describe your path to becoming a designer and art director.

I was a big computer nerd when I was younger [...] When I was graduating high school, I was a little unsure if I wanted to go more into the coding or the design side of making websites. I was deciding among NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and RISD (Rhode Island School of Design). I’ve always been a gut instinct person and my gut told me to go to RISD, so that’s where I ended up. RISD puts a lot of focus on working with your hands, which was a shock for me coming from a digital background where I was glued to my computer 24/7. I think this merging of craft with a digital background plays a big role in my work today.

Are you satisfied creatively?

For the most part, yes. I love the studio and the work we do. I think that most creatives are usually discontent with what they’re doing; it drives us to create better work. If I felt completely satisfied, I’d be more likely to recycle the same ideas and styles into my work.

If you could give one piece of advice to a young creative starting out, what would you say?

Figure out what you’re really passionate about and what kind of work you want to do and do it. [...] 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 a designer, art director, illustrator, and partner at the New York-based design

studio, Sagmeister & Walsh. Her work has won numerous design awards from the Type Director’s Club, Art Director’s Club, Print, and Graphis. She has received various celebrated distinctions including Computer Art’s “Top Rising Star in Design,” an Art Director’s Club Young Guns award, and Print Magazine’s New Visual Artist.”

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“ I made a promise to myself that I would always find a way to make money by doing something that I really loved.”

“ Technology has matured. We don’t buy things because they have better technology; we buy them because they’re better designed.”

John Maeda is a Japanese-American graphic designer, computer scientist, academic, and author. His work in design, technology and leadership

explores the area where the fields merge. He is currently a Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, chairs the eBay Design Advisory Council, serves on the boards of Sonos and Wieden+Kennedy, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. From 2008 through 2013, he served as the 16th president of Rhode Island School of Design. Prior to that, he spent 13 years at the MIT Media Lab as a professor and head of research. life of all kinds than in

someone’s pond with carp.

Are you creatively satisfied?

Oh, that’s a good question. I like to say that creative people are confident in only one thing: their own doubt. From doubt, they get to iterate and work extremely hard, hoping to find something new; it’s all about hope.

Do you feel a responsibility to contribute to something bigger than yourself ?

Yes, specifically because I feel like I’ve been very lucky; when you’ve been lucky, you want to give some of that back to the people around you. I can’t give away luck, but I can give away the notion that, if you work hard and try to do the right thing, then you’re more likely to be lucky. It’s nice to see people find their thing.

MY HERO

When I was researching designers, John Maeda was the one that I remember the most because he is also an engineer. In high school, he was good at math and art so his parents, like most Asian parents, decided that he should be good at math [only]. After graduating at MIT with master degree in software engineer, however, he rediscovered his love for art and design and went to Tsukuba University’s School of Art and Design in Japan for a PhD. Although I didn’t and am most likely not going to engineering school, I was good at math and always wonder what would happen if I study engineering instead. Since the society and the economy nowadays seem to appreciate an engineer more than a graphic designer, I had a feeling that I missed out although I absolutely love being a graphic design student. In an interview with thegreatdiscontent.com, Madea said “Before, I could do anything with technology, but I didn’t know what to do; being in art school taught me what to do with that skill” and that meant a lot to me. I realize I can be really good at something but if I don’t enjoy doing it, I wouldn’t achieve the best thing that I am capable of.

INTERVIEW (thegreatdiscontent.com)

Do you think that it is important to be part of a creative community?

Creative or not, it’s important to be in a diverse community with people who have different backgrounds and skills. I think that’s why New York is such a great place to live. There’s so much diversity. I’d rather be a creature in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef that is teeming with

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John Maeda

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MY HERO

Milton Glaser is undoubtedly a legend even if his career began and ended with “I NY”. However, his multi-decade career is sprinkled with similarly iconic images and logos. They are simple, wit and elegant, lying at a sweet spot between art and design. Immensely creative and articulate, he is a modern renaissance man—one of a rare breed of intellectual designer-illustrators, who brings a depth of understanding and conceptual thinking, combined with a diverse richness of visual language, to his highly inventive and individualistic work. His article, “Ten things I have learned”, is my to go design manifesto. It doesn’t only talk about design but also about life. He made me realize that life is a journey of continuously learning and contributing to something greater than you are. And doubting yourself is not exactly a bad thing to do, it drives you to think deeply about your works and open up to cricitism, which on another note is extremely important.

INTERVIEW (AIGA.org)

If you could change one fundamental thing about the way design is taught, what would it be?

I would change the perception of the purpose of design that is deeply imbedded in design education. [...] The first thing I try to teach them in class is you start with the audience. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you can’t talk to anybody.

On the subject of clarity of communication, would you say this is something which is missing from much of today’s design?

One must understand this relationship between clarity and ambiguity, because it is an essential component of communication. You can’t make everything explicit to people. There has to be work for the mind to do. Often the communication is not immediately clear but becomes clear quickly. That duration between seeing and understanding is always what you play with in communicating ideas.

What advice would you give to today’s students and the younger generation of designers?

I would say: take the responsibility for what you do. Design is an activity, which affects human consciousness, and the way people think and act. It also affects their value system, and you should take that seriously. I mean you don’t want to hurt people. You don’t want to injure people, you don’t want to misrepresent things, you don’t want to lie to them. In my view, the same principles involved in good citizenship should be applied to being a good designer.

Milton Glaser is among the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States. He has had the

distinction of one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. He was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (2004) and the Fulbright Association (2011), and in 2009 he was the first graphic designer to receive the National Medal of the Arts award. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design. He opened Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and continues to produce a prolific amount of work in many fields of design to this day.

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“ There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.”

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