PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

The following interviews are part of a larger project for a third-

year Directed Studies in Design Futures. We have conducted

these interviews with Emily Carr alumni to gather knowledge

about design practices, methodologies, experiences and

advocay, while simultaneously taking the opportunity to

showcase former students of Emily Carr University. The

interviews were prepared with two specific audiences in mind;

Current, the Design Research Journal, and the Design°, which

both are web based publishing mediums for design research

and degree content respectively.

We are excited to share with you the outcomes of our project,

and to create a legacy for Emily Carr, sharing the experiences

and insights of alumni.

INTERVIEW

Bree + Solveig

The following is an

interview with the

Creative Director of

Seven 25. Design

&Typography,

Isabelle Swiderski.

The interview was

transcribed from a

video of our meeting

in October, 2011.

SJ: There looks like there is a lot of learning transfer

going on between the different mediums. What

kind of learning transfers have you discovered while

working?

IS: Sometimes there are surprises and sometimes

there are more expected [learning transfers].

Certainly the refrain or the well known truth is

that we are all basically telling stories. All of the

things that I engage in are about telling stories,

just in different ways. Film is really just another

extension of what I’ve been doing. Even putting

on Common Thread, an exhibition from a couple

of years ago, came about whilst thinking about

things that interest me and seeing how the input of

other people can make the story more relevant to

people.

SJ: What interests you?

IS: I am curious about lots of things, so I keep

shifting focuses. For instance when I was at RCA

I did film work and when I moved back here I

focused on branding and developing my web skills.

Then about two years ago I got back into filming.

I am interested in the arts as much as politics,

and social change, and how we can use design

thinking and design systems to trigger social

change. Those are some of the major themes in

the work that I like to engage in; how we can have

an impact beyond selling things. Making money

in the not for profit space is not a negative thing.

If you can become self-sustaining, especially

Isabelle Swiderski was kind enough to spend a

moment with us to talk about her design work,

experiences and practices. She is an Emily Carr

Communication Design alumna, and holds a

Master of Arts in communications from the Royal

College of Art in London. She is the founder and

Creative Director of the Vancouver-based studio

Seven25. Design & Typography Inc. Established in

2000, it became her full time commitment in 2006.

One of the things that struck us about Isabelle’s

work was how it spans over multiple mediums.

There seems to be a cross-pollination and generation of inspiration with ideas percolating all the time a

result of her flexibility with various mediums. We were curious to learn more about her motivation and

experiences around this.

with fewer grants available and less money from

agencies, it is super important. If a not-for profit

has the ability and the appropriate product to

move into the realm of social enterprise to be self-

sustaining, it is fantastic and, I think now, the way

to go.

SJ: Have you always had a clear vision?

IS: No. I think it comes through challenging

yourself, discovering new things and going “oh,

that’s interesting, I haven’t thought about that

recently or haven’t thought about that in this

way”. You may be collaborating with someone

new or encountering something new, you’ve seen

a show, or travelled somewhere; these all feed

your curiosity and your interests. Hopefully it just

becomes exponential to how you learn and hone

your vision. Even if at the beginning you have

to perhaps compromise where you work, and it

may not be exactly in keeping with your vision

or what you want to do. I think as long as you

allow yourself time to think about what it is you

want to do, then eventually you’ll get there. I really

believe in that. For example the film I am working

on; It took me one and a half years to study and

nine months to write the script and collaborate

with people, and now it’s realized. It was not

instantaneous; I had to go and keep going. So,

I think that if you can give yourself that space to

think about what it is that you aspire to, then there

is a much better chance of it happening. And I

think that makes it super exciting.

Isabelle specializes in education, cultural and not-for-profit

work. After she shared with us her insights on how we can

realize our aspirations, we asked what drove her work in this

direction.

SJ: How did you get involved in not-for-profit work?

IS: I have always had an interest in our impact on

the environment. Even through my childhood, it

was something that was close to my heart. As

time went on, I worked as a book designer for

several years and when I came back to Canada

I did work with educational, cultural and not-for-

profit organizations. Then I went to Rethink where

I did mostly commercial work and realized what

interested me most. My direction evolved gradually.

This is not to say that we would drive people away

who are for profit, especially as social enterprises

are a part of what we do.

SJ: How do you negotiate and navigate your work

between the practical and the artistic?

IS: I try to balance things I am passionate about,

whatever they may be and hopefully work with

people who are kind of in that space. I love

strategy and the big picture thinking that comes

with branding and with identity work. Then the self-

directed projects, like Common Thread or the film

are driven by that space that I allow for, to think of

what do I want to do next. More than calling it art,

it is just trying to get out of the business a little bit

and think ‘well, why am I in this business? What

is it that I love about it?’ I think that helps me to

identify what I may not be doing at that particular

moment in my practice. I bring it in laterally through

another self-directed project.

SJ: Can you tell us a little about the self-directed

project you mentioned: “Common Thread” ?

IS: Sure. So the show happened in 2009 at Emily

Carr University of Art + Design. Because I’ve lived

and worked in various places and I also have a

mixed background, French, Canadian and Polish, I

have always been interested in the hybrid identities

that we develop. I was curious to ask my friends

around the world if they had a similar sense of

that, or if they defined identity in the same way I

did. Even when I was at Emily Carr I was always

fascinated by identity and how we form identity in

those years of “teenager-dom” and the different

influences that result in our personal identity. I

asked a few friends—I think it ended up being

22 designers from around the world—to submit

a poster. We paid for all the printing, framing and

installation. There are also so many interesting

things going on in terms of identity now, because

of virtual identity and our real human physical

identity. It’s become more and more complex I

think.

SJ: What characterizes the design community in

Vancouver?

IS: Well it does not feel very big. I think it is

changing. It felt to me, for a while, that it was not

very open towards the rest of the world. I think that

is changing. Perhaps it has even changed already.

I think that is very exciting. Even in obvious things

like conferences and people who are invited to

speak. There are so many other disciplines that are

enfolded now into design. It felt to me that different

disciplines were considered more separate, maybe

around a decade ago. There is more overlap and

more of a sense of cross-pollination and a desire

to bring all these different points of view into design

practice and thinking. I think this is very exciting

because it opens up opportunities to create

projects that have broader boundaries. Maybe it

is simply that I was not involved in those kind of

things at that time.

SJ: Do you find there is something missing in the

design community here?

IS: I don’t know that it is the design community,

but I think that the geographic separation that

exists in Vancouver is still something that I try to

rebel against. I think for me personally that is the

only issue, and I try to travel and communicate

with people elsewhere for that reason. And it’s not

because we don’t have talent here, because we

do, but I just think it is important to have different

points of view, otherwise you quickly fall into a rut.

“There is more overlap and more of a sense of cross-pollination and a desire to bring all these different points of view into design practice and thinking.”

SJ: So how do you rebel?

IS: Oh, I travel as much as possible. And with

the studio, even though we are five years in, it is

difficult to take more than a week off at a time. I

really long for the days when I could just go away

for even two weeks, but that will happen. And I am

very active online as well. And when I collaborate

with people or I am involved in projects that are

self-directed, I try to involve people from other

countries. Or if I am lucky enough to be asked to

be involved, then that is very exciting.

SJ: Are you currently involved in a self directed

project like this?

IS: Well, I am due for a new one for sure. I was

asked to contribute to one recently. A friend of

mine in Berlin has written a book about how you

evolve as a designer called “I used to be a student

too” and it was a comparison of work that we did

in school and some work that we are doing now

and discussing what may have changed.

SJ: What have you discovered as major changes?

IS: How much time I spend working...And, maybe

more of a focus on what interests me personally.

Certainly, I don’t think I allowed myself that space

in school. I mean, being at Emily Carr you know

what it is like. Third year was horrendous for me.

But even in fourth year, especially as designers

we seem to be so petrified by who knows what,

the world or missing a deadline. There is a lot

of navel gazing that goes on and so I think it is

very liberating when you get a little older to have

that space to say “What do I love? What am I

passionate about?”

One of the things we’ve talked about the geographical

distance we need to negotiate when working in Vancouver.

However we live in an increasingly globalized world and we

were wondering if and how Isabelle might see evidence of

a world sense of design occurring.

SJ: Do you see evidence of a world sense of design?

IS: I think more as a tool rather than an aesthetic. I

don’t think that there is a universal design aesthetic

or style, which is a good thing in my opinion. But

I do sense that there is a global movement that

understands and values the influence that design

can have in bettering the ways in which we live

and that is certainly one that I am particularly

attentive to. And I think it’s miraculous how quickly

ideas can be disseminated now. That is part of

the reason that I love twitter. Just this morning,

there is an organization that is trying to create a

video on demand system for Canadian film and

then I discovered this small local company that is

doing the same thing for GLBQ films and so I just

tweeted “I am wondering if these two organizations

are talking about whether there is overlap” and I

got a response that they were now, thanks to that

virtual connection, talking to each other. When

else could you have that kind of influence. I don’t

know these people personally, but I like what they

are doing and it crossed my mind that potentially

they could help each other out. How cool is that?

So if you bring that tiny thing on a bigger scale

its absolutely fantastic. I discovered for instance

52x52, where you sign up to pledge to give money

every week to a charity for 52 weeks. People are

finding out about it and the money is growing

exponentially. I cannot think of another time when

you could do that sort of thing.

SJ: What kind of things do you tweet about?

IS: I tweet about design, typography, film,

politics and not-for-profit. I am really interested in

networking and the film was a perfect example of

that. I was just so humbled by how many people

came onboard, offering help and skills. I think

social media facilitates those kind of connections

as well.

We were intrigued by the way Isabelle had broken down

her method and process on her website into the elements:

strategy & planning, substance & tone, form & style....

For us it reflected a lateral thinking process and we were

curious how clients responded to her approach.

SJ: How do your clients respond to this method

breakdown?

IS: There are clients who really value the

collaboration and want to understand the process

and to contribute to it. Which makes it all the more

rewarding, because no matter how much research

you do, as an external player, you can bring in a

fresh perspective, but you never know as much

as the organization themselves. So those clients

challenge us and keep it interesting. I always

compare it to teaching because teaching and

interacting with clients is the same in the sense

that everybody needs something different from

you. And you have to be open to how everybody

learns or wants to interact. So if you are able to

listen and adapt then hopefully the collaboration

is fruitful. As with students and as with clients

you have to allow that person the room to be a

participant in the exchange. It’s fascinating and

challenging at the same time.

Watch the interview with Isabelle on the Current

blog: current.ecuad.ca

INTERVIEW