Amy Demas

Amy Demas earned her BFA at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. Shortly after graduating, she took an associate art director position at the groundbreaking magazine Sassy, with Jane Pratt and Christina Kelly. From there, she helped design and launch Radio Aahs, a kids' magazine for Time Warner Music, as well as Disney Adventures Magazine. After a stint in advertising, Amy rejoined former editors at Sassy to launch Fairchild's Jane Magazine, where she remained for nearly four years. Since 2001, she has been art director, and now creative director, of YM, a Gruner & Jahr USA publication. Demas has won several awards for her work at Jane and YM.
About the challenge of a teen magazine Demas says, "As creative director at YM, I manage both the photo and art departments, constantly collaborate with the fashion director to develop concepts for stories and challenge my staff to think outside the box. The teen magazine category is crowded, so staying fresh and on the edge of trends is vital. YM encourages and empowers teens to be healthy, confident and emotionally strong. The look was designed to complement this mission by staying innovative, young and upbeat in its visual concepts. We stimulate and encourage teen girls by publishing positive images of their peers in fashion and beauty stories. This is done by including a diverse range of sizes and ethnicities. We strive to include our readers with these images, not to exclude them from the experience of looking at and reading YM."
Do you have a design hero? To choose one would be impossible. Heroes, to me, are people who take risks and force me to think about or view something in a new light. They include Alan Ball, Marion Nestle (author of Food Politics), George Lois, Diane Arbus, Tibor Kalman and David Cross.
What would be your dream project? My dream project would involve making a statement about healthcare, nutrition and the quality of the food supply in this country. The point would be to educate and encourage people to ask questions about the chemicals we ingest in our food every day.
Is there one product, tool or gadget that you cannot live without? Music inspires my mood, so I can't live without my i-Pod. It really makes my day to have an entire music library with me, wherever I go. MP3 players have to be the most ingenious gadgets invented since the Mac operating system was introduced.
Do you believe the economic recovery is finally here? The economy may be slowly recovering, but I have yet to feel it in the publishing business. Perhaps 2004 will bring new growth to our business.

Matt Pashkow

Pash (whose full name is Matt Pashkow) is creative director and principal of Digital Soup, an award-winning, multi-disciplinary graphic design firm in Los Angeles that specializes in unique visual identities and bold, effective design concepts. Since launching Digital Soup in 1993, Pash has built a client list that includes Mattel, House of Blues, Absolut Vodka, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, I Have A Dream Foundation, TiVo, eUniverse, Perrier, Sirius Radio and Toyota. Pash's work has appeared in dozens of magazines and journals. He currently serves as president of the Los Angeles AIGA chapter, the fourth largest of the 47 chapters nationwide. He also teaches at UCLA Extension's visual arts program, is a frequent guest lecturer at other art schools and is on the advisory board for How Magazine's annual conferences. Pash lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jessica, and his daughter, Mirabelle.
Do you have a design hero? Well, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Tibor Kalman and Milton Glaser, for their profound impact on me as a designer and the shaping of our field. But many non-designers have had a similar impact on me: Antoine de Saint Exupery, Jackie Robinson, Mrs. Osborn (my kindergarten teacher), Mahatma Gandhi, Andy Warhol, Steven Soderbergh, Eugène Delacroix, Mrs. Beardsley (my 3rd grade teacher) and Martin Luther King Jr.
How and where do you find inspiration? I've asked this question dozens of times in recent months, as I'm currently writing a book on the subject. I suppose the best answer is that I am inspired by observing the simple, everyday actions of remarkable, great people, and by observing the remarkable, great actions of simple, everyday people.
What do you do in your time away from work? When I'm not working, I spend as much time as possible with my wife and daughter. It is really hard to beat a beautiful day in the park, pushing a giggling little girl on the swings. I love movies and basketball games. I'm a marathon runner, and I also really enjoy going for walks. I play poker with a bunch of buddies a couple of times a month. I teach. And I enjoy working with the AIGA, so I spend a great deal of time doing that.
What are you currently listening to, watching or reading? It's funny, but one day I may be into Outkast's new album, and the next, George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. You can pretty much bet that my iPod always has a nice collection of Mozart, Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles, the Policeand Jimi Hendrix. As for reading, I just completed The Da Vinci Code, and I'm a sucker for a good Elmore Leonard novel. The complete Lord of the Rings is always sitting on my nightstand. There are also a few comic books I dive into once in a while.
Is there one product, tool or gadget you cannot live without? Right now I'd have to say the Diaper Genie. This is a $30 wonder that allows you to conveniently dispose of your daughter's diapers without them smelling up the house.
Are you hopeful about 2004? The holiday season is always a very reflective time for me. One in which I find myself looking much more at the past and the future than I do during the rest of the year, when I'm generally focused on the present. For that reason, I get very caught up in the excitement of what I know will be coming to pass in the next year, and what I don't know will be coming to pass. This year is certainly no different. I'm very excited about 2004!

Nick Law

Nick Law joined R/GA with a breadth of experience across many disciplines and continents. He has executed and overseen creative executions at the most senior levels on print, advertising, branding, packaging and interactive design projects. At R/GA, Nick has spearheaded interactive projects for IBM, Levi Strauss, Nike and other Fortune 500 clients. Previously, he was creative director at FGI, responsible for the creative vision, directing advertising, design and interactive projects for the likes of Disney On Ice, KPMG and RedHat. And before that, Law was a senior designer at Deifenbach Elkins (now FutureBrand), the international corporate identity design firm, working on the development and implementation of identity systems for Eastman Kodak and Saudi Arabian Airlines, among others. He has also worked at DMB&B in St. Louis, founded the Australian creative firm Studio Dot, and he began his career began at Pentagram in London, working under the guidance of the notable Alan Fletcher and John McConnell. A graduate of Randwick Technical College in Sydney, Law has earned many international awards in interactive, design and advertising, and has been published in the United States, Australia and Britain.
Do you have a design hero? Although there are several designers whose work I admire, the last time I thought anyone was worthy of hero worship I had pimples. I am astonished by the relentlessly excellent work of the Apple design team, lead by Jonathon Ive. I admire Bob Greenberg, the founder of R/GA, for his ability to curate a world-class creative department for 25 years. But mostly I'm impressed by my wife, the writer Allison Glock. Watching her work reminds me of how much more I should be doing.
How and where do you find inspiration? Inspiration is an elusive thing and especially hard to conjure consistently. If you rely on lightning bolts to deliver inspiration, you're likely to starve. Creative professionals need to develop a personal process that helps induce solutions. For me, any creative process has to include knowledge, obsession and daring. To begin, one needs knowledge of the client, context and medium. Then, an obsessive cycle of exploration, reworking and refinement helps ideas coalesce into concepts. Knowledge and obsession can still lead to mediocre solutions without daring. This is the willingness to make bold decisions that lead the process in a less obvious direction.
What do you do in your time away from work? Chase my children.
What are you currently listening to, watching or reading? Outkast, The Office, The Onion.
Is there one product, tool or gadget that you cannot live without? The fork.
Do you believe the economic recovery is finally here? It seems to me that we're all busy again. Working harder for less money, but working nevertheless.
Are you hopeful about 2004? I am hopeful for companies and individuals who are prepared to innovate and collaborate. The industry has reached a watershed similar to 10 years ago when computers became ubiquitous. Back then you either cowered under the drafting table or you embraced a new tool. Now you either toil away in your creative ghetto, fending off the barbarians from competing creative disciplines, or you learn to share your work and ideas across channels and see your work as an equal part of a creative whole.