alexander isley

Alexander Isley received a B.Ed. in environmental design from North Carolina State University and a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union School of Art. He is principal of Alexander Isley Inc., a multidisciplinary design consultancy with offices in Connecticut. His firm’s clients include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Giorgio Armani, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, MTV, Texaco and Scholastic. Isley is also a partner, with Dave Goldenberg, in The Dave and Alex Show, a brand development and marketing communication agency that lists AOL, PepsiCo, Nickelodeon and MasterCard among its clients. Prior to founding his own company, Isley was the senior designer at the influential design firm M&Co. and art director of Spy Magazine. His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He was an inaugural member of the ID 40, and has been elected to membership in the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Alex has taught at the School of Visual Arts and The Cooper Union, and has been a visiting lecturer at the Yale Graduate School of Art since 1996. He has written a design commentary column for the marketing website reveries.com and is a contributor to Folio magazine. He currently serves as president of the New York Chapter of AIGA.

What is your workday like?
My workday is the inverse of that of most designers I know. In many studios, it’s expected that you work until 9:00, 10:00 or 11:00 at night. I prefer to get in early, often around 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. I get all my good thinking in before the phone starts to ring at 9:00. The “regular” workday consists of putting out little fires here and there, going to meetings, and all the other things that are, well, “work”. (People in the office know not to ask me any complicated questions after 3:00 pm, however.) I go home before 6 to spend time with my family. I guess the main thing that keeps me going with this kind of schedule is that I truly look forward to coming in to the studio every day; I'm excited about the diversity of projects that we get and in the challenges they pose. I’ve never liked board games and have never finished a crossword puzzle. Instead, a client coming to me and saying, “I have this much time, this much money, and need to do this — I need help,” is to me the best challenge of all. It really is what I do for fun.

wing chan

Wing Chan studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena CA, earning a degree in graphic/packaging design — which set a very good foundation for Chan’s career. After college, Chan’s career path took him to New York City, where in 1996 he founded his own firm, Wing Chan Design. Says Chan, “My firm and the dynamic New York environment provide great day-to-day experiences that inspire my work.” Chan Design has a very diverse client roster, including biotechnology companies, financial corporations, educational organizations and performing artists. Gaining and retaining American Express Bank as a client for the past eight years has been a particularly distinguishing achievement of the firm. Besides running Chan Design, Chan also teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology and has freelanced as a photographer and writer for various Hong Kong publications such as the Hong Kong Economic Times. “I feel very fortunate to be working in a field I enjoy,” says Chan.

Do you feel hopeful about 2005?
I feel that the businesses that survived the post-9.11 economy can probably survive the future economy, and may even thrive in it. It is survival of the fittest.

Has graphic design changed since you started?
Achieving a balance between art and business has always been the natural goal of graphic design. We try to solve marketing problems with innovative and appropriate visual solutions that are also beautiful in some way.

What is your workday like?
I try not to work on weekends, unless it is necessary. I believe in discipline, organization and working smart –– but not working late.

How and where do you find inspiration?
I love to travel. I pick up many ideas from traveling to different places: in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi; to the heart of Ginza, Japan; and many places in between. Japanese culture and its remarkable graphic aesthetics particularly inspire my design work.

What are you currently listening to, watching or reading?
I am reading many books in both English and Chinese, like The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida. It’s amazing how the creative class, which includes graphic designers, changes mass culture and economy. The creative class always pioneers new ways of thinking and living, and popularizes concepts once considered abnormal or impossible.

What do you like to do in your time away from work?
Work out, hang out with friends, enjoy good food, daydream, get rid of things I don’t need and search for the meaning of life.

jurek wajdowicz

Jurek Wajdowicz began his career as a graphic artist in Lodz, Poland, where he graduated summa cum laude from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. He came to New York to become the art director at Lubalin, Burns & Co., and in 1982 co-founded Emerson, Wajdowicz Studios, now widely recognized as one of the leading practitioners of socially responsible design. Wajdowicz and his partner, Lisa LaRochelle, have earned top honors from many prestigious design forums including the AIGA, the AR 100 Show, the British Design & Advertising Awards, the Art Directors Club and numerous major design publications. Works from the studio for The Rockefeller Foundation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the United Nations, SMART Papers, Magnum Photos, Domtar and the International Rescue Committee are represented in the permanent collections of the U.S. Library of Congress, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Switzerland, the Warsaw Museum of Posters and the Hamburg Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe. Wajdowicz is recognized internationally as a passionate advocate of issue-driven, photojournalistic approach to modern graphic design.

Do you feel hopeful about 2005?
As personally disappointed as I may be in the present political landscape of our country, professionally I do hope that in 2005 we can continue to work only on inspiring projects, in both the nonprofit and corporate world. As for the design field in general, I am afraid that the somberness of my answer will not fit in with, I assume, the optimistic responses Graphic Design usa will get — I am skeptical about the way things are going. Omnipresence of banal “design solutions” that are more about styling than design. I am irritated by featherweight ideas, intellectual laziness, shameless aping of readymade solutions in the pursuit of professional success, and the uncontainable pollution of amateurish output. We try to be involved only in projects that, one hopes, do make a difference, but does graphic design really count at all when it comes to truly meaningful political or social events, or are we in a field where anything goes and nothing matters?

How and where do you find inspiration?
The answer is not so easy for me to logically explain: In trying to focus on meaningful assignments, the daily reports of the struggles facing people we work with internationally is prodding, inspiring and haunting me all at the same time. (Maybe this world is another planet’s hell, as Aldous Huxley said.) At the same time, I search for relief, counterbalance and inspiration in listening to some wonderful music. Insatiably, viscerally and without any time limits. Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Tomasz Stanko, Caetano Veloso, Dave Holland, the music of Jobim, Kenny Garrett, to name a few.

What is your workday like?
If you enjoy what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, says the Chinese proverb. Paradoxically, I am a night person who with a fair amount of success adapted to demands and thrills of being a part of a busy, vital and flourishing design office. Appreciative of creative talents and enjoying loyal friendship of my associates at our studio as well as those of inspiring clients. Yet, the solitary quietness of late nights always draws me. Often working throughout. With music surrounding me, protecting the solitude.