brian schultz

Brian Schultz's graphic design work is well known to followers of GDUSA's American Graphic Design Awards, which has recognized him dozens of times, with 15 awards in last year's competition alone. Schultz' helped redefine the look of home and garden packaging through his award-winning work for Spectrum Brands on such well-known lines as Cutter, Spectracide, Vigoro, Sta-Green and Repel. Because most of the brands he's worked with are second- or third-tier and have little advertising or media support, his clients place extra importance upon packaging and labeling as a means of attracting attention and communicating value, function and efficacy. "The work speaks for itself because it has to," Schultz says. Schultz recently moved from Spectrum's inhouse design center, which he led for over a decade, and joined the inhouse department of the health and beauty company Vi-Jon.

Is graphic design a growth industry? Consumers have become savvy and expect great design. However, because everyone today owns an ink jet printer, clip art libraries and all these fonts, secretaries publish newsletters, salespeople create ads and business owners make logos. There is no substitute for an educated, experienced, creative designer, but there is a great need for professional graphic designers to make their businesses stand apart.

Do graphic designers have a special responsibility to promote a green society? Our clients, particularly Wal-Mart, constantly challenge us on this front. Because Wal-Mart sets the standard that many of our other accounts follow, we are always working to create environmentally sustainable solutions for our products. We consider everything in design, from using less packing and packaging material and using recycled and recyclable materials to decreasing the size of the product footprint. We even look at shipping and merchandising, trying to design ways to maximize efficiencies by adding more bottles per case and using less materials for displays.

We also have the opportunity to select materials, inks, papers and plastics that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable. It doesn't do much for the ego, but the truth is that so much of what we do becomes trash. If we can make sure that our product packaging and shipping materials can go into a recycling bin instead of a trash can, it's important that we do so.

ONE THING I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IS my bass guitar

FAVORITE MOVIES

Fletch
Pulp Fiction
GoodFellas

FAVORITE BOOKS

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within by Kenny Werner
Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

FAVORITE SONGS

"Subdivisions" by Rush
"School Days" by Stanley Clarke
"The Wind Cries Mary" by Jimi Hendrix

FAVORITE FINE ARTISTS

Picasso
da Vinci
van Gogh

FAVORITE TV SHOWS

30 Rock
Californication
The Sopranos

BOOKMARKED WEBSITES

underconsideration.com
logolounge.com
thebassvault.com