david schuemann

David Schuemann is the creative director and owner of CF Napa, a leading brand design firm with international experience in creating breakthrough, category-defining consumer brands for alcoholic beverages and gourmet foods. Schuemann has overseen the revitalization of brands such as Beringer, Charles Krug, Sterling Vineyards, Robert Mondavi Winery and Joseph Phelps Vineyards. His work has been recognized by design shows and publications like Communication Arts, Graphis, the Type Directors Club, the Mobius Awards, AIGA, PRINT, HOW, STEP inside design, The New York Festivals and the Western Art Directors Club. CF Napa's work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the American Design Archives of the Denver Art Museum. Originally from Milwaukee WI and graduate of UW Eau Claire, Schuemann currently lives in Napa CA with his wife, Lisa; their three children, Aidan, Parker and Hailey; and Pica, their dog.

Is graphic design a growth industry? Graphic designers are now expected to provide far more than what we think of as traditional design services. Designers are thought leaders, urban planners, leaders of social change and pop culture trendsetters. Powerful, culturally relevant brands such as Apple and Target go beyond design; they have become decoration. As the world shrinks through digital communication, the barriers between cultures and nations will blur. Graphic designers will be sought to communicate complex issues and culturally relevant brands that cut through the immense noise of the global marketplace.

Do graphic designers have a special responsibility to promote a green society? Graphic designers have a special opportunity to impact consumers' tastes, aesthetics and consumption habits. Our clients are actively interested in a more green approach to their products and packaging. We recently completed a new wine brand for Boisset International called Yellow Jersey, which was driven to a large extent by environmental concerns. As part of the project, CF Napa designed a custom polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle as an alternative to glass. The PET packaging reduces package weight by more than 90 percent compared with glass bottles. Due to their lightweight format, they also reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions during transport. Only four percent by weight of what consumers bring home is packaging, versus about 40 percent for bottled wine. The reaction by consumers has been fantastic, and the brand has quickly surpassed the competition in volume to become the largest PET packaged wine brand in the world.

ONE THING I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IS my family. At the end of the day, design is my passion, but my family is my life. I would not be the person, designer or father that I am today without my wonderful wife of seven years and my three children.

FAVORITE MOVIES

Good Will Hunting
Blazing Saddles
Pulp Fiction

FAVORITE BOOKS

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins
Any of Doyald Young's books on typography

FAVORITE SONGS

"Eulogy" by Tool
"Head Like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails
"Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash

FAVORITE FINE ARTISTS

Motherwell
Rothko
Pollock

FAVORITE TV SHOWS

Anything on the Discovery Channel
Lost
Frasier

BOOKMARKED WEBSITES

betterlivingthroughdesign.com
typeradio.org
packers.com