If you could do any kind of design work that you currently aren’t doing, what would it be?

High-end fashion.
I crave… [laughs] I know it doesn’t seem like it when you look at my portfolio, but I’m a BIG fan of negative space. Technology and information have teamed up and together to create a lot of noise in the marketplace, everyone has a message and, with the aid of ‘new media’… now have the ability to get it out there. Not all of it very pretty or well thought out. Instinctively, I feel I’m stepping back and gravitating towards simpler, cleaner pieces… not so busy, less fonts, muted colors… can we loose this paragraph? Is it possible to have some quiet space?

I’ve lost out on some projects… clients approach me and say,
“We’d like to work with you, do you have some clean fashion samples?”

I don’t have those samples.

I don’t have Coach® Bags swimming in a sea of white, with a small accent color, tagline, logo and beauty shot. I could play with these 4 elements for hours and create some really incredible stuff. Unfortunately, some of the design I’ve done… Look. I basically have a shoehorn by the side of my desk, because I’m rack, stack and packing information into given formats all day long. Times are tight at the moment and advertising budgets have been slashed. “We’re gonna do a banner, GREAT! What’s the message? Not sure… We have seven. Seven sounds good, let’s get them all in there!

I say to clients… “Look can we do just one message at a time? Or choose the most important one and go with that?” There is only so much information the prospect can handle, if the design is overwhelmed, so is the message. You get your seven messages in there but none stick.

A simple red banner, with big white letters… SIN. Readers would remember that! You know… it’s a strong collar, one word headline, connects to an emotion… (guilt). Straight in through the backdoor on that one, but a lot of clients don’t see that and they want it all up there… at once.

I think in the end I’d like to work with more clients that understand that quiet… and design… so maybe that’s it… What I’d like to do is work with other designers and artists (if that’s at all possible), where I could grow my design and have a shared learning experience instead of always educating.

High-fashion isn’t so much about design as it is about photography… in fact there is very little design in fashion ads… not so?

[laughing] Yes you are right. I should have used the word minimalism more in my answer. Now I’m thinking about it, fashion print and fashion web design has to take a backseat to the product or else there could be a conflict in sensibilities. Fashion is so heavily based on image that one wrong move in the designs part could break the romance the fashion designer is trying to establish with the consumer.

Well it’s either that… or I’m dead lazy.