Approach

Some thoughts about design:
I’m passionate about design, and even more passionate about multimedia. I’ve been interested in interface design and human -computer interaction for some time. I’m interested in design as narrative; dimensional typography; motion graphics; and the interaction of sound and visual communication.

Graphic design has been liberated from the confines of the flat page by the computer. Lots of people have been scared by this fact, but the truth is that legibility is not dictated by letterpress printing, lead type, and two colors of ink anymore. Interesting design draws you into and through a page, not just from the top left to the bottom right. There’s a place for conservative design, there’s a place for simple, straightforward typography and communication, but then there’s a much broader function that the designer is called upon to fulfill these days.

On the screen, type is more often called upon to move dynamically. The character of this movement and layout of the type means as much as the words the type spells out. Because type lives in virtual 3D space, the viewer’s encounter with a text becomes a 3D typographic narrative of movement through it, a textual encounter. This is “dimensional typography,” not flat typography. Designers are called upon more than ever to be fluent in a variety of styles. All of this must come into play in the course of using design to deliver a narrative to the viewer.

The simplest of advertisements commonly deliver a story through a single image and caption. But in a multimedia presentation, a new kind of filmmaking is taking place. Filmmaking isn’t confined to script, image, actors, and sound; now type is called upon to be one of the players on the screen.

I bring conceptual narrative communication experience to media development. My background in music composition, script writing, journalism, the performing arts, photography, and video production have been endeavoring to communicate clear ideas through the combination of these forms.

Design should serve the community it exists within, and when it succeeds, it should further the survival and development of that community. After all, that’s what communication is for, and design is all about communication.


Some Favorite Designers:
Fabian Baron, April Greiman, Tibor Kalman, Kyle Cooper, Saul Bass, Paula Scher, Why Not Associates, John Heartfield, Cassandre, Jan Tschichold, Roger Black, Herbert Bayer. The CalArts graduate faculty: Jeff Keedy, Lorraine Wilde, Ed Fella, and the rest. But in them you’re really seeing the Cranbrook School, so perhaps one should mention the McCoys. For more, see the links page.