Skateparks, screenprints, the Living Brand, and a “Make it New” attitude are just the tip of the iceberg that makes up the Jager Di Paola Kemp experience.

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Don’t forget to look for us on iTunes and subcribe for all the rest of our podcasting goodness.

And keep your eyes peeled later this week for the full write-up on the lastest TRAN.sit visit to San Francisco based design studio MINE for an amazing interview with designer, writer, educator and former AIGA SF president Christopher Simmons.

So a slight delay in getting out this months post, and still working to get into the grove of more regularly scheduled postings, but I assure you it was for good reasons, namely we were working out all the kinks of getting our first podcast published to iTunes and ready for your viewing pleasure.

We decided to start things off with Matteo Bologna, the evil mastermind behind Mucca Design in NYC and definitely an interesting chat to say the least. So take a quick click on the new Podcast link to subscribe to upcoming podcasts, or enjoy the video below.

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. . .

There are also a few new studios added to the archive:

Digital Playground
Nathan Love
Form
Good Shape Design
Zip Design
AR (New York, NY)
Base Design (New York, NY)
Ardent-Sage
SWH Advertising

. . .

And here are a few other interesting web gems to help wet your appetites for good design:

60 places to find inspiration
Very cool little video
Hillman Curtis on going digital
Audi Q7 microsite
KPF Architects
Morphosis Architecture
Veggie Chips by Frito-Lay
The artist behind Walace & Gromit
Pharmaceutical Products
Things to waste your time with
Miranda July book launch
Rid yourself of the mouse click

First of all I’d like to just say happy Independence Day, unless of course you’re British, in which case, well… I guess we showed you huh.

That aside, Luke and I have been working diligently to bring you the initial round of studio podcasts. The intro video is nearing completion and with a little luck and a bit of bi-costal poking with a stick I expect we’ll have the first video ready for your viewing pleasure by the end of the month.

Site wise I’ve also got a lot of tasty little nuggets of content gold for you to pick at, including fresh studios for the archive, some amazing upcoming design events you should be looking into and and a good number of other things to inspire and amuse.

. . .

One of the big things that has been the center of my attention over the last few weeks has been watch some amazing video footage from this past year’s TED Talks. For those of you not so familiar with TED it’s an annual conference in Monterey, CA that brings together 1000 of the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers from every facet of technology, entertainment and design, and challenges them to give the talk of their lives, all in about 18 minutes.

A few favorites so far include Stefan Sagmeister’s Yes, design can make you happy, 2004 and Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ mind blowing Photosynth demo, 2007. I definitely recommend everyone checking out the site, TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, and maybe someone out there would like to put in a good word for us to check out the next one in 2008.

. . .

Here’s a quick glimpse at the new additions to the studios archive:

A Practice for Everyday Life (London, UK)
Albino Design (Belfast, UK)
Demo Design (Brooklyn, NY)
Dope Pope (New York, NY)
- Also be sure to check out some of there recent work in the gallery.
Fageta (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Farrow Design (London, UK)
Funnel (Indianapolis, IN)
The Graphic Graphic (Portland, OR)
Heads Inc ( ? )
Hush (Brooklyn, NY)
MadeThought (London, UK)
Minimaforms ( ? )
- Definitely check out their new exhibit: Becoming Animals
National Forest (Los Angeles, CA)
Number 17 (New York, NY)
Studio8 (London, UK)
Studio Schulz (San Diego, CA)

. . .

And since I spend so much time in front of a screen, and I’m sure you all do the same here are some interesting sites that have appeared across my blog rolls and rss wanderings:

An amazing collection on business cards, all of which are beautifully shot by the way.

Uniqlock. Music. Dance. Clock. I think that says it all. I was glued here for at least an hour.

A short, educational video on the nature of Typography.

Some innovative site layout and visually stunning work by Rasmus Blaesbjerg.

It’s Nice That. It really is.

Guillotine. A good site/blog about designer toys, art, shoes, and everything else.

The Small Talk Collection. An experiment in the role and perception of spoken language in contemporary culture.

. . .

Lastly, there are a few events I wanted to mention.

MADinSpain. An international design event with a great looking site and a very esteemed list of studios. If you’re in Madrid in September, it sounds like a must see (or you can feel free to send us in your place).

Also, Luke and I have decided to throw ourselves into the lot applying for Command X at this year’s AIGA Design Conference 2007. The event runs Oct 11-14 and the competition is open to all AIGA members under 26, so if you fit the bill we encourage you to apply as well, it’ll score you a free pass to the conference and a chance to rub into some rather impressive elbows. Deadline is July 15th. Contestants will be announced July 30th.

We’ll keep you posted.

On November 24th with the holidays on the horizon and our funds running low the initial run of our cross country tour came to a close. Having travelled over 15,000 miles and visiting with 36 studios and 4 universities in 18 cities we decided it fair to declare our little adventure a resounding success. And yet we knew the true goal and countless hours of development towards what we had both envisioned TRAN.sit to become was still just beginning.

Following our return home Luke and I decided it necessary to take a bit of a break from the project, and from each other, in order to process the amazing amount of knowledge we had gained as well as the somewhat ridiculous amount of sheer content that we had gathered along the way. We needed some time to re-adjust ourselves to the struggles of post college life, to replenish our energy and passion for the creative arts, and perhaps more importantly to us, we needed to get jobs.

And thankfully we succeeded.

Luke has recently taken an amazing position close to home at 20nine Design in Conshohocken, PA. While I decided to board a plane on St. Patrick’s Day bound for San Francisco, and have since begun working with the good folk of 300FeetOut.

So although the tour of TRAN.sit is over for the moment. The future of this projects and what it hopes to offer is just beginning.

. . .

While Luke and I still continue our travels around the surrounding areas scheduling visits and stopping in on friends that we’ve made along the way we’ve also returned our dedication towards the improvement of the site. And in order to help remedy our long months of absence we’ve tried to make up for it by offering up a big steaming bowl of content.

For your viewing pleasure we’ve posted over a hundred new links to the site, including numerous design studios across the US and abroad, and we’ve added more then a few new features to the student resource page including a list of Creative Job Listing sites and Rep Agencies. All of which have been temporarily marked with a ( * ) for your navigation pleasure.

- Studio List
- Resource Page

We’ve also added an RSS feed to blog in order to help you stay on top of site updates and the release of new features.

Our next priority is to begin processing the over 50 hours of interview footage, and within the next month we hope to begin videocasting the interviews as well as offering up streaming feeds for your viewing pleasure. We are also currently looking for someone to help us with the back end work of creating a searchable database of information as well as building a mailing list and submission forms to make for easier studio contact.

The site will also begin bi-monthly updates, so you can expect more content to be added on the 1st and 3rd weekend of every month.

. . .

Lastly, to our friends and supporters:

I know that Luke and I have meant to write this post many times over the last few months, and for many reasons have stopped. So for the long delay and for our absence in our cause we apologize, but we thank you for your continued support and devotion.

Phil refused to let us leave Texas without paying a visit to Meta and Michael Newhouse in Denton, and for good reason. Meta is a designer/filmmaker in the process of getting her MFA in design education. Michael is an information designer and flounder of Newhouse Design and was teaching a packaging class as an adjunct professor. This was truly a great visit for us because of the passion that Meta and Michael have for design and design education.

Equally passionate people with different methods to their classes. Michael described himself as a realist and Meta as a long term. Michael told us about creating situations where his students would get a WTF look on their face. For example, he believes not enough students use the library or even know HOW to use the library. One exercise he conducted was instructing his students to research packaging, but prior to giving the assignment he had checked out all the books that would show up when you do a catalog search for books on “Packaging.” So what do you do? Just something to think about… and if you’re not sure how to effectively use the library anymore Michael created a useful guide which can be found here.(Note: 11MB pdf)

Michael also showed us a copy of Rough that he designed, which focused on utility, realistic design constraints, and functionality of design. Two color, inexpensive paper, table of contents on the cover, and an article on information designer Nigel Holmes. The web-based version of this issue can be found here. While this is not the flashiest eye-candy issue of Rough, it is a great experience for curious young designers. Including a Thank You section that breaks down how much work goes into the printing process of a magazine like Rough.

By comparison, Meta teaches more idealistically and theoretically. Meta brought up the notion of offering a class that focuses on the leadership roles that designers could play in society. Applying the unique problem solving skills we learn as young designers towards more socially responsible causes (mentioning the redesign of voting ballots or the way the president’s cabinet works). However, this doesn’t mean her students are off the hook from the lessons of the real world scenarios. She would teach through a “bad santa” style where she would present her class with bags containing mystery clients. A student could then come up, blindly choose a client by picking a bag, and that would have to deal with whatever business they get. However, in this “bad santa” game the next student could either steal their classmate’s exposed client or pick an unknown client from the remaining unopened bags.

We spent hours with Meta and Michael soaking up all we could. However, after joining them for dinner and accepting our design-nerdiness by ogling their amazing collection of vintage bus passes, we actually had to hit the road. Meta and Michael Newhouse were the last interview Carson and I would conduct for this portion of TRAN.sit, and they were definitely among the most gratifying visits regarding the design-education objectives of our tour.

Still twitching from our visit with Brain Food, Phil hauled us across Dallas to talk design with Jeff and Liz of The Matchbox Studio over a couple beers and a game of pool. On a side note, I was glad they had a pool table… I couldn’t watch Carson lose another job offer to a foosball table.

As we cracked open our beers we had Jeff and Liz tell us about their background. Originally, they had talked about starting their own studio after graduating from TCU, but ultimately decided to go in separate directions for a while. Until 1997, when they finally decided to take the chance and pursue their own studio. There was still the difficult and crucial task of coming up with a name, until inspiration struck in the form of Jeff’s 8-year-old cousin who suggested The Matchbox Studio. Their original studio space was really small. This just goes to show that every studio should have small children running around, but of course, we all know the overhead on chocolate milk and the maintenance is expensive, not to mention how quickly they become obsole… uh, I mean, child labor laws.

We always want to know what professionals think is lacking from design education, but as Jeff replied “You know, everything that they’re lacking isn’t really design related so much, as real world related.” Which wasn’t an uncommon response to our question, but what does that actually mean and how can those issues seep into classroom lessons.

Coming straight out of college, most graduates don’t understand the expectations and demands of a real studio. In the real world clients demand finished-quality results after week-long deadlines, instead of the months to rework and polish that students have in school. While Jeff doesn’t like to focus on speed, he believes that new hires have to learn to refine their creative process. Only through experience are young designers able to learn to quickly cut through the bad ideas and spend more time developing the good ones.

Students are often allowed to develop their client’s profile and mold the client-concept relationship within an assigned project: “Ah, well this would work better as an authentic mexican restaurant for hippies, than a tex-mex bistro for yuppies.” A great freedom allowing students to explore their creativity, but can lead to tweaking the client to fit a cool concept. Surprisingly, we hear this doesn’t really work so well with actual clients… And while student’s might not think it’s “fun”, Jeff agreed that professors would be doing their students a service by occasionally playing the role of a subjective client. Helping the student develop and lock into a very clear profile from the beginning, and constantly challenging whether the student is meeting the profile and objectives.

Although our industry is usually really personable and easy going, it would be a mistake to skip the common-sense lesson in professionalism. This lesson usually results in a voice in you’re head that sounds like a parent, only now you should probably listen… and besides, you’d look insane if you tried to talk back to it. Be courteous. Be respectful. Be appropriate. Be punctual. Be organized. Send a hand-written thank-you. Don’t ask for directions to their studio when the address is on their website, that shows poor problem-solving skills. Probably shouldn’t mention Jeff’s striking resemblance to Bob Villa until he brings it up first. And finally, they don’t consider themselves “dressed up”, but don’t think it’s appropriate to wear a t-shirt and jeans to an interview… It was at this point that I took off my baseball cap and Carson and I looked down at our jeans and hoodies. Oops… that happens when you’ve been living out of a Blazer and truck stops for two months. Oh, and by the way, they kicked our ass in pool.

Of all the numerous visits we’ve made in the course of this trip I think Luke will agree that our sit down with Ean and Erik Schuessler, the brothers behind Brain Food, was by far the most bizarre in terms of topics. Though I can assure you, somewhere within the sorted discussion of Patrick Nagel’s career, molecular physics, the clubbing of baby seals, and the cryogenically preserved heads of celebrities we managed to squeeze in some great thoughts on the current intersections of art, design, education and consumer culture.

With Ean coming from an educational background in computer science and Erik in fine art it was interesting to hear their opinion that design students may be better off getting a fine art education over attending a design school. The main reason for this being that design school doesn’t focus enough on art components and development off the computer, and while there are exceptions to this statement we all agreed that a wider variety of artist techniques needs to be fused into design education. What it really breaks down to in the study of both art and design is the understanding of general principles like mass and composition and having the ability to think loosely when applying that knowledge to studio time. This lead us to delved into the long standing debate of art vs design and whether or not design should be considered art.

Ean and Erik pointed out that the idea of the artist isolated, creating art for the sake of art is a lie. It is also impossible to think you can make something for sale without putting something of yourself into it. A successful artist is someone that figures out what they have to offer and then how to put it out there in a way that others will become excited about and appreciate. The same thing can be said for the work of agencies who create interest though more creative strategies be it viral marketing, internet buzz, or creating a form of cultural currency, it’s all a matter of creating ideas that sell a product though sheer consumer interest. The only real difference is commercial art gives you an infrastructure in which the art needs to be created. Sometimes this form of marketing is successful, but sometimes it backfires drastically, as in the case with Sony.

They also explained that fine artists often look down on commercial artists because they cater to the market, but with advances in technology the market has become so fluid with things like ebay, youtube, blogging and message boards that a market can be found or created for almost anything, and in effect the market now has come to work for the artist. Examples of this show with artists being commissioned to do original works which are then applied to thing like clothes, accessories, vinyl toys, or dozens of other products all for mass market, and while the art is done for a commercial purpose it’s not the output that inspires the art itself. In the end though its really a matter of finding something that you enjoy and seeing how far you can push it.

What is an Art Prostitute? Well thankfully it’s not Brian Gibb and Mark Searcy trying to flip a trick or two out on the dark streets of Dallas. Rather, Art Prostitute is a full service gallery space, publication and design studio all running under the same banner. Art Prostitute seeks to provide a holistic view of creative work across multiple disciplines and views, while the gallery space offers local and upcoming artists the chance to showcase their work to the public. We had the chance to corner Brian in the back of their gallery and over the course of an hour, picked his brain on all the things he’s learned over their three year progression.

While discussing the roots of creating Art Prostitute, Brian explained how running the publication has taught them the importance of thinking creatively beyond just the work, whether it be problem solving how to deal with old issues by turning them into special edition prints or finding vendors and outlets to distribute the publication, down to finding the best printing for their budget. And because of this learning curve Brian and Mark have become quite skilled at applying that knowledge to client based work, integrating design presentation and circulation across multiple media outlets while working within a budget.

Brain also touch on how students and young professional often talk about they’re great plan to work for a few years and then go out and start a studio on their own, Luke and myself are admittedly guilty of saying just as much. But Brian charged us with the question, why not just go and do it now? Explaining that if you have the drive then its possible but you have to be ready to put everything you have into it the project. Often times students only think of the positives that go along with being the boss, but often its the things that you have to give up and the secondary responsibilities that come along with running a business that disillusion people into giving up before they ever really get started.

Not only a business owner, Brian and Mark also manage to find the time to teach publication design at Texas A&M and through our discussion reiterated that students don’t take full advantage of what it means to be in that position. As a student you have a huge ability to experiment and explore things that you may never get to do in a professional setting, and yet for some reason students seem to spend so much time trying to make their work look professional for the real world and neglect to focus enough on the exploration process.

Quoting Michael Leon, Brian told us to “always put a little bit of yourself in everything you do and you will enjoy it that much more.” And stressed the importance of collaboration in design and art in general as well as the importance of finding new ways to keep the level of enthusiasm that first drove you into the creative arts going, because as a designer if you go home complaining about your job then maybe you should go and find a career worthy of complaining about.

I’m not sure how it all happened. Maybe there’s something in their water or we just got lucky to connect with the right people, but Dallas kicked our ass (in the best way possible). I believe the snowball began when Jeremy Wheat connected us with the DSVC and with photographer, Phil Hollenbeck. Now, there is nothing Jeremy could have done to prepare us for the experience that is … Phil.

Our first encounter with Phil was on our first day in Dallas; he called us while we in a coffee shop trying to set up interviews. From the get-go, Phil seemed determined to throw these two young graduates around Dallas’ design scene like a couple of over-loved rag dolls. He arranged meeting after meeting for us with the most amazing people.

Phil became our ambassador to Dallas, showing us the ins-and-outs of the city beyond the design studios. Driving us around in his art car, we went to an art gallery opening, a number of different eclectic bars, including my favorite, Lee Harvey’s, later off-roading through Dallas to get the “perfect skyline view”, and our first roller derby match, which was surprisingly awesome.

Beyond his photography, he genuinely inspired me with his energy, passion, and personality. When we sat down to interview him we didn’t ask our usual questions, I wanted to capture Phil as the unscripted soul that he is. Sharing stories, including everything from photographers like Duane Michals, to having a wrestler throwing his son around in a bunny suit, to hanging at Big Puffy Yellow Camp at Burning Man. Throughout our time with him, we talked a lot about passion and the direction that society and the creative scene was headed. Phil recalled the early days of Rough, when it was something done because you were pumped to share your passion for design and culture. Which lead to student apathy.  Even when we were in school, we heard how students don’t put themselves “out there” like they used to. Of course that’s a generalized view, but maybe the over-abundance of design students waters down the appearance of passion-density. Maybe technology has made it so simple to think that it’s easy to be a good designer, but it’s more than access to Creative Suite and design fundamentals, it needs passion and awareness. Similar to our frustration about the appreciation of good design, Phil was frustrated by those using stock photography. It means anyone with a digital camera can thinks they are a professional photographer. Stock makes it “easier” for designers and advertisers to plug-in images, but it is by no means “better.” It cheapens the appreciation of provocative professional photographers nationally. As design students with pride for our industry, we should have been collaborating with photography students instead of using Getty or Corbis.

Although nothing could douse Phil’s enthusiasm for sharing passions and stories, which is why I recommend that anyone creative that rolls through Dallas should call Phil up, buy him a beer, tell him a story, then listen to the hundreds of stories that he has to share…

When you first drive through this quiet neighborhood in McKinney, Texas you would never guess that behind one of these garage doors is working typographic history, Casey McGarr and Inky Lips Press. Prior to creating Inky Lips Press, Casey had been a creative director on projects for Fossil such as creating tins with the help of Hatch Show Print. From there it all started with a single 3×5 Kelsey Letterpress, and as Casey says, “that’s enough, but it wasn’t enough”. He began looking for larger poster presses where ever he could think of: church basements, old schools… ebay. Most of them needed to be cleaned up and restored to working condition. There is something ironic about having taught himself the art of letterpress by emailing other printers and doing research on the internet.

Advances in technology allow for faster, cheaper, more amazing design techniques, but it often distances the maker from the physical creation. There is great sense of satisfaction in holding a finished piece that one creates through hand-set type and hand-carved images. He does his own wood-carving, but for more intricate images Illustrator files can be turned into photopolymer, copper, or magnesium plates. For Casey the gratification of having complete control of the end results, the ability to play, and getting ink under his nails is therapeutic.

The plates vary by hardness, which endures hitting the paper harder than wood or metal type. The old timers of letterpress are more meticulous about the proper traditional practices of printing, and would scoff at modern printers deviation in pressure and other variables. The type is meant to “kiss” the paper without hitting the page too hard, although this is where you get deeper impressions and an enhanced tactile quality. Casey was catering to that school of though when naming his press Inky Lips, as he describes it, “kissing the paper with inky lips”. Virgil added, “it’s a hard, long kiss…” Virgil Scott teaches a few typography sections at Texas A&M Commerce, and was explaining how he wanted to bring his class to Inky Lips Press to give them first-hand experience with the original physical constraints of typesetting, like kerning and leading. It’s hard to say if students would become better at typography after exploring letterpress, however, at least for me it gave me new respect and appreciation for type.

Carson and I learned a lot about the origins of typography and the printing process at Oxford Press and the Typography Museum while we studied abroad in London. Those places can make letterpress seem so awesome that best left to those with vast rooms and tons of money, but I feel we left Inky Lips Press with a refreshed do-it-yourself-at-home-in-your-garage attitude… and we also left with a stack of kick-ass posters.