twelve.

Large post from 4 Formspring questions I received on Tumblr.

Designing via Formspring
I’m going to break up this question into two posts.

1) What/who is your biggest inspiration in designing?
2) How long have you been designing?

Extensive/tough question. I’ll do my best.

01. I could never answer this fully because my inspiration is really endless. Three things really drove me in innovative design when I started getting serious about it four years ago.

a) Shepard Fairey.  (Him and his work pictured above)
Shepard Fairey is an influential street artist that emerged from the skateboarding scene in Charleston, South Carolina and is popularly known for the Andre the Giant Has a Posse/Obey movement. Fairey’s work inspired me because of the challenges his art poses to his viewers. A lot of his work is propaganda/ad style prints that deal with social and political views. He is very similar to the european graffiti artist Banksy. Much of my studio work dealt with the idea of media lies and with what ease politicians and media figures could fool a nation.

b) Phenomenology.
Fairey also bases a lot of his work on phenomenology. Phenomenology in short is the idea of being aware/conscious of your surroundings. It’s philosophical, scientific and psychological – but in general is the idea of the immediate conscious experience.

c) “The medium is the message.” – Marshall McLuhan.
Simply the idea that it’s not WHAT you’re saying but how you’re saying it. With what means (medium) that you’re choosing to say it with is what’s important. It can be a lot more complex than that and Marshall McLuhan is a very influential scholar and figure in media theory. Any graphic artist needs to be well schooled in this type of thought, in my opinion.

.02 Hah, when does the timeline start? Designing in general five or six years. Designing well – as in, making quality work..a different story.

3) I see a tattoo in some of your pictures – did you design that too?
4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 50 years?

03. Yes. I have a fairly large tattoo on my left arm (right arm in photo booth, hah.) A lot went into the design of my tattoo. Started it when I was fifteen, the design is based off a Psalm that has defined a lot of my life. It’s painted on my walls in my room at my parents house, it’s plastered all over school notes and sketchbooks. I thought long and hard about it for three years before tattooing it on my arm and it means a lot to me. I also owe a lot toZack Spurlock and Anonymous Tattoo in Savannah for making it clean and tattoo-able. I wouldn’t get tattooed by anyone else.

04. I get this question a lot and I’ve faked a lot of papers with a lot of different answers. Two years ago I was supposed to go to a different school in a different state and study a different subject – instead I went to Africa and came back and ended up in my current state and my current school studying my current subject. That wasn’t in the plan. So I’m through with making them, really. Though I’m planless, I’m not directionless. There’s so many things I want to do and places I want to be and people I want to meet so I’m keeping my options open. I’m not signed off to any career or any boy but I do see myself in a creative career that means something to people and I do see myself eventually settling down with someone that means something to me.