FullBleed

“I started working in graphic design in 1953, when it was called commercial art,” said Pat Taylor, a lifelong member of ADCMW. Over his career, he’s exercised his branding talents for agencies like Advertising Art & Copy, publications like LOOK Magazine, and the Creative Group, Inc.

He specialized in logo development and magazine design through his company, Pat Taylor, Inc., since 1969. Plus, he volunteered his free time with ADCMW and beyond by helping to build the Washington, DC, creative community.

“In 1971, I moved to DC and started all over again. I also taught at the Corcoran College of Art and Design for 10 years. Later, I received the Honorary Life Member award from the Art Directors Club of Metro Washington and the Fellow award from the AIGA-DC.”

So we wanted to know what someone with such recognition as Taylor — who retired in 2008 — considers the defining moments in his career.

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Illustration by: Kendrick Kidd

In the lovely state of Virginia where I reside, citizens are not required to designate a political party affiliation when registering to vote. For that reason, I’m hesitant to unveil my affiliation to all the designers in the DC metro area.

But, for the sake of this article, I’ll say that if Virginia did require citizens to declare their affiliation, my voter registration card would have a check in the box next to “Republican.”

It wasn’t until college that I realized I was somewhat alone in my political beliefs. During my freshman year, my roommate and every other girl on my floor was a die-hard Al Gore supporter. I never openly expressed my view of Al Gore because I was nervous to be seen as an outsider. Instead, I carried on and didn’t say much during the closest election since 1876.

From then on, I became acutely aware of my place in the political spectrum — especially among the girls who lived in my dorm. Surely, the designers with whom I was studying at the time didn’t feel the same way.

I was wrong, not to mention confused.

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I started to weave Randi Meredith’s answers to our Fresh Face questions into a narrative, but I felt compelled to leave her responses as-is. There are far too many details describing her that would otherwise be dropped … and then you wouldn’t get the full scope of Randi Meredith. Which would be a shame. – Steph

I’m from Shamokin, PA. I lived there for the first 18 years of my life then moved to Chestnut Hill, PA, for 2 years of school. After that I lived in King of Prussia & Phoenixville, PA for 6 years. Then off to Kutztown, PA for 4 more years of school.

I’m 29.

I’m the middle of three children all very close in age and raised by my mother. We are a very close group.

I only speak English but I can read Spanish in context. I love to travel and do so as often as possible. I’ve been in Cambodia, Thailand, Jamaica and took a sketching tour of Mexico. I’ve also traveled through the entire eastern seaboard and some of the mid-west.

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The Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington turns 61 years old this year. That’s an incredible amount of history and heritage, especially for a city of transients like DC. If you haven’t already, take a look at our history.

What you might already know is that, since the 50’s, ADCMW has put on a great variety of events and competitions for the local creative community. But have you ever wondered who makes this all happen?

The ADCMW Board of Directors comprises a group of passionate creatives who volunteer their time to organize events and work behind the scenes ensuring that DC creatives have the opportunity to network, compete, and hear great presentations from some of the most famous faces in design.

I’m just finishing up my first term as VP of Publications and am looking forward to being involved with ADCMW for a long time to come. Serving on the Board has been an eye-opening experience when it comes to understanding how much planning and effort it takes to to organize a successful event. I’ve gained a huge appreciation for the Club’s role in our community and have worked — and become friends with — some of the most talented creatives around.

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If you didn’t make it to our Talkin’ Type with House Industries event last week, I’m sorry, but you missed out on a great time. It’s understandable though, this month has been busy with back-to-back events by ADCMW and a number of other local organizations.

Rich Roat, co-founder of House Industries, shared his love for typography, the history behind House Industries, and the design process for several of their most popular type collections. On top of all that, he shared some of the new alphabet projects that we can expect to see in the very near future!

A big thanks to House Industries for letting us borrow Rich for the evening, Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts (CDIA) for providing their campus, Digi-Link for printing the event poster, and also a special thanks to our programs committee (Jessica Avison Eldredge and Selena Robleto) for bringing everything together.

Photo of Nationals Stadium by Nick Whitmoyer

The start of Spring, for me, isn’t the official date on the calendar, or the day I’m able to walk outside donning a fresh pedi and flip flops, but the day I get to sit in the sun with an italian sausage, draft beer, and watch nine innings of baseball. And on Saturday, April 3, during an exhibition game at Nationals Stadium against my home team, the Red Sox, Spring began.

Loving baseball and being a part of Red Sox Nation was unavoidable, growing up in the South Shore of Massachusetts. There’s not a memory of my summers that doesn’t include the sound of a game on a tv in the background, or a trip to Fenway on the itinerary. Aside from the constant reminder of the 1986 Halloween party that was ruined by Bill Buckner’s 1st base error thus developing my passion for the sport and my team, the little designer in me was also enamored by the branding of it all.

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“The mantra that I like to keep in the back of my head is ‘Wake Up and Live,’” says Erik Dreyer, the art director at Bethesda-based advertising and PR firm August, Lang, & Husak (ALH). “It was on a Bob Marley t-shirt I had when I was a kid. It helps me keep perspective on what’s important.”

And what’s important to Dreyer these days is planning his wedding with his fiancée Lauren, chairing the education group within a young professionals advertising organization called Ad 2 DC, and directing the creative endeavors of ALH. He says he approaches his contributions to these efforts and more “with the easygoing, free-spirited attitude that I snatched up in Cali.”
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Photo by Sean McCormick

In response to ADCMW interest last year when the Washington Post redesigned its magazine, our own John Foster interviewed WaPo’s Features Design Director, Janet Michaud. Thanks to Janet for taking time to candidly respond to questions from members of the DC creative community, and for giving us all some insight on how WaPo is continuing to evolve its brand.
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Photo by Pat Padua

I should tell you up-front that this is not a Snowmageddon story or a tale of Washington’s winter woes of 2010. No, it’s nothing like that. In fact, the story starts about five years ago when DC winters produced a few dustings of snow each year, and the stretch of non-federal holidays from President’s Day to Memorial Day was what we feared most in the mid-winter months before the approaching Spring. And, come to think of it, it hasn’t got much to do with the weather at all.

It’s about connections. And, of course, I am referring to the Butterfly Effect; a metaphor encapsulating the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely, that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce— Wait a second. There’s an easier way…

Just as the story in the film “Juno” “all started with a chair,” this one quite literally started with a pair of earmuffs. No, nobody got pregnant. But I did get a job — for a while.

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One of the regular features here on FullBleed is our “Three Questions” article. Throughout the year, we hand the microphone over to our fellow ADCMW members to answer questions that plague the creative community. We’ve recently switched the format of “Three” from asking three questions over the course of a month, to asking three chosen creatives a single question every month. Got all that?

For each article we also spotlight a featured illustrator who is assigned the vague task of “representing the number three in some shape, as obvious or abstract as you want”. Being the end of the year, it’s a good time to gather up all their creativity and to learn a little more about 2009’s featured “Three” illustrators.
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