Interviews With Hinterland/Music

My Lulu.com order has been updated to shipped so hopefully it will arrive in time now. However, when I checked my email today it said I had received a response from Hinterland. It says it was sent on 20th August, just a few hours after I sent my order to Lulu. It then appeared in my inbox about 3 times so I think they must've had some trouble with servers or something. So unfortunately, I can't include it in the book, which is such a shame because Scott has answered these so thoroughly! The things hes written are very interesting so I suppose it benefits me anyway. I will post it here instead. I've also received an email from Music today asking if I still want it doing, so I've not got the answers but at least they've responded.

Here is my interview with Scott from Hinterland:

1) What first made you interested in graphic design, in particular typography and layout?
To be quite honest, growing up I had absolutely no concept of graphicdesign as a career. Around the age of 12 I created a logo for a local snowboard shop. The name of the shop was Eastern Snowboard Supplies. All I wanted to do was draw a guy on on a snowboard with the initials for the shop 'ESS' on the bottom of the board. The owner insisted I include the entire name; the phone number and it all must fit in a circle for printing purposes when making stickers. I guess that was my first unintentional experience with graphic design.

2) How did you start out in graphic design, and get yourself noticed in the industry?
After graduating from High School I hopped around a bit attending a few universities before I landed at School of Visual Arts in New York City. After a foundation year in design I had only a very basic understanding of design but I found work at a small design studio in Italy for a few months (Hand Made Group) mostly working on newsletters, brochure and clothing labels for textile companies. After I returned to NYC I had to enroll in my 3rd year classes at SVA. Almost all the professors who teach there are working professionals in the design field so I searched out the ones with the best reputations and enrolled in their classes. I landed a class with the extremely talented Carin Goldberg and that is essentially where my 'design career' began. She helped me land an internship with Abbott Miller, a partner at Pentagram, which then led to a full-time position with another partner there, Woody Pirtle. I spent 2 years at Pentagram then I moved on to work on a magazine launch after which I founded Hinterland in 2003.

3) What does an average day consist of for you?
I definitely have a daily routine. I get into the office early before everyone else when it is still quiet. First I put on my slippers (we all wear MUJI slippers here, a uniform of sorts... comfort is king), make an espresso, read the news online, answer emails, and maybe peruse a few blogs before tackling the 2-do list for the day.

4) Who/What has been your inspiration for your design work?
Big studios, small studios, and greats from design history and present-day talents... the list is endless. A small sampling would be: Lester Beall, Paul Rand, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Chermayeff Geismar, Herb Lubalin, Josef Frank, Dick Bruna, John Gall, Chip Kidd, Abbott Miller, Luke Hayman, Vince Frost, etc

5) How much does budget play a part in your design process?
There are three basic ways to look at a budget. Good work / Bad pay, Bad work / Good pay, and Good work / Good pay (there is always a fourth option that is an obvious NO... Bad work / Bad pay). Every studio has to entertain these options at various points but the right balance must be found.

6) How important is the cover of a publication as opposed to the design of the inner spreads?
They are both equally important from a design perspective but if you were to ask a person on the sales side of a magazine they would most likely say the cover would be the most important. In a traditional sense a magazine is to be purchased on a newsstand. All sorts of criteria must be taken into account when the magazine is displayed; logo placement, cover lines, UPC Symbol, etc.

7) When you develop a design, in what order do you undertake a project and
then in which order do you work?
Research, Research, Research, Write, and Design. The more informed you are when designing the greater possibility of an outcome that will satisfy the end user and client. Designing is like an equation in mathematics except that 2 + 2 does not equal 4, that would be too simple. Instead we end up with Form + Content equals the 'Finished Product'.

8) What attributes should a good layout have and why?
Essentially it should never be form over function. Editorial design should not be decoration. When designing a page we must keep in mind formal elements such as scale, color, texture, image placement, etc. but never forget the content we are working with which provides the designer with multiple puzzle pieces to use... a well written Hed, Dek, Drop Caps, Intro, Body copy, Captions, Pull Quotes, Folios, Headers, Footers, etc. The more points of entry on a page the more opportunity the designer has to engage and excite the reader.

9) What considerations need to be made when developing a layout for
editorial design?
I guess you can refer to questions 6 and 8 for the answers. I don't think I can add much more.

10) Which publications do you think are particularly well designed?
Present publications... WIRED, Work, 2wice, Monocle, Frame, New York Times, Sunday Magazine, BIG, etc.
Past Publications... LIFE, The FACE, Grafik, Avante Garde, etc.

11) Where do you see editorial design heading in the future?
One word... IPAD.

Even though I love the printed page and the smell of fresh ink right from the press it does seem to be an important piece of technology. It may not kill the printed magazine but the way the reader experiences editorial content will change and these changes will definitely be incorporated into a printed piece in the future.

12) Anything else you’d like to add, or any other advice you could give to a budding designer?
Cliché as it may sound. Love what you do, do what you love... Ignore the paycheck (for a bit that is)