Study Task 2

TASK
Choose 3 of your Designers, Studios, Practitioners, and find out everything you can about their professional life.
— Place of work, studio, office, desk? — Employees, employment, job role — Business model, finances, hours
— Type of work, approach, associates

INITIAL LIST

1. Rosie Lee Wilson - UK graphic designer - print and publications
2. Timothy Luke - NYC graphic designer - motion, branding, type
3. Leah Maldonado - US graphic designer - type, publication
4. Rohan Chaurasie - NYC graphic designer - type and poster
5. Studio Darius Ou - Singapore studio - art direction and graphic design
6. Sangah Shin - South Korea graphic designer and visual researcher
7. FISK Projects - US Portland design studio and art gallery
8. Superkolor Studio - EU German design studio specialising in Risograph printing

3 CHOSEN

1. Leah Maldonado
2. FISK Projects
3. Superkolor Studio

Leah Maldonado

• Recently graduated from Portland State University with a degree in Graphic Design (2016 - 2019)
• Worked at Future Fonts LLC (Oct 2018 to Dec 2019), a very small graphic design company based in Portland
• Currently working at Wieden + Kennedy, an independent Marketing and Advertising company based in Portland with branches in New York, Amsterdam, Tokyo, London, Delhi, Shanghai & São Paulo. (Dec 2019 - now)
• Following Nike, Wieden + Kennedy, PSU, Instrument, Fresh Consulting and supermorebetter on LinkedIn.
• Hosting an exhibition based on her large design project, Glyphworld, at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Portland
• "Leah Maldonado is an analytical and experimental designer skilled in type design, iterative process, and research, looking to understand the impacts of visual language through conceptual ideas existing in the medium of letterforms." https://psu.gd/fresh/archive/2019/fall/leah-maldonado
• She specialises in type design, identity systems, editorial design, copy writing, fashion
• Used to animate - has many animations uploaded on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/192714250
• Collaborated on animations with Occulist (Vimeo) - an animations project that she was a part of but has since ended.
• "I’m an analytical freakazoid that’s into experimenting with letterforms, creating identities, and pushing the boundaries of how big an inDesign file can be."
• Leah is a graphic designer interested in experimenting with letterforms, textiles, identities, publications, and a little Numark Party Mix DJ controller.
• Projects include: Glyphworld Typeface, Glyphworld Exhibit, More Type Design, Clickbait Mag: Deep Fake Issues, Alter Ego

FISK Projects

• FISK is a Portland based design studio, contemporary art gallery and store.
• FISK was founded in 2009 by Iranian-American designer Bijan Berahimi as a school project while studying at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia, CA. 
• It's inspired by the rich community and culture of alums, students, and faculty there, it has become an ongoing project that takes many shapes and sizes. All based around culture, community and commerce through the lens of art and design. 
• FISK Gallery was founded by Bijan and Michael Spoljaric in 2014.
• Their approach to their work is to "do what we love and we love what we do." They approach their work with a playful and open mindset and play with the mentality that art and design is a holistic practice, and works together. "We believe the fluidity between the two disciplines is inherent, complementary, and necessary. We do not see a dividing line between the two, just a harmonious relationship." https://www.fiskprojects.com/about
• Their biggest design value is diversity, and they aim to create a practice that represents "the wide ranging ethnicities, voices, and backgrounds of our team, clients, collaborators, artists and consumers."
• They choose to go against just digital media, "In a world that is shifting from offline to online, we are mindful of the physicality of what we do."  Their portfolio is physical, such as publications, exhibitions, album covers, posters, clothing etc. "Our work is intended to be tangible—held and experienced. Therefore we work with the way a piece of paper feels in your hands or the way you move through a space in mind. From printed collateral to gallery openings, we invest in the experiences that come from equal physicality."
• Once or twice a year they offer an internship to students and recent grads to provide a positive work experience. It's called Free Lunch, and it's inspired by Bijan's experience working at Smog where they provided a sit-down meal once a day to allow the staff to reconnect. They offer interns a chance to  practice design, typography, image-making, and illustration. 
• Full Time hours are 32-40 hours, and need 1-3 years of experience. Offer a 3 month contract that can lead to a full time contract.

Superkolor Studio

• Design studio specialising in Risograph printing, run by two brothers, Julian and Henrick Klein.
• Located in Münster, Germany.
• "We advise, design and implement design concepts digitally and in print. Our focus is on corporate design, branding, risography and meaningful digital appearances."
• They use the MZ770 Risograph printer, which prints A3, and allows colours black, metallic gold, medium blue, bright red, purple, yellow, fluorescent pink, fluorescent orange, white, fluorescent yellow, fluorescent green which is a much more varied and unique colour range to most Risograph studios.

PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Die stamping - Steel engraving, Industrial screen printing, Letterpress, Risography, Manual screen-printing, Special colour, White Ink, Creasing/Scoring

MATERIALS

Rough, Envelopes, Labels, Extrarough Recycling, Extrarough, Rough 5%, Pure Cotton, Craft

PROCESSING / FINISHING

Perforation, Punching / Die Cutting, Embossing, UV-varnish partial, Dispersion varnish flat, Dispersion varnish partial

PRINT PROJECTS

Business card, Invitation card, Envelopes - printed to the edge, Envelopes - nearly printed to the edge, Unprinted Envelopes, Address label, Sticker, Flyer, Brochure, Magazine, Poster, Catalogue, Booklet, Book, Calendar, Packaging

ORDER SIZE

Small orders (up to 100) personalised, Small orders (up to 100) standardised, Mid-size order (up to 1.000) standardised, Big-size order (> 1.000) standardised

SUSTAINABILITY

Carbon Neutral