Study Task 5 - Writing the interview

Initial Research gathered:

• 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

Points from Alex Dudson's talk

• Have a look on their social accounts to get an idea of their availability and interests - base your interview questions on their interests that they show on their social media such as things that aren't part of their design practice but relate.
• The better you understand your subjects, the better quality of questions that you'll write and a better chance of getting them to respond - need to structure these so I can get detailed, insightful responses.

Points for the interview

• Ask her about her jobs at Future Fonts LLC, and Wieden + Kennedy. What were her roles, and did any of her projects really stand out to her? 
• Ask about her approach to type design - how does she begin coming up with the idea and how does she realise it? Researching process, sketch process, softwares, etc.
• Glyphworld - what inspired it, and what made it translate into an exhibition using textiles and other mediums?
• Outside interests - Numark Party Mix DJ controller, biggest inDesign file she's ever had?
• Article on It's Nice That - how I found her and how did she get the interview?
• Her other projects - More Type Design, Clickbait Mag, Alter Ego, OTF Club - biggest as there's a separate instagram
• Her animations... how that progressed into graphic design.

Moving Forward

Need to research more indepth, focusing on the points for the interview that I've selected. Based on feedback from tutors and Alex Dudson, I need to avoid asking generic questions that have already been asked before, especially since Leah has had interviews, especially the most recent one on itsnicethat that covers alot of what I'm interested in, so I have to find out things that are new and more specific to what I want to know.