09/04/2013
Check out this interview we did with Herman-Miller on the subject of present and future work at ETC.
For "Future Perfecting: How scenario planning at Herman Miller will help us create better places to work" we asked Geoff Halber and Kyle Blue, founders of the Brooklyn-based design studio ETC (Everything Type Company), to illustrate the future provocations presented at Herman Miller's most recent scenario planning session. Since ETC spent so much time thinking about what our guest experts believe the future of work will be, we thought it'd be nice to spend a little time getting to know what ETC's work life is like presently.
http://www.hermanmiller.com/why/future-perfecting.html
HM: How'd you guys get your start:
ETC: We first met in design school at NC State and later worked together at Dwell Magazine in San Francisco. At Dwell, we spent countless late nights working on the redesign of the magazine back in 2008. It was during one of those sessions that we started talking about opening up a studio together. Geoff left Dwell for grad school later that year, but we eventually starting working on a few more projects together, launched a website, and then we were asked to redesign SPIN magazine, which is what got the studio off the ground.
HM: Who are your design heroes:
ETC: Otl Aicher, Paul Rand, Karel Martens, Wim Crouwel, Wolfgang Weingart, Bruno Munari, Charles and Ray Eames, Julius Shulman, Simon Starling, Georges Perec, Alvar Aalto, Hella Jongerius, Herbert Bayer and William Morris.
HM: For "Future Perfecting", we asked you to illustrate pretty abstract concepts; how do you approach a project like that?
ETC: We listened to each lecture a couple of times, and started to apply some of the themes like transparency, porousness, and forecasting to visual concepts. The goal was to come up with something that felt both serious and playful. We used transparent grid paper to cue planning and sketching, but it was also a unifying device that focused the drawings regardless of how abstact they were. Then we realized that when the GIFs were more abstract, and less tailored to the specific ideas of the speakers, they became more flexible and better yoked to the broader theme of scenario planning. The header graphic was a quick typographic idea, but it took a long time to execute properly.
HM: What's a typical day at your studio like?
ETC: We both live a few miles from the studio. So ideally it starts with a bike commute. Over a walk to get coffee, we have our morning meeting and can talk about the plan for the day. Then we start. We design, have a few client meetings, send out many emails, and listen to a constant stream of music—that's pretty much it. We're always sharing our files with each other and critiquing each other's work. Somedays we keep our heads down and focus. Somedays it's less focused. There's a nice flow and change of pace each day.
HM:You guys designed the Miller House booklet Herman Miller produced in collaboration with Dwell magazine. If you had to choose to work with one of the original collaborators on the Miller House, who would it be: Saarinen, Girard or Eames?
ETC: What we love about that house is that it truly feels like a collaboration, or a conversation between multiple voices, but it's a seamless combination of clean lines and cozy colors and patterns. Our sensibility might be a bit more like that of an architect's, where decisions about structure or limited materials inevitably affect the final form, but we'd probably choose to collaborate with Girard to help break things up, to add some warmth and whimsy. We love his textiles, organic patterns, and use of color. Not to mention, his shared interest in typography.
Check out more of ETC's work here: http://everything-type-company.com/
