Welcome back! Today is the third and final installment of our Jordan Jelev interview. From classic calligraphy to modern typographic masterpieces, Jordan has found a real niche for beautiful labels in the wine industry.

Dave Hile: You have an impressive range of styles, from an ornamental calligraphic style to a sleek modern typographic approach. How did you develop your strong type design skills?

Jordan Jelev: I am both a typography addict and a professional calligrapher, which sets me free in type design. My work might be improved by using some digital fonts, but in many situations you have to switch to custom lettering unless you don’t want to have just “another ordinary design.” Custom lettering is my specialty—it is one of those things that makes my designs more distinguished and recognizable. It is somehow like a personal signature that brings more and more identity to the final product. We are in the 21st century now—everything in our life is so plastic, synthetic and automatic. I think it is good for a digital artist to have experience as a craftsman. I’ll give you an example from March of this year. I was designing the new labels of the Royal Selection wine range (domaineboyar.com). I started looking for some interesting font set to write the word Royal in a more artistic manner—it took me nearly three days and I was still unsatisfied with the result. I used my quills and it took me one more day to do the custom lettering for the same word—the result was amazing.

The background of my custom lettering history starts in my near past. I got a present from my father and my wife—a set of automatic pens and an old bottle filled with ink. Up to that day I had so many digital fonts in my head, and when I grabbed the pens I thought I could write every one of them.

DH: Aside from the typography, you show a lot of innovation in the textures and shapes of your labels—in the planning process, do you tend to envision all these elements as one entity, or do you tend to focus on one element separately and then build the others around it?

JJ: The shape and the texture are design elements, too. They significantly improve the communication between the product and consumers. Imagine that you are 3-4 meters away from the bottle of wine in the store; what you see first is the bottle shape, the label shape, and probably some basic colors—that’s what our eyes produce as an image to our brain. The closer you get to the bottle, the more things you start to see better and better till the moment you have it in your hands, where you can touch it, feel it, maybe even smell it—and finally remember it (and buy it, of course).

All those textures, shapes, varnishes, embossing, etc. are important parts of my design—some projects need to use all of them at once, others don’t need them. It just depends on what both the designer and the market experts say and want from the final product.

DH: You’ve done a lot of work for Bulgarian companies. Are you looking to expand into new markets in other countries?

JJ: Bulgaria will always be an interesting place not only for wine label design, but for the whole wine industry, so I’m really happy to work for our native wineries. I am also focused on approaching some foreign clients from the U.S., South America, Australia and South Africa.

Maybe I should use your “Reverse Method” to approach them—start with a bottle of wine and then send an email! DH: Thanks for all the great insight into your work, your process, and your background, Jordan. It’s been fascinating to learn about design in Bulgaria, and we hope to see your labels gracing the shelves of American wine shops soon!

Visit Jordan Jelev or Factor R Studio to see more about Jordan.

Today we have part two of our three-part interview featuring Jordan Jelev, the vastly talented Bulgarian label designer. Also known as “The Labelmaker,” Jordan gives us an in-depth view of his career and his process, as well as some excellent examples of his work. Make sure to visit soon for the third and final installment.

Dave Hile: What does your creative process entail? Do you taste the wine before designing the label? Do you research the vineyard’s other offerings? For example, on the Bulgarian wine +359 design (which is based on the country’s international phone code), you utilized the type font from the Bulgarian Post in the 1960s. Do you always think so carefully about historical or social aspects of the design?

Jordan Jelev: I did not expect it would turn into a normal practice, but the answer is yes—I always taste the wine before starting my work. It is a significant part of the process. When you design the outer part, you have to know what is inside the bottle in order to make a connection between them and to portray it correctly to the buyer of the product. So when you know what’s inside the bottle, it’s really easy to design a label for it. This makes the whole thing 100% authentic because all the elements of the final product are related to one another. I don’t go crazy finding and creating such relationships between history, wine itself, design, or even aspects of consumer psychology, but I do think that if there is a significant story related to the product, we should bring it forward and show it to people.

DH: Do you have a few favorite labels you’ve designed that you’d like to share with us? Why are these your favorites?

JJ: Sure, though I might say I like all of them.

I am in such a creative period in my development that I am beginning to understand the sense of being different in the wine industry.

I started to think differently when I was creating a label following my new formula—which is, that there has to be something remarkable about the label so people can remember it.

There are several examples of my new period—Rousse Rose is one of them. I decided to make a label based entirely on custom modern typography. So I designed letters consisting of small dots overprinted with puff up varnish. The result was amazing—the letter looked like it was made of small led lights. I believe this label is a good example of modern thinking, considering the fact that I am addicted to vintage typography and calligraphy. So this label was kind of unusual for me. Another good example of my more modern design is my latest work for Sarva, and the Project Wines by Dragomir Winery. I had a wonderful time working for those people, and the result was surprising even to me. The whole design is based on the welding and intersecting of three elements, because the wines were a blend of three grape varieties.

We used ultra-gloss, silver-coated, self-adhesive foil to print the labels on and when used in combination with my favorite puff-up varnish, the result was a great success.

Now to the old classics—A few years ago, I began wanting to design a label that says everything about my skills, technical experience, calligraphy—everything about me as a professional creative. That turned out to be my Shiraz Label created for PVN brand.

The label is 100% hand-crafted, against all the supermoderndigitalhyperturbo 21^st-century technology. I drew it on a sheet of A4-size paper. I photographed it then transferred it to polymer plates and printed it in my kitchen in the cold winter of 2007 at 3 a.m. in the morning.

That label was great fun for me—I still recall it time and again.

Stay tuned for part 3…

Today we post the first of a three-part interview with Bulgarian wine label designer Jordan Jelev, otherwise known as “The Labelmaker.” In the interview, Jordan gives us such a fascinating look at his career and the way he thinks that we wanted to share every word with you. Be sure to come back for the second and third installments, which we’ll post within the next week.

Dave Hile: Jordan, thanks for agreeing to talk with us. First of all, could you provide a little background for us? You didn’t go to school for design, so how did you end up designing professionally?

Jordan Jelev: My design career is a mixture of my daily life events, personality and some strange coincidences. I graduated from the High School of Mathematics in Bulgaria, then I got my economics degree and finally became a graphic designer and calligrapher. It’s a long story!

There is a connection between all these things, though, from my youth up until now. I’ve always had an addiction to stuff like typography, graphic design, packaging, architecture and so on. These addictions allowed me to eventually focus every bit of my individuality, creativity and energy to becoming a visual artist.

DH: And with very successful results! I know you design labels and packages for other industries, but I want to discuss your wonderful wine labels. Did you intentionally set out to design wine labels or did it just begin as an assignment? Was it something that you immediately felt you had a knack for or did you grow into it gradually?

JJ: My wine label experience first started as an assignment, but then it turned into a passion, and then a lifestyle, I might say. In the 1990s I was commissioned to create names for two new wine brands and then to use those new brand names to create two different wine ranges: the Regalis Wines and the Nobilitas wines. This began a whole new stage in my life—both as an individual and as a professional. The truth is that I had some really confusing thoughts at the very beginning about creating a wine label design, but it actually took me a very short time to get inside the problems and specifics of this type of design. Then came the passion—and now I am here.

HD: Let’s talk a little about how you work—do you work independently, taking on freelance assignments, or are you part of a bigger firm?

JJ: To answer the question fairly, I must say that I do both, but it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. I have worked for nearly 13 years for Factor R Studio, but my status there is far more than just being a designer hired by a company. I don’t think it makes any difference for the client whether someone approaches me via Factor R or epixs.eu (the official site of Jordan Jelev, the Labelmaker)—they will eventually find me.

DH: Now that you have such a solid reputation for your design niche, do you depend on word of mouth to market yourself or do you advertise your services?

JJ: I have never used any kind of ad to promote my business. Maybe here is the place to mention that for the past two years I have spent a lot of time on the Internet in different design forums, Facebook, and many other places like those. The result is amazing—I have connected with many, many new and interesting people (like you, Dave, for example), and now I feel more like an international designer rather than just a Bulgarian designer. I think the Internet offers a very positive change—it sets a view to brand-new horizons and opportunities worldwide.

DH: Back to the wine labels—I’m just curious: Have you ever tasted a bottle of wine and enjoyed it so much that you contacted the vineyard in hopes of working together?

JJ: (Laughs) No, never did that before. Maybe I should try it—it’s like reversing the process!

To be continued …

I am very happy to interview the well-known Toronto, Canada based illustrator Charlene Chua. She is someone that I have kept my eye on over the past several years, and I am a big fan of hers. A couple of the things that impress me about Charlene are her clearly defined style(s) and her ability to promote herself so successfully; landing a steady flow of assignments is not an easy task in today’s competitive illustration market.

Dave Hile: Hi Charlene. Could you give me a brief summary of your background? How did you end up making a living as a working illustrator?

Charlene Chua: Hi Dave! Thanks for including me in your lovely interview series!

I started work over 10 years ago back in Singapore. My first job was at a company that produced CD-ROMs and later, websites. I started out illustrating and designing screens for CD-ROM content and later moved on to designing websites. Later, I got a job as an interactive producer and interactive project manager.

I originally wanted to be an illustrator but there were no schools for it in Singapore, and my family could not afford to send me overseas to study. At the time there were no grants for that kind of thing, either. I more or less forgot about it until I met my future husband, who encouraged me to make a go at illustration. It was tough giving up my job and a stable income, although by that point I was quite tired of the office routine.

I took to drawing comics for no-name independent companies that offered little or no pay. In retrospect it was not the best idea, but it did get me back into the groove of drawing (I’d stopped drawing for about 3 years at that point). Eventually I started to get a trickle of illustration jobs, and after some time I had enough work to support myself through such projects.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all shopped for groceries. It’s part of our daily, weekly or bi-monthly routine. We may experience shopping either as a mundane routine to be endured, or as some in our office have confessed, a fun and relaxing “event.” We all have brands that we buy regularly, others we don’t like and still others that we are willing to try out. Our decisions for the brands we buy can be shaped by word of mouth, trial and error, and advertising and packaging. Products might tout a newly added ingredient (“New and Improved!”) or position themselves with price versus value, nutritional benefits or some other determiner that’s important to us. Some on our staff have even bought products based solely on how cool the package design is—but of course designers are not your typical demographic consumer group!

As we reach for that can of green beans, jar of facial cream or box of breakfast cereal, we may not be aware of all the brainstorming, research and marketing that goes on in support of the products we buy.

This past year a local brand innovation firm, The Arbor Strategy Group (ASG), was acquired by GfK, the world’s fourth largest marketing research firm, and is now known as GfK Strategic Innovation, GfK’s global innovation practice area. The company helps their clients address a variety of growth issues through strategic brand innovation by utilizing a process of identifying relevant, high-potential market opportunities and developing successful new concepts and products to fill those spaces.

GfK Strategic Innovation’s Phil Roos has agreed to share with us about his own background, some insights regarding product branding, and how his company does what it does.

Hile Design: Hi Phil, thanks for taking time to speak with us. For starters, please tell us about your own professional background and how you ended up founding ASG.

Phil Roos: I have a strange background. I started as a CPA, but never actually practiced the craft, and decided instead to go into marketing. I was in brand management at Quaker Oats, where I worked on granola bars and cereals, and I ran the Gatorade business as my last assignment. Since then, I’ve been president of a cookie and snacks company, head of marketing at Little Caesars Pizza, and held a similar position at a leading lawn and garden chain—with a couple of stints in consulting along the way. I have a resume only a consultant would love.

I started Arbor Strategy Group in 1998 as a boutique growth-strategy consulting firm. In 2001, we bought what we now call NewProductWorks, our innovation center located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It contains the world’s largest physical collection of innovative new consumer products from around the world. We track every new product launch across 300-plus product categories globally, and procure samples of the most innovative for our collection. We also have a database and analytical interface of global new product launches that we use to understand patterns in how categories develop and what innovation will work at a given period in the category’s evolution. We have a tool called the Innovation Tree® that we use to predict what type of innovation will be successful in the future. That has transformed our business, as we now have a way to make disruptive innovation predictable. We now can truly show clients how we can help them to “See the Future” and “Be the Future”—to figure out where the big opportunities of the future are, and then develop winning ideas that will help them capture those opportunities.

We were recently acquired by GfK, which has allowed us to truly apply our knowledge on a global footprint, as GfK has offices and local expertise in over 100 countries.

HD: Wow, you’re right, that’s quite a resume. And I wonder how you stay so fit and trim while working with all those snacks, cookies and pizzas? You must have strong willpower!

I remember the first time I visited your office (which is very cool) here in Ann Arbor. When I walked in and saw your NewProductWorks, I thought I’d entered a grocery store! It’s really fun and informative to select a product from the collection and see its marketing history expressed through its various packaging and messaging over the years. I also enjoyed seeing products and packaging from different parts of the world—fascinating.

Speaking of packaging, share with us what makes for an effective brand, and how do consumers’ buying habits affect the messaging of a brand?

PR: The most successful brands are able to connect with consumers’ emotional needs. This is particularly true of brands that cross multiple categories. They “own” a consumer emotional space that allows them to transcend the dynamics of different categories. Beyond emotional benefits, what is critical is that the brand backs that up with the product features and functional benefits that are right for a particular point in time. Consumer emotions don’t change much, but the features and functional benefits they see as addressing those needs change all the time. Hitting the market with the right message and product bundle at the right time is critical to success.

HD: Got it. I bet a lot of people reading this article don’t realize that emotion is a part of their buying process, but it is.

Does the process differ between rebranding an existing product compared to launching a new product?

PR: Truthfully, there isn’t much difference. The key is in understanding where the market and consumer are in their evolution, and delivering the right bundle of benefits to match the current and emerging needs. With an existing brand, you have the existing equity and baggage of the brand to fit into the equation. That means that whatever track you take in addressing the market opportunity needs to be approached through the lens of all of the good and bad that the brand brings to the situation.

HD: Yes, one brand that comes to mind in terms of consumer evolution is how Cheerios has adjusted its marketing message to position itself as more than just a nutritional cereal. With the aging of the U.S. population, it now includes messaging about its cholesterol lowering benefits.

You mentioned that one of the reasons that companies come to you is to help them determine future consumer buying trends. Can you share more about NewProductWorks (NPW), and how it is used in this process?

PR: NPW plays a key role both in “See the Future” (i.e. identifying the big future strategic opportunities for innovation) and in “Be the Future” (i.e. developing specific winning innovation concepts/ideas). In “See the Future,” the product collection and database are central to analyzing innovation patterns to determine “what’s next” in terms of successful innovation in a category or market space.

HD: I see. Can you share about the process of product ideation—that is, when your team and the client meet to work together? What does a day of ideation look like?

PR: Among other things, our consulting and client teams (and even consumers) “shop the collection” for inspiration from other categories, other parts of the world and other points in time (we have about 30 years of historical product categories, and I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “there is no such thing as a new idea…”) to generate ideas for a market space or category in which they are trying to innovate.

HD: Can you share with us what you see as growth spaces within the grocery industry in the next 10 to 15 years?

PR: In our model, we think about there being four cornerstone consumer motivators that drive consumer interest in any given product or product category: Gratification, Wellness, Convenience and Safety. Gratification is where you’d find benefits like taste, indulgence and customization “for me”—anything that says, “I’m worth it”—and the other three motivators are probably pretty self-explanatory. There are many different dimensions of each (e.g. under Wellness, you can have Holistic Wellness, Prevention of Disease, Performance, etc.). We see a future with tremendous advancements against all of these drivers, as consumers look for ever more powerful ways of getting their needs met. We see particular advancements in Wellness and Safety. We expect to see many more food and grocery items that purport to prevent disease and to deliver an even higher order of wellness needs, such as giving you a sense of personal fulfillment and well being. In the Safety area, we expect continued advancements in the area of sustainability: from natural, to organic, to locally grown, to new and more advanced ways of “doing the right thing” for your community and the planet. It should be an exciting next decade.

HD: I’m particularly happy to see companies being more concerned about sustainability. Since our own firm creates packaging for several different industries I can say that this is at the forefront of much of today’s packaging. For instance, there are new blister plastics created from cornstarch, as opposed to petroleum-based chemicals. Although they aren’t quite as clear as the traditional petrol plastics, a lot of research is going into refining the new materials so that they are of equal quality, while being biodegradable.

As mentioned earlier, last year your company was bought by the German marketing research agency, GfK AG. Was selling the company that you founded a difficult decision to make, and could you describe the benefits that you’re seeing with the new relationship?

PR: Partnering with GfK was an easy decision for us—a natural given where we were in our growth trajectory. The innovation business is becoming increasingly global, and being part of GfK gave us the ability to much more easily serve large global clients across multiple geographies. GfK also brought other infrastructure benefits that would have been difficult for a company our size to build on our own. So, it was a good match.

HD: Sounds like it’s what you needed to do to stay competitive. We just hope your branch stays here in Ann Arbor. We like you guys.

Finally Phil, get innovative. If you were a brand of beer, would you be a pale ale, a lager or a fancy import?

PR: Beer, like every other consumer product, is occasion-driven. When I’m having a special “me moment,” I’m a super-premium Weiss beer. When I’m watching the Red Wings with my brother, Bud Light does just fine.

HD: Thanks Phil. We wish your company continued success, and we’ll be thinking of you next time we’re buying groceries. I don’t suppose you hand out savings coupons, do you? No, didn’t think so!

For more information about The Arbor Strategy Group (GfK Strategic Innovation) and NewProductWorks, visit Arbor Strategy’s website.

Today it is my pleasure to showcase my good friend, the talented, award-winning illustrator Thodoris Tibilis. Thodoris, based in Athens, Greece, has worked for leading advertising agencies throughout Europe and the USA, including McCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO and Ogilvy & Mather. His clients include Coca Cola, Fiat, Procter & Gamble, Heinz and the 2004 Olympic Games as well as many others. He specializes in commercial assignments that call for funny, energetic and humorous characters aimed primarily at the child and young adult markets.

If you are like me, you may not have a clue about what the advertising world is like beyond the shores of the USA, so let’s find out.

Hile Design: Hi, Thodoris. Let’s start with the fact that you live and work in Greece, a small country compared to the United States, where most of our readers are from. Can you tell us about what it is like to make a living as a commercial illustrator in Greece, and a bit about the overall advertising industry in your country?

Thodoris Tibilis: Hi, Dave! Though Greece is a small country, many international ad agencies are located here. From my personal experience of working with ad agencies both in Greece and in other countries, I’d have to say the experience is about the same. The main difference is an issue of exposure. When you work for a Greek ad agency, most of the time your exposure is limited to the Greek market. Of course there are always exceptions. I have created illustrations for Greek ad agencies that have been used in many foreign markets as well.

But when you work for an American ad agency the exposure is greater. The target market is much bigger to begin with, and the benefits to the illustrator don’t stop there, because you have the possibility of reselling additional rights through different channels.

So far, my responses have concerned the commercial [agency] illustration market.  Things are not so optimistic if we talk about the book publishing industry in Greece. Publishers here pay very small project fees and demand that they receive complete illustration copyrights forever! It is outrageous but sadly, it’s common! That is why the majority of the talented Greek illustrators are working as freelancers worldwide or for Greek-based ad agencies and not for book publishers.

Actually, there are only a few Greek commercial illustrators who make a living at it, because the market is small here and there’s a lot of competition. It takes time and effort to became one of them, but when you succeed you are rewarded.

The overall advertising industry in Greece produces very high quality work, and things are getting better year by the year. Some campaigns from these agencies are used internationally and many Greek ad agencies have been recognized in international competitions.

HD: As you mentioned, besides Greece, you work for clients in other European countries as well as the USA. What are some additional differences that you experience when working with clients outside your country?

TT: The main difference I experience when working for ad agencies in foreign countries is the many miles separating us. But thanks to the Internet this issue has largely been resolved. Unfortunately though, I don’t have the opportunity for direct interpersonal communication. Another thing to mention is that the legal contracts differ from country to country, due to varying laws.

Also, different countries belong to different time zones and, especially when a project is in progress, you have to be available at all hours of the day and night. Of course the currency is different, but that is a minor problem. The last difference I should mention is that promoting yourself to ad agencies in different countries makes for an awful lot of self-promotion.

HD: I bet it does. Let’s turn to your background. Growing up did you always know you wanted to be an illustrator? And what is your educational background?

TT: As a child I didn’t know what I wanted to become professionally. But from early childhood I always enjoyed drawing and making sculptures and handcrafts. Even though I successfully graduated from university with a degree in economics the only thing I truly learned is that I knew what I should avoid! So I am a self-taught illustrator. It took me many years after university to realize that I wanted to be an illustrator, mainly because I didn’t even know whether there was such a profession that could sustain me.

HD: For a self-taught illustrator you certainly have learned your lessons well. You have such a great style. Your cartoon characters have a lot of vitality and energy, and they definitely appeal to the kids’ market. Is this the subject and cartoon style you have always worked in, or did it evolve over time?

TT: As a self-taught artist I have tried many media that I discovered in art stores without knowing how to use most of them at first. Different media led me to different forms of art. Through this procedure my main cartoon style evolved over time.

DH: Speaking of different media, I know that you have recently been experimenting with creating characters in clay, which you then photograph. What led to trying this new medium?

TT: I like to experiment! It’s fun and I believe that it is extremely helpful to spend some time trying to express oneself in new ways. At the least it charges my batteries and gives me new ideas. This is true whether it leads me into a new style or just expands my horizons in my current style.

HD: Let’s talk about workload. As an illustrator myself, I know that life can be filled with industry ups and downs. Depending on the project, one day I’ll feel on top of the world and the next I can feel like no one in the world likes my work. Can you share with us the most enjoyable and rewarding project you have ever worked on, and conversely, the worst, most horrible job?

TT: It’s nice to know that I am not alone in this world. I share the same ups and downs (fortunately for me, more ups than downs), but I know now after 15 years as a professional, that this is the reality of being an illustrator.

I feel lucky to have done many enjoyable and rewarding projects over the years. I wouldn’t want to choose one of them, but I can definitely say which was the worst, and really horrible. It was a book that I did 13 years ago. In mid-project the deadline changed to half the time we had agreed upon, so I was rushed. Though the client was happy in the end, I was not satisfied. After a couple of months, when I saw the published book I felt so disappointed that I promised myself to never do something like this again. It was a great lesson and since then I’ve tried in every project to give it my best.

HD: I think all illustrators have had similar experiences. You and I email back and forth a lot about how we market our illustration services. Tell our readers about how you reach new markets and obtain new clients. And I never asked you whether you have ever used an illustrator’s rep—have you? (For our readers, an illustrator’s rep is someone who partners with illustrators to handle the business side of project negotiations. Typically a rep will work with between 5 to 50 or so different artists, each with their own unique style. The rep handles drumming up assignments and advertising for the illustrator. Then the rep takes an agreed-upon percentage of the illustrator’s assignment fee.)

TT: Self-advertising and showing my portfolio are my promotion tools. I try to maintain a strong presence on the Internet as well as in publications through illustration ads. To date I have never used a rep, but I am thinking of finding someone to represent me in the US market.

HD: If there are any reps reading this, take note! Thodoris, I have always been impressed by the amount of work you turn out. It’s a testament to your talent. But a downside of being so busy for extended periods of time is “Illustrator Burnout.” Earlier in my career (when I was much younger) I pulled a lot of all-nighters. It’s just something I had to do to build my business. I know that you have experienced similar stresses due to your workload. How do you deal with burnout, and has there ever been a time when you just wanted to get out of the commercial art business?

TT: I have experienced “burnout” three times (fortunately, for small periods of time). The symptoms: feeling miserable and losing the desire to illustrate. I just wanted to go on extended vacations and spend my days doing nothing. I handle it by just stepping back and listening to myself, then I get over it. Interestingly, it doesn’t happen when I have projects in progress. It happens to me when I’m on vacation, because then I allow myself to relax from all the hard work. [With burnout] I just want to stay on vacation indefinitely. I think that burnout happens because of our love of illustrating. We love it so much and we accept all these nice projects coming, without keeping in mind that we also have a need to rest. It’s a love issue…

HD: Yes, I agree that because most illustrators love to illustrate so much, they don’t separate their work life from their private lives. It all blends together. And that can lead to burnout.

With a 15-year career behind you, what is there to do as an illustrator that you haven’t done yet?

TT: One of my goals is to do character design for a 2D or 3D cartoon movie. Another goal is to better master the 3D software that I am now learning, in order to create 3D illustrations as well as 3D animations. I am sure that when I succeed with these goals I will create some more goals and this is the way it goes.

HD: I know I will be keeping an eye on your work in the future. Thanks for sharing with us, Thodoris.

Finally, I would like you to end this interview with whatever you would like to say, but it has to be in Greek! Then if any of our readers are fluent in Greek, they can leave me a comment translating your text. (Readers beware: I will run your reply by Thodoris for a quality check of your translation skills!)

TT: Ευχαριστώ πολύ για τη συνέντευξη. Εύχομαι για την εταιρία και εσένα προσωπικά ό,τι καλύτερο!

Visit Thodoris’ website to see more of his illustrations.

I love contemporary design: furniture, home and business accessories, architecture, motorcycles—you name it. Anyone visiting our office has seen my collection of (some would say obsession with) modern clocks. So it is a treat for me to be able to interview the very talented designer Joey Roth. I am not the only one who has noticed Roth. He has gotten press in magazines like Forbes and Wired and design blogs such as MocoLoco, Josh Spear,  Apartment Therapy and DesignSpotter.

Let’s find out a bit about what it takes to conceptualize, design and manufacture everyday consumer products that are functional, environmentally friendly and also beautiful to behold.

Sorapot

Hile Design: Hi, Joey. You have an interesting background in that you started out in college pursuing creative writing. Writing is a medium that depends on people forming their own mental images based on the imaginary world the author creates. Industrial design, on the other hand, reveals a physical object interpreted and designed solely by the designer and presented to the consumer. Do you see a parallel between these two different creative processes?

Joey Roth: Hi, Dave. The two processes actually aren’t that different to me. I think that the meaning of a teapot, a short story, or any creative piece comes from a conversation between the creator’s intention and the reader’s interpretation. Once people start using something I designed, I lose the final say on what it means—and that’s part of why I love design. An object, like a piece of writing, means something different to each person who uses it because of the person’s unique memories, associations and expectations. These mediate any encounter with something new.

HD: Sorapot, your take on the modern teapot, made it into the marketplace in a big way. I’ve seen it all over the Internet and in catalogs such as Veer. Can you share with us the background story of how you conceived the pot and how you went about designing it?

JR: Before I loved design, I loved tea, and making a teapot for my first independent product was an easy choice. I wanted to emphasize the beauty of leaves unfurling as they steep, and use materials in their most raw form. The glass tube that bisects the steel arch flowed naturally from these parameters. Figuring out how to make such a simple shape function as a teapot took a lot longer.

HD: Tell us what kinds of considerations and challenges went into finding a manufacturer for the Sorapot, and how you went about marketing the product?

Photo credit: Jean-Marie Phonesavanh

JR: I designed Sorapot as a portfolio piece during my junior year. I didn’t intend to manufacture it until a writer for Cool Hunting somehow discovered it and posted on it. The same day, I received a ton of emails from individuals and stores asking about price, availability and minimum order quantities. They thought it was a real product, so I decided to make it one.

I eventually finalized the design and found the right manufacturer through a great referral. I began to take pre-orders through my site, and was able to fund the first production run largely from these sales. Not coming from a design school background, there’s a ton I’m still learning about manufacturing, ergonomics, SolidWorks and all the other things that industrial design students master by the time they graduate. Luckily I’ve made some friends who are design school alums, and they’ve been an invaluable resource. The same goes for wrangling incorporation, fulfillment, insurance and forecasting into a viable business—I couldn’t do it without help from friends who’ve done it already. In general, I try to see all the day-to-day frustrations as map markers that force me to find a better way as I shape my business. The process is a lot like designing a product.

HD: You have a strong commitment to to the environment. How does that get expressed in your products and packaging?

JR: Most products that harm the environment are made from permanent materials, but are designed for short lifespans. I make sure that my designs either become more beautiful with use or disappear as cleanly as possible. My dream is to see a well-used and well-loved Sorapot in an antique shop in a few decades. The raw stainless steel will record the user’s daily tea making, becoming shinier where it’s held, revealing where it was scrubbed, and changing color gradually as tea tannins are deposited on its surface. It will look far better than when it comes out of its box, which will have decomposed long ago.

HD: What inspires your design work?

JR: I’m inspired by everyday rituals like swiping a card at a train turnstile, talking on the phone, and of course, making tea. I think each of these rituals has the potential to become an oasis in modern overcomplicated life, but people tend to ignore them, largely because of ease-of-use advances that designers have made. The less thought a product requires to use, the less the user will think about the task. This is great in most circumstances, because it allows people to accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. Some tasks reveal tremendous beauty if they’re given some thought, however, and I try to design products for these tasks. For example, the easiest way to make tea is to nuke some water in a mug and stir in powdered Lipton, but the point of making tea isn’t the tea itself. I designed Sorapot to encourage its user to attend to the details, while still making a delicious cup.

HD: Could you share a bit about your daily work routine and environment?

JR: I like to wake up early and make oatmeal for breakfast. I use the daytime to call people, meet with people, find new customers, make sure my existing customers are delighted. In the afternoon I usually take a break to explore San Francisco. After dinner I do creative work—designing new products and planning for the future.

HD: Are there any projects you are working on currently that you are excited about?

JR: I’ve been spending a lot of time designing shoes, trying to channel elegance through humble materials like cork, felt and steel. I’m also working on cardboard furniture that’s designed to last about a year, and then decompose in your yard. I’m starting to get into interiors as well.

The next design that’s actually ready for production is an optical mouse made from felt and teak. Mice are in constant contact with your hand, but for some reason they use the same materials and design language as computers, which are in constant contact with your desk. I re-imagined the mouse as a personal accessory, using materials that feel good against the skin and will change over a break-in period to fit your hand. Felt also allows me to maintain the boxy aesthetic I love while ensuring that the mouse is comfortable. I hope to have it ready this fall.

Optical mouse

HD: You are a young guy with a whole career ahead of you. Envision yourself at retirement age. What would have been your greatest achievement?

JR: If I ever feel like my greatest design achievement is behind me, I’ll go back to writing.

Want to learn more about Joey Roth and his work? Visit his website or the sorapot website now.

Today it’s my pleasure to interview Robert Frolich of Filtre Studio, a digital imaging company based in Chicago. Filtre’s client list reads like a Who’s Who of some of the world’s best known brands including AC Delco, Bayer, ExxonMobile, Kimberly-Clark, Sony, TAG Heuer and more. Frolich is the inspired force behind Filtre and also a dear friend of us here at Hile Design. We have admired his work for nearly two decades. Let’s meet the man behind the creative curtain to see what goes into running a cutting-edge photo imaging and retouching studio.

Hile Design: Hi, Robert. Can you tell us what Filtre Studio does for its clients?

Robert Frolich: Filtre Studio’s primary focus is high-end creative image retouching. We work with advertising agencies, design firms and photographers to artistically enhance images, or in some cases create them from scratch. Projects we work on range from simple color correction to complex multi-image composites, combining 10 or more images to create one extraordinary image.

Often, we work with a client to create a composition that would be impossible, or at least cost prohibitive, to create in camera. Or the task can be taking an ordinary photograph and increasing the drama through a carefully crafted color palette, creating an entirely new look and feel.

Sometimes, it’s about making an already beautiful photograph even more beautiful. We have had the pleasure of working with some very talented photographers. Recently, some of our retouched images for TYR Sport, shot by award-winning photographer Steve Bonini, have been featured in Lürzer’s Archive 200 Best Ad Photographers worldwide. Also, German Vanity Fair has featured some of our International Truck images, shot by Andy Goodwin.

HD: You came out of an ad agency background, before founding Filtre. Can you share a bit about your past positions and tell us how you ended up specializing in digital imaging?

RF: I come from a design and art direction background. I started out with a small agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan, working on General Motors assignments. I then moved on to a Raleigh, North Carolina, agency for 6 years before returning north to Chicago as a creative director for Bagby and Company. There I worked on Sony, International Truck and Miller Lite. I’ve always been with small to mid-size agencies, which gave me the opportunity to wear several hats. With the larger shops, everyone is more specialized—the creative director is often more of a manager, overseeing art director/writer teams who come up with the concepts that then get handed off to production. Being at smaller agencies gave me the opportunity to see a project through from start to finish. Especially in the early years, if I wanted to see one of my ideas produced, I would have to do the retouching myself. Often, the budget just wasn’t there to send it out to a studio. Creating an image from scratch, or making a photograph more beautiful than it was to begin with, is something I’ve always enjoyed doing. The post-production has always been the icing on the cake for me.

HD: If there is such a thing, what is a typical day like at Filtre Studio?

RF: Every day is different, but at Filtre the one common denominator is the morning routine. Coffee.  Lots of coffee. Then, on to the day’s business. I know many creatives like to use that early morning time to generate ideas. We generally prefer to use that time to answer emails, make phone calls, do invoicing, estimates, scheduling and any other administrative tasks that need to be done. Then we can focus on digging into an image. With the larger composite images, it’s good to block out several hours of uninterrupted time. Late morning through mid-afternoon is usually a good time to focus on that.

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