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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Today we are talking with Leighton Hubbell, a designer-illustrator based in Orange, California. He has a portfolio spanning multiple industries including automotive, entertainment, retail, technology and travel-tourism. Among his many clients you’ll find names such as Toyota, Warner Brothers, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Sprint and Hilton Hotels. Let’s find out what he’s been up to, and where he feels he’s headed.

Hile Design: Hi, Leighton. Many designers found 2008 challenging, due to the uncertain economy. You have a diverse client base and a wide range of creative services, which is helpful in an economic downturn. How’s it going for you and your clients?

Leighton Hubbell: Well, it hasn’t been easy. I have definitely seen a decline in the number of projects that have come my way. There have been a lot of submitted proposals, but unfortunately a good percentage have either been scaled back or put on hold. At the very least, they’re still calling.

It’s situations like these that make me glad I can participate in many different types of projects. When logo design is slow, then illustration might take its place for a while—and so on. It helps pay the bills.

Since everyone is really watching their pennies these days, clients and marketers have to be extra-savvy about how they spend their ad dollars. In my situation, I can help direct a client into an appropriate type of medium and still keep the work in-house.

HD: You’ve been in business 20 years. Back when you started your career, only a few creatives were using computers (the Mac Classic was released in 1984). Did you begin with a T-Square and parallel rule? And since we’re talking about your history, can you share the three biggest highlights of your career so far?

LH: I started out in the traditional sense, T-square and triangles, ink and illustration boards. Can you say “Haber rule”?

My first full-time job was a great introduction to that world. I was one of four art directors working in an in-house art department at a bicycle manufacturer.

Back then, you had a lot of different people you had to work with and trust to get the results you were envisioning. You had photographers, retouchers, typesetters, color separators and even proofreaders. You had to have a lot of good hand skills to communicate your ideas and make things happen. Rough layouts really were rough sketches. It truly was like opening a Christmas package when the work was printed. The client (owner) really had to make a leap of faith that the piece would turn out like the marker comp. Now, everything is very complete and refined before it ever gets to the printer.

I started using a Macintosh SE (with 3MB of RAM) in 1988, when my employer made the investment of three workstations. Businesses back then really thought they could get a Mac and start replacing designers with all the “productivity” the computer would provide them. Now of course, everyone realizes it’s just a very versatile tool.

I’d have to say that my biggest highlights would have more to do with my growth as a designer and business person, than anything else.

My first highlight would have to be seeing my first produced, 4-color print ad in a national magazine—an ad that I had created. I was beaming and really felt like I had finally arrived. I remember working out the headlines and concepts, then toiling over colors, working with the photographer and doing all the paste-up myself. It was a pretty cool feeling.

Someone once told me early on, that you haven’t really been in advertising until you’ve been laid off at least once. The first time I got laid off sticks in my mind as one of the lowest and most depressing moments of my then-career. You feel like you’ve just been dumped by your girlfriend. The fortunate, bright side comes from the word getting around town that you’re available, and the phone starts ringing! I had solid work two weeks after leaving the agency. That felt pretty good.

The last highlight that sticks in my memory is landing my first big client contract. I remember meeting with the client for the first time and being pretty nervous. We had been introduced by a former client of the agency I had recently left. She was now working as a marketing consultant and spoke very highly of my work to this new prospect. The company was in a category that I had very limited experience with, so I thought I didn’t have much of a chance.

Well, they were impressed and asked me to submit an estimate. So, I went back to my studio and put together some numbers. I thought I had a pretty fair and buttoned-up proposal. The marketing consultant took a look at it during our lunch meeting the next day. Then she said something I’ll never forget, “Double it, and we’ve got a deal.” I was in shock. Really?

When the deposit check showed up, it all of a sudden became reality. Here’s where the rubber hits the road. Don’t screw this up!

As it turned out, the work was some of my strongest at the time and produced several design awards. I thank them for giving me the opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »

Based in Costa Mesa, California, Roger has illustrated for many leading companies including AT&T, Bell South, DirecTV, Euro Disney, McGraw-Hill, Sprint Cellular and others. We wanted to find out how this award-winning illustrator got into the business and what he sees as the future of his industry. We think you’ll be interested too, so read on.

Hile Design: Roger, can you share a bit of your background and how you became a commercial illustrator?

Roger Xavier: I’m going to summarize this as much as possible: My earliest recollection of drawing was when I was 4 and started off with crayons. Then came my love of comic book art. The line drawings I grew up on in those comics would be ingrained into my psyche. I’d tried almost every medium used to create art, but pen & ink drawings have always been something that stayed with me.

Skipping ahead to college, I received my formal education in illustration, art history and design. In my senior year at college, I won a contest to create a poster for Molson Golden Beer. My entry became part of an exhibit and ended up gaining the attention of a book publisher in New York who not only hired me to do a couple of book illustrations, but also opened up an opportunity to work on a movie for MGM just 3 months after graduation. After that, I wanted to pursue the movie poster industry and started working for several Hollywood firms that specialized in entertainment advertising. During those early years, I tried everything from biomedical rendering to editorial art for magazines and working on any advertising job I could get. That was a time of growth and I didn’t really hit my stride until 1990, when I was awarded a project by Emmett Morava of Morava Design to create the annual report illustrations for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.  Emmett had great vision and instructed me to go bolder with my pen & ink drawings. He showed me how to design with ink and create something more than just a rendering.  The LADWP annual report went on to win many awards.  It was then that I started getting some recognition. Read the rest of this entry »

We are talking with Oneupweb, a digital marketing company that specializes in building relationships and businesses through integrated online marketing and applied creative thinking. Founded in 1996 by Lisa Wehr, the company’s original mission was a simple one: to design websites. When clients began to want their sites to be seen by more people, Lisa gradually phased out the company’s design services and set out to uncover the secrets to improving a website’s position on major search engines. The rest is history.

Hile Design: Can you share a bit more about Lisa’s background, and tell us more specifically about what your company does today?

Oneupweb: Prior to Oneupweb, Lisa attended college with a focus on commercial advertising photography, worked as a forensic photographer, a mounted policewoman in Florida, and was a pretty serious musher with her own sled-dog team in Alaska. When she stopped racing competitively, she started a guided tour business. People would visit Alaska to learn how to mush dogs, and Lisa would act as their guide. In 1996, she wanted to bring in more business, so she went to Wal-Mart, bought a computer and taught herself how to use it. Word spread that she knew how to design websites, and the customers started pouring in. But they wanted their websites seen by more people, so Lisa methodically went about figuring out how to make that happen. The result was Oneupweb, a search marketing company. A few years ago the company moved to Traverse City, and just last year we moved into our new 23,000 square foot global headquarters on Grand Traverse Bay.

Today, Oneupweb is a recognized leader in digital marketing, providing services that include: natural search engine optimization (SEO), paid search marketing (PPC), conversion improvement and analytics, podcast production, online media planning and placement, social media marketing and search marketing consultation for in-house marketing teams.

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