Issue3_layout7
13/5/04
1:04 AM
Page 139
HE STARTED HIS OWN DESIGN COMPANY CHAMPION GRAPHICS IN 1996 AND HAS SINCE WORKED IN PRINT MEDIA, FILM, TV, AND HELD A NUMBER OF SOLO ART SHOWS. Straight out of art school, LA-based designer Geoff McFetridge won a distinctive merit award for his thesis ‘Chinatown’ from ID magazine. Work credits include the opening titles for Adaptation and The Virgin Suicides, award winning title design for Chocolate, and design work for Marc Jacobs. What made you decide to study graphic design? I always loved to draw. I drew a lot, really a lot. When I discovered graphics in high school it was sort of a relief from drawing - moving things around using colour instead of drawing or painting was a revelation to me. I loved making things, and drawing was a way to do that, but with graphics the things seemed more real, like album covers and posters - the stuff that was influencing me at the time. Why did you decide to move to LA? Was it for study purposes or did that eventuate later? I came to LA to study at Cal Arts (California Institute of the Arts). I was in the Masters of Fine Arts program there. It was a great school for me, and I wanted to be in California. I had a scholarship for the School of Visual Arts in NYC, but I wasn’t interested in being in NY. I didn’t know anybody in California, but everything I had always loved came from there. I was also doing snowboard graphics and skateboard graphics, so I had some work contacts. Can you tell me a bit about your thesis ‘Chinatown’? Did the ID award have much impact on your career (recognition, exposure...)? While at a Cal Arts I was focused on learning Graphic Design. My undergraduate program was sort of hokey and focused on illustration and super commercial art type skills. At Cal Arts I really exposed myself to a pure graphic design world, I stopped doing illustration work and really worked hard at learning typography etc. The main focus there was on developing a conceptual type of design process, a way of making graphics in a personal way. In the end, for my thesis project I went back to doing more image based work but applied the conceptual design processes to how I did it. After two years of torture, not making images, doing the Chinatown piece came so easy. Except for the part that involved learning to program in Director. The ID award was pretty amazing. I have always had good luck with that sort of thing though. It was a big help, and really opened the door for me in the world of magazines and publicising my work. You seem to work a lot with symbols/logos from popular culture, and I read that you like to make people laugh. Are you trying to get any other responses from your audience? I try to use the language of graphics... super reductive visual language to express sort of personal things... or to tell jokes. Jokes are like graphics, simplified clear communication. Yes, reaching people is important to me, when you spend so much time making things, you want them to have some sort of impact. It is the only thing that keeps you from feeling like you are a trash factory... How do you describe your work/style? I work in a very reductive way. I try to keep the images graphic and simple, and the idea complex (well sometimes complex, some times just stupid!) For me this means making the work personal, often autobiographical. I try to put a lot of personal thought into the work so as to combat the commodity of the graphics... Graphics are generally used to generate WANT, I try to work against that. My worst fear is to be making a lot of graphics that are just a lot of self-promotional things in a gallery. How have people responded to your work in a gallery setting? What kind of work have you done for your exhibitions? People have reacted in different ways. Some of the shows have been ok, some so-so. I am always experimenting with how I do the shows so it works that way. I do a lot of prints, fabric and wallpaper prints and posters. Almost everything is mass-produced in some way, but in small amounts. Just recently I started to show drawings and monoprints, one-off things. I have always wanted to sell the work, and for cheap, so I came up with different ways to mass-produce interesting pieces. Playing with ideas of commodity has gotten totally boring to me now though, so I am just focused on making interesting work. How did you become involved in the ‘boycott Esso’ campaign? They called me. I liked doing it. When people approach me with a project I believe in, I always do it, if the project works to my strengths. When did you begin working on animation/live action graphics/movie titles? Was this a natural progression from design and illustration? I started to focus on animation around the time of my first art show in 1999. I was really interested in pursuing movie titles, but Hollywood is a tough place to work. So I found other ways to do animation work, in videos and commercial work and other weird projects. It was a natural progression for me; it is very easy for me to create animation work, and I was determined to only do work that suited my strengths, and that was fun. I was tired of challenging myself to do difficult design jobs. So I did all the animation jobs that I came across and also focused on art shows. Do you prefer working in one particular realm? No, I need the mix. How did you become involved with Sofia Coppola and the Directors Bureau? I met Sofia through Spike Jonze. I worked with Spike on commercials and for his skateboard companies Girl and Chocolate. We had a lot of friends in common through the Grand Royal world. It is a small world. I got involved in TDB through Mike Mills. I had always looked up to Mike and when he moved from NYC to LA we saw more of each other and when I had some video projects he asked if I wanted to be part of TDB. I’m told that you are a father? If so, has that influenced your work or your goals? Yes! Frances McFetridge... she is super duper. She has cleared my head in some ways. If I was not messing around before, I REALLY am not now. She reinforces the things I have always believed in. What are you doing in Paris? Parenting, drawing, drinking good coffee, walking, avoiding poops on the street, seeing friends and meeting with people. I have a few projects I am working on here. I recently had a couple of shows in Germany and did an installation at Colette. I have always loved Paris. What are you working on at the moment? Artworks for the Beautiful Losers show in Cincinatti, animations for a new Thomas Campbell surf film, and a fabrics and wall-coverings project. Plans for the Future? Sleeping on the beach and never eating a piece of cheese again. Anything else you wish to discuss? Enough about me... what about you?