For two full days, seasoned professionals came from coast-to-coast—representatives from packaging firms, corporate ID firms, publication corporations, magazines, environmental firms, advertising agencies, design firms, interactive firms, retail firms, and world wide global branding firms, along with all sorts of other media and communications firms: Cliff Freeman, Goodby Silverstein, Modernista, Martha Stewart, the New York Times, Taxi, Frog, Nickelodeon, American Eagle, Oprah Magazine, to name just a few—everyone journeying to survey the work of the best and brightest creatives soon to hit the streets.

As always, I was proud of the way our students presented themselves and their books; ever articulate, poised, and confident, they showcased the spirit of excellence that is Portfolio Center.

I want to note, too, that the ADC’s education coordinator, Isabel Johnson, whose smiling face is pictured top and center, did a spectacular job of organizing and directing the event. Special thanks to her and to Amy Brophy, the Executive Director of the Art Directors Club, for all their hard work on behalf of students and education.

—Hank

Now, for you current students, grad-elects, and prospectives…imagine if you were a writer for the international agency of McCann Erickson, or worked side by side with Martha Stewart, or directed the design and marketing for the New York Times, or created great web sites for Nike, or actually worked for Nike, or played a role in the design and marketing of some of the most prominent architecture in New York… Picture yourself working on global branding projects around the world, or creating packaging for some of the most important companies in the world, or being responsible for the design of Microsoft’s Windows software— just some of the job descriptions of PC alumni at the dinner table with us Monday night. These things are not pipe dreams, boys and girls. If you can imagine these futures, you can create them.

It never ceases to amaze me—not only the way our alumni keep up with one another, nurturing the lifelong friendships seeded on Bennett Street, but also the way they always come through so generously with their support of current Portfolio Center students.

It was great to see everyone!

Hank

PS. I’d like to thank Witt Langstaff (top picture, tall guy in the middle) for his dedication and hard work on the Portfolio Center website while he was a student here. Witt always goes above and beyond.

“Hey! Carnase here,” the voice in the telephone said.

“Be right down, Tom,” my hurried reply.

And that was the beginning of the re-invention of an acquaintance, friendship, and inspiration with a true design hero that had misplaced itself for several years— my friend, Tom Carnase.

It is a reunion that would last for several hours on this evening.

Tom is not a hero simply because of the work he has done but because of the humanity he is, a side that most don’t know… the personal ethos he is, is one we might all wish to live our lives by.

As for the design side and all the visions of his work, this is a man who has lived 3 professional lives because he started so young. His work was prolific because that was the work ethic of the time. Something to be remembered by us all today as a goal for renewal.

His age is upon him now, but his eyes are always shiny, dark and piercing- they are rhetorical and full of curiosity, and his smile is always sharing. Here’s a man who lived, worked in the era of Paul Rand, Milton Glaser, Herb Lubalin— he was Herb’s partner for much of his career. Then Herb was his client. It was a time when Lou Dorfsman was ‘Uncle Louie.’

Hearken to those days of craft and skill, they defined the excellence— an ‘em’ was an ‘em,’ and ‘rivers’ were not promises of postmodern whimsy, but of a relative measure; it was a time when proportion governed balance; aesthetics called out beauty, not incoherence or fragmentation. Tom was all of these things.

Hurriedly, I rushed down the long hall from my room of the retro Hotel Parker to meet Tom, whom I hadn’t visited with in person since the late 90’s. Speedily, rounding the corner to the stairs, grabbing onto the decorative metal railing, taking one step and 20 in the same moment, and there was Tom as I hustled down the stairs.

Good vibrations… .. an embrace and a handshake renewing a friendship.

Tom, the proverbial Bronx’ian, transformed and residing now amongst the hills of Gene Autry, where winds of the huge mountains surround you like tributes to the happy trails, and the wide open spaces in this west are as if the sun fades the shadows in color.

Tom has become a inspired proclaimer of modernist architecture… to a large degree, that is how he has ended up in Palm Springs of all places.

“Hank, I never dreamed, never thought in my life, I would get to see you again, and in Palm Springs! How’d you find me?”

All the while I’m thinking, Tom it is you. I should be saying that to you. The man is so very humble, outspoken, but often not realizing his own importance to a generation, to a profession that values excellence today because of things he created, he valued.

Leaving the hotel grounds, we swing off toward the heart of the City, and Tom excitedly shares his hospitality as he tours me to see the Modernist architecture of Palm Springs he so loves.

How amazing… the Butterfly houses-to-Steel houses, the expression of simple truths and aesthetic values that draw out principles. His own new home under renovation for the next several months. A lesson in Modernist architecture as the sun sets down on an evening in Palm Springs.

Dinner is served, as we swing around to restaurant row… reservations have slipped behind us as we got lost in the ideals of Modernism, but expectations are still we’ll have a place at the dinner table… the Tropicale.

The second chapter is a several-hour adventure.

Tom looks across the table, and says,”Hank, life is not calculated by the number of breaths you take, but the moment that takes your breath away, and that has been my philosophy- my work, my adventures.”

But, let me back it up a moment, set the tale for future young designers who might find their inspiration… a young Bronx boy with a brogue that distinctly says New Yorker, Tom started out knowing he had a special skill, a skill he sharpened between memory, drawing, to a rare vision that implied the ideal and brought ‘tactics’ to an art.

He began as a young turk working for John Pistilli at Sudler & Hennessey Advertising, back in 1960. Sudler & Hennessey is still out there now, a part of the global holding company WPP. A pharmaceutical agency of note- to all those who might snub the ability to do creative work in such an arena, I would share this is where Lubalin’s and Carnase’s amazing work was first done. A good job, or for that matter a bad job, is always defined by the way you reinvent yourself on each day.

Tom at first was a freelancer, not hired on one way or the other… then he got on… as he and Herb Lubalin sort of hit it off. Well, he knew he wasn’t going to stay with the agency forever, but it was good for the moment and besides Herb had taken a liking to Tom. They seemed to work so very well together.

Bold as bold may be, Tom eventually decided to leave and move on to California… Herb gave him some amazing leads, and off he went. He interviewed with great people, but all they wanted was for him to work freelance, and he wanted a salary such that he might center himself.

Well, as he says, “tail between his legs” somewhat, he returned to Manhattan, and as he hadn’t resigned but taken a leave of absence, his job was still there… and, as luck would have it, one of the designers had moved on, so his break began.

Lubalin really liked him, and fed him work consistently. Tom spent late hours, loved the work, loved the opportunity.

In the middle of our chat at the table, Tom interrupts the lesson and says, waving his hands about,” Magic, it is like magic, Hank. You just know it is magic. You work, he works… you don’t even have to speak… it is magic.”

So began the studio of Carnase and Bonder. Ronnie had been a mechanical artist, and they set up a new studio that grew to become busy- busier- to the busiest… “One day we were two, then we were 30. If someone came along with a project for $100 we’d do it, if they came along with a project for $5000, we’d do it. If they came along with a project for $200,000 we’d do it. We just worked and produced amazing work. At one point Carnase and Bonder were the hottest firm in New York.

Then Herb decides to leave the agency Sudler & Hennessey and strike out… off he goes. As these things happened, Tom was invited to go with him… and took the chance. The firm was Lubalin, Smith and Carnase. Ernie Smith was a pharmaceutical art director from the days of Sudler & Hennessey.

Amazing work they did—a seemingly never ending amount and prominent design that defined the time we were. They took two small rooms at 23rd East 31st Street… “that was the agency… the three of us and Henrietta Lejinski who managed the office.”

The growth of that period then led to the formation of the World Typeface Center.

Now the waiter appears, and I want some tea. “Hold on— hot tea… make that Ginger Twist… do you have it in decaf? No, o.k., Jerry, make that a mighty leaf and the real thing.”

Tom interrupts and says, “Hank, you don’t want that decaf anyway. It’s not good for you. They have to use chemicals to take out the caffeine, and the chemicals stay behind.” See, Tom’s a bona fide vegetarian and gets the difference between olive oil and canola oil.

He continues, “You have to learn to draw, and you have to teach students to learn to draw. That is the difference. You are ‘The teacher’” … I never thought of myself that way before, which might surprise those reading this, but until that very moment it never dawned on me. To me, ‘The teacher’ was always Milton Glaser.

“You don’t use your tools as a means of getting there. You use your head as a means of getting there. And that is what drawing does for you. You have to teach this,” he finished.

I still haven’t suggested much about the work of Tom, which, by the way, he has donated to the Rochester Institute of Technology his original drawings, sketches, pen-and-ink drawings, layouts, type designs, and mechanicals. And today his work is still out there everywhere you turn. The interesting codicil to his gift is that the volumes and volumes of work— “I would draw the rough letter, Hank, and then I would go over it with a tissue paper 3 to 4 times, and by the time I had finished the 4th drawing, it was perfect”— can never be copied or scanned.

The work is there for all to see. It is there for students to learn from. They may go and view, but they cannot scan any of them.

Night has doubled back on the day, and we walk out of the restaurant to see high on a mountain top one starry light. Tom says, “That is a restaurant on top you can see all of California from.”

My take was the sky is so very clear, a blueish black blended in a sweep from light to dark with the moon at 1/4 crescent hanging.

330 East Amado Avenue is a high recommendation if you are hungry on a night in the desert.

Carnase… what a gentleman… what a talent.

Did I say, somewhere around 103 typefaces designed; and look at Fortune magazine, it’s Tom’s logo on the front; Consumer Reports—his logo on their magazine; Avant Garde, Busorama, WTC Goudy, Grouch, Honda, Machine, Manhattan, Pioneer, Tom’s Roman, Bolt Bold, WTC, Our Bodoni, 223 Caslon, Milano Roman, WRC, Our Futura are a few of the typefaces I remember…And remember the refreshing of Saks Fifth Avenue’s identity just a bit ago… it was in original Carnase’s Idea, and Refresh?

Perhaps you’ve picked up a copy of Barron’s financial paper— imagine it was finalized in one rough draft, and it has remained all these years- that is what you see on the newsstands, or, as one student, Christine, wrote me when she heard I was going to be catching up to Tom on this weekend, her words, “How interesting to know— Tom Carnase executed the work and final comps for Gastrotypographicalassemblage for Lou Dorfsman. What a monumental piece to have been a part of.”

And, Tom, if you read this… when you ask about the passion of the new students of design, go figure. You are part of the inspiration.

It is somewhat paradoxical that in the moments of making history, to Tom it was simply “Uncle Louie.” There he was in that relationship, a design zeitgeist in a moment.

I asked Tom about doing a book. Actually, I have asked him over and over about it for some years… He holds out.

In that stage between all the work you have done and the time you die… he wants the space to do what he wants to do. One of those things is restoring his own Modernist steel home.

Let me talk to someone.

“No, Hank…I will let history judge me by my work. That is the way it is supposed to be. If I did a book it would be for the wrong reasons, and that wouldn’t be right.”

Well, Tom maybe I’ll write a book about you. Or just maybe I will have a student do a book about you.

There are some amazing students of this time, as Tom was in his time… and their passions burn, and they have much, just as much, to offer… and they will figure it out in their way for sure.

Carnase is a part of the eloquence of history, and his inspiration inspires so many.

“Thanks, Tom… it was a great dinner”

“Wait, Hank, I must come in. I brought you a gift. My stationery, Carnase.”

“Tom, thank you so much. Please do sign it.”

“I am not going to put the usual ‘to my friend, Hank’… I am going to sign it and put the date on it”— as if knowing something of his own immortality and place in history, in the future that will be something of value.

But the value is, it is a gift from Tom, and I will always treasure that, along with one other gift, a few of the famous, “Hi” buttons, from the past pop culture… “Give them to your students.”

“I will, Tom. I will.”

The night is still young but the journey is afar and off to San Diego, I must go now, realizing how special this moment in time. The faster, the more we go, the less we are able to get back, if ever… but in your mind you can be inspired forever. Creativity is indeed the artist in each of us, and in a moment that is about relationships, how we go together, how we fit…

This is art.

Tom Carnase is a precious moment.

Hank.

When I see their spirit—the talent, the thinking—it’s clear how much our student body loves their work and how their attitude defines this quarter’s new WALL and all the work put into last quarter—what a truism her thought becomes.

In the creative world, there’s an ‘old saw’ that goes— “to communicate effectively, demonstrate!” and, we did exactly that this past weekend as everyone assembled at the end of the first week into the new Spring quarter to demonstrate.

Starting early, take-down student crews convening around 7 a.m., and then right after, the whole of the student body coming en-mass about 9 on Saturday morning and finishing about 5 p.m. with a lot of energy being unleashed in-between… what a WOW! moment when you see put together for a first time.

Seeing the Wall—with all its new work up—proves how much an investment in education always pays a best interest, because this work is the result of a lot of smart learning and heartfelt passion happening simultaneously. So! in the best of Portfolio Center tradition- we put up one that surpasses the ones that came before it… I would say this of the best Walls ever.

The interesting thing is the more the standard is pushed, the higher up toward a summit we go… the harder climb redefines each step on the way, and then they begin to realize there are no limitations, and the Wall this quarter reaffirms it so amazingly.

It makes me proud to see that at the very core of their values our students define themselves and their success by their believing… their perseverance to know measuring all this hard work against a commitment of value that will allow their dreams to become a reality that brings happiness keeps the walls reverberating around the School.

So when you get a chance to look at this new wall, you’ll see why one executive creative director from New York explained to me why he liked to hire Portfolio Center students and alumni: “Hank,” he said, “it can be summed up in two words. SMART N’ SASSY.” I couldn’t agree more or be more delighted by his revelation.

Here below is a glimpse of the Wall hanging in progress… Note the smiles.

Hank.

PS: And, I don’t want it to go unsaid or unnoticed how the NEW first quarter students came to help when they didn’t have to on Saturday… and afterwards, when the hard work and the hanging were over, they all got together as if the day were just beginning and started working on Sylvia’s 100 thumbnails “together.” Pretty impressive, the energy conjoined from folks who at the beginning of this past week had never even met each other and came from all over the United States—oh! yes and India too. I love that spirit…they’re going to fit in really well around here. Hank.

This morning in the New York Times, Steve Heller interviews Brian Collins on the meaning of a signature in the supreme game of politics as they opine the value of typography in that arena. Brian takes time out to respond to him while in the middle of building his new design firm Collins offering up some poignant viewpoints on how effective visual communication can raise the meaningfulness of the messages through design. Thought you might enjoy reading about it from their point of view… and do feel free to add your comments on the subject…

Hank.

April 2, 2008, 10:49 pm To the Letter Born

By Steven Heller

Many designers have waxed admiringly about Barack Obama’s sophisticated typographical design scheme, particularly the consistent use in much of his graphic material of the typeface Gotham, designed by Tobias Frere-Jones. So I called Brian Collins, an expert on branding, to get his thoughts on what this “good design” means for the candidate.

Steven Heller: As a branding expert, can you tell me what it is about the typographical scheme of Senator Obama’s campaign that is unlike his challengers’?

Obama campaign posterCampaign poster. (Barackobama.com)

Brian Collins: John McCain’s, Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s campaigns all make good efforts to brand their messages consistently. And that’s incredibly hard to do. Just imagine the thousands of volunteers and endless elements they must orchestrate from town to town, state to state. But as a result of their approach to design, the Obama campaign really stands out. From the bold “change” signs to their engaging Web site to their recognizable lapel pins, they’ve used a single-minded visual strategy to deliver their campaign’s message with greater consistency and, as a result, greater collective impact. The use of typography is the linchpin to the program. Type is language made visible. Senator Obama has been noted for his eloquence, so it’s not surprising that someone so rhetorically gifted would understand how strong typography is and how it helps bring his words — and his campaign’s message — to life.

Q: The other campaigns are less typographically successful. Is maintaining a strong design program really so difficult?

A: I think the real story here is less about typography than it is about discipline. Political campaigns are the Brigadoon of branding. There’s a compressed amount of time to tell a candidate’s story before the race is over and the campaign vanishes. During that window, the campaign must make sure that everything it produces — everything it touches — delivers the candidate’s message in a meaningful way. No opportunity to amplify that story should be missed. The Obama people have used design to take that discipline to a whole new level.(From Barackobama.com)

Barack Obama is running the first real transmedia campaign of the 21st century. His people not only understand how media has splintered, but how audiences have splintered, too. Cell phones, mobile devices, Web sites, e-mail, social networks, iPods, laptops, billboards, print ads and campaign events are now just as important as television. The senator’s design strategy has given these diverse platforms (and their different audiences) a coherence that makes them all work together. I’ve worked with giant, global corporations who don’t do it this well.

Q: What is it about the typeface Gotham that adds personality to the Obama brand?

A: I don’t think that Gotham adds any personality to Senator Obama’s brand. I think it just amplifies the personality that’s already there. In fact, the typeface would work just as well for John McCain or Hillary Clinton, for that matter.

With that said, though, there’s an oxymoronic quality to Gotham, which is why I think it’s become so popular. It has a blunt, geometric simplicity, which usually makes words feel cold and analytical (like Univers), but it also feels warm. It’s substantial yet friendly. Up-to-date yet familiar. That’s a tough hat trick. And Gotham has another quality that makes it succeed: it just looks matter-of-fact. But perhaps any typeface inspired by signs at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City — as Gotham is — will look like that.

Q: Could this have been accomplished with other typeface(s)?

A: Yes. But most of them have been crafted within the last decade or so. Newer fonts don’t carry as much historical visual baggage for candidates looking to the future instead of the past. Among them would be a typeface called Whitney.

We used it in the new identity program we did for Kodak. It has many of the same qualities I like in Gotham. But Whitney’s roots are in calligraphy, not geometry. So it’s a bit more handmade, more friendly.

Q: What is the most significant trait that emerges from all Senator Obama’s campaign artifacts?

A: I was most impressed by one artifact: the signs that turn each campaign state into a logo for the Obama campaign. I’ve never seen anything quite like that before. I think it’s clever. But it also works as it makes each state feel part of a larger, national movement.

Typefaces, from top to bottom: Comic Sans, Times Roman, Gotham.

Q: Do you think the typographical style actually makes a difference?

A: You bet I do. Style equals accuracy. Put the word “change” in Comic Sans and the idea feels lightweight and silly. Place it in Times Roman and it feels self-important. In Gotham, it feels just right. Inspiring, not threatening. In the end, typography makes a real difference when it delivers words and ideas that are relevant to people. And for many, that seems to be the case here.

PS: on a different topic, alum Danny Lewandowski sent me a pretty cool personal project he’s been working on and asked me to circulate for comments as he moves toward completion on the soon-to-launch site. Let him know your thoughts: dlewandowski38@yahoo.com.

H.

This afternoon’s speaker was Stan Richards, one of my personal heroes. Stan represents the very best of what this industry is about—and that, my friends, is people. He is a man who built an amazing creative firm in the middle of a then small southern city, Dallas, where no one expected his success. And in the process of growing, he shared, and his sharing nurtured so many others, giving them a sense of their own possibilities for entrepreneurship.

The Richards Group has been a creative powerhouse for 55 years and is the largest independent agency in the United States. Stan has always used his imagination as a progressive force; his company’s creativity is second to none. The Richards Group is built upon the personal values Stan exudes, and out of his deep seated beliefs that banding together and working within the context of a common esteem and respect for each other is the best way to do great work.

One of the things he did early on toward achieving this atmosphere of respect was to cut out the insecurities rampant in so many advertising agencies by organizing departments unconventionally. Stan Richards knew somehow just how important it was to break down typical rankings that are apt to stymie the very best of what a creative practice might become. He sort of threw everyone in together—creatives and account folks alike, which created positive synergies that come from listening carefully to what everyone has to say and offer.

The Richards Group is about doing great work— work built around the attributes of core values that touch humanity. Twenty-two years ago, when Motel 6 was a place no one would admit to staying in, for fear of being thought cheap or poor, the Richards Group made it smart to be frugal. Their “We’ll leave the light on for you” campaign made the client hugely profitable and it now boasts the highest brand recognition in economy lodging.

When the Richards Group took on Chik-fil-A, the ideal of finding your voice and message and carrying it out, of asserting independence—was put to the test. They faced three big obstacles: a small marketing budget, no discounts, and the fact that the store was closed on Sundays. The Richards Group gave voice to Truett Kathy’s unique spirit and values. Chik-fil-A grew from one store to 1300 nationwide, without compromising.

There are other phenomenal successes, of course. such as Home Depot and Fruit of the Loom, which prove that the best work is built around the attributes of core values that touch humanity.

Stan is 74, but you’d never know it. In all these years, he too has refused to compromise. He’s always resisted the temptation to sell out to a holding company—to take the money and run, because that’s not the kind of legacy he wants. Stan will be remembered for the inimitable work he’s done and for the way he has fostered creativity at every turn.

When he hires young creatives, he looks for, yes, a great book. But he’d prefer to see three pieces that knock him over rather than 15 that are solidly good. He says he likes a kid who pushes. He looks for people he genuinely likes, because he figures if he likes them, everyone else will enjoy working with them. And he looks for stellar presentation skills, the importance of which I pound into you students daily.

Finally, he demands you “do consistent good work,” four words that seem so simple but require so much—and something Stan is still doing.

I’ll just finish by saying if you’re looking for a hero, you can’t go wrong with Stan Richards.

(And don’t miss the next Ad Club luncheon.)

When you smile this much, you’ve a rainbow in your heart. Having dinner last night at Molina’s Mexican restaurant in Houston with my granddaughter Molly… Liz, Brian, Nancy, Jack, Nora, and myself, I was reminded how even at this young age, Molly’s beautiful spirit is that rainbow every minute. How lucky we are she shares her colors.

Here are some images that make the point. Enjoy.

Next, we brave the Houston Rodeo…

Hank.

Hank.

Dear Hank,

Well, I was pretty apprehensive when you called me early one random Saturday morning to meet at your second office, Starbucks, to chat. We all know that this could mean just about anything. Well it pretty much exceeded every expectation, because it turned out that I had been chosen to intern at Abercrombie in, wait for it, O-H-I-O. I’m from Texas. I’m not even sure where Ohio is. All I know is that it’s cold, very cold, and it snows, A LOT.

My internship is winding down now, so here are a few of my thoughts, and I’m really not sure where to begin. It has transformed from a 3-month internship to an incredible life experience for me. Looking back, the internship itself was invaluable. I did cope with my share of stress: learning the ropes at the huge corporation, finding my niche among my team of seasoned designers and a new art director that had just been hired from Ralph Lauren. Experiencing first hand how many times designs get revised, and the way designers have to push the envelope while staying within the brand is a constant balancing act.

I was assigned to the Ruehl Woman’s Graphics team, which was wonderful because Ruehl has the oldest demographic at Abercrombie, the ‘I just graduated and moved to Greenwich Village’ demographic; therefore, we had the opportunity to push everything. I met amazing people and designers, many from around the world. My British friend Joanna can do a killer American accent; it’s hilarious!

I think the most valuable lessons I learned throughout were due to being taken completely out of my element and forced to look at things in a new light. I love gaining this perspective, and I am convinced that it is the best time to learn because it is a time when you open yourself up entirely, letting in new ideas, new people, and ways of doing things. It also causes you to look for the good in every situation.

Though there were many snowy days that I am convinced would have been Snow-Days anywhere else, I thought I might escape this wild northern country without a real Snow Day. I was wrong. Friday, Ohio sent me home early from work with the Blizzard of ‘08. Thank you, Ohio. I dug my car out this morning, yeah. This has been the craziest thing I’ve ever done, but it was all worth it.

Anna