In the fall of 1997, I headed back home to explore the Midwest and hit a number of art schools. I checked out Kendall in Grand Rapids, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MIAD in Milwaukee and MCAD in Minneapolis. I got a mixed bag of advice from the assorted admissions people. The woman at the U of M told me, point-blank, “We offer more of a cerebral approach to graphic design.” That was a fun one. The guy from Kendall looked over my stuff and shook his head. “Man,” he said, “you gotta go up the food chain a bit.” He pointed me to MIAD. The woman who gave me the flustered tour there was mean and uninterested in my myriad questions. That sealed the deal on that one. When I got all the way up to MCAD, they were really welcoming. The work the kids were doing looked complex, wild and a bit foreboding. The catalog alone was a nightmare of coded forms, adhering to the latest post-post- post-modern graphic design tricks. But that felt exciting and provocative.
MCAD was my choice, and I started the admissions process.
That following spring of 1998, with all my work submitted for admission and scholarships, I got the first letter detailing my acceptance to MCAD! I
remember how scary it all was, not knowing if I would make the cut. You see, the stuff I showed, that was from my time in Bend; self-taught, more or less.
Reckless with big spirit, but still no idea of where I stood in the contemporary ranks of art school.
My last snowboard trip was to Telluride, Colorado. Chad Smith and I caught a free ride with friends from Bend, all of whom were competing at a snowboard contest there. I was up on the hill and remember some screaming nightmare mom, with a fur coat and everything, yelling at her kid to get to snowboard practice. That’s the moment I knew I was done with snowboarding. I was so disgusted, I didn’t even strap in for the final ride down the hill. That wasn’t the snowboarding I knew and loved. I skated down to the bottom, walked up into Telluride’s downtown, and checked my e-mail at some overpriced Internet café. That session, I got the e-mail telling me I was awarded the Wanda Gag scholarship, along with some Wisconsin kid named Mike Gaughan. $36,000 for four years! In my case, it would be $9,000 a year for the two years I would
be attending. That made it possible for me. I remember telling the crew I got accepted . . . so proud, freaked out and excited. I was going to art school!
Officially. Just had to get through a summer up in Alaska, and then I’d head down to Minneapolis to start school in the fall. School was a great experience for me on so many levels. First, it allowed me to shed the shrinking,
claustrophobic snowboard world. Both its somewhat incestuous and
predictable artwork and its limited language and trajectories. That world is pretty big when you are nineteen, but I started looking for the next thing
outside of it. I’d go up to Portland and hit Powell’s Books to flip through How magazine and Communication Arts. Couldn’t even afford the things, but they gave me a taste of what was going on outside of our little mountain town.
Second, school opened my eyes to the contemporary design world. The issues, trends and possibilities. I remember being blown away by the Walker Art
Center in Minneapolis. And hell, I didn’t understand but a third of the stuff. I was more interested in their materials and catalog designs than the stuff on the walls. As challenging as the work was, the elite quality of the design was
aspirational.
Third, school helped me to realize and develop what I had already cultivated inside of me. And the opportunity to act on it. My little life in Bend was great and all, but I quickly knew there was a ceiling to what I could pull off there.
Moving to Minneapolis removed all the barriers.
The main thing I learned at MCAD was how to attack a project. Thinking, analysis, taking notes, making sketches, executions and then refinement. From my first graphic design class up to those final couple projects, process was something that got drilled into you. I needed it.
My favorite teacher was a guy named Jerry Allan. I had him for one class, Foundation: 3D. A required class, kids were sleeping and phoning it in. His infectious positivity really made me look at the process of making things in a new way. In a couple projects, Jerry taught us not only how to look at a single sheet of paper in a new light, but most important, how to design our lives. With good thinking, anything was possible! And, man, that guy had the coolest
boots!
I’ll forever be indebted to Kali Nikitas and her commanding knowledge of type. First she taught us the power and privilege of the computer as a tool—by
cutting out each letter and word from laser prints and reassembling them into sentences. Or how to re-create a ligature with french curves, rulers and ink.
Classic production techniques; frustrating as hell, but ever so crucial. It quickly taught you how to savor each little letterform, and just how important each piece was. Kali taught me a hit list of typographic tips that I use each day in my work. This was precisely why I went back to school.
The coolest part about my time in Minneapolis was my internship with Charles S. Anderson Design. My MCAD buddy P. J. Chmiel worked there and vouched for me. Todd Piper-Hauswirth looked over my work and gave me the gig for
$2.20 an hour! I scanned in thousands of Eastern Bloc matchbox labels. I’d get a big “batch scan” going and then go explore the archives, peek into Todd’s and Chuck’s cubicles or head down a floor to bug Aaron Dimmel in the photo studio. I’d go home each Friday with a big headache, exhausted by how much cool stuff I was seeing. Never cracked open Illustrator once at CSA!
I’ve gotten into a little hot water with interviews and speaking fiascos talking about college. Even though I was self-taught for the most part, I knew school would be great for me. I thought I had to do it, to attain accreditation. So how do I feel about school versus self-teaching? I get that question all the time, and try to answer it consistently like this: Go to school if you can! Learn as much as you can! Invest in yourself and hold them to it.
But on the other hand, the idea of some kid coming out of school with $80,000 in debt and their heart not completely into it? Highway robbery. I remember meeting this kid from a pricey art school. He approached and deadpanned me with one question: “How am I going to pay off my school loan from this place?” He was in deep. And I went into this long, convoluted answer about how to attack it, how to rearrange priorities to get a good jump on paying the thing down with design. And he looked surprised and said, “Design? I have a degree in fiber arts.” And it just sort of broke my heart. Design is a
commercial thing, and there’s ways to make loot and pay off the loans. I did it.
But to get out from underneath everything with fine arts? I didn’t know what to tell him. I still feel bad for that kid. He was so cynical and lost.
My two years getting my bachelors of science in graphic design too quick. I learned so many tactile things at MCAD: welding, building things out of wood, controlling metal, sandblasting, screen printing, publication design with Jan Jancourt, bookbinding with Jody Williams and the power of the graphic novel
with Frenchy Lunning. And most important, I learned I had what it took to make a life with design. I still miss my fruitful time in Minneapolis and kinda wish I never left.
Process sketches for “Grizzly Habitat” pictograph project. 1998.
“D’Stries” T-shirt. 1998.
Hierarchy studies. Typography I class. 1998.
“Amtrak Card” from Typography II class. 1999.
“Mercury Rev” CD package design for Bill Thorburn. 1999.
“Open Road” road trip publication for Andrew Blauvelt. 1999.
Grumpy’s Bar & Grill redesign. 1999.
3’ × 4-1/2’ process posters and final piece for 3D Foundations with Jerry Allan. 1998.
Minneapolis College of Art & Design
Washington Street Bridge. 1999.
Slide guitar player’s hands. 1999.
Self portrait. 1999.
Arlie and Gabe from Juno. 1999.
Juno, raging. 1999.
Uncle Kevin loading in his gear. 1999.
Packaging explorations for Laurie DeMartino’s “Graphic Design Packaging” class. 1999.
Senior projects posters. 2000.
“Famous Child Star Alcoholics,” 2-color screen print. 1999.
“The Record Show,” 2-color screen print. 2000.
“Kurt” school-wide propaganda campaign. 2000.
“Chico Shuda” book cover design. 1999.
“Nashville Pussy at First Avenue,” 7-color screen print. 1999.
Gocco relocation postcard. 1998.
Gocco graduation announcement. 2000.
Self portrait, acrylic inks on masonite. 1998.