Designer Interview: Keith Allen, designer for American Greetings
Designer Profiles
1. What was your first impressionable moment that involved design? I remember early on, seeing a hand rendered poster that my grandmother made for a jazz festival. She did calligraphy out of a home studio and I remember saying to myself, “wow that was all made by hand.” I have many family members who are artistic. My uncle paints, my grandmother does calligraphy, and my brother is just so talented too. So I was influenced early on, which left an impression on me.
2. What is it exactly that you are designing? I design for American Greetings, expanding lines of licensed products and creating graphics for cards, stickers, gift bags, and all kinds of other goodies.
3. What does graphic design have you spending your time doing? Graphic design is a demanding job. I find that my workday is comprised of instant deadlines. So it’s pretty much a quick turnaround for me; work is handed to me, I focus on getting that project completed, submit it and receive new work. A lot of drawing, a lot of attention to detail and an all around fast-paced work environment.
4. Paper and pencil, ink and sketch pad, scanner and computer? I prefer to hand render a set of drawings, scan them, then use programs to clean up what I am working on. Hand drawing is more comfortable to get started, but for presentation I definitely get onto my computer.
5. Name one person who influenced how you see things with a “designer’s eye.” Family has always seemed to inspire me to create, but my high school art teacher really gave me the push I needed. I was encouraged to scan some of my artwork and clean it up to color it in Photoshop by my art teacher. That led me down the path of what I now know to be graphic design.
6. Who/what makes you smile or relax at the end of a full day of designing. I am engaged, so after a long day’s work of designing, I look forward to coming home to my fiancé.
7. Reveal your sources of influence that you cannot design without? I have a couple of references, books on design, but blogs and design sites are full of fresh designs. FFFFOUND is a great site that was introduced to me by my brother, another artist in my family. It is a wealth of cool things.
8. The worst package design created that you believe should be removed from every store shelf? The first thing to come to mind is a horrible package design for a knock-off Godzilla toy at a major toy store. The Godzilla in the graphics are different than that of the toy itself. The toy was zip-tied to where it blocks a large portion of the graphics, leaving a large void beside the toy. Bad layout, bad packaging, overall bad design.
9. How often do you spend time drawing in a personal sketchbook, free of client work? Not enough! I always bring a sketchbook, I always acquire a pocket full of pens, but it is difficult to find the time to focus. But when I do, I update my sketchblog for friends and family to view. Now that it is the holidays, I have found myself doing personal work, though it is for gift giving.
10. What should the ideal designer do every single day, with the intention of becoming a better designer through habit? One bit of advice, which I do myself, is to learn something new every day. I dedicate my first hour of the day to learning a new program, skill, or something that complements my stronger skills. It is better to know how to do many things, rather than specialize in being the guy who does that one thing really well. So reach out, learn something new every day.
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