MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1513481
"Be elegant with everything you do." Aaron Draplin Designer Extraordinaire If anyone deserves pop-star status as a graphic designer, it’s Portland, Oregon’s Aaron Draplin. Tucked away in a far corner of the exhibit hall, his table had one of the longest lines of any—and he wasn’t even giving away free stuff. Dressed in a Portland-y outdoorsman look, the bushy-bearded Draplin rolled a huge Anvil case onstage, manhandled it upright and explained, “I wasn’t allowed to use a podium, so I brought my own…” He flipped open his laptop, revealing a large decal of a leaping largemouth bass spanning its cover. He brought up his first slide, “APPLAUSE!!!” in red on a florescent green background, and the crowd, as they say, went wild. This was not going to be your father’s keynote presentation. A rapid fire, lavishly illustrated, life story that went from Michigan to Oregon to Alaska, from analog to digital (and back to design school) led him to discover, “I wanted to design things that people could use.” That apparently worked. Eventually going indie, he tripled his income—in his basement. He and his snowboarding buddies started a successful snowboarding magazine. His secret is in his process, “Be elegant with everything you do,” from design notes to email to final artwork. And don’t forget to get to thank (and pay back) everyone who was part of that process. Another of Draplin’s big ides is, “You’ve got to make your own stuff.” He started promoting his work with his own merch and swag before it became a thing. He got a big book deal and turned down the offer to have it designed and ghost-written for him. He went from vision to print-ready on his own. The result was so popular, he went on a book tour, something not particularly common for a design book. Six years later, it’s in his twelfth printing at 70,000+ copies. That doesn’t quite match some of his other work, like the star graphic USPS Forever Stamp with a first printing of 400-million and dedicated to his local letter carrier, Phong. Another big thing that means a lot to Draplin his sense of gratitude. His presentation was full of thank-you’s, from the stagehands at the conference to the people that were part of his success. It is manifested by his altruism, like designing Bernie Sanders’ unique campaign posters. This was summed up by one of his final slides, “You can use yer mouse finger to help people.” His ultimate goal and bottom line is the same as just about all of ours, “I got to make a living being creative.” That’s about the best payback any of us can hope for. And Draplin rolled his podium back offstage to cheers and applause.