An update on PRINT’s Regional Design Annual: As a winner of the RDA—the competition that stands apart and defines the design industry—you will receive a certificate template designed by Timothy Goodman exclusively for the 2016 RDA. The extended deadline is Friday, April 29, 2016. Don’t miss it.
PRINT’s Designer of the Week Mackey Saturday, creator behind the Instagram logo and many a brilliant logo, recently joined Chermayeff & Gesimar & Haviv as a principal.
[You can hear from the firm’s Sagi Haviv on the pleasures and pitfalls of designing internationally at HOW Design Live next month.]
Name: Mackey Saturday
Name of Firm: Chermayeff & Gesimar & Haviv
Location: New York City
Websites: CGHNYC.com | MackeySaturday.com
Design school attended: University of Northern Colorado
How would you describe your work?My hope it that it identifies well, is memorable, and is removed of anything specific to me because it must be appropriate to the client.
Where do you find inspiration?I’ve found that my inspiration is accumulated from activities, locations and time with individuals more so than from one specific thing. It’s the interaction and questioning of the things that happen while you’re caught up in these experiences that allows the ideas to surface. In the end, I’m searching for the balance of stimulating intake with exhilarating output to produce the best results.
Who are some of your favorite designers or artists?As cliché as it may seem, the three other principals here (Ivan, Tom, and Sagi) truly are some of my favorite designers. Of course I have a great reverence for the likes of Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Lance Wyman, and Stefan Kanchev, but I’m also a big fan of some newer design studios like Moniker and Hvass & Hannibal, as well as artists like Barry McGee and Thomas Campbell.
Do you have a favorite among all the projects you’ve worked on?The closest thing I can compare this to is what it must feel like being a parent asked who their favorite child is. I’m very happy with many of the projects I’ve worked on, and I have favorite moments from a lot of them.
Is there a project that stands out to you as having been the biggest challenge of your career so far?There have been a lot of differing challenges; many could be considered “the most challenging” to a specific part of the process. In terms of the biggest challenge from the creating-a-logo perspective, I think perhaps it was Oculus. The necessity to create something so simple and iconic for technology that is barely understood and constantly changing provided a demanding task. The process itself was quite enjoyable, far less challenging than many other projects from that perspective, but the creative assignment itself was a formidable one.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?I would like to help end some of the greatest injustices to compromised people around the world, have a piece of work in the MoMA, get barreled in Fiji, design a Presidential logo, ride waist-deep powder in Japan, help shape a new generation of effective, responsible and impactful designers, and just a couple other simple things along the way.
What’s your best advice for designers today?Diversify your time and focus your skills. It’s tempting to design everything, but not always wise. I’ve found it much more enjoyable to experience a large variety of things and allow that to deeply influence my simplified focus of creative work.
Check out some of Saturday’s video work for Hello here.