I’m loving this logo for the US Soccer team by Nike. Nicely done.

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Ten years ago the design scene in Oklahoma was somewhat bleak. Heck, four years ago, when I was a sophomore beginning my design classes, we were told to look to Dallas and Austin if we wanted to stay close to home and actually get a graphic design job. Want a paid design internship in the city? Nope. Nope.

Today is a different story thanks to fresh creatives who are choosing to stay in Oklahoma and cultivate something great. Foundry Collective gives me hope for the Oklahoma design state of affairs. Please check out their website, blog, and Twitter and marvel at their raw talent and impeccable style.

What is Foundry Collective?
An excuse for neither one of us to have a 9-5…

For the sake of public relations though, Foundry Collective is the collaboration between Scott Hill and Paul Wilkes for making pretty things. We bottom line it at making great and beautiful work that functions well. We’ve worked together on anything from campaigns to print pieces to photographs to events. We have a quite the passion for the film and music industry that shows through in a lot of our portfolio.

How long has Foundry Collective been around?
That’s a tough question…

It probably started in Intro to Ad/Design our sophomore year of college…or in 2007 at the Non’s release of Paper City when we joked about starting a business…or a year ago when we started working together on a bunch of projects…or 2010 when we just up and incorporated because we were working together full time on a number of contracts. We kicked it all off with the release of The Non’s sophomore album, Tadaima in January.

Do you have a favorite project that you have done so far?
It has to be a tie between two projects we’re currently working on, both campaigns. We’re working on an extensive campaign for Buffalofitz’s upcoming EP release of “The Belle of St. Louis” that includes a website, photography, release shows, album artwork, and the whole works to have a great album release. You can see the beginnings of it at www.belleofstlouis.com. The other is a custom campaign for Parsons Construction to help get the word out about the gorgeous work they do. We’re working on a documentary about his work with local cinematographer Andrew Patterson, new site, a line of shirts, and a number of other collateral pieces.

You know you’re in a cool line of work when you get really stoked for meetings because each meeting brings something new and exciting to the table.

What is your take on design in Oklahoma and Oklahoma in general?
We’re really excited about the state of Oklahoma’s creativity. I grew up in Dallas and Scott is from Tulsa. We both made the conscious decision to stay in Oklahoma. In doing so we also made the decision to contribute to the culture and life of Oklahoma by making things happen. At the end of the day it’s a bit of a mantra that we live by – Do. Cool. Stuff. Whether that’s throwing a music event this year or being a part of a festival or just creating things that people want to go to and be a part of. I was talking with another art director the other day and we had the conversation that if (Peter Drucker style) every business did their part to help the community around them then what a cool community we would have.

Oklahoma has a really great community and we’re excited to be a part of it. There’s this amazing feeling here that everyone is rooting for the success of the state and it’s culture. In all of my travels I haven’t seen that anywhere else. (that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist elsewhere but it’s prevalent here)

Dream Client?
Nickelback….a full rebrand. Seriously though, think about it. If we could somehow successfully make Nickelback cool….what couldn’t we do??

Advice for aspiring graphic designers/creatives?
Remember all those cool ideas that college classes cultivated? Find a way to translate those into the ‘real world’ and make them happen. Do whatever it takes. Don’t be afraid to be creative and don’t let anyone take that away from you.

For entrepreneurial creatives that jump off into self employment, don’t let it get you down. When you’re up it feels like you have the whole world and when you’re down it feels like you’ll never be up again. It’s a roller coaster of a ride but it’s worth every single minute of the experience. I’ve been on my own for 5 years now and it’s a killer place to be.

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Here are the typefaces that I have liked and primarily used from high school through college. What is your typeface progression? This was inspired by Jessica Hische. Check out her Daily Drop Cap.

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As one of the few Oklahoma design studios that doesn’t restrict themselves to the nothing-but-advertising attitude, Live4This has contributed some really solid work to the local scene and has been recognized nationally for their talents. These surprisingly young creatives describe themselves as “artists, art directors, advertisers, designers, photographers, and programmers”, and their website is full of work that shows they aren’t exaggerating their skills.

Who is Live4This?
Live4This is the collaborative between Darshan Phillips & Aaron Whisner.

How did you get started and what goals were originally present?
We started the studio because the two of us had enough freelance and contract work to do it. We have been friends for a long time and had studied art and design together.

As a multidisciplinary studio, how do you balance the differences between art and design, and what differences do you see there?
In art, we create without trying to appeal to any audience but ourselves. In design, we are trying to appeal to the intended audience. The rules of composition are the same in both art and design.

How do you find inspiration in Tulsa, Oklahoma?
Books, online, movies, and nature.

What are your thoughts on the art/design community of Tulsa and Oklahoma in general?
We are huge advocates of the Oklahoma art/design community. There is so much talent in our state regardless of our geographical location and it is growing. When we first started, we had a lot of people tell us that Oklahoma would never have a cool design community. Instead of fleeing to some state that did, we wanted to work on growing one. It is a huge frustration when someone we know, with talent, moves out of Oklahoma. Hopefully Oklahoma will continue to retain talent and grow its design and art community.

Any favorite projects so far?
Our last art show, Progress as Promised.

We saw you in Print Magazine a while back, what other awards have you won?
Best of Show / Ride Snowboard International Art Competition, 2005
2nd / Salomon Snowboard International Design Competition, 2005
Multiple Awards / Art Directors Club, 2007 & 2008
Best of Show / ADDYs 41, Best of Show, 2008
Multiple ADCT Graphex Awards, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

We have also been featured in:
ART 365 THE FILM
Art Directors Club, 2007 & 2008
CMYK Magazine, 2004
Corridorbuzz.com, 2008
FecalFace.com, 2008
Kern Newsletter, 2007 & 2008
New American Paintings, No. 78, 2008
Oklahoma Magazine, 2007 & 2008
OklaTravelNet, 2008
Print Magazine, RDA, 2007 & 2008
Tulsa People, 2008
Tulsa World, 2007, 2008 & 2009
Urban Tulsa, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009
Up Late with Ben Sumner, 2008
Steamboat Pilot, 2006 & 2007
WheatToast.org, 2008

What are your goals for the future?
We would love to have a show featured in the New York Times. We are also working towards having shows world-wide.

Anybody in Oklahoma you would like to work with but haven’t had a chance to?
We would love to be commissioned by one of the big oil companies to produce a body of work.

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I know Justen from back in the day when he was a vis comm graduate student at OU and I was a sophomore. During critiques, I think we all trusted his advice more than our regular professors because of his keen eye for design as well as his awesome Brooklyn accent. We were all blown away and inspired whenever he showed us any of his work. What a class act.

Where are you from?
I was born and raised in New York City (mainly Queens) and came to
Oklahoma for college.

What do you do?
I teach graphic design at Oklahoma State University where I’ve
developed a program focusing on motion and interactive design. My
design work encompasses motion graphics (video, typographic animation,
etc.), printed work (including posters, logos, custom typography,
etc.), interactive work and illustration. I have also enjoyed making
sample based music for many years.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
My son, Hudson and wife, Holly. My grandparents, Anna and Arrigo
Ghedini (both artists) were huge inspirations for me. A laundry list
of assorted inspirations would include; Hipgnosis, R. Crumb, Ralph
Bakshi, Jack Kirby, Ghost, Saul Bass, Tehching Hsieh, Ivan Chermayeff,
Herb Lubalin, Weegee, Futura, Francis Bacon and old lady Pray. In
general, I am motivated by a sense of life being very short.

What artists do you respect right now?
I respect all the artists and designers I know. I’ve actually found
myself having a deep respect for scientists like Vilayanur S.
Ramachandran. Maybe it’s interesting because it’s outside art theory.

What are you sick of?
Joylessness disguised as professionalism.

What music are you listening to recently?
Bodega System, J Dilla, Thelonious Monk and the Odd Couple theme song.

What is your first creative memory?
I remember inventing the Star of David being a huge breakthrough for
me (I was playing around with triangles and thought I had invented a
new star).

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
The shag carpet room at Opie’s.

Anything else?
Shout out to the Renyer, Ghedini and Dirickson families. Thanks for
checking out my work.
http://www.behance.net/JustenRenyer

Preliminary type design and character study for upcoming motion design inspired by Justen’s home borough of Queens (NYC).

CD cover concept. Image and layout created in 2004, type designed in 2009.

Self-initiated project. Lunar phases. Birds.

Promotional video for Oklahomans For Reproductive Justice.

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As the new year approaches, we will no longer be seeing the old Oklahoma license plates that most of us have grown up with.

The new Oklahoma license plate features Allan Houser’s “Sacred Rain Arrow” sculpture which is housed in Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum. They really don’t have much going for them. What’s that? An extended descender? I guess it technically isn’t even a descender. Personally, I loved the old plates. They were simple and classic. Was there any public input on the design of the new plates? Your thoughts?

Here are two of my favorite Oklahoma plates. I could do without the condensed/bastardized serif type of the Quapaw Tribe plate but you have to love that blue and red. I wonder if non-tribal members can get these plates?

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All you slick designer types should check out Kyle Reimer’s new project okiecreative. It’s a small but growing resource for Oklahoma creatives (hence the name), and it includes a pretty exhaustive list of local blogs and cool sites that Kyle was gracious enough to add us to (first one on the list, mind you). You can also follow him on twitter. Okie love.

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Sean Ball just tipped us off to this beautiful video for Other Lives that he coordinated and designed the packaging for. Animated by Justen Renyer. Quality.

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We are starting a new blog category called Stuff We Think Is Cool. Granted, everything we post about we probably already think is cool, but this will just give us a catch-all category for stuff that doesn’t fit elsewhere. Some of it will be local, some of it won’t be. Hope you like it.

To start off with, here’s some cool designer-y stuff that a new friend at the Gray Owl tipped me off to. Check it out here and here.

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Good clean design for something not so good and clean.

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