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Q1 What made you decide to be a screen printer/designer?
Happenstance. No, really. It's true. I've been enamored with screenprinting for a very long time, and I've been attracted to and inspired by design for as long as I can remember. So, those desires have always been welling up inside me. I found a community print studio here in Pittsburgh, PA USA called 'Artists Image Resource' and started working on small prints for myself at a weekly open studio. |
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The more I printed, the more I fell in love with the entire process, start to finish. Eventually I started posting some of my prints to a website called gigposters.com and from there, I was asked by Dave Mayer if I wanted to start working on show and rock posters. From there it started snowballing! I quit my day job in April of 2006 haven't looked back once.
Q2 What inspires you to design?
Weird, often unrelated little bits and pieces of things catch my eye, often unexpectedly. The largest inspirations over and over for me tend to be animals, the natural world, and patterns. I'm really drawn to repetition as much as I drawn to simplicity. When I see something that I really find interesting, it's a bit like going into a dream state. When I get that feeling, I know that I've hit upon something worthwhile.
Q3 Can you talk about the various creative aspects of your job?
My job is really comprised of two distinct parts of a creative process and two separate sets of skills. |
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Q6 What's a highlight of your recent design career?
Oh no! I can't pick just one!
1) My alphabet prints were featured in a national home & living-themed magazine called Real Simple here in the US. I work for myself, the design portion of my work is done out of my home office and sometimes I feel like I am working in a vacuum, or at least in a lot of solitude. |
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So, having my prints and my work in general go from a smaller range of exposure to being nationally recognized was incredible. It made the 2 years worth of long hours alone in my print studio seem worthwhile.
2) I was involved in a really great art show this February at the University of Maryland, called Sweet: Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster. I've been lucky enough to be involved in a few art shows that feature posters and screenprints, but this one was really special. It was held in a large University gallery space at the school's Art department space and the coordinator John Shipman, took the intersection of art, commerce, advertising and printmaking very seriously and worked it all into a great show with tons of excellent poster artists who are also their own printers, and two super cool installations by Tim Gough and Jesse LeDoux to really help make the space come alive. |
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Q11 If you could rewrite your history a bit and take on a totally different career or lifestyle, what would it be and why?
If I hadn't discovered Geology so late in my University education, I would have changed my major area of study from English & Psychology to Oceanography. I wish that I could have been exposed to more Life Sciences in earlier levels of school rather than just basic biology as I had no idea how fascinating rocks, dirt, and waters could be. |
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Q12 What do you see about Japan?
Sushi! It's true. The first time that I had true, very good quality sushi I was hooked. It was like discovering a new moon. I also see a longstanding love of design, inspiration in art, a deep interest in aesthetics, history and a living connection to tradition, yet also an embrace of the modern. I really admire the ability to maintain a keen sense of the past while embracing the present, the fresh, and the new all at once rather than forsaking one for the other. That is something that I find very intriguing about the Japan. That duality is something that the American culture hasn’t quite mastered yet.
Q13 What is your favorite guilty meal? Any good restaurants?
Once again, I must out myself as a sushi fan. I'm very lucky to have an excellent restaurant here to indulge that called (not surprisingly) Umi. However, my husband and I ate possibly one of the best meals of our lives at Morimoto in my hometown of Philadelphia when it first opened. |
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strawberryluna is a fictional name for a very real girl named Allison. A largely self-taught designer and printmaker, strawberryluna has been working in the print and design field since November of 2004. This is the spot where she would write about all of the fancy art and design schools that she attended, however her areas of study weren't art at all. Sorry Charlie. But what she can claim is a keen interest in the mixtures of bold, yet fairly simple imagery that often includes elements of nature and patterning, whether the pieces desgined are rock posters, art prints, or CD covers. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA USA with her husband and funny little dog. Above and beyond all, strawberryluna likes fun. |
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First, there is the conception and illustrating portion where I try out various ideas and layouts until I am happy with an image or an idea. Then, I get to work on the piece all over again as from a printmaking perspective, which requires a new area of expertise and skill both physically and in judgment. It might seem as though that portion of a design is less important or intensive than the original illustration, but really I would say it's very often the opposite. I constantly find myself making unforeseen choices when I am printing a piece that will influence the final design such as color, registration, transparency and opacity of color overlays, and the like. It's really amazing how small adjustments can change and (hopefully!) improve a piece in the printing process.
Q4 Favorite store?
The Strand bookstore in NYC. Hands down. I can and have spent hours there getting lost in the shelves. |
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Q5 Tell us about a project that you are working on right now.
Currently I am working on a CD cover design for a US band called Speed Cave that is a really interesting band. It is electronic music and quite evocative of color via sound. It's really fun. I am also dedicating as much time as I can this year to working on art prints and developing pattern illustrations. A lot of that work is just for my own pleasure right now, but perhaps that will lead to further works in the future. |
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Q7 Who is your favorite designer (or an artist)?
I have a few, favorites that always seem to come up and make me really happy. I greatly admire Marcel Duchamp, the collages and paintings of Max Ernst, the textile designs of the Marimekko studios and always, I adore Alexander Girard's work. Honestly? I think that he was a playful genius.
Q8 Is there a dream project that you'd like to do?
Mmmm, I would absolutely love to work on custom textile and wallpaper design pieces. Large, bolder patterns in 12x12 or so sizes that would transform a room into a simple folktale-like atmosphere. No question, that would be and is my dream project.
Q9 What's coming up in 2008? Any plans?
Art prints galore! But more specifically, I am developing two separate series of art prints based on folk and fairy tales. I'm really hoping to get a good portion of them done in 2008. |
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Q10 Music to live by
The bands that I keep relying on time and again are: Konono No. 1, Belle & Sebastian, Of Montreal, American Analog Set, M.I.A. and Girltalk. However, I've been listening to a lot of classical / Baroque compositions and also older Bollywood music – anything featuring Asha Bosle and I am in love - as well when I sort of need to just clear out the cobwebs in my head. |
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We were able to sit at the sushi bar and watch all of the action! Chef Morimoto was there that night and made our tummies so happy. I'm also a sucker for homestyle Mexican food. As far as guilty meals go... I have to admit that I love Buffalo style hot chicken wings. I kind of feel like a caveman eating them, but dang! They are delicious.
Q14 What is your aspiration?
This is a funny question to me. It's hard actually, because I didn't set out with a traditional 5-year plan for myself to get where I am now. So, in a way, I find that type of planning hasn't come easy to me in life or business. It sounds terrible, I know! But, I tend to treat my work more as crossing a stream by jumping from rock to rock until I wend my way across the water rather than setting all else aside to plan and build a formal bridge or working in a hard & straight line. That said, I do want to focus a bit more on working out some new directions for strawberryluna that require more attention and thought than just happenstance stream skipping luck. |
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