Kathy Fredrickson and Cheryl Towler Weese

Kathy Fredrickson and Cheryl Towler Weese are partners at studio blue, a Chicago-based multidisciplinary design firm. Along with their four colleagues - Matt Simpson, Garrett Niksch, Tammy Baird and Marty Maxwell - they collaborate on books, exhibits and signage, identity programs, websites and print collateral for clients including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Boeing Company, the Chicago Department of the Environment, the Guggenheim Museum, LaSalle Bank and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Recent projects include a viewbook and website for the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, an identity system and print collateral for a large church's $50 million capital campaign, a signage system for the new Chicago Music and Dance Theater and a catalogue featuring minerals from the Houston Museum of Science. Fredrickson and Weese are both active members of the AIGA; the former is the president of the Chicago chapter, and the latter is on the national board. Since the studio opened in 1993, the firm has received numerous awards and recognition.
[CTW: Cheryl Towler Weese, KF: Kathy Fredrickson]
Do you have a design hero?
CTW: I have lots of heroes. A hero is someone who forces me to look at the world from another perspective; someone with a tightly focused and finely wrought point of view that reminds me to double-check my beliefs and evolve my work.
KF: For me, the word hero evokes the hierarchical studio model of someone like Frank Lloyd Wright - one iconoclast lording over his minions. That's not my world. The people I respect and admire are those that continue to push themselves to evolve creatively throughout their careers, rather than doing the easy thing that makes the most money.
What do you do in your time away from work?
CTW: I spend time with my family: looking into the eyes of (and pacing the floors to console) my two-month-old twins, playing trains with my three-year-old and commiserating late at night with my husband.
KF: I spend my free time with my husband and my two large and rowdy mixed breed dogs, Devo and Lulu. They're very entertaining.
What are you currently listening to, watching or reading?
CTW: I am reading Adele Faber' and Elaine Mazlish's How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. It is at least as useful in the workplace as it is at home.
KF: It's winter in Chicago, so I listen to a lot of country and opera. Lucinda Williams, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Madame Butterfly, The Marriage of Figaro. In the summer, I listen to more rock and roll. I read voraciously; not much design related, just a lot of fiction and history.
Do you believe the economic recovery is finally here?
CTW: I'm trepidatious but hopeful.
KF: Yes! If we all believe, it will be so.
Are you hopeful about 2004?
CTW: I'm an optimist by nature, so, yes, I feel hopeful.
KF: I am pretty happy doing what I do, so personally I am hopeful. I am not so thrilled at the state of the world in general. We humans don't seem to learn much from our history. === page 17

Cinthia Wen

NOON is a time of change; it defines that which comes before and after; it is a center and a peak. In 2001, after years of experience and some tribulation, Cinthia Wen launched NOON based on the belief that work should always be fun and design should have distinction, intelligence and, of course, a stylish sensibility. Wen and her team of six take pride in the attitude that no work is ever too small, big or challenging. The work produced has won many awards and has been recognized in numerous publications. The most recent work includes film titles, festival campaigns, corporate identity programs, restaurants and retail design, as well as projects for many nonprofits and some self-funded studio projects. Wen muses, "Doing what I do and the way I do it will probably never get me that Mercedes I love, but I am having a good time and life is good." Wen studied at CCA and is now an adjunct professor in the design program there. She says she still anticipates a future where design is taken seriously and considered a relevant profession that contributes to society and its well-being.
Do you have a design hero? I do not have a hero per se, but I admire, respect and aspire to become like those who have maintained their passion, interest and success in life and work, while preserving humility, balance and grace.
What would be your dream project? One with shrouded potential. One that I can't see what the end product should look like.
What do you do in you time away from work? Do-it-yourself projects for the house, lounge around with my sister and friends, go to the dog park with my puppy, sleep, organize, reorganize what I organized, clean, watch bad movies, read, chat, email and eBay!
What are you currently listening to, watching or reading? Listening: still hanging on to my Depeche Mode and New Order CDs, shamelessly enjoying Cher. I love Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, and was recently introduced to the Faces of Murpy and Broken Social Scene. Watching: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is always entertaining, The West Wing for its pace, the last season of Friends, Seinfeld reruns. Also 24 and Alias, because they were highly recommended by my sister, and she is right. E! re-runs of Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill. Reading: The paper, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Stranger in a Strange Land, US magazine, Bazaar, Metropolitan Home, W, most design publications and mail-order catalogs.
Do you believe the economic recovery is finally here?
I am an optimist, so I believe that things will always get better, including the economy. But all good things takes time.
Are you hopeful about 2004? Hope implies that it was hopeless at one point. I believe the design industry is turning a new leaf. It will be interesting to see how tradition, technology and ambition forms the next generation of designers.

Christopher Simmons

Christopher Simmons is a designer, writer and educator. As senior designer at Alterpop, and as an independent design consultant, he has created and developed a variety of design and identity projects for such clients as Kaiser Permanente, The Nature Conservancy, The California Academy of Sciences, UCLA and numerous lesser-known enterprises. His award-winning design solutions are frequently augmented by his own writing, and he has written the introduction to the soon-to-be-released book, All New California Logos (Madison Square Press, 2004). He is currently writing his own book on logos; developed and teaches a course, entitled "Identity Design," at the California College of the Arts, in addition to teaching Identity Design II at the Academy of Art; and lectures widely. Simmons has served on the board of directors of the San Francisco chapter of the AIGA, where he continues to be an active member and volunteer.
Do you have a design hero? Once, for my birthday, my parents rented a reel-to-reel projector and Charles and Ray Eames' Powers of Ten. It's a brilliant film, and one that is cited by many designers as being tremendously influential. Keep in mind, though, that I was seven, and while I recall being fascinated by the film, the concept of exponential relativity was only loosely within my grasp. Nevertheless, the heroes were revealed: my parents, who could have hired a clown instead.
How and where do you find inspiration? Inspiration generally finds me. I have a tendency to notice everything - then analyze and discuss it. Entertainment, entomology, etiquette, politics, an interesting quote, baseball defensive strategy, Kevin Spacey's ability to act with his eyes, the number of people I observe wearing red pants the day after Thanksgiving, whether profound or mundane - one can extract a metaphor from almost any examined situation. In a world so replete with meaning, how could anyone fail to be inspired?
Do you believe the economic recovery is finally here? I saw this sign on the freeway one night. In brightly illuminated letters it read, "Traffic Clear Ahead." Predictably, everyone slowed down to read the sign and the traffic ahead was soon reduced to a crawl. I think if we spent less time worrying about when our lives are going to become easy again, and focused on the task at hand, we might just get there a little quicker.
Are you hopeful about 2004? For no real reason, I looked up the word "hope" several months ago and was confronted by its definition: to hope is to wish with an expectation of fulfillment. To wish, by the way, is simply to desire. Until then I had never thought to make a distinction between the two, perhaps because I never saw the point of desiring something without being intent on its pursuit, or pursuing something without believing it to be attainable. In essence, then, I am hopeful about everything.