TURNER DUCKWORTH
NEW YORK NY, SAN FRANCISCO CA, LONDON NY
Andy Baron is an Executive Creative Director at Turner Duckworth. He has directly influenced many leading brands and organizations including Anheuser-Busch, BlackRock, General Mills, MillerCoors, Samsung, Subway, the School of Visual Arts, and Visa. He has consistently played an essential role in winning some of the design industry’s hardest-to-win awards — numerous Clios, several One Show pencils, the Type Directors Club — and has appeared in design annuals for Communication Arts, Creative Review and AIGA 365. Andy lives in Brooklyn, NY, in what he believes to be a haunted cathedral, and he regularly sacrifices his body on the tennis court.
HOW AND WHY DID YOU COME TO USE DESIGN TO ADVANCE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE AND/OR SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS, CLIENTS AND CAUSES?
It’s rare for organizations that do good to have sophisticated marketing teams, or big budgets to create large-scale awareness campaigns. Design is a powerful, accessible tool for them to help communicate their goodness. It’s also powerful because of its ability to articulate and supply substance to otherwise intangible or complex subjects. Design is quicker to absorb and remember than a bunch of words, and it’s something people can rally around, wear, talk about or share easily. A good design idea sticks with you, and can be a perennial reminder of a cause or organization for years after it was generated.
This past year we had the opportunity to develop a visual identity for the Equal Justice Initiative — a group based in Montgomery Alabama, led by Bryan Stevenson — who are dedicated to criminal and racial justice in America. Already armed with inarguable facts and powerful, emotionally charged imagery, our system helped to amplify and bring clarity to what has always been a part of EJI. We designed an identity that both lived up to the weight of their content, and was neutral enough to play second fiddle to it. At the heart of the identity is a symbol that implores us to break the cycle of injustice. Inspired by the name Equal Justice Initiative, two equal letter Js form a broken chain, which not only encapsulates a larger purpose, but has also became the symbol for the new Legacy Museum.
DOES 2019 PRESENT ANY SPECIAL CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES, URGENCIES, OBSTACLES IN DEVELOPING GOOD AND/OR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN?
Design for good, and particularly good design for good is increasingly critical. Not just in 2019, but for the foreseeable future. With daily additions to the crisis pile, and an ever-growing list of cultural issues to rally behind or against, we have a lot to handle. The quality and clarity of design has to follow the ascent of media volume if it has any chance of reaching and landing on its intended audiences.
