We’re happy to bring you an interview with renowned designer DJ Stout, partner at the Austin branch of Pentagram. DJ was generous enough to provide some great insight into the way he works, and the way he uses photography.
Not only have we followed DJ’s design work with great interest, our Austin-based photographer Jay B Sauceda has taken his picture on more than one occasion, as you can see below. Enjoy!
You were known for the photography you commissioned and art directed while at Texas Monthly; what role does photography play in your work today?
I still commission photography at Pentagram but not to the extent that I did at Texas Monthly. At Pentagram I do a wide variety of design work including packaging, websites, corporate identity, books, magazines and iPad apps. We use commissioned photography for many of those projects but not always. A lot of the magazines that we work for these days are interested in redesigns that primarily address revisions of the publication’s basic design and architecture. We also weigh in on content and editorial voice. We usually art direct the launch issues of those revamped publications, and in those instances we do end up commissioning photography or illustration, but when our stint is up the art direction returns back to the staff of the magazine.
Texas Monthly was a very unique situation because the magazine was, and still is, devoted to commissioning original photography and illustration every month, and had a decent budget in order to carry that out. When I was there we were proud of the fact that we never used stock photography. Many of the magazines that I consult at Pentagram do not have sufficient art budgets. They usually have very little money available for original photography, so they use a lot of stock imagery. I always advise them to invest in their own publications and I tell them it is the most important thing they can do to improve their image. I can go in and change some typefaces and colors but it is far more effective for them to start featuring fresh original imagery in their pages. The modern magazine reader is saturated with sophisticated imagery all the time. They will notice if a publication has upgraded the quality of its photographs way before they notice if a text font has been changed.
The other role that photography has played in my work these days is in the area of book design. We design a lot of books and a large proportion of them are photography books. Many of the books we design are for photographers that I have worked with over the years. Some of the photographs that are featured in those books is work that I have commissioned at some point, but much of it is work that I did not help to create. The book design process is interesting though, because I can completely change the perception of an image, or a series of photographs, by the way they are presented in a book format.
How does your office and the other offices at Pentagram source photography? Has finding a decent photographer become easier or harder in the digital age?
Sourcing photography has become easier because you can see a photographer’s work immediately and in a fairly high quality way on their websites. I still like to get a simple image on a postcard from photographers though. I think it is one of the few ways for new talent, or old talent for that matter, to keep their latest imagery in front of art directors and designers. I’m extremely busy all the time and I don’t have the luxury of time to surf around the internet just for the hell of it. If a nice image catches my eye in the daily mail I file it away in an “old school” folder that I pull out when I’m contemplating the commissioning of some new photography for a project.
For the redesign of Loyola Marymount University’s website, you created an iPad app. How are the new mobile media changing design in general, and your work in particular?
I like doing the digital media projects, and we’re good at them, but it seems to me that websites, iPads and other new media have become more and more about technology and less and less about actual design.
One of your design slogans is “content is king”; what does that mean?
Content really is everything, whether it is the written editorial content in a magazine or a book, or the content in a photograph or an illustration. If those components of design communication don’t say something, or if they don’t tell a story, then they are not effective and ultimately forgettable.
Austin has a thriving design and photography scene these days; why do you think the region is so successful?
Austin is one of the most open-minded tolerant cities I have ever lived in, and I moved to a different place every year when I was growing up. Austin is one big happy family and everyone is welcome. That kind of environment attracts creative minds.