Love Letters: The Work of Evil Genius

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009, Filed under: INDIVIDUALS

Interview/Photo: Jared Yamanuha

Letters—that is, the characters that comprise our alphabet—aren’t something the average person takes seriously.  They are, after all, just the building blocks of words, which in turn are the foundation of sentences and ideas. It’s just the means by which we communicate, and they have no real meaning in and of themselves. Letters are, well, they just are.

But don’t tell that to Graphic Designer/Artist Evil Genius, whose artistic raison d’être is the creation of new letterforms. For years, his artistic output has focused on contorting the alphabet, twisting and bending letters until they’re almost unrecognizable as such. Although his work can be classified as graphic design, it seems he’s bridging the gap between design and art.

I sat down with Evil Genius in his aboveground lair, located in the hilly verdure of Kamehameha Heights, to discuss his obsession with type, his recent work, art, and where he plans to take his love for letters.

What attracted you to letterforms?

It has a lot to do with my creative history. I was involved in a computer art scene called ANSI, back in ’94. I didn’t really understand letterforms. I tried a few, but nothing really clicked in my head. One day—and this just so happened to be around the time when I started to get interested in graffiti through a few friends of mine—it clicked, and I started doing letters, and it just went from there.

What appeals to me is that [letterforms] are these objects that are everywhere, and not that many people understand what they’re about.

What are they about?

Communication. To me, letterforms are about giving weight to something, to meaning. There’s the meaning that the letters actually say, but then there’s an additional dynamic that’s brought about by the forms themselves, and how we define those forms.

Is that what a designer does? He gives meaning to the letters?

I think he could, I mean—

—Well how do you see your role as a designer? What is the goal?

I think the individual goals of each project will differ. But the basic goal they always say in every graphic design textbook is that our job is to solve problems. It all depends on what you’re designing, and for whom.

So there’s nothing that really constitutes good design?

There are, but the things that constitute good design are more abstract ideas. They have to be functional, and the end result has to be measurable to some degree.

Was that something you learned [as a graphic design student] at Honolulu Community College or was that something you learned at [graphic design firm] Studio Ignition where you worked?

I learned that throughout the course of working. Right out of school, I started freelancing on my own, and I really didn’t know what I was doing. I landed a job at Studio Ignition a year and a half later, and I consider that a more formal education on how the design industry works, and what the relationship of clients to designers was and so forth.

Well let’s talk about some of your designs. Let’s take Spring Break 3000 (pictured below) as an example.

For this one, [DJ Rob Low] mentioned that [he wanted cover art for his mix CD] called Spring Break 3000. He wanted it to appeal to women, it had to look like it was released in the Spring, and when I think of Spring, I think of Easter. I think of warmish, pinkish, pastel-y colors and little bunny rabbits. And that was basically the inspiration behind the Spring Break 3000 [piece]. The forms have echoes of floral lines in them, like plants and flowers, more organic shapes, even though my line isn’t organic. I do everything on the computer, but I think a lot of the organic feel can be defined by the forms themselves, and the negative space around the forms.

Let’s talk about one of the pieces that you didn’t design for a client.

I call this one “The Masters” (pictured above), because it’s sort of my ode to the masters of classic racing bicycle frame builders. I really wanted to see how far I could push the illusion of 3D, in the sense that 3D on paper is not really 3D, it’s just this illusion of 3D. And in understanding what that illusion is, you can combine and juxtapose elements in ways that don’t really make sense if they were really representing 3D. It’s like saying ‘hey, it’s all an illusion, none of this is real, it’s just forms on a piece of paper.’ Because of that it gives you so much freedom to create twists on what we believe things to be.

To me one of the trademarks of your style is that it’s always evolving, A lot of really great artists got to where they got to based on their willingness to experiment. If you’re using the same tools, same forms, and the same vocabulary that other artists have used, you’re not really going to develop your own style, you’re not really going to break beyond what’s possible. That said, how much does experimentation play into your process?

I think it’s everything, actually. What interests me is how many different ways can the letters in our language be represented in such a way that it’s still functional, still somewhat legible.

Based on what we’ve talked about—your background at Studio Ignition, your own freelancing for clients, and then on to your own designs for design’s sake—do you think the world of clients and graphic design with a specific functionality can ever be reconciled with the world of personal, artistic vision?

I think the only time that can ever be reconciled is if the clients come to you, and they’re already sold on what you’re doing.

If you look at what’s been going on recently, with [graphic designers] Stefan Sagmeister and Geoff McFetridge, both of whose work can be seen in art galleries, it’s interesting in that design is entering into the art world.  I saw a Sagmeister installation in the modern wing of the Art Institute in Chicago. Do you see yourself wanting to do that?

I think so. On one hand, it seems presumptuous to think that anyone else would be interested in what I’m interested in. Luckily, a lot of the things that I’m personally interested in manifest itself in kind of interesting visuals. I don’t know if it’s likely that I’ll ever end up in [an art gallery], but if I do, that’s cool.

What’s the next step as far as what you want to do with letters?

I’ve wanted to tinker with more sculptural forms, like actual 3D forms with letters. It does present a little bit of a problem because it’s not the illusion of 3D in 2D, it’s actually 3D. I do want to explore a lot more 3D things, I have an interest in furniture design, and I’m currently semi-obsessed with women’s shoes.

Is there anything else you want to add?

I really like this quote, and it’s in the intro of the [Robert] Bringhurst book, “The Elements of Typographic Style:”

“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence. Its heartwood is calligraphy – the dance, on a tiny stage, of the living, speaking hand – and its roots reach into living soil, though its branches may be hung each year with new machines. So long as the root lives, typography remains a source of true delight, true knowledge, true surprise.”

Click Here to access the website of Evil Genius.