Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

As promised, I present to you the amaz­ing remain­ing Design Ranch ses­sion lead­ers. Much more to come next week from Texas!

Jay B. Sauceda

Jay B. Sauceda grew up in La Porte, Texas and moved to Austin in 2003. After attend­ing the University of Texas, he began a career in com­mer­cial and edi­to­r­ial pho­tog­ra­phy. His clients include WIRED, Pepsi, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Pentagram, Southwest Airlines, and Texas Monthly. He believes in firm hand­shakes, Willie Nelson, and telling com­pelling stories.

Judy Schulz

Judy Schulz knows every side of a sheet of paper. A vet­eran in the paper indus­try for over 20 years, she is an award-winning designer with mad skills on the two-sided medium. Judy is the Director of Corporate Sales Promotion and Marketing for Olmsted-Kirk Paper, the friend­liest and old­est paper com­pany in Texas at 107 years strong. Her paper story was recently told in Uppercase Magazine, and she writes about her hand-picked inspi­ra­tion on her blog. Judy is a fero­cious paper enthu­si­ast, iPho­neo­g­ra­pher, book­binder, design geek, fonta­holic, gad­get girl and card-carrying mem­ber of AIGA.

Mike Woolf

Mike Woolf spent seven years at GSD&M as a writer and cre­ative direc­tor. He cre­ated big ol’ cam­paigns for the likes of Southwest Airlines (“Wanna Get Away?”) and Whataburger (that old guy talkin’).  Twelve years ago, he started Beef and Pie Productions with his part­ners, Andrew and Karen Yates. They make a liv­ing direct­ing com­mer­cials, but they live to make doc­u­men­taries. Five of their short docs pre­miered at SXSW. So did their first fea­ture, the space epic:Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott’s Road to the Stars. It won best doc at SXSW 2010. Likes include brew­ing beer, smok­ing brisket and long walks on the beach. He’s proud to be part of Design Ranch 2013!

Paul Fucik & Joe Swec of Arts & Recreation

Paul Fucik is a graphic designer, mas­ter screen­printer, and oper­a­tor of Arts and Recreation, a small design shop in Austin, Texas. Paul’s career in design has taken him from boot­leg­ging home-printed shirts at the first Lollapalooza, screen­print­ing rock posters for his favorite bands, becom­ing mas­ter printer for the Serie Project, being a part­ner in The Decoder Ring, and now, run­ning his own shop. Arts and Recreation has been con­sid­ered “Fresh” by Comm Arts, both online and in print. Their work can be found in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions, on many mobile devices and all over the internet.

Joe Swec is a sign and mural painter based in Austin, Texas. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Joe quit a promis­ing career in struc­tural engi­neer­ing to pur­sue a career in art and design. He had been prac­tic­ing the tra­di­tional craft of hand-painted signs for many years, handed down to him from his grandfather’s fas­ci­na­tion with clas­sic design, sign paint­ing and cal­lig­ra­phy. Joe has now been sign paint­ing pro­fes­sion­ally for 3 years, work­ing mostly in Texas and with some of the city’s best design firms, and he won Austin Chronicle’s “Best of Austin” 2012. He’s met his goal of doing what he loves for a liv­ing: next up is more art shows and surf trips.

Niels Cosman

Niels Cosman is an artist and designer cur­rently liv­ing and work­ing between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York. He received a Masters of Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007 and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005. In 2012, he was selected as the Pilchuck Glass School Auction cen­ter­piece designer. Niels is cur­rently adjunct fac­ulty in the RISD Glass Department.

The Decoder Ring

The Decoder Ring is a screenprint-focused stu­dio for hire, spe­cial­iz­ing in posters, prod­ucts and fine art prints. Decoder part­ners on many projects with design and brand devel­op­ment stu­dio Helms Workshop, and oper­ates out of space in the Workshop Compound in South Austin.

The com­pany began in 2004 as a design col­lab­o­ra­tive with a focus on design and screen print­ing for the music indus­try. In short time, the stu­dio won acclaim for its bold, unique approach and has been fea­tured in pub­li­ca­tions, fes­ti­vals and gallery shows across the world.

In 2010, part­ner Geoff Peveto took own­er­ship of the com­pany, shift­ing the studio’s focus toward screen printed projects and the acclaimed Decoder Fine Art Print Series. The project hosts famed artists and design­ers for stu­dio res­i­den­cies, cre­at­ing multi-layered fine art serigraphs.