ART DIRECTORS

Once again, warm and balmy: humid like the tropics. In this neighborhood I'm in all that’s missing are parrots and howler monkeys. Today Cara and I organized the apartment once more. Moved shit to storage. Threw out some old portfolio samples I know I shouldn’t have even bothered shipping. At one time this early magazine stuff was precious, now I wouldn’t show it to anyone. One of my mantras before leaving was “No False Nostalgia.” I should have been stricter on my intentions. I could have saved some bucks with shipping. There’s also a huge bag of clothing in the corner just waiting for the Goodwill bin. For some reason since getting here I feel like starting over on the fashion thing. I actually feel like being fashionable. Then again, anything goes here. No one really give a shit.

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During my visit with Patrick yesterday, we were conversing about the demise of what was once called the position of Art Director. Patrick and Holly are book designers and typesetters. We have a few of the same clients. Art Directors and Designers were the people you went to when you wanted someone’s expertise on design—when you wanted something designed. Now it’s called the Marketing Department. The Market Department looks around at what’s selling and determines that the designer should create something exactly like that. The goal is to have several books on the same subject by different publishers looking as similar as possible. This is supposed to sell books. It’s not about the content. It’s not about integrity. It’s about sales. The Marketing Department is single-handedly removing the soul from book design without anesthesia. When the Marketing Department makes mistakes and the book doesn't sell, the designer doesn’t get anymore calls for work.

It reminds me of this publisher I visited here in NYC years ago to drum up some work. The Art Director ripped my portfolio apart. I thought I’d do some research on this person and find out what their work was like. I couldn’t find a single image on Google of anything they did. I could barely find any hits with their name. These so-called experts on design, they get into these positions and they hang onto them like barnacles. Their positions rely solely on their tenacity to remain mediocre. When they get old, who’s going to fill their shoes? Who’s going to take over when the Art Directors—the real ones and the barnacles—get old an have to retire. The answer. The Marketing Department.

Update: I just Googled this Art Director and found one book jacket with to their credit.