#makersandcreators

The other day I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite designers, Jessica Walsh, who has recently been named partner at Sagmeister & Walsh, a playful and well regarded design firm started by Stefan Sagmeister in the early 90’s. Jessica’s work is strikingly dynamic and she often uses photography of real objects and type in a way that blurs the line between graphic design, illustration, and photography. We met in her gorgeous Manhattan apartment that is another extension of her great style. Here’s a peek into her life and some thoughts relevant to any of us pursuing creative endeavors.

What inspires you outside of art & design? I don't look so much into design for inspiration anymore. More so in art, sculpture, and going around different galleries and museums. But outside of art? I have always found it silly when people say they are inspired by a walk in the park, as I don't necessarily think that is true for me.  I actually get a lot of inspiration from my dreams. I have really vivid crazy dreams which I often remember and sometimes I'll even design things on the computer in my dreams and wake up and remember them.

What tips can you give to those of us struggling to find meaningful work as well as trying to support ourselves in a place such as new york? What I've always said to young designers that are just starting out is to seek people or studios that you  really want to work with, and if you can't get a job try to intern with them at first. Do as much cool work as you can and work your ass off until you build up a body of work that you're really proud of. If you can't do that during the day because of financial reasons, do the work you want to be doing at night on your own. Do self initiated projects, enter competitions, and work for friends.  Once you have a body of work that you're really proud of then I'm all for self promoting through blogs. That gives you exposure which gets you more work in the end.

Do you submit stuff to blogs or do you wait for people to find you? In the beginning when I was just starting out, I emailed my portfolio to a few blogs and that's how I started getting my first commissions. Now I don't anymore because I'm more on the radar so people post my stuff anyways, but definitely when I was first starting out. Do you ever worry about people copying you or do you feel wary about sharing too much online? I'm not worried about that… of course people are going to take inspiration and copy. I think that's a compliment and I'm not worried about posting things online. I think it's great to get exposure.

Did you have any mentors when you were younger? I've always had people who have helped along the way, but more so since graduating college I’ve had mentors. When I first graduated school, I was hired by Paula Scher who was a big mentor for me and I really respect her, love her work, and think she's really smart. Working under her and seeing how she operates her business and her design team was amazing for me. Also Kristina DiMatteo, an art director at print magazine who gave me my first real job as an art director in New York and put a lot of faith in me. Before that I was just doing design work at pentagram and she really helped expose me to a lot of illustration jobs. And of course Stefan Sagmeister, I mean, I owe a lot to him.

Do you consider yourself a morning or an evening person? Definitely an evening person. I’d say it takes me until noon to be able to do anything productive. So I try to get my emails and more administrative tasks out of the way in the morning, and I try to work on creative stuff in the afternoon.

When you take time off do you enjoy a beach vacation, urban exploration, or adventuring? Beach vacations. Preferably where there's no wifi, because otherwise I'll be checking my email every 5 seconds (I'm a little bit of a workaholic). Once or twice a year I try to take a week and just go on the beach and relax. I love reading books but I don't really like starting and stopping, so on general work days I don't really read that much. But when I go on vacation I'll burn through 5 books in the sun with a cocktail.