I think regardless of how we fellow designers and Art Directors feel, you have to think that the average person is probably pretty amazed when they see such visually stunning work. And this kind of work has opened a new door that is really intimidating, I think, to a lot of designers who may not be able to learn how to utilize the software out there to create such visually rich work. And as much as it may pain some designers to say, this kind of work is in very high demand. Just look at the roster of clients chalked up by the designers I mentioned earlier, not to mention the KDU as a whole.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with making eye candy. It is great practice for developing technique to use on bigger more ‘conceptual’ projects. I spend a ton of time in Illustrator and Photoshop perfecting my skillsets so that I am ready for when I get to utilize those skills for just such an occasion. I post a lot of this practice, ‘eye candy’ work on my website. And I apologize, but I am a little obsessed with skulls, and there is just something cool about deer antlers. My work is full of those things at the moment. I feel compelled to use a lot of this imagery though because it is in such popular demand at the moment. I want to look attractive to potential employers and lure potential clients by looking like I know what is in demand. And regardless of how I feel about strong concept and my sincere love for Bauhaus/Josef Muller Brockmann inspired sans-serif type, I keep getting hired to make eye candy. Consequently, I now have a lot of that work in my book.

Despite all this, I have had a growing sense that we may see a backlash soon where we may see clean and minimal design creeping back in. Hopefully this trend will be married to concept. However, I don’t think the general public or ‘hipster’ cultures obsession with bizarre and visually stunning art is going to totally end anytime soon. So, long as people are creating though and discovering new things in the process, how could anything really be bad about that. No matter what we think. If the public has a lust for skulls then that is what I am going to create. Design is a business and I have a wife to feed.

No matter what, I still always buy a copy of Faesthetic and I still always finds something in there that inspires.

i’m also an art director. and a contributor to faesthetic as well. i appreciate faesthetic less as a “Design” artifact and more as a kind of sketchbook of artist ideas. there is a real distinction these days, i believe, between design and illustration. they mix and match and mingle and compliment and sometimes are entirely seperate. but in each there is symbolism. thats something that is very personal and when done well, like lustig or saville, it becomes interpersonal. i agree, with so much of it going around today, there are fewer lustigs and savilles. but thats a good thing. something to aspire to.

i would never qualify my work in faesthetic as design. its something else. still not sure what. i approach opportunities like faesthetic as a place to make work i am personally satisfied with. so, there are ideas behind the work. dustin is great at providing a framework and letting you go. no client. no feedback. not that that eliminates the accountability out of making something. but, it’s for me. if you enjoy it, great. if not, nothing’s lost. my responsibility then is to give faesthetic time and thought when i create. and dustin’s role, as curator, is all the more powerful. i think the designer’s greatest role, is in fact curator.

clouds, skulls, birds, deer. yep its all been done. i actually like to poke some of these things in my work. but i won’t kid myself. i am sure everything i’ve done, has been done before. and in the end, i’m not a farmer, or a teacher or surgeon. what i do is a luxury. but its nice to have something like faesthetic to look forward to.

I actually know your personal work and are familiar with you as an artist so I always really liked that Faesthetic was your “side project”. I admired the ambition and still applaud you for sticking with it after several years.

I found what you said about finding original work to showcase very interesting. I guess it wasn’t something I expected. But yeah a lot of design nowadays is rips of rips etc. And I can see how weeding through it all must be both really interesting and really frustrating.

Obviously you can see from my post that it wasn’t really me slamming Faesthetic as much as looking though Faesthetic kinda got me off on a tangent about design & art in general. And personally, I think if your publication can inspire me to consider these bigger ideas, then you should be super proud of your publication, as getting people to think about something higher than the pretty picture on the page is a great achievement.

I always liked Faesthetic because it was an original. You dont see very many, if any publications that are all art like yours. So if anything it isnt my interest in Faesthetic that was waned over the years, its more my disinterest in current design trends.

But i will definitely continue picking it up regardless and yes hopefully i will have more fodder to post again on Faesthetic in the future.

its really interesting reading this, as i have to say im living in a bubble here (its rare i get any feedback on the magazine, and only see my steady sales as an indicator im doing something right.)

every issue of faesthetic i make, i always get a little nervous about what sort of content will end up in my inbox, because for the first few issues i had no theme, and people just made whatever eye candy tickled their fancy. now i use a loose theme, just to give some consistancy to the feel of each magazine. 2 issues ago, the theme was self portraits, so you saw a lot of human faces floating around the pages. and in this issue the theme was love & death (which i know is pretty un-inspired)

to me, one of the interesting things about this project, is letting the artists do whatever they want. once ive added someone to the artist’s roster, there is very little editing on my end of things. so sometimes the work isnt very good, and sometimes its mind blowing. (i guess in some ways, the magazine ends up being a good indicator of each artist’s work ethic)

each year i do the magazine, im emailed hundreds upon hundreds of online portfolios, and im continually shocked at how redundant most of the work i see is. people rip off people who are ripping off other people, and trends spread so fast.. its sometimes really hard to find 100 original portfolios to feature. (one of the tough things about making faesthetic is finding the 60-100 people i need for each issue, especially since the magazine is only a small part of my life and not something i can afford to spend too much time on)

point is, i agree with you in a lot of senses. and with every issue i publish, my eyes glaze over a little more. im still in love with my baby, but disapointed in general with the state of “illustrative design” which is so common these days.

ive been planning some changes to the magazine for the next issue (#7) to not only get me excited about the project again, but to also encourage everyone to try a little harder. so… hopefully in 7 months or so you’ll have some fodder for another faesthetic post. and hopefully i’ll be able to reignite your interest in what im doing (and hopefully reignite it in me too)

all this being said, im still really happy and proud of each issue, and i really do think over all each issue is getting better. im not sure if you didnt catch my theme of this issue, but if not it may help looking at everything again (just to see that there is meaning behind those “goddamn skulls” and that its not all empty art)