The
following is an interview I did with Julian
Gatto sometime ago. I'd been meaning to put it up much sooner, but I kept
getting delayed with other work. I first got an email from Julian last year.
He was visiting NYC and was looking for "interesting"people. He
soon had a show at Zakka. It was
titled "Hire Me" which
was kind of a joke, but in actuality, he was looking to get out of the troubled
Argentina and a way to be able to live here. He didn't find a job, but after
he went back home, he took the entrance exam to Cooper Union and got in, so
he'll be coming back to our city soon. (Check out the Everybody
T-shirt designed by Julian too!)
who are some designers you like? and why?
i like tomato
a lot. First, i just loved the graphic aspect of it, but then i started reading
the texts that were inside the books and then it really blew my mind. For
the first time i found graphic design getting involved with other areas that
aren't usually associated with g.d. such as art, poetry, philosophy. I also
found the texts very...i dunno, they acted like contention: i used to read
them and feel so calmed and peaceful. I guess it had to do with the fact that
i'm always changing my mind about my work and about what i should be doing,
so finding someone that embraced changes as part of a continuing learing process
was very helpful. Also, the notion that things didn't have to be perfect or
even finished, if you were comfortable with it. conceptually speaking, i haven't
found anything like tomato in a while... altough i really liked the books
from ryan mcguiness
. specially the first oine. unfortunately, i wasn't able to buy it, so i just
took a quick glance at it, but it looked that he was taking design into other
areas as well. That's also what i'm trying to do (without making any comparisons).
Design is not only a commercial or funcional discipline, but also a self expression
tool, if one wants. But, of course, there always is the cute/silly stuff that
i also love. I like J.Otto
the most, although he is more an illustrator than a designer. After i saw
his stuff, i started looking at the computer differently.
what other than design are you inspired by?
I find music very inspiring. Sometimes, i can even relate several ideas
or patterns or behaviours that i'm trying to achieve more easily listening
to music than looking at art or design books. Specially electronic music.
The repetition and superposition has a very close relation what we do. The
main difference is that musicians master a dimension that most visual artists
don't : time. At least, i find it very difficult to fill time with interesting
visual matter. on the other hand, i've also tried doing music with a couple
of toy pianos, and also found it very difficult. I guess that the real difficulty
is filling time with interesting stuff, ( do you relate to this idea?) whether
is music or image, doesn't matter. I also find popular culture very inspiring.
Especially in the argentinian context, because it has never been used (unlike
american's) and also because, obviuously, i feel indentified with it. There
is a graphic identity that every culture has, and i believe is really important
to at least be aware of it, specially in this globalized times. it has to
do with urbuan anthropology, really. And then, there always is what i call
"amateur design" that has to do with design made by people that hasn't been
"educated" to do so. I used to believe that it was a pure third world fenomena,
but i found it in the U.S, too. There is a tv channell here that is exclusively
for housewieves: you know, hobbies,sewing, that kind of stuff. The opening
credits for each show are really insane. I mean, real punk attitude. And the
really funny thing is that it has no irony or intention. That's what makes
it so great., If it were some designer doing some "crazy" stuff, it wouldn't
be the same.
you said you wanted to do paintings again, what sort
of paintings would they be (if you know)?
I guess they are Nara
wannabes! especially in the technique aspect of his work. But i guess it's
going to take me a few years, at least, to master painting. The main thing
that i'm trying to achieve in painting, is to create a different approach
than in the computer. i believe it would be a mistake to do in paint the same
thing that i do with illustrator. But putting the aesthetic aspects aside,
i'm trying toi figure out the real meaning of it all. What is the notion that
is constant in all my work, or what is the notion that i WANT to be constant
in all my work? I remember we talked about this a bit: the real "danger" is
to just do cute stuff. or maybe i'm just too pretentious.
what is your impression so far of NY design community?
The NY design community, i believe, is far too commercial. I think thius has
to do with the educatiuon they recieve. All schoolls focalize in inserting people
in the design field that exist outside, instead of promoting some personal growth
through experimentation. Even the "experimental" fields are starting to repeat
themselves. Regarding your group, which is the one that i got to be more close,
i found that is very much like the one i have here: a group of persons that
combines their knowledge in different areas to make some good stuff.
you've told me some people say your artwork is very
Japanese. they're obviously not looking at it closely enough, but what do you
think of being regarded that way?
Well, i do belive there are several things that i have in common with japanese
cartooning, but his is of course combined with other notions and ideas that
i bring from other places and things i've seen or produced. It also has to
do with the fact that i've taken some japanese icons, like kero kero, that
makes people think that i'm japanese. I remeber when we went to the odoru
party, where all these japanese kids were dancing hip hop. That's when it
struck me that everything was getting mixed beautifully: different cultures,
lifestyles and aesthetics. That can only be good. So i really don't mind anymore
if someone says that my stuff is japanese, becuase in a way, they are absolutely
right.
if you had unlimited access to resources and money,
what would your ideal project be?
i would stablish my own pastry shop/ dance club/ art gallery. Great food,
great musicans and great artists.
are there designers/artists you'd like to collaborate
with?
Yeah, J.Otto! and Mouse
On Mars, Sonic Youth,
Nobukazu
Takemura and many more! I guess you must learn a lot if you hang out this
these guys. I would also love to work with you, altough i failed miserabily
the first time. I would also love to collaborate with JD
Salinger, too. Too bad he is not writing anymore.
what do you think are pros and cons of working with
computer graphics?
i guess the advantage of computer graphics is that you can try and develop
different ideas quite rapidly,make changes very quickly too. One disadvantage
i find are the printing outputs. You almost never get the color you see in the
monitor, and the sizes are so limited! I'm talking, of course, of home and accesible
devices.
what is your favorite food? activity? music?
Any food that comes from the hands of my grandma. One oif my favorites activities,
specially in summer, is eating ice cream.
what are common misconceptions Americans have about
Argentina?
They mostly think is all about tango and soccer, i guess. And they are quite
right, actually. But there are some pretty interesting people, if you look
around properly.