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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Noel Claro
By Spraygraphic | April 16, 2008
Spraygraphic’s Chuck b. interviews artist Noel Claro about her freelance assignments with Nickelodeon Magazine, her teaching practice at Parsons, and her most recent creative projects.
Spraygraphic Interview with Noel Claro
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
NC: I’m a creative director of my own design studio and an instructor at Parsons in the Illustration department. At my studio I design books, magazines, promotional materials, collateral and corporate identities. I also have a line of handmade wallets, pillows, dolls and books that I’m developing. Early in my career, I did a lot of editorial design and art direction. I started at VOGUE then moved on to DETAILS. Then I did a redesign at SASSY and I ended up as the launching design director of NICKELODEON MAGAZINE. From there I launched my design studio and I’ve been keeping that going while working as a contributor to CRAFT CORNER DEATHMATCH and a partner in an event planning company.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
NC: I live and work in New York City…Queens, to be exact. I have a studio and an office on the top level of my house where I do most of my projects and I occasionally work on-site for some jobs.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
NC: When I’m art directing and designing print work, my main medium is software: InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. For my products, I work with fabric, yarn, vintage papers, special waterproof paper, gaffer’s tape and fun fur.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NC: I start by researching the subject or the company and determining who my audience is. Then I do sketches in InDesign…I rarely sketch in pencil because I’m not very comfortable drawing. My first round of sketches is usually chockfull of obvious solutions but it’s stuff I need to get off my chest. After that, it becomes more of a challenge to dig more deeply and try and discover a new direction for something.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
NC: Some projects are definitely easier to work on than others. If I’m blocked, I usually bake. I’m an avid baker and I’ve been doing it for years. I bake almost every day and it’s a wonderful distraction when I’m having trouble solving something visually. I make up lots of my own recipes so it’s still a creative process but it’s so different from the design work that I do, that it helps transport me away from that whole world sometimes.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NC: My four roommates are a huge inspiration to me as are my students at Parsons. I get inspiration from fruit labels, vintage packaging, anything and everything with typography, Project Runway, music…lots of music, my mom, baking, cooking, You Work For Them and joshspear.com.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about the Cherry Apple Collective?
NC: Cherry Apple Collective is something I started when I was involved in event planning. My partner and I were hoping to develop a product line based on some of the materials we created for our events and it was supposed to be sold separately under Cherry Apple Collective. It’s still in the development phase because I haven’t been able to invest the right amount of time or money in it for a proper launch but it’ll get there soon.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your experience with Vogue and Details magazine.
NC: Well, in a word the experience was fabulous. Absolutely dreamy. Also quite intense and really hardcore as far as corporate politics go. I was asked to work at VOGUE straight out of school. I had been working as a design assistant at Angle Design Office under Derek Ungless while I was a senior at the School of Visual Arts. The summer that I graduated he was asked by Anna Wintour to work on VOGUE. She and Derek had just re-launced HOUSE AND GARDEN (as HG) and Alex Liberman, editorial director of Condé Nast, was thrilled with them. When Derek offered me the position I was a bit apprehensive because I really didn’t want to do editorial design. But if you have to do it, you may as well do it at VOGUE. When we were young, my big sister and I used to play VOGUE based on what we had seen in FUNNY FACE so it kind of seemed like fate. I swore I’d only do it for a year. But I loved it. It was incredibly creative and fun and inspiring. It was also really daunting because I was brought in right before Anna did a huge housecleaning of the staff. My first week I was sitting at the desk of someone who was away on vacation and when he returned he was fired. I cried in the bathroom because it was such a harsh way to dispose of someone. But it made me grow a tough skin and I was super-ambitious and I moved up the corporate ladder really quickly. I worked with a great team of people: Raul Martinez and Laurence Vetu Kane and Christina Zimpel were absolutely brilliant mentors and wickedly fun. We worked lots and lots of long hours together but we didn’t mind. I started to moonlight on a secret project for Derek and it turned out to be the prototype for DETAILS. When he and James Truman left VOGUE for that, they took me with them as the associate art director. It was a completely different vibe at DETAILS…downtown, lots of men…but I loved it there, too. I worked with a lot of really fantastic people there as well: David Albertson and David Keeps and Joe Conason and John Homans. There were tons more late nights at DETAILS but everyone was amazing and it was also wickedly fun.
SG: How did you get into being an freelance artist/designer for companies like Nickelodeon, MTV, American Eagle, etc…?
NC: When I was at NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, I got pregnant with my first of four kids. The day before I left (unexpectedly two weeks early) for my maternity leave, I took on a freelance job for MTVNetworks Creative Services. While on leave, I took on more and more work within the company with different departments and soon had lots of freelance projects to keep me busy. I still work with two of my favorite art directors from Nick: Laurie Hinzman, at Comedy Central and Kenna Kay at TV Land (she’s also an instructor at Parsons). I had so much work that I decided to try and run my own studio rather than going back to the magazine. It was a really tough decision because I loved working at NICKELODEON MAGAZINE under Laura Galen, their brilliant editor (she’s still there). But I was really loving the freelance life and being able to set up an office while taking care of my son was a total bonus. For the first year, I never said no to a job and the work piled up. At that point, I was pregnant with my second child and my (now ex-) husband, Marty Resetar, decided to join me in running the studio. The work poured in and we eventually went on retainer with Nickelodeon and had two more babies in two more years…we were very prolific. All of our work came in through word-of-mouth. People who had previously worked with Marty at Lifetime and Crosscheck and with me at Nick and MTV farmed out work to us. And if they moved on to another job, they gave us work from there. It was very common in the 90s to farm big, tasty projects out to freelancers.
SG: What kind of deadlines do you work with when producing this kind of work?
NC: The deadlines on magazines are pretty tight and those need to be turned around quite quickly. I normally do work for monthlies so I only have a few weeks to conceptualize, shoot and design stories. For my book projects, it’s a much lengthier, drawn-out schedule and it goes on for months and months.
SG: Do the companies come back to you and say “change this” or “change that?”
NC: Yes. Everyone comes back with “change this” and “change that” and “combine this with that” and I think my early editorial work made me very tolerant to changes. In magazines, there are tons of changes to make for various reasons so you have to be flexible but still very creative so you don’t compromise the layout while accommodating all the requests being made.
SG: How much are you willing to change? Is there some kind of negotiation process you go through?
NC: My negotiation process usually just involves hearing a client out and considering their comments. If it’s valid and necessary, no biggie. If I’m really attached to something and I believe it’s the absolute best visual solution, I’ll fight for it.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
NC: On newsstands, in book stores, on the STYLE channel, on Comedy Central and in LUCKY magazine.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
NC: At the Brownstoner’s Brooklyn Flea, a new flea market in Fort Greene starting in April. And on the Cherry Apple Collective shopping site, once it’s up and running.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
NC: Trying to figure out what to make next for Cherry Apple Collective..dreamy because it’s so wide open!
SG: What is your favorite color?
NC: Robin’s egg blue.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
NC: Right now, Charley Harper. His stuff gives me the chills…it’s all so perfectly lovely and awe-inspiring.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
NC: Hmmm…what magazine am I NOT reading is more like it…I devour them. My faves: Esquire, New York, Craft, Giant Robot. Books: I just finished THEN WE CAME TO THE END and I’m currently re-reading THE PRINCIPLES OF UNCERTAINTY by Maira Kalman. I’ve purchased 4 copies of this book and given them all away. My mom just bought me two new copies…it’s amazing.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
NC: I did. Freshman year of college. A big, giant painting that’s now in the attic.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
NC: In the living room with my roomies, knitting while they master Guitar Hero 3.
SG: Any final words of advice?
NC: Don’t take any wooden nickels.
ART:
1. Squibby dolls
2. Sarah Silverman magnetic poetry for Comedy Central
3. AlternaCrafts for Stewart Tabori & Chang
4. Invitation for ICING
5. Sarah Silverman ad campaign for Comedy Central
7. Sassy Magazine
8. The N-Zine
Topics: Artist Interviews, Graphic Design, New York Art Scene, Pencil Drawings, Women Art |
