Today’s interview is on Andy Chen from Los Angeles, who recently graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. in Sociology and a certificate in East Asian Studies. Over the summer of 2009, he is completing an internship at Pentagram Design under art director Paula Scher. Subsequently, he will serve a one-year appointment as Fulbright Research Associate at the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre, where he will create design interventions for non-profit and charity organizations in London.

1) What initially drew you towards graphic design and why did you continue pursuing this passion?

Andy: I took a year off during my freshman year of college and ended up working in corporate sales at a Taiwanese wholesaler of B-grade recordable CD’s and DVD’s. It was nothing glamorous — more like a sweatshop than anything else. I quite hated the soul-sucking nature of the job, but the one good thing that came out of it is that they needed a website designed. I went to Barnes & Noble, bought a book, and have been hooked ever since.

I think the impetus for pursuing design as a career was two-fold. First, I was and am still fascinated by the way graphic design lies at the interstices of visual art, sociology, and business. It requires broad, open-minded thinking and a high degree of social awareness. It’s not enough to create beautiful patterns or interesting typographic treatments; design is about analyzing and enriching everyday human experience.

Second, I believe that graphic design can serve as an agent of social change. Think, for example, if there were a warning on every credit card bill akin to the Surgeon General’s Warning on cigarette packaging. Design plays a powerful, often untapped role in shaping our values both individually and as a society. I don’t put much stock in “changing the world,” but at the very least, I aim to promote social causes through my work with the hope of persuading the general public to see local and international crises with greater clarity and empathy.

2) How were you able to start and expand the Student Design Agency to what it is today?

Andy: Princeton has a Student Agencies program dedicated to promoting student entrepreneurship. My friend Tiffany and I wanted to start something of a small, extracurricular business because there was no graphic design curriculum at Princeton. We were surprised to find that the campus was incredibly responsive to the idea of a student-run design agency. We put together a 25-person team quite rapidly, gaining a huge amount of support from the University administration. It pretty much took over our lives.

I think part of our success came from our attitude towards the business. We never really set out to earn much money for ourselves. At the beginning, we made something like $2/hour after we paid our employees and Princeton took its cut. Instead of seeing the agency as a cash cow, we put our energy into producing good work and did our best to educate ourselves and our employees about design.

I would say that the continued success of the agency rides on the enthusiasm of its members. We spent so many late nights at the office that some of us practically lived there. I think that people genuinely care about creating considered, expressive work and that the agency’s managers are driven by a sense of mission to enrich Princeton’s visual culture. I already miss that experience greatly.

3) Can you tell us a bit more about the “Own What You Think” campaign that you started?

Andy: I was enlisted by the administration to design a response to JuicyCampus.com, a website promoting the spread of anonymous online gossip as a form of free speech. Filled with postings that blamed rape victims for the crimes perpetrated against them and outed closeted students who had not chosen to reveal their sexuality publicly, JuicyCampus represented the latest manifestation of a culture of tabloid-like sensationalism plaguing college campuses nationwide.

Princeton students had become desensitized to the ostentatious visual vocabulary of youth-targeted advertising. Hoping to confront them directly about their values, I designed a plain black shirt that stated “anonymity=cowardice” in white Helvetica type. Within days, hundreds visited the web address printed on the back of the shirt, signed a petition decrying anonymous hate speech, and submitted positive, signed statements about their peers. I incorporated these statements into “LoveWall,” a piece of installation art in which the messages and their authors’ names were projected onto a giant screen in front of the campus center. Again, the design merely displayed white type on a black background, but the effect was a united front against the online gossip machine.

Featured on ABC’s 20/20 and in BusinessWeek, the “Own What You Think” campaign grew into a nationwide effort that brought students together under its simple but powerful graphic message. What moved me most was seeing passers-by stop and read the design — some scoffing at the naïve optimism of the effort and moving on, others sitting and admiring its hopefulness — but all led to reconsider their own beliefs.

4) What is your typical day like working at the Pentagram and why did you choose to work there?

Andy: There is no real typical day at Pentagram. Some days, I’m in the basement all day cutting out “comps,” which are printed samples of designed materials. Other days, I might be designing concert tickets for a major client like the New York Philharmonic. The work varies tremendously, and the hours are very long. I think that what I’ve understood most is that approaching all tasks — big or small — with the same enthusiasm is a necessary component of being a good intern.

I’m working at Pentagram because I was lucky enough to be hired by my all-time hero Paula Scher. Paula spoke at a conference we hosted at Princeton a few years ago, and her presentation is pretty much the reason why I decided to become a graphic designer. Seeing the way her typography has impacted the way the world around us looks inspired me to take graphic design seriously. It was an honor to be offered an internship under her, and there was no real “choice” in the matter. It had to be done.

5) Do you have any advice for aspiring graphic designers?

Andy: I don’t think I’m necessarily entitled to give advice, considering that I’m brand new to the field myself. My friend Karen recently sent me a paragraph from the book Simple Abundance that I really like. I think it sums up a way of seeing the world that is essential to success as a designer — or in any creative profession for that matter:

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we shall tend. The invisible underbrush holding us back is our own thoughts. When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but on the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland falls away and we experience joy in the real lives we live each day.”

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