TexasDesign

Lawrence Azerrad is an independent graphic designer and art director based in Los Angeles. Azerrad’s studio LAD, has produced work in film, print, and digital media since 2001. Formerly an art director at Warner Bros Records, Azerrad created packaging and imaging for artists such as Elvis Costello, Miles Davis, Clint Eastwood, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Brad Mehldau. As an independent designer, LAD clients include UCLA Live, Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Wilco, Spa Luce, surf legend Laird Hamilton, The Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney, and Heal the Bay. Azerrad is an instructor of graphic design at Art Center College of Design, has taught at the The Academy of Art University, Graduate School of Graphic Design in San Francisco, and is on the Graphic Design Thesis review committee at California College of the Arts.

Art Squad is seeking various positions, including Graphic Designer, Graphic Design/Pre-Press specialist, and Sales Manager. The Sales Manager position is for the Houston branch of Art Squad and they are looking for someone with leadership and sales skills that can drive significant growth and revenue in a thriving market.

Read more

Continuing the theme of sustainable creative businesses, what does it mean to build and then lead a staff? Few of us received any formal training for it, so we often model our own style on the examples we’ve had in other bosses (and parents). Too bad, really, because learning to do this ought to be a lot less accidental.

If you stop and think about it, there are two big “finding” tasks that occupy much of your mind as a principal or manager. The first is finding great clients and the second is finding great employees. To find great clients, you need a compelling positioning and a strong marketing plan. Come to think of it, you probably want the same two things to find great employees, too! So start by crafting a place where people want to work, and then employ a mix of referrals and active marketing. Read more

Art Chantry’s work has been collected and exhibited by some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the world: the Louvre, The Smithsonian, The Library of Congress and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just to name a few. The Seattle Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art’s P.S.1 have both honored him with one-man retrospectives. In 2001, Chronicle Books published the monograph of his work, Some People Can’t Surf. Art has influenced an entire generation of young graphic designers in the northwest and across the county. To this day, his hard-edge scrappy look can be seen everywhere from punk rock record covers to corporate annual reports.

Date :: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Reception :: 6 p.m.
Meeting :: 7 p.m.
Location :: Cityplace : 2711 North Haskell Ave., Dallas, TX 75204
Members :: FREE
Non-members :: $20
Students :: $10 (with valid student ID)

After owning a marketing firm for six years and then advising other principals for nearly fifteen, one of the unsolved mysteries that still makes me scratch my head is why the vast majority of people in this field fade away from it in their late forties and early fifties. Not only is that unique in the professional services sector, but it’s also a darn waste because these people are smart, hardworking, and capable of having a significant impact on their employees, their clients, and even the world.

So why is that? Is there something inherently unsustainable in the way creative people are working that causes them to have only so many years of contribution before they move on? I still don’t have definitive answers, but here are seven suggestions if you want to beat the odds (particularly if you are the principal of a firm or the manager of an in-house department). Read more