I decided to get in contact with Erik Brandt, a multidisciplinary creative practitioner based in Minneapolis. He is primarily a graphic designer and educator who has been active internationally since 1994. Brandt is currently a professor at MCAD (Minneapolis college of art and design). He served as chair of the design department until 2015. Educated internationally, his creative and research interests focus on issues of globalization that affect and drive the complexities of inter-cultural visual communication systems. In 2012, he was made a member of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale).
I find Brandt's style of visual communication highly inspiring, and I can relate massively to his attitudes and approaches to tackling typography, form, colour, pattern and composition. That is why I acted quickly when I came across his work for the first time. I was shown some of his work by someone in the college, who prompted me to take a look at his unique blog named Ficciones Typografika. This Tumblr account documents graphic work that is sent to Erik's design studio in Minneapolis. Erik invites creatives from around the world to send him their work with which he prints and sticks it up on a wall on the outside of his studio for everyone to see. I think this is a wonderful idea to help creatives gain exposure and to share really interesting visual communication with the general public.
My name is Cameron Wolfe. I'm a second year BA Graphic Design student studying at Leeds College of Art in the UK. I recently came across your work on Tumblr, and was instantly captivated by your unique, expressive and truly inspiring approach to typography and visual communication. I relate massively to your style and always feel wonderfully inspired when I see it online. I am a huge fan of your Ficciones Typograpfika blog as the idea of promoting and championing the diverse work of other creatives in the way you do is really exciting to me.We've recently received a college brief in which we are required to contact a creative practitioner that we're particularly fond of to ask them a couple of questions regarding their practice and life as a creative, and I chose you! We must then collate the research and conversation into a 'report'. It would be fantastic to get to know about what inspires you and to hear your stance on contemporary visual culture. It would be great if you would be able to take part.
If you have a spare moment, please feel free to reply back whenever it is most convenient for you. You can call or text me on ***********, or email me at cameronjwolfe@hotmail.co.uk and I'm sure we can work something out. Many thanks and all the best,
Cameron
Reply:
Greetings Cameron,
Cheers for reaching out and the very kind words. I hope to be of some help to you. Let me know how you would like to proceed and I look forward to hearing from you.Erik
I then emailed Erik back asking him how he would feel about answering several questions that I have via email and I am currently awaiting a reply with his responses to my questions. I thought for a long time about the questions to pose to Erik. I have read a number of interviews online with Erik and I noticed that they asked similar questions, some were quite dry and generic. This inspired me to ask quite open questions to get some really worth while, interesting responses. I look forward to opening up the conversation with Erik and really getting to know about what inspires him and makes him tick as a creative.
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