jaxunderbelly

Karen Kurycki: Vice President of AIGA

It was my pleasure to interview Karen Kurycki this week who is Vice President of AIGA.

1. Hi Karen.  I am very excited to learn about what you have been up to these days.  Let’s start with an introduction.  Please tell me a little about yourself and how you are connected to Jacksonville.  Hi, Shea! I have lived in Jacksonville for five and a half years now and I really love the city. I grew up in Rochester, NY and attended Kent State University in Ohio to earn my BFA in Visual Communication Design. In 2004, after graduating from Kent, I realized the world was pretty much wide open and what I wanted to do next and where I wanted to live was up to me. I chose Jacksonville because I love a warmer climate. (I can’t take the blizzards like I could growing up) and I had a couple ties to Jacksonville who were family friends. My mom was born in St. Augustine so we had been back to Florida for vacation once or twice a year since I was born, and I had done my internship down here the summer before I graduated. It seemed like a good fit for me.

 As far as what I have been up to lately—it’s kind of crazy because there have been quite some changes over the past few months! After working as an art director at The Kurtis Group in Jacksonville Beach for five and a half years, I decided to take a position as Senior Art Director at BroadBased Communications this month. So I will be starting there in December.

 I have also been doing a lot of collaborating with friends on projects as well. One of my good friends Ashley Hazen and I have been working on some illustrations; we both participated in the past two atomic sketches (live painting and drawing) at Art Walk that AIGA Jacksonville hosted and we contributed to the book Things Drunk People Say that can be found on sale at Urban Outfitters. I think our styles work well together because we like to work both loose but in a controlled manner—she draws and I paint and we are both trained as designers but love the fine art side of illustration, so it seems to work for us.

collaboration with Ashley Hazen for the book "Things Drunk People Say" for sale at Urban Outfitters

I’ve also collaborated with Dog and Pony Showprints on a couple of posters this year, contributed illustrations to the Jacksonville Public Library card campaign and contributed to the book 1000 Tips by 100 Graphic Designers, which comes out this month.

 And, of course, being Vice President of AIGA takes up a big chunk of my time, but I love that it keeps me busy because I believe in the organization and what it offers to designers like me. Right now I’m pretty busy planning a toy show that AIGA is hosting for the December Art Walk called “Designers in Toyland;” it will be up at 229 Hogan Street.

 2. How would you describe AIGA and what have you gained by being part of that organization?  AIGA is the professional association for design. It’s a national organization of designers (mainly focused in the field of graphic design/illustration) whose purpose is to maintain the standards within the field.   The mission of the organization is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. We work together to address current cultural/social issues, promote and educate people on how design impacts their life and how powerful good design can be in conveying information; it also provides a community of like-minded individuals who can discuss issues within our own field, such as spec work, pricing, etc.

I have been a member of AIGA since I was a student member in college and when I moved down here, my boss Kurtis Loftus was very involved in the organization in Jacksonville so it was easy for me to get involved. I met a lot of the members through the social events they held every month. I started volunteering at events with my best friend Sarah Butsch and then eventually became volunteer chair, next moved to community outreach chair and now am Vice President of the Jacksonville chapter.

AIGA has provided me with a network of friends and colleagues who are a great resource when I have an issue with a program or a question about a font, need a printer review or a recommendation for a freelance designer, etc. I have used this network to my advantage for the five plus years I’ve lived down here. I often tell people when they join: “AIGA is like…instant friends!” Which is true in a way—we are all very supportive of each other, and I’m sure there are people out there who think we are this pretentious, exclusive club, but we are pretty much the opposite.

 3. Your profile describes you as “a strong proponent of volunteerism”, and as “Community Outreach Chair for AIGA Jacksonville”, can you elaborate on that?  What projects are you working on right now such as Discover Design?  I have actually taken on the role of Vice President this year but have a strong hand in the outreach branch of our chapter because it means so much to me. I believe any professional organization is what you make of it and what you give to it. If you’re just paying your membership fee and not attending any of the events, not volunteering at any of the outreach events we organize, not participating in discussions about current issues, then you’re probably not going to get as much out of the organization as someone who is doing those things.

We welcome everyone, member or non-member to a majority of our events and are really trying to get as involved in the Jacksonville community as much as possible this year through hands-on outreach projects. So far we’ve volunteered at the Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens, the Jacksonville Zoo Spooktacular, City Rescue Mission’s Bed race, and are hosting the toy show to raise money for The Big Fun Box. We are looking forward to several more outreach projects throughout the year and are very open to collaborating with other organizations like Hands-On Jacksonville to give back to the city.

The outreach branch of our chapter started with the Discover Design mentoring program that Florence Haridan and I started in 2008; it gives high school students a chance to work one-on-one with a professional graphic designer to finish a project that addresses an issue within our community.  That started with the Get out the Vote poster campaign and last year we did a project that promoted library cards for the public library system here in Jacksonville. Starting in January, we’ll be doing a project called “Create Don’t Hate” in which mentors and mentees will work together on the design of a billboard that addresses the theme of tolerance.

 4. I see that your professional career has strong ties to Jacksonville’s Urban Arts Movement.  What are your thoughts on “Graphic Designer” vs. “Fine Artist”?  I love what I’ve been seeing with Jacksonville’s Urban Arts movement. I like that the fine art/design lines are being blurred and that you see a more graphic approach to the arts which, in my opinion, are just beautiful to look at, whether they are leaning more toward the fine art side of things or the graphic side of things—and when those two are combined into one piece and done well, you can’t really beat it, in my opinion. I know a lot of fine artists will disagree with me on this one but my roots are in design and illustration; that’s what I know, so that’s what I’m going to say.

 I also know that I’m loving the stuff that I’m seeing on some of the buildings downtown. And the fact that Jacksonville has been mentioned on Wooster Collective a couple of times now is HUGE. I think things like that give our city life—and take away the depressing factor of that building that’s been sitting there for 5 years, abandoned.

 I know there are blogs in Jacksonville dedicated to the topic of design vs. fine art, but I’m not sure I’m the right person to talk about it, considering I have a hard time defining my own style! Am I considered a fine artist? I guess I have a hard time considering myself one. It’s hard for me to think that way, because I was trained in design and illustration, so that’s what I call myself. I guess it’s like…I can take pictures but I would never call myself a photographer. I guess the truth of the whole thing is that I think labeling it kind takes away from the fact that it’s a creation. To me, whether it was done solely on canvas, or done with a combination of mediums, one of those including a computer, if it’s done well, that doesn’t really matter.

 Do I think some fine artists look down on designers or think they’re sell-outs because they get paid on a regular basis for their craft? Sure. Do I get annoyed when a fine artist tells me that they don’t think you need to go to school for design and then I see a postcard with bad typography that they’ve laid out for one of their shows? Yeah, I do. In that sense, I think there is a division, because good typography isn’t easy and I think a lot of fine artists don’t really appreciate that as a craft of its own.

 But like I said, I’m probably not the one to comment on this. I love a lot of fine artists in this town and I love a lot of designers here, and I think what they do is different, but in the end it’s a creation, and whether I respond to it viscerally, intellectually or neither, it is what it is.

 5. Thanks for your time Karen.  Before you go, please tell us about the upcoming show: DESIGNERS IN TOYLAND.  Designers in Toyland is a custom toy show being put on by AIGA Jacksonville and the artists of 229 Hogan. Over 80 artists will be exhibiting toys built from scratch or evolved from existing toys—the point of the show is to come up with your own unique toy creation, whether that’s building a toy from scratch, working off of a blank toy, like a Munny doll or a Mighty Mugg, or combining toys to make something new. If an artist chooses to sell his or her toy at the show, 25% of the profits will go to The Big Fun Box, an organization that provides activity kits to children who are hospitalized frequently and for extended periods. So come join us at December Art Walk at 229 Hogan Street, between 5 and 9 pm. It should be quite a sight to see over 85 unique toys in one space!

Thanks Shea!