Advice For Designers From James Victore by Tim Sanders

December 11, 2012

James Victore is a spectacular designer, speaker and philosopher on creativity.  His work is featured at the Museum of Modern Art, and I've heard from countless professionals in New York that he's a designer's-designer.  In this interview, he talks about his career, dishes advice to designers and reveals what's wrong with publishing and how we can overcome it.

Tim: What got you into doing book cover design?

James: My second attempt at University. I left my hometown, moved to New York City when I was 19 to study at the School of Visual Arts. I was a terrible student, mainly because I was bored.  After about two years, one instructor took me aside and told me that graphic design was very competitive. He suggested I leave school and choose another course, maybe become a CPA or something. I did have one instructor who I really loved. His name is Paul Bacon. He actually was a book jacket designer.

If you go to a used book store, it’s just a museum for Paul. He did all of Robert Ludlum’s books. He did all of Joseph Cordell’s books. He did Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He did Jaws, and his design became the movie poster. I started hanging out in his studio after I dropped out of school. It seemed if I wanted to start working as a designer, then book covers would maybe be an actual avenue. At that time in New York City, book covers were a great opportunity for a young, horny, freelance designer to start and get work. I was in the book jacket studio, put a little portfolio of fake covers together, went out looking for work, and I got work the first time out. I’ve basically been working ever since. Paul Bacon was a huge influence on me to “begin before you are ready,”as we like to say around here.

Tim: How has working with publishers changed over the last few years?

James: It changed so much that I don’t do it anymore. I like putting things on paper. I’m not interested in the fight, and I’m not interested in pleading my case of why I made certain decisions. I believe that trust is the lifeblood of my business. To work with us, you need to trust us, that we are educated, that we are smart, that we’re concerned with your bottom line, and that we’ll do a good job. It became harder and harderto find art directors [at publishing houses] to work with.

Most of the art directors in New York behave like errand boys. You would give them work. They would go to the publisher and show the publisher. The publisher would have an opinion on it and then send them back. Basically every time I spoke to an art director they would say, “They said … ” and I’d reply, “I don’t care what they said, what do you think? Did you fight for me? Did you plead my case or our case? “

Tim: When they talk about “they said,” so often “they” are the sales team that’s talking to some buyer at Barnes & Noble.

James: Exactly, in Barnes & Noble. I remember an experience, the last time that I was working in publishing, doing a lot of book jackets, it was very much like that. I'd hear, “Barnes & Noble doesn’t like the color green,” and I'd think, wait a minute, they’re making the decisions? That’s crazy. It’s not like I’m getting to play with somebody’s money or playing roulette with somebody’s money, but there are risks in life that are worth taking. Their group-think, is never about greatness or beauty, it’s always about their paltry bottom line. Quite frankly, I think society is starving, culturally, because of that kind of thinking.

Tim:  When you take on a book project, how are you inspired by the author’s work?

James: I think reading the manuscript is always important, or working like you would in theater. In theater, you can’t actually see the play done because it’s not ready yet, but you can talk to the director. They say, “This is thrust that we’re going to take, this is the direction, and this is the feel of the thing.” You can know everything or you can know very little. They’re both actually very good ways to go. The author can tell you about the book, or you can read the thing and come up with your own opinion.

Tim:  At Net Minds, many of our freelancers come from magazine, interactive or corporate design. They are interested in working on a book. What advice would you give a designer crossing over from another media to book design?

James: Bring your skill sets and don’t try to make somebody else’s work. Make your work. That’s a big part of it, there’s a lot of lookalike stuff out there and we don’t need that. We want the newbie’s opinion, that’s where the interesting stuff is.

One of my mentors is the Polish designer Heinrich Tomasheski. He told me that the paper is the freed canvas. There was more art to his work. One of the things that I try to prod my students in is to not necessarily think about it as work, but think about it as play. That’s where things open up. If you think about it as work and you’re going to get paid, you’re working with this heavy yoke over your shoulders.

Tim: Final question: What’s the core advice you give your students?

James: Abraham Lincoln said, “If you give me four hours to cut down a tree, I’ll spend three hours sharpening the saw.” Everybody here in the field does an inordinate amount of study, so we can learn, have time to read about philosophy, have time to see documentaries or movies, and all of these things … have experiences to life.

My assistant and I will go away for a couple of days, go shooting pool, shoot clay pigeons and have a nice steak dinner together, just so we can be better designers, so we can recharge, so we can take these experiences and turn them into our bodies. I always say, to be a designer, I have this formula that I tell students, I say, “First learn everything then forget it and then design.”

For more information on James, visit his website.

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