005: David Jon Walker of AIGA Nashville

Chapter two.

I'm Erik Cargill.

And I'm Rachel Elnar. And this is Cheers and Tears.

Design leadership tales retold.

Hey, Erik. We have a guest today. He is a New Haven based art director type designer and professor at the Yale School of Art. As a black designer, his work reexamines social cues and history, shaping story driven exhibitions, campaigns, and type designs with a bold perspective. His lettering projects have cultivated a distinct visual aesthetic, earning recognition from AIGA, GDUSA, TDC, and so many more acronyms.

Hey. Hey, David. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too, Erik.

I was just meeting with some of your colleagues today. I'm I'm in the, Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders cohort, the AIGA, Yale thing.

How is it?

It's it's fantastic. It's, it's a lot of information, very much compressed. It's great networking and I've met a lot of great people that I've never met before. So

David, so we started this podcast, Erik and I, just to, because you know, we miss everybody. For those people who don't know who you are, can you tell us a little bit about your AIGA chapter experience? How long you served, what was your role, how you got involved.

So my first experience so AIGA is an amazing organization. That's actually how you and I met Rachel. So AIGA started for me in 02/2008 with my first graduate school program at the University of Memphis. So the advisors there, I guess made up some assignments and said, Hey, if you were to design a website for attendees at the AIGA conference in Memphis, what's a website that would get them to do, will get them to participate? And so my assignment was a website focused around capturing data on people's workspaces, whether that's home studio, office, firm, ad agency, whatever.

We met in Minneapolis too, right? Through Noreen Moriarty? Was that before or after?

I think it was after.

Okay.

Yeah, because there was a leadership retreat in Denver and that's where I met folks on the LA board, Amanda and a few other people.

Okay. I was I was at that Denver Retreat too.

That's when, when they first legalized weed.

That's right. People

were like going hard on the dispensaries and like, it was a

little Yes. They were.

That's one thing I do remember is walking to lunch and just smelling weed out on the street going, I have never experienced this before. This is nuts.

No. And yeah, it was folks were during the conference, folks were kinda whispering like, have you been to a dispensary? And you're like, no. I ain't been. It's like, well, you just look for one. It's got like a little green cross on it and that's the place. It's like, alright. Good for you. Yeah.

I didn't partake, but I did partake in some really good ice cream. I don't remember where that ice cream place was, but man, there's some really great places to eat around there.

Yeah. Denver is a foodie town.

There was one particular evening where everybody was going out and I needed a button up shirt because I forgot mine and I had to go buy one and everybody else was going off and doing things. And there was mention of ice cream and I, that's when I missed it.

David, you said you went to a conference, AIGA conference in 02/2008, where was that?

Yes, that was in Memphis. So yeah, that was my very first one. The second national conference was Minneapolis then I went to New Orleans, Phoenix, I felt like I skipped one, Pasadena and then New York and Seattle.

Then You came to a lot of them.

And then you out Yeah.

You came to Seattle. I live here and I didn't end up going.

Really? Yeah. I mean, it was tough. Like, I was out there and there was forest fires happening. Oh. That's right. So the smoke, the air quality was awful but I ran anyway. And yeah, I remember flying in and yeah, the sky just looked kind of ominous, but the conference itself was really, really good.

It was small though, right? It was the first one back since the was smaller.

Yeah, and they had it at the Seattle Convention Center, the Downtown Convention Center.

Must've been so much fun to reconnect with everyone after not seeing everybody for a long time or just seeing everyone on little squares like Yeah.

Yeah, no, it was great. And you know, I mean, you all know both AIGA folks. It's a really family friendly atmosphere. Well, I won't say family friendly atmosphere, but it's more like a family atmosphere. So like folks are like, Hey, it's been so long, hadn't seen you, even though it might've been a year or two. But yeah, just to catch up and talking about the state of design and the state of our businesses, multiple types of businesses is just phenomenal.

You've been to a lot of these things. You've been involved in AIGA. You're also involved in academia. Have you seen AIGA evolve with the times or is academia a little bit ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or what's your opinion on that?

That's tough. I mean, this might be controversial, but academia kinda is the bedrock of the organization, right? Like without academia, you don't have access to new members even understand or can glean the true benefit of the organization itself. Like once you become a professional, if you're in the industry, the likelihood of you keeping up with AIGA isn't that great, right? Because you're like nose down into the work and dealing with your clients and if you got families, you really don't have time for the extra stuff.

Well said, well said. My times in going to a lot of events locally, it wasn't a large student population wanted to know what AIG was all about. Wanted to network with rub elbows with, you know, some of the professionals that were out there that were actually still going to functions?

Outside of the gatherings, there's really not spaces for who we think like the design rockstars to just come together, right? Like these are folks that you read about on websites and blogs and see their stuff online if you follow their studios but to see them in person or pass them in a hallway or get a book signed by them, that's not typical. And so these conferences allow you the opportunity at least, you know, a modicum of time to get a conversation in.

And just access, The ability to get to know each other as a human, and not necessarily just through books or annuals or through Instagram or whatnot. It's it's definitely, what I felt was the value of AIJ, was just the access to your design heroes.

Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you did and what you achieved or what your goals were when you were going to leadership retreats? What you did with your board?

What did we do? We held events. Right? So we held a couple annual many conferences, like one to two day things where we would bring in four speakers and then have a workshop day the day before. Then we would have student portfolio reviews, we would have speed dating events with students or folks that are looking to switch jobs with employers. Gosh, we did quite a bit. Yeah, I remember

you telling me about that.

We would go and have workshops at different universities that had student chapters or go to universities that didn't have them, local ones that didn't have chapters and kind of show who we were and what we're about and if students were interested that they could be auxiliary members, not necessarily full fledged student members but student members that were attached to the Nashville chapter versus their university affiliation which was affiliated with the Nashville chapter.

Lots of community building.

Yeah, lots of community building.

Yeah. And do you do that now?

I do not. It's just been too busy, right? I left Tennessee, I moved to New Haven. I started a graduate program at Yale, finished that, did a year long residency, artist residency on campus and then teaching at Yale now.

But you bring some community into your classroom, my guess is.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I bring in guest speakers and then bring in people within the Yale community to come and speak to the students in that.

AIGA is well known for networking events and fun events and leadership conferences and so on and so forth. There's also this element of the after party where everybody gets together to do it more networking and maybe blow off a little more steam than is maybe necessary in some cases. Do you have a story about any one particular conference?

The Raleigh Leadership Retreat, I was involved in a pyramid. And so I was one of the base people just because of my status. And then in the Atlanta, I guess the last Atlanta leadership retreat. There's a sunrise club. So you stay up twenty four hours, you get a pen, a lapel pen. Yeah.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah. About right. Yeah. So it's like, hang everybody's got their beverage of choice, coffee, water, tea or anything adult and yeah, you just stay up and talk about whatever.

Yeah. I love

that. Yeah, was nice. In the host hotel lobby typically.

Yeah, usually. Those hotels hated us. They did. Hated Were

you at that one?

No, I missed that one. Because I think it was Denver then Grand Rapids then Atlanta.

AIJ has influenced us in many different ways, but how would you say that the leadership experience from AIJ or the leadership retreats influenced your career and what you're doing now?

I don't know if it's about the leadership or just the network in itself. I mean, the leadership is the leadership and you just get to meet people and things just rub off. Right? Like, I know the leadership retreat allowed us to meet, which allowed me to come and stay with you in LA and meet Michael and then really dive into type. And the type journey has flourished since then.

Like all

of these things I can look back to say and I was introduced to Forrest Young through Bobby Martin who I met in 02/2008 at my first conference because I saw him in print magazine and he had a round table and I'm like, wow, black people do graphic design on this level, I need to meet him. So ten years later, he introduced me to another guy and then my whole life changes more. Right, so Yeah, there is a sequential order of how AIGA has absolutely played a role in my path and trajectory.

Doctor. David, for sure, AIGA has provided you the opportunity and access and connection points, but there's something about you and your talent and your leadership that has been able to, like, really jump on those opportunities and take it. Because I would say, yes, it's great to have that access. It's great to have networking. But without being who you are, don't go very far with just passing a business card, right? I wanna make sure that's super clear.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. To that point, taking that initiative on the leadership side of things, yeah, you can further and extend conversations that otherwise may never be had. I mean like being on the programs committee at the poster house, I met Gail Anderson in the hallway in New Orleans at the national conference and told her I was teaching at a school and she ended up coming to Austin Peay and gave a talk and a year after that when she's a co founder of the Poster House Museum in New York and she asked if I would be on a CMYK advisory board for diverse initiatives. And so I'm sitting in Nashville, Tennessee having Zoom conversations with people in New York about how they should think about bringing New Yorkers or the diverse New York population into the Poster House Museum. And so like I'm still affiliated with the museum itself and doing programming and have done some design work for them, pushing different pathways and yeah, the stuff is still going.

We wouldn't be having so many connections, right? Just learning from Shannon Doronio, Hey, David John Walker is here. I'm like, this mind blowing, the fact that parts of my life keep mixing and mingling and so crazy.

Yeah. Because she's she's finishing up at, VCFA getting her master's in fine art, but I met her through AIGA, the design educators committee and we served on a panel together for a DEC talk summer of, may have been summer of twenty twenty and she asked me to be on an advisory board for her University College of the Canyons. So I agreed to do that and then when I kind of announced that I was going back to school, she's like, hey, that sounds like a good idea but I need to figure out how to make it work and so she actually looked up a program and got in and now she's doing her thing and we'll soon have her, I guess by this summer she'll have her MFA.

Wow. I should take your lead and probably get another MFA. I'm trying to keep up with you.

Yeah. Just like, why not?

Being a student is so much fun. I love listening, being in the classroom, exchanging ideas. I mean, like, even what Erik is doing right now, totally Right. Excited for you.

The excess of being a student is phenomenal. I was so I'm advising a couple students for VCFA this term and I was sharing with one of them, said, hey, while you're a student just reach out to anybody you think. I said because once you become a professional people are like, you've kind of already made it. If you're a student, doesn't matter how old you are, people are like totally willing to help you further your momentum or at least be able to say and I don't think I'm not this kind of person. It's like, oh, well, I help them get to the next step.

How can this community help you? Do you have any projects or anything that you need from this community?

Yeah. I mean, I'm always looking for lettering projects, commercial ones. I mean, the fun stuff, I letter and post things on Instagram, but that's like typically my own personal ruminations on where we are in the world or what's happening and that kind of fun stuff. But I really like lettering, I've worked on some typefaces, I've recently did a catalog for art exhibition in Birmingham for the Birmingham Museum of Art. Since I graduated from Yale, I've been doing exhibition design projects, which have been absolutely amazing because you get to think about the tangible and intangible in concert.

And your work is great. I mean, I would love to share with this community some of the some of the Instagram work that you've been doing, which has been beautiful in final output, but you also share your process, which is really quite interesting. And when you're saying that you base your lettering or your quotes on the times or the things that are happening now, I'm sure you have more than enough content that fuels you unfortunately. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, so I started lettering, what was it, April twenty ninth of twenty twenty. So I had this thought that I want to learn since I've got all of this time, I wasn't driving two hours to work, an hour to work or an hour back, so I'd say two hours out of my day and I thought I really could do something with this, I wouldn't say idle time, but now that I reclaim two hours, I could do something with it. So, what can I learn in design that wouldn't take up too much time that I'm curious about? So I was thinking about type and motion, so after effects and that kind of thing, thinking about video editing, which I had done some of it before and then thinking about lettering and typography. And so I had an iPad that I hadn't opened, it had been in the box for a couple of years.

And such great work. Thank you so much for sharing that. The output is outstanding.

Oh, what I was gonna say though, what I was gonna say though is I was hoping that I wouldn't have to return to the power of the pen in that way. But now it's like

Yep.

I don't want, yeah, it's crazy because I look back at that work and I'm like, wow, like we were saying things, we were making strides and then we had a change of tides for some good and then that good wiped away is like but we've got to get back to it. I was in Birmingham, Alabama on the November 4, no, on the November 5. And so I was down there to give a talk on this book on the catalog that I had done for the Birmingham Museum of Art on this artist named Haywood Ubrien. So I flew in to Nashville, I voted on the fourth, got in the car, drove to Birmingham Three Hours away to give a talk on the sixth. On my running route on the fifth, I ran away from the hotel and on the way back, I could pass the hotel and kept straight.

I think if we're quiet, we're complicit.

Yeah. You know, it was just a very powerful message, and I was I was just absorbing it.

Yeah. I sometimes feel like that we are too electronic, too digital. Like you're right. Way back when we everything was so visible, protest was so visible, voices were so visible, and now everyone does it electronically, which is absolutely not visible. Like, it feels like people have been silent for the last twelve days.

For sure, it's been a lot of noise.

And no one is outside.

Just Yeah.

Think about inside into themselves. Yep.

Not yet. So hopefully, we can inspire.

Yes.

Yeah. Thank you, David, for being such an inspiration, always having movement and momentum. And wherever you go, just follow you all over the country, it feels like. I don't know where he is right now. Even even Erik was like, he's at Yale. I'm like, he's at Yale? I I don't know where he is. He's always running. David, thank you so much again for for being our guest, giving us an update on what's happening, and just just doing amazing things. Keep your voice out there.

Will do. And thank you for having me, and fantastic to see you, Rachel, and meet you, Erik. And, yeah, definitely look forward to keeping in touch as always, Rachel, and more with you, Erik.

Alright.

Yeah. Well, I just wanna say cheers. Thank you, David, for being such a great guest.

Cheers.

Again, thank you, David. This has been super helpful. Really appreciate it.

Yes, you, so good to see you. So you're in LA?

I am, I'm in the LA area.

Man, because we were in Valencia, what was that, the third route that Well, and so we missed the fires thankfully, we didn't get any smoke but was that last week Valencia caught on fire?

It was about two

weeks Sixth orita, two weeks ago. Yeah.

Yeah, two

weeks Yeah, we were across the interstate from 6 Flags is where VCFA had us.

At Cal Arts. Yeah. Next time you come, if you tell me you're coming, Avial, you know what? Be careful. There might be some fires because you were there in Seattle when there was fires, and you were in Santa Clarita when there's fires. I better be kidding.

No, it

was a theme.

Yeah, hopefully like yeah, every time I come to the West there should not be a fire.

I know right.

That's kinda crazy but yeah.

Right, right.

But yeah, I'll definitely let you know. I think I'll be back in June, later June or July for VCFA. So I'll definitely let you know.

Have a good evening. We'll see you later David. Same

to you.

Thank you.

Take care of Bye, all right. Thank you.

All right, thanks Erik. All right, Bye bye.

Bye bye. Bye. Well, well, well, well.

That was awesome. That was awesome. It's interesting how big this organization is that he and I were in the same place we'd never met before and

and that will keep happening. The leadership is so big there's just no way to know everyone but it's great to see that there's some shared experiences shared, interests and that network like he said you know can just keep growing. Cheers Tiers will be back next time with more Design Leadership Tales Retold.

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Cheers and Tiers design leadership tales were told is a production of Chapter Two and hosted by us, Rachel Elner and Erik Cargill. This episode was produced and edited by Rachel Elnar. Podcast graphics by Erik Cargill. Animation by Verso Design and Megatoe Design.

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