1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,100 Hi, 2 00:00:03,260 --> 00:00:04,380 I'm Sean Adams. 3 00:00:04,560 --> 00:00:07,072 I'm a graphic designer, educator, and author. 4 00:00:07,900 --> 00:00:11,880 In this lesson, I'll discuss my life and how my career began, 5 00:00:12,660 --> 00:00:15,500 when it worked, and when it hit the wall and changed 6 00:00:15,500 --> 00:00:16,220 a few times. 7 00:00:16,500 --> 00:00:16,600 I 8 00:00:17,248 --> 00:00:18,460 was born in Reno, Nevada, 9 00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,280 back when it was really just a sleepy cow town. 10 00:00:21,888 --> 00:00:25,820 Ranchers would come in on the weekends and there wasn't much to do. 11 00:00:26,944 --> 00:00:27,480 Learned how to ski 12 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:28,800 and go hiking and, 13 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:30,220 you know, just hang out. 14 00:00:31,260 --> 00:00:33,340 Now, I didn't know anything about graphic design 15 00:00:33,510 --> 00:00:35,080 until I got into high school. 16 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:35,340 Now, 17 00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:36,672 in high school, I 18 00:00:38,048 --> 00:00:40,960 thought it would be fun to design some posters for some plays, 19 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,840 and eventually ended up designing sort of everything for the school, 20 00:00:44,940 --> 00:00:48,980 from homecoming posters to, I don't know, the school letterhead. 21 00:00:50,208 --> 00:00:52,120 Unfortunately, there was only one book in the 22 00:00:52,260 --> 00:00:53,900 library about graphic design, 23 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,040 and that was about Nazi propaganda, 24 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,928 which was not the best source for inspiration, but I 25 00:01:01,504 --> 00:01:02,660 knew it's what I wanted to do. 26 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:07,540 Now, the problem, of course, was that my family didn't want me to do that. 27 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:10,680 They were kind of set on me going into government. 28 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:15,520 My father's side goes back several generations in politics, 29 00:01:15,580 --> 00:01:17,720 and my mother's side does too. 30 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:22,000 And in fact, the last person in our family to run for anything was 31 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:25,540 Lay Stevenson, who ran for president in 1952 and 1956. 32 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:26,140 So 33 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:28,320 my whole life growing up, 34 00:01:28,340 --> 00:01:31,640 I kept hearing, well, we haven't had a senator in the family for a while, 35 00:01:31,660 --> 00:01:33,920 or we haven't had a governor in the family for a while. 36 00:01:34,144 --> 00:01:36,360 So they were a little surprised when I said, 37 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:37,480 I'm not going to Harvard. 38 00:01:37,700 --> 00:01:39,420 I'm going to go to CalArts, 39 00:01:39,456 --> 00:01:40,780 and I'm going to be a graphic designer. 40 00:01:41,140 --> 00:01:41,240 My 41 00:01:41,824 --> 00:01:42,740 first project 42 00:01:43,300 --> 00:01:46,240 was something my dad asked me to do when I was 15 years old. 43 00:01:46,380 --> 00:01:50,740 He came home one day and said he had a friend at this little company called Apple, 44 00:01:50,860 --> 00:01:52,040 and they needed an 45 00:01:52,260 --> 00:01:52,980 in-house newsletter. 46 00:01:53,180 --> 00:01:55,780 Could I design the masthead for this? 47 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,560 So I sat down and did it with a bunch of lines, 48 00:01:59,780 --> 00:02:01,080 and the only tool I had, 49 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:02,900 which seemed to be a rapidograph pen, 50 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:04,440 if you remember what those were, 51 00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:05,580 and put it together. 52 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:06,016 Very 53 00:02:06,656 --> 00:02:07,140 proud of it. 54 00:02:07,300 --> 00:02:09,260 And I got paid $50 for it, 55 00:02:09,340 --> 00:02:11,820 which back then, in the late 70s, 56 00:02:11,820 --> 00:02:14,480 early 80s, seemed like a lot of money if you're 15 years old. 57 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:14,784 When 58 00:02:15,296 --> 00:02:17,140 it was time to decide where to go to college, 59 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,280 my family expected me to go to Harvard. 60 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:21,600 That's where people had gone to school since the early 61 00:02:22,610 --> 00:02:23,060 1600s. 62 00:02:23,060 --> 00:02:24,000 I didn't want to do that. 63 00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:25,640 I wanted to go to CalArts. 64 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:26,720 It was sunny. 65 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,080 There was a swimming pool. 66 00:02:28,340 --> 00:02:30,760 It looked a lot more fun than Cambridge in the winter. 67 00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:31,104 So 68 00:02:31,808 --> 00:02:32,900 I went to CalArts, 69 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:34,860 which was a kind of a wild place back then. 70 00:02:34,940 --> 00:02:35,800 It was a great experience. 71 00:02:36,704 --> 00:02:40,880 Back then, the only way to design seemed to be this new wave style, 72 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,260 and I was sort of stuck in that. 73 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:45,020 I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. 74 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:45,472 Now, 75 00:02:46,656 --> 00:02:48,300 move forward to my senior year, 76 00:02:48,420 --> 00:02:50,500 and it got to be about time to graduate, 77 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:52,020 and I remember going to the head of our 78 00:02:52,260 --> 00:02:55,460 program, Lorraine Wild, and asking, what am I supposed to do? 79 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,040 Do I have to get a resume together or something like that? 80 00:02:58,200 --> 00:02:59,820 I think I need to get a job. 81 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:06,700 And Lorraine had mentioned that one of the visiting artists had come and seen one of our type classes, 82 00:03:06,900 --> 00:03:08,640 and unbeknownst to me, 83 00:03:08,740 --> 00:03:10,840 she was impressed by the work I was doing. 84 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:14,300 Lorraine said, no, Katie's gone. 85 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:15,300 Katie's from New York, 86 00:03:15,340 --> 00:03:16,000 and she went back, 87 00:03:16,060 --> 00:03:18,060 and she's talked to several people about you. 88 00:03:18,140 --> 00:03:19,360 So you have 89 00:03:19,904 --> 00:03:20,928 several companies 90 00:03:21,472 --> 00:03:22,240 that are interested in 91 00:03:22,260 --> 00:03:22,780 hiring you. 92 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:24,240 I was very lucky. 93 00:03:25,152 --> 00:03:26,100 They were good companies. 94 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:29,060 I think it was Massimo Vignelli and Shmaith and Geismar and Pentagram. 95 00:03:29,300 --> 00:03:29,536 And 96 00:03:30,144 --> 00:03:30,432 one 97 00:03:31,072 --> 00:03:34,400 of the companies that I was really interested in working with, 98 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:37,220 which was the New York Public Library, 99 00:03:37,540 --> 00:03:42,656 I liked the idea that I would have access to almost any resource in the world, and 100 00:03:43,168 --> 00:03:44,620 I would be my own designer. 101 00:03:44,740 --> 00:03:47,020 There was no creative director above me. 102 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:48,300 It was basically like, 103 00:03:48,380 --> 00:03:48,980 here you go. 104 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:49,860 Here's the work. 105 00:03:49,900 --> 00:03:50,580 Go for it. 106 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:50,912 I 107 00:03:51,616 --> 00:03:51,940 graduated, 108 00:03:52,260 --> 00:03:53,440 on a Friday, and 109 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:56,360 on Monday morning, I was working in New York. 110 00:03:56,540 --> 00:03:56,800 I 111 00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:58,580 loved working in New York. 112 00:03:58,640 --> 00:03:59,860 It was a great experience. 113 00:04:00,300 --> 00:04:02,000 I loved working at the library. 114 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:05,120 We had access to almost any resource in the world. 115 00:04:05,500 --> 00:04:08,260 I remember I was working on a poster for Truman Capote, 116 00:04:08,420 --> 00:04:11,400 the author, and I needed an image. 117 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:12,700 So my coordinator said, 118 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:14,140 call this guy Dick. 119 00:04:14,300 --> 00:04:15,600 He has some really good photos. 120 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:17,460 So I called him up, 121 00:04:17,460 --> 00:04:19,100 and he said, come on over to my studio. 122 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:19,940 I'll give you a print. 123 00:04:20,100 --> 00:04:21,880 Well, it turned out to be Richard Avedon. 124 00:04:22,260 --> 00:04:23,584 The legendary photographer. 125 00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:26,380 And I still have that print to this day. 126 00:04:26,660 --> 00:04:26,976 I 127 00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:28,560 loved working there. 128 00:04:28,700 --> 00:04:29,460 It was amazing. 129 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:31,320 I would have stayed the rest of my life, 130 00:04:31,420 --> 00:04:33,620 but it gets cold in New York. 131 00:04:33,840 --> 00:04:35,380 They don't like being cold, 132 00:04:35,460 --> 00:04:37,540 and it stayed cold all the time. 133 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:39,580 Now, I was used to Los Angeles, 134 00:04:39,580 --> 00:04:41,040 where you could go to the beach in April, 135 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,100 so this didn't make any sense to me. 136 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,140 I moved back to Los Angeles. 137 00:04:45,380 --> 00:04:46,960 I liked to be warm. 138 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:47,456 When 139 00:04:48,380 --> 00:04:49,700 I came back to Los Angeles, 140 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:51,660 I was hired by April Griman, 141 00:04:52,288 --> 00:04:54,560 an incredible, amazing designer. 142 00:04:54,880 --> 00:04:57,560 And I worked with April for several years. 143 00:04:57,740 --> 00:04:59,540 I learned so much from her. 144 00:04:59,860 --> 00:05:04,140 And one of the most important things I learned from April was to be bold, 145 00:05:04,260 --> 00:05:08,980 to have courage, and do what you think is the right thing to do, 146 00:05:09,060 --> 00:05:10,540 to not play it safe. 147 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:12,100 April never played it safe. 148 00:05:12,260 --> 00:05:13,900 She always took new risks, 149 00:05:14,040 --> 00:05:16,500 and I've tried to do that with my career also. 150 00:05:16,860 --> 00:05:17,088 After 151 00:05:17,952 --> 00:05:20,180 working with April for several years, 152 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:21,180 I think about five, 153 00:05:22,260 --> 00:05:24,040 kind of got to that point in life where you think, 154 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:26,580 no, I'm either going to continue on this path, 155 00:05:26,760 --> 00:05:28,380 or I'm going to start my own company. 156 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:29,024 And 157 00:05:29,696 --> 00:05:30,112 at 158 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,060 that point, I remember, and this isn't name dropping, 159 00:05:33,220 --> 00:05:34,900 it's just who was around at the time, 160 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:36,500 but I remember asking Saul Bass, 161 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,440 when is it right to start your own company? 162 00:05:39,660 --> 00:05:42,360 And Saul said, it's like getting pregnant. 163 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:43,900 There's never the right time. 164 00:05:44,060 --> 00:05:45,120 You just do it, 165 00:05:45,140 --> 00:05:45,920 or you don't. 166 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:46,336 So, 167 00:05:46,784 --> 00:05:47,200 I did. 168 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:51,980 My business partner, Noreen Morioka, and I founded Adams Morioka. 169 00:05:52,300 --> 00:05:54,840 And we opened up the studio. 170 00:05:55,100 --> 00:05:55,488 Now, 171 00:05:55,904 --> 00:05:58,520 right away, we started to get some really good clients. 172 00:05:58,820 --> 00:06:02,784 And pretty quickly, within a couple of years, we've 173 00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:04,340 made a good name for ourselves. 174 00:06:04,580 --> 00:06:05,664 And I was 175 00:06:06,336 --> 00:06:08,160 surprised at how quickly the business grew. 176 00:06:09,280 --> 00:06:11,140 Adams Morioka was a great experience. 177 00:06:12,340 --> 00:06:14,880 We had the firm for almost 25 years. 178 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:18,040 And we worked with an amazing range of clients. 179 00:06:18,340 --> 00:06:20,380 I mean, almost ever wanted to work with. 180 00:06:20,540 --> 00:06:20,928 And 181 00:06:21,472 --> 00:06:22,820 won some good awards. 182 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:26,060 And got, you know, some really decent press. 183 00:06:26,740 --> 00:06:26,880 After 184 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,100 about 22 years at Adams Morioka, 185 00:06:30,280 --> 00:06:33,280 I'd sort of reached a lot of the milestones I wanted to reach. 186 00:06:33,420 --> 00:06:36,100 I'd worked with the clients I wanted to work with. 187 00:06:36,300 --> 00:06:40,240 I'd done the kind of things I always challenged myself to do. 188 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:42,720 And I found myself starting to repeat myself. 189 00:06:43,200 --> 00:06:43,488 I 190 00:06:44,140 --> 00:06:45,960 took a term, three months, 191 00:06:46,420 --> 00:06:48,700 and I went to Berlin with several students. 192 00:06:49,380 --> 00:06:51,200 Art Center has a studio in Berlin. 193 00:06:51,260 --> 00:06:54,420 And I went there as the faculty member for that period. 194 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:55,760 And when I was there, 195 00:06:55,800 --> 00:06:57,320 I found something really interesting. 196 00:06:57,680 --> 00:06:58,144 I 197 00:06:58,700 --> 00:07:00,140 was crossing the street one day, 198 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,040 and I thought, this is a very strange feeling I have right now. 199 00:07:03,200 --> 00:07:04,880 And that feeling was being happy. 200 00:07:05,040 --> 00:07:09,856 And I realized it was the first time I'd stopped worrying about payroll. 201 00:07:10,144 --> 00:07:12,140 I'd stopped worrying about getting an ex-client. 202 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:16,360 I'd stopped worrying about systems that were tracking hours. 203 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:18,880 I was more concerned about 204 00:07:19,060 --> 00:07:22,060 Murphy's project, and if he got the photos he needed. 205 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,740 Or if Alice had what she wanted in the typography. 206 00:07:26,020 --> 00:07:28,120 I was more concerned about others than myself. 207 00:07:28,540 --> 00:07:28,960 And 208 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:33,120 at that point, I decided maybe it was time to turn the boat. 209 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:33,824 And 210 00:07:34,336 --> 00:07:38,020 switch back to focusing on others, and not myself. 211 00:07:38,700 --> 00:07:40,440 I came back to Los Angeles, 212 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:41,700 and I told my business partner, 213 00:07:41,780 --> 00:07:42,980 I think I'm ready for a change. 214 00:07:43,180 --> 00:07:46,080 And I switched over to education. 215 00:07:46,420 --> 00:07:49,040 I really felt like it was my job at that point. 216 00:07:49,060 --> 00:07:50,860 To work with the next generation. 217 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:53,620 And, you know, as one person said once, 218 00:07:53,740 --> 00:07:55,560 you got to send the elevator back down. 219 00:07:55,700 --> 00:07:56,780 And give them a hand. 220 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,640 And that's how I ended up at Art Center. 221 00:07:58,820 --> 00:08:02,440 And I've been happy to be there every single day since then. 222 00:08:04,380 --> 00:08:07,740 The first book that I wrote was about logo design. 223 00:08:07,940 --> 00:08:08,580 And soon thereafter, 224 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:10,680 I was asked to write a book about color. 225 00:08:11,740 --> 00:08:15,160 Now, I thought back to my experience when I was in high school. 226 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:17,640 And the fact that there was only one book on Nazi propaganda. 227 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:23,560 And I wanted to make sure there were options out there for people that might be in some small town somewhere. 228 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:27,520 And didn't have the opportunity to meet amazing designers. 229 00:08:27,620 --> 00:08:29,460 Or see great design all the time. 230 00:08:30,020 --> 00:08:30,208 So, 231 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,860 doing the book on color seemed like a really good choice to do. 232 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,300 From that, it led to other books. 233 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:38,720 And since then, I've written several. 234 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:42,000 And I really enjoy the idea that, 235 00:08:42,020 --> 00:08:45,800 you know, there might be someone out there who's getting some information that they didn't have previously. 236 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:47,940 And that sort of parlayed 237 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,400 its way into working with LinkedIn Learning. 238 00:08:50,540 --> 00:08:52,340 And getting a message out, 239 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:53,780 you know, via the web. 240 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:54,980 And now with Domestika. 241 00:08:55,120 --> 00:08:56,600 It's a great opportunity. 242 00:08:56,880 --> 00:08:58,100 In the back of my mind, 243 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:04,460 I'm always thinking there's somewhere in the middle of nowhere where someone who's 15 years old is thinking, 244 00:09:04,540 --> 00:09:05,660 gee, I'd love to be a designer. 245 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:07,320 I have no idea what that means. 246 00:09:07,500 --> 00:09:12,400 And hopefully, you know, you can get them some good information that helps out a little bit. 247 00:09:12,740 --> 00:09:12,840 Now, 248 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:17,380 the idea of working with color seemed obvious to me. 249 00:09:18,170 --> 00:09:23,140 That was, I think that was sort of born from working in Los Angeles. 250 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:25,960 And what I mean by that is, 251 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:27,740 I found when I worked in New York, 252 00:09:27,780 --> 00:09:30,976 there was a very clear idea of looking to the old world. 253 00:09:31,220 --> 00:09:33,540 Like, we looked at color palettes that were historic. 254 00:09:33,820 --> 00:09:38,640 We looked at, like, you know, go to the Metropolitan Museum and look at some beautiful Italian Renaissance paintings. 255 00:09:38,940 --> 00:09:40,560 But in Los Angeles, 256 00:09:40,780 --> 00:09:43,264 there seemed to be a point of looking a different direction. 257 00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:47,720 And that was focusing on Latin America and Mexico. 258 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:49,940 And Asia and the South Pacific. 259 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:56,380 And finding colors and color palettes and combinations that came from those cultures rather than a European source. 260 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:59,580 And the idea, too, that you could do nothing wrong. 261 00:09:59,940 --> 00:10:06,680 That there was a sort of this primal spirit of doing anything you wanted with color and just pushing it to the limits. 262 00:10:06,900 --> 00:10:07,584 And 263 00:10:08,352 --> 00:10:09,640 I sort of adjusted with that. 264 00:10:09,740 --> 00:10:11,800 I was accused of being garish many, 265 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:14,400 many times on several things I did. 266 00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:15,880 But as I've said before, 267 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:17,540 there's no such thing as too bright. 268 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:19,900 You know, it's our job to get attention. 269 00:10:20,180 --> 00:10:22,400 And color's a great way of doing it. 270 00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:23,328 Well, 271 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:25,800 now I've talked about myself a little too much. 272 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:27,560 So, you know enough about me. 273 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:28,920 In my next lesson, 274 00:10:28,980 --> 00:10:30,480 I'm going to talk about my influences. 275 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:33,580 The things that inspire me and continue to inspire me. 276 00:10:33,700 --> 00:10:35,008 So, let's move forward.