James Victore
The tremendous body of work by James Victore features work that touches us and influences viewers in many, many ways. On September 22, 2010, the artist/designer gave a lecture at the MSCD Center for Visual Arts (CVA), where he promoted his new book, Who Died and Made You Boss?, and also gave us insight about how he approaches “work.”
Victore’s lecture began with an introduction that explained how his title came about. We were able to understand that while his work was very personal in the way that it came about, he was always able to relate a narrative. This is often a challenge for we designers. How do I make something that I really like, that I can be passionate about, but without running the risk of excluding others? For us attending the lecture, we had knowledge of Victore and his work, and just generally wanted to know more about him and what he has to say. But what about someone that is approaching Victore’s work for, say, the first time? What if you are not familiar with James Victore or his style? This is simply answered by looking at his work. It immediately develops a narrative in the mind of the viewer – something that we as students of design are working hard to understand and must master if we wish to become even moderately successful.
Often our success in a design lies not wholly within the aesthetic qualities that it possesses. Instead, we are needed to create a narrative for the work that makes sense of the aesthetics. Like a well-composed research paper, we must be able to provide evidence to back up our position. What we learn is that design much more than what looks nice or is positioned in a way that makes sense. These are only tiny facets, minuscule aspects of what makes a design complete and whole. It must also be able to tell a story, and do that quickly.
Beyond a body of work spanning over two decades, we were able to see how Victore’s work related to him as a person as well as his approach to work and the style that he developed. That is the beautiful thing about a book that focuses on one’s self, or even a portfolio. Good design comes through practice and education, but how does one develop a collection of works that accurately and actively describes who you are? What do you care about? What influences you? Only by looking at a large body of work can a viewer begin to see these things. Most importantly, we must remember that this does not happen suddenly, like lightning. It is a process. It is developed. It is nurtured. Essentially, it is a narrative, this autobiography. I believe that as we grow and become more educated, our range of interests grows and deepens. A good designer is able to tap into this epic reservoir and proffer this in their work. Influential design happens through passion. At the risk of appearing cliche, knowledge is power. Our ability to draw from our passion through expansive knowledge creates better results in the work which we develop.
I learned all of this, but I also heard one other thing that evening. “Perfection keeps us from finishing. It also keeps us from starting.” This is something that I have to learn how to deal with on a more personal level. Indeed, it is not desirable to settle, but instead we must realize that once something is done, it is time to move on. In moving on we can take the things that we learned from our past endeavors and use that knowledge and practice to create better designs and work in the future. We have heard the stories of several mathematicians who have lost their sanity, and eventually their life, in search of an equations or solution that would would answer a burning question. While an answer is great, a single product should not tell the entire story of one’s life. There is a great deal of life to live, and trying to be perfect hinders our improvement and stifles creativity and life too.
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