A brush with design genius.

When my copywriting Professor said we were going to have Carlos Segura, one of the greatest designers in the world speak, in our next class, I was intrigued to say the least, ecstatic to say the most. Design is an integral part of not only my career as an aspiring art director, but also as a self-proclaimed artist. My first encounter with design was as a bumbling 12-year-old at a Harry Potter convention. The creative duo MinaLima was presenting on the work they had done for the films. MinaLima designed everything from potion labels to textbooks and newspapers. I was enthralled at the practical creativity and from then on, I set out to hone my design skills. This post isn't about them or myself, although perhaps future ones should be. This post is about my hour with design genius, Carlos Segura. During his talk, I played a little game where I tried to mark all the creative quirks he spouted — thus, this blog post was born.

Segura started off with a bit of his colorful history. He came into the design world through a string of happy accidents and happenstance. It almost reminded me of watching the evolution of the Dogtown and Zboys. Through a perfect storm of connections, events and being in the right place at the right time, both the Dogtown and Zboys and Carlos found their callings. To begin, his creative development began with a feeling he had as a child when observing logotypes. He said that he felt stirred by observing these design tidbits but it was not until he started designing band posters and album covers that he realized his love of design. However, if you stay on as a drummer for a band all your life, you probably will not rise to the peak of the design world. He left the band before they departed for a European tour. He used a family connection to interview for a job in design. That job led to an art director job, which then led to a creative director job. With every career move, he had no prior knowledge of what the position entailed and learned as he went. This definitely harkens back to the opener of Csikszentmihalyi's text on how creatives will "adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals" (Harper/Collins, 51).

A person tries to decipher the logo designed
by Segura Inc for a coding company.

Next, the job of a designer is to marry the worlds of type and art to communicate ideas and Carlos Segura excelled at creating beautiful and expertly treated work. As Carlos Segura flipped through various branding material and products he had created, many held traces of analogy. Branding materials for a comic book writer used the grid system as comic book story-telling. He showed logos for a motivational speaker that would change design with every application. His reasoning was that the speaker organizes information in different ways, so his logo also reorganized his name in different ways. He created a logo for a coding company using letters and numbers in

Business cards designed for a comic book writer

Typographical book made to resemble the test
course the bike company uses

an unconventional way to symbolize how coders speak "almost another language". And finally, he designed a book for a bike company that was designed to look like the typographical map the company uses to test their bicycles. Perhaps the obvious use of analogy was his series of CROP books made for the Corbis company. Their task was to lay out pages of photographs for a stock photo company. They wanted to do it beautifully and to tell stories with the wide collection of photos at their disposal. From spread to spread, analogy was literally the name of the game as they drew connections from seemingly desperate photos. Although his analogy was a little more on the nose than, say, Frank Gehry's layouts reflecting an obscure painting, he still used analogy to reinforce the ideas he was trying to communicate to the viewers of his work.  However, his creativity is also apparent from where he did the unexpected. When
tasked with designing the covers for comic book series "Filth," they designed an untraditional cover that stood out starkly against the almost identical books around them. In the process, their unique cover outsold almost all of the others.

Spread in CROP two

Filth cover

To continue, I found Segura's perspective on creativity incredibly fascinating. When he was asked how he thought his talent developed, he responded simply, saying some people have it and some don't. However, later in his talk, he described how you have to do something even when there's nothing to do and that practice truly does make perfect. So perhaps to him, there is a healthy mix of natural talent and hard work to make a creative. I'm sure you, too, immediately made the connection between these statements and the text, "Beyond Talent" by Teresa Amabile. She debates that very idea. She, too, concludes you can't rest on natural endowment alone although that is undoubtably important. Next, Segura talked about how everything has been done before, but the key is to look at something from all angles until you find an angle of your own. About his own style, he said he takes in the world around him and "regurgitates it" with his own perspective and personality. I gleaned two things through these quotes —first, the importance of individuality. In my own process as a creative, I struggled for years trying to find my own voice. I could sketch and draw well, but I felt like I wasn't contributing to the world of art in a unique way. It wasn't until last December that I found my own style, my own signature. It was an amazing feeling to finally stand out and make something that felt like my own. The second point I extracted from this quote was that he was also a collector. He and my teacher had rapport on the importance of being a "student of design" and a "student of advertising" or constantly viewing as much work as you can to both inspire you and borrow from. As a designer and advertiser, I know this rings true. We are told from the get-go to be constantly looking at amazing ads at Cannes or Webby and think through the ideas behind it and retain why the ads work so well. To me, the creative process of a designer, advertiser or perhaps any field is digesting all that's around you and mixing it with your own perspective to create your own product. Segura also stressed  divergent thinking. He told us that you shouldn't always let the client tell you what the problem is. Many times, he would see the problem in a logo or design as the main issue which was often totally different from the client's original issue. Being able to think outside the box and problem solve is a classic creative trope.

To continue, I listened to the little tidbits Segura shared about himself and his history and many of them rang the creativity bells in my head. He said he likes to be as open as possible to ideas no matter where they come from. That statement, coupled with the fact he spent eight years touring with a band and traveling across the country for jobs, demonstrates his openness and lack of conventionality. More than one scholar on creativity emphasizes the importance of being open as an advantage to a creative. Csikszentmihalyi stresses it in his work and so does Sternberg. And if we really want to take it there with Sternberg's 6 Personality-Psychometrics, we can. He definitely checks the boxes of Aesthetic Taste and Imagination, and Integration and Intellectuality. I did not find he resonated strongly with the idea of drive for accomplishment. I believe he wanted to do great work, but when I asked him about his feelings on being globally recognized, he faltered a bit and spoke about being shy. Moving along that thread, his global recognition as an amazing designer definitely indicates recognition and acceptance by his field. Beyond that, he has also made an incredible creative impact on his field. One of his projects, T26, was the first online distruster of fonts forever changing the way that designers work. It was truly a great study session of a creative's perspective and also impact. I was able to learn about the entirety of process, product, person and field.

As a student of design, I felt truly honored to listen to Carlos Segura speak. His perspective on creativity was inspiring. I too agree that having your own voice, perspective and unique contribution is the most important part of being creative.