Mother knows best: James Anderson learnt everything about design from his mum

In recent years, NYC-based graphic designer James Anderson has become even more deliberate, consciously developing (and maintaining) an active design philosophy – a distinctive combination of research, intuition and, as James puts it, a little bit of self-indulgence. “I try to think in simple terms, ‘how do I want this to make people feel,’” James says, “while at the same time thinking of ways to make the project interesting for myself.” In doing so, the designer allows himself to be more deeply invested. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I make my best work when I am having fun,” he continues, forging a practice with the optimum conditions for good ideas and joyful work. “As we enter the age of AI graphics, I like to make things that look a little bit ugly, fucked up or amateurish to remind people that it was made by a human being.”

James’ design practice was kick-started from an early age, with his first teacher being his mother. “She was the art director at a local newspaper,” James explains. “I learned the technical skills by watching her work and by playing with Illustrator and Photoshop on the family computer,” which he, at first, utilised for “extremely cringe” skateboarding fan graphics posted on message boards. “I have had no formal training,” he explains, with the exception of a colour theory class, a 2D composition class whilst at college studying linguistics and a week at Typography Summer School. “Everything I’ve learned about design is either from my mom, my experience on the job,” (having worked for American Apparel early on in college), “or from friends and mentors in the design world.” 

As a result, the combination of James’ informal training and breadth of experience, and indeed, inspiration, collides to forge work that’s humble and progressive – drawing on and then subverting expected aesthetics to create something charmingly striking. The unwavering succinctness of his practice is no better embodied than in his approach to logos, which James himself loves to get stuck into. “I love designing logos,” he says, “because you are taking a huge surplus of information and distilling it into a single teeny tiny asset.” One such occasion was James’ wordmark for Brooklyn-based sound system designer Joel Seigle. “We chatted about his practice while he flipped through the specimen book and pointed out a few typefaces that resonated with him,” James recalls, discussing his first meeting with Joel, where he determined the logo’s necessary attributes. “The logo needed to be geometric but soft, techy but friendly,” he says. “I then spent two weeks sketching by hand, referring to some of the great geometric typefaces of the phototype era,” most notably Joseph Churchward’s Churchward Roundsquare. “After some back and forth and a little more agonising, we arrived at the logo you see now, which simply felt right,” James ends, “with the added bonus of resembling a cluster of organically shaped speakers, like the ones Joel makes.”