You have both lived and worked in the New York area for along time now. How is the city treating you?

Neither of us was born in NY; I am from northern NJ so not too far, and Ned is originally from the Washington, DC area. However, we have both been in NYC for over 20 years, so it is where we consider home. New York is a fascinating and fun place to live, and in terms of our profession, neither of us could imagine living anywhere else. The creative access, inspiration, and energy of the city are what drew us both here and the reason we both choose to stay. We love our city.

You and Ned work together at BRED graphic design studio. How and when did you start working together?

Ned and I have a long history of collaboration. We discovered early on in our creative relationship that we were very compatible in our work ethics and just different enough in our approaches that it worked well for us to work together. There was a shared respect and trust that we both believe is essential to a healthy and a fruitful partnership. In 2006 we formally launched our studio BRED. It was really about timing and choosing to prioritize our creative relationship. The goal was always to build a studio dedicated to the things we were most energized by. For us, that was self-initiated design research and the translation of our research and exploring its value to design education.

BRED is a graphic design studio with special focus on research and design education–a lot of different activities. What are the responsibilities? Who does what in the studio, and how do you distribute responsibilities?

Your question is excellent, and one that is always difficult to answer. Our work process is so fluid at this point that it is difficult to define specific roles and who is responsible for what. Because we are partners in both business and life, our design process is immersed in our daily lives and involves a constant dialogue. Our projects primarily evolve from casual conversation and observation. Most recently, inspired by our young son. Raising our son has opened us up to a whole new avenue of creative exploration. He is trying to understand the world around him. Like most children, he questions everything, and this forces us to challenge the status quo as well. It is through these conversations and questions that we often find great inspiration. It reminds us daily of the importance of vigilant curiosity.

When we begin a project, there is often a period in which we will work independently sketching and writing about what we are exploring. From this phase, we share our files and respond to each other’s observations, thoughts, and visuals. Through this process of visual and conceptual critique, we begin to define our direction. Given that we primarily work via letterpress, and the presses themselves have physical limitations, there is usually a set of defined parameters that help us clarify ourdesign direction, which means what we can and cannot do on the press. Working in the process of letterpress also demands a seamless collaboration. We mainly utilize two Vandercook Universal III presses in the production of our work. So we are printing in tandem and maintain a constant conversation throughout the process. It is the only way we can successfully achieve our shared expected outcome.

You examine how education influences the creative industry. What are the most important aspects of this relation?

I think one of the core beliefs both Ned and I share is the importance of making, perhaps most importantly in the sense of a process of exploration and discovery. We found in our work, as well as working with students, the physical act of making influences the experience and results of a project. When there is a physical engagement within the process, it forces the process to slow down. In turn, the physical process also requires a vigilant eye as there is no quick method, such as “command z” to correct an error. You are forced to think through each step systematically and strategically. Once you instill these qualities in a designer, you cannot turn them off. Working in an immersive physical manner such as letterpress, we believe, makes us stronger designers. It engages so many ways of thinking. (lateral, linear, spatial, conceptual, formal and strategic) It truly is boot camp for the creative mind, and these attributes translate when working within the digital environment as well.