Transcribed with Otter.ai
Guest Gail Anderson
Unknown Speaker 0:02
Hey. Hey everyone, welcome to unique ways with Thomas Girard in audio podcast, been an amazing guest today. She’s an American graphic designer, writer and educator known for her typographic skill, hand lettering and poster design. Her family migrated to the Bronx, New York from Jamaica. She was a first generation American and first generation college educated in her family and graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in 1984 where she was taught by Paula Scher. Please join me in welcoming Gail Anderson and welcome Hello. Hello. Are you ready for 20 questions? Well, we’ll see how many I get there? Great. Number one, tell me a little bit more about yourself. What do you do?
Unknown Speaker 0:46
Well, I’m a graphic designer, as you know, and currently, well, for the last four years and hopefully onward, I’m chair of the BFA design and BFA advertising departments at the School of Visual Arts in New York. So I’m like, a full time educator. Now,
Unknown Speaker 1:03
that’s great. It’s a no for our audience, you’re actually the second chair from the School of Visual Arts. We had W Milne on earlier.
Unknown Speaker 1:12
Yeah. Super interesting.
Unknown Speaker 1:14
Number two, what’s a key piece of knowledge that makes you different?
Unknown Speaker 1:19
Ah, key piece of knowledge that makes me different. I don’t know how different I am. I’m probably pretty vanilla, but I suppose,
Unknown Speaker 1:32
well, I don’t know about that one. Yeah, I hesitate to think of myself as different, although I’d like to believe I am
Unknown Speaker 1:39
that maybe
Unknown Speaker 1:41
for a person, for designers in New York, I’m probably, I feel like I’m one of the only designers actually born and bred in New York. So people seem to come from everywhere else and land and and make their homes in New York. But I’m like, you know, pre local. So
Unknown Speaker 1:59
I like that answer. We had Timothy Goodman on the show, and he’s he does so much work in New York, and it’s so kind of New York focused. And one of the later questions will be about, specifically about place. So maybe we can go into that then.
Unknown Speaker 2:14
Yeah. So number three, why this of all things, why do you do what you do, what I do, what I do, I do what I do? Because I love what I do. And at this point, I’m sort of in as I get older and more and more and give back mode so I feel like where I am now was appropriate for my, my, my stage of life, and that that I’ve got got some wisdom to impart that I’m making an effort in these years to really focus on raising up the next generation and and hoping as much as possible to raise up folks from different communities.
Unknown Speaker 2:55
So we’ve got as diverse a pool of designers as possible out there.
Unknown Speaker 3:00
Nice. I like that. So number four, some people struggle with but the question is, what does your future look like?
Unknown Speaker 3:09
I think my future is doing what I’m doing, still spending more time upstate. Right now, I’m in upstate New York and Woodstock, and during the pandemic, I realized how happy I was up here. Not that I’m not happy in the city, but I’ve been in the city all my life, and so it’s been nice to spend more time outside the city. So that’s, that’s where I’d like to be. Is looking at, looking at a mountain and some trees every now and then. But per, career wise, excuse me, I think
Unknown Speaker 3:41
building on the foundation that Richard wild, the previous Chair of 50 years, who one of my heroes, what he started to to build on that and expand and
Unknown Speaker 3:52
see what technology brings as we go into this world of AI.
Unknown Speaker 3:57
So, yeah, for sure. Um, so here’s the question I was excited about. So number five is, let’s talk about location. How does the notion of place play into what you do?
Unknown Speaker 4:09
Well, as I was saying, place right now, you know, I I’ve always sort of been in one place and travel occasionally, and I realized probably later in life than I should have, the travel and seeing other parts of the world outside of travel for work is really important, as is taking a vacation, and that’s been a foolish, late lesson for me that I wish I’d taught myself in my 20s and 30s instead of any old age now. So place is a changing place is important to refresh and renew, and in all of those words, things that I kind of knew but didn’t really believe until I started to do it myself. So I feel like places is a big one now, and to kind of shift the place around every now and then, even.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
It’s every decade or so, but to kind of keep
Unknown Speaker 5:04
No, not get stuck in one place too long,
Unknown Speaker 5:08
nice, and never get in the car and move someplace else every now and then, yeah, it’s kind of a great one. We have different responses to this idea of place, the geographic place, or the kind of more metaphorical place. But with your place being New York, there’s kind of no other answer. Number six, if you had to start from scratch, what advice would you give your former younger self?
Unknown Speaker 5:32
I think it’s in the same vein of place, of kind of cutting myself a break a little bit more than I did, not being as hard on myself and taking the time to kind of check out and relax and see other places. I was so focused on deadlines and on the work. And still am in a lot of ways, but I’ve, seen now from experience that
Unknown Speaker 6:03
stepping away from it makes it better, makes it richer, makes it more fun.
Unknown Speaker 6:09
And so, yeah, I’d say give yourself a breakout. So nice. Number seven, what’s your day in the life? Like
Unknown Speaker 6:18
Day in the Life
Unknown Speaker 6:21
changes a bit. Day in the Life when I’m up here, I’m up in Woodstock right now is still, still sort of sitting in front of a computer, but the day in life in the city is being around kids, being around young folk, my co workers, and the energy that comes from that that I don’t have up here, that it’s nice to step back and be up here by myself and get some stuff done that I can just sort of focus and curl up and focus, focus. But the better and more fun time for me is when I’m with other people, and I think during the pandemic, when it was three of us up here, myself, two friends,
Unknown Speaker 7:00
I and then my by myself for a good couple months, I was like, Oh, I can do this. This is great. And then once I was I was around other people again in the office, and we were kind of officially back. I realized how important that was for me to be with other people and mix it up and just yell something down the hall or go and sit in someone’s office. And I know that some folks think of that as sort of a waste of time, but I feel like it’s so valuable, and it makes me sad when I hear my students say they just want to work remotely and sort of just put their headphones on and sit in front of their computer. But no, no, no, get out there. Get get out in the world. So mix it up.
Unknown Speaker 7:41
Nice. We had a great C suite designer on name Raj van der heat who would describe his day as going into the atelier. And when he opened up the door to the Atelier and went inside, that’s when the work started. And when he closed that door, he left the work behind. And I imagine there’s a bit like that for you, except with with the
Unknown Speaker 8:03
work’s always in my head, the work wakes me up in the middle of the night, or, you know, making a note on a piece of paper at four in the morning or something. There isn’t really kind of closing the door, but I’ve gotten better about that over the years. And there’s shutting down that, that I do kind of close the laptop and and
Unknown Speaker 8:26
leave what I’m doing at a reasonable hour, which was almost impossible for everyone during the pandemic, and it was hard for me to get back in the habit of like, okay, stop, go, do something else, go and enjoy yourself, Even if it’s just watching TV or something.
Unknown Speaker 8:42
Yeah. So, so work,
Unknown Speaker 8:45
work looks a little different up here
Unknown Speaker 8:48
is more, more engaged moment in the city, but it’s, it’s all good, you know, it’s sort of good either way. So,
Unknown Speaker 8:56
okay, number eight, lifelong learning is a popular topic. How do you stay up to date. Well, part of I started teaching 31 years ago, and so as much younger and I was pretty much up to date then, and as the years went by, I realized that the students kept me young and kept me up to date on what was going on. And early on, it was the magazines they read, and then it was the websites they looked at, and then it’s the blogs and and now it’s their social media. And so that keeps me fresh is being with people much younger than myself, and having them roll their eyes all the way back in their heads when I say something even it’s my co workers, because they’re like, what this old fool? So just about halfway. Number nine, what tools do you use to use digital and analog tools? Yeah, yeah. I wish I still had the computer skills that they did years ago, when I was making things more actively than I am right now, I’m probably sitting in front of, you know,
Unknown Speaker 9:59
Google Doc.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
And Google Sheets and stuff like that, and slack and an email more than anything right now, but I love making things with my hands, and part of the plan up here is to create a space that I can make a mess in which isn’t something I haven’t had in a long, long time. And so that’s a goal, to have a place to make things by hand. Again, I used to make things from tile and other stuff, and I need that. I need that moment of a space without computer access and just some light, and to be able to just make stuff for myself and then force it on other people.
Unknown Speaker 10:38
Great. Halfway. Number 10, how do you deal with work life balance.
Unknown Speaker 10:42
I’m not good at it. I’m not good at a better at it than I was when I was younger, but I’m not that good at it. The work stuff does seep over into my time, and it’s personal time. It’s hard to distinguish between the two people that I hang out with are often people I work with or people in the same profession, so there’s that overlap as well.
Unknown Speaker 11:05
I,
Unknown Speaker 11:08
you know, years of therapy have made me a little bit better at it, but it’s still something I struggle with. And the thing in this, working at SVA these last six, seven years in different capacities. It’s a very nine to five place for the staff, and I had to wrap my head around that, of like, okay, we’re out of here 536 whatever. But it’s, it’s not an all might,
Unknown Speaker 11:34
you know, as it has been at other jobs for me, of like, oh, let’s keep working. So that’s been good to force the work life balance on me, and then when I’m up here, it’s nice to kind of shut down and get in the car and go somewhere, or even just kind of curl up and watch TV. So I’m definitely a work in progress with that, sadly,
Unknown Speaker 11:55
nice and 11. If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing? What are we doing? I’d be a writer. I’d be a full time writer. I would love to do that. I do it a bit. I don’t do it enough. I have all these plans in my head that then I don’t ever kind of get to, or I get to a few here and there, but I would, I would write, write, write, write. What
Unknown Speaker 12:16
would you not like to do with your career? What would I not like to do?
Unknown Speaker 12:24
I would
Unknown Speaker 12:27
not like to wrap it up. Now I have friends and relatives who are my contemporaries, who are like, you’re still working. I’m like, wait what? And what I don’t want is to kind of set all that aside. Now I feel like I’ve got many good years in me, and hopefully really, really good years. So what do I don’t want to kind of hang it up right now. I’m I want to sort of keep reinventing what I’m doing and and work on things that are, as I said, in sort of give back mode. But I don’t. I’m not ready to hang it up. So what’s your favorite word, quote or sentence? My word quote or there,
Unknown Speaker 13:11
there are things I have over used.
Unknown Speaker 13:16
That’s a hard one.
Unknown Speaker 13:20
I
Unknown Speaker 13:23
think about that once more, I
Unknown Speaker 13:28
think that in my head I’m
Unknown Speaker 13:33
always reminding myself to be patient, because I’m not sometimes, and I’ve gotten old and crusty and so the words in my head that I’m saying sort of like, back off, slow down, be nice, be patient, and just like, take a breath. Take a breath. Take a breath. Take a breath. So
Unknown Speaker 13:51
giving you my thought bubble there, that’s good. And I need to ask, What’s your least favorite word, code or sentence? If you have one. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 14:01
I
Unknown Speaker 14:04
at least favorite,
Unknown Speaker 14:08
it’s really
Unknown Speaker 14:11
when somebody says that it, I’m like, Oh, my God,
Unknown Speaker 14:15
I take, I always take that the wrong way. It’s like, Oh, you just mean we’re wrapping up now. Like, no, they mean, is that
Unknown Speaker 14:22
it so read way too much into people just being polite and trying to wrap things up nice. And if you had to pick one word to describe yourself, what word would you choose?
Unknown Speaker 14:34
Well,
Unknown Speaker 14:37
hey, unfortunately, no matter how hard I try, I’m pretty messy, and I really make an effort, but I don’t make it often enough.
Unknown Speaker 14:50
So messy is being polite, so I’ll just say messy and say I’m a slob or something like that. But that’s and it comes in handy sometimes, because they make these discoveries.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
When you’re, like, looking for something, you find something else. Like, oh, well, that brought up a new idea, but messy in general.
Unknown Speaker 15:06
Yeah, that’s probably the best word, sadly,
Unknown Speaker 15:09
- What keeps you up at night? What keeps me up at night? Oh, you know it’s not what keeps me up because I’m fine going to sleep. But it’s those four o’clock, the three o’clock or four o’clock like Bing of something I forgot to do. The things that keep me up now are deadlines of have i overextended myself? Have I have I
Unknown Speaker 15:33
have I said yes too much, and am I going to be able to follow through on things I’ve said yes to? I’ve certainly learned over the years that people are graceful and will grant you a little time here and there, and I’ve learned to tactically take advantage of that. But where I thought, you know, oh my god, if I don’t meet, this aligns, you know, the world, it’s like no, people give you a little leeway there.
Unknown Speaker 15:58
And so I’m,
Unknown Speaker 16:00
yeah, I but I still wake up like, Oh my God. What do I commit myself to?
Unknown Speaker 16:05
And now I worry about things like enrollment numbers and stuff that’s like, Wait, what am I worrying about? What so
Unknown Speaker 16:12
nice? Or when I’m up here, it wakes me up as, like, I hear something in the walls.
Unknown Speaker 16:19
I said, all right. Like so
Unknown Speaker 16:23
nice and final stretch number 17, what’s the dream you’re chasing? A dream I’m chasing, oh man,
Unknown Speaker 16:32
the one I’ll never catch, being in better shape, of exercising, of taking better care of myself. That is the dream. And I’m watching the years tick away, the moments of good health, take away and I’m like, What am I doing? You know, it’s like carving out time for myself. That’s what I’m really bad at. And the, you know, get out, go take a walk, go up the hill, go down the road, go, you know, rowing, or do something. It’s like, oh, man, that is the dream I’m chasing, still in my old age. So
Unknown Speaker 17:03
at some point it’ll be like, Oh, can I go up the stairs? That’ll be it. That’ll be the dream going upstairs.
Unknown Speaker 17:10
Well, I had that because we had John Maeda on the show, and he talked about eating protein for breakfast, and I started doing that. And that really life changer. Yes, yes. In my healthy moments, that’s when I’m like, look at that protein, like you can just all this protein. I’m like, I’m on it, and then sugar comes back. So
Unknown Speaker 17:30
number 18, what inspires you,
Unknown Speaker 17:34
you know, to be corny and say, the students and all that,
Unknown Speaker 17:38
probably a bit of that. What inspires me.
Unknown Speaker 17:41
Books still get me, you know, I’m still like, I just ordered some books from from drawdown, and I
Unknown Speaker 17:50
MAN design books still get me
Unknown Speaker 17:54
nice. I will buy stacks and and pour through them and or they sit here, and then a month later, I pour through a book, or a book is wrapped up for six months, and I open it, the book still not websites, not social media, not anything, but finding stuff and seeing it on paper still, still makes me so happy.
Unknown Speaker 18:15
Great. At 19. Any advice you’d like to share?
Unknown Speaker 18:19
I guess my advice is still to, like, go easy on yourself and go see the world seeing you know, if you think you can’t, or if you can’t, legitimately can’t afford to travel, save your pennies and get on Amtrak and go somewhere and take a trip, or get on a bus or get in your car or whatever, but go and see stuff, because the ideas don’t come, you know, when you’re sitting In front of your computer, they come when you’re doing other stuff or in the middle of the night, but they, they certainly don’t come when you’re just sitting and fretting about them and getting out there. A trip to Italy years ago, did it for me. And I was like, Why didn’t anybody tell me this was out of here? It’s like, look at this look at this country and and, you know, I shouldn’t have had those life changing moments in my 50s. I shouldn’t have them in like my my 20s and 30s and all that. So get out and do stuff and you have vacation days. Use them. My friends. Use them. Go and have some fun.
Unknown Speaker 19:13
Great. End number 20, how can our listeners keep tabs on you? What’s our call to action? My call to action? How to keep tabs on me.
Unknown Speaker 19:23
I wish I was better about social media. I have Instagram that I haven’t posted on in a year, probably, or more than a year, that Gaelic curl.
Unknown Speaker 19:34
I, you know, I do stuff. I like to talk and do podcasts and stuff like that. So I I I do them for folks, and then I don’t promote them. And then I’m like, Oh, why do I do it if I’m not gonna promote it? So I, yeah, I’m stuck in my head. There’s, I have nothing. I got nothing for you.
Unknown Speaker 19:51
Sadly, no, that’s great. Um, well, thank you so much. The show. You know, it’s such a you know, to have someone of your stature is so great, and I’m so excited to hear about these.
Unknown Speaker 20:00
Visions about SVA. It’s super cool. Thank you so much. My pleasure. My pleasure. Okay, I’ll see you around. Thanks.
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