TexasDesign.com

Sarah Nelson is one half of the two-person design team of Werner Design Werks. The Minneapolis studio has projects that range from book design, posters and promotional materials to package design and identity development. Werner Design clients include Moët Hennessy, Rizzoli Books, Mohawk Paper, Target, MTV Latino, Levi’s, fX Network, Blu Dot furniture, Chronicle Books, Minnesota Public Radio and Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day.

Their work is part of the permanent collection at Toronto’s Musee des Arts Decoratifs. They were named Target’s “Vendor of the Year” in 2002. They have been recognized with awards from the Type Directors Club, Communication Arts, American Center for Design, ID Magazine, American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Art Directors Club, and Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual.

TDc- Your work has a great sense of playfulness with typography and color, how would you define your style?
TDc- You have a varied client list in which you are able to apply your style, how do you balance between creating the design and maintaining the client’s brand?

(I’m going to combine these two questions into one, if you don’t mind)

Sarah- We try to avoid having anything that can really be defined as a “style,” we prefer to think of our work as having a visual language. We can create a different and appropriate story for each client from this language. I think when you see a lot of our work all together it has common threads that run through all of it but I don’t think you would pick up something without knowing we had done it and say, “this has to be a Werner Design Werks piece.” I have to admit we have a weakness for certain typefaces (Trade Gothic, Clarendon, Minion semi-bold small caps to name the biggest culprits) and we like to mix them together a lot, and we are influenced by design history and vernacular design of the past but we always try to give it a fresh twist. I like design that has a sense of humor and that doesn’t take itself too seriously; I’m put off by design that tries too hard. It’s like seeing someone who’s matched their socks to their shirt to their bag and you just know to their underwear too. But that being said, the best design is smart design.

It’s very important to us to really try to understand what it is the client needs from us, not just what they tell us they need, but what they hope to achieve with it. The answer is always driven by the client’s goals. Any stamp of WDW-ness that ends up on the final project comes about not because we tried to put it there but because that’s just how we do it; we can’t talk with a different accent (at least not believably!)

TDc- What was it like winning the “Best Vendor” award from Target?

Sarah- Well, it was quite an honor…but at first we didn’t even realize it, we were just focused on the candy. Ron Anderson was the art director we had been working with most recently at Target and he called and said that he and Minda Gralnek wanted to come over to our office with something. That should have given us a clue that something big was in the air because Target people never leave their offices. They’re booked and double-booked with meetings all day long and never step foot outside their corporate headquarters. Or at least that’s the way it seems. So anyway, Ron and Minda came over and it was bizarre having them in our office, our messy, haphazard, piles-of-stuff-everywhere, odd-collections-of-things, one-big-open-room office and not being in their pristine, beautifully designed Targetland. They came with a plaque…and a big jar, I mean a really big jar, of red and white M&Ms that someone had painstakingly layered one inch of red, one inch of white, one inch of red… and like little kids all we could think was, “wow! Look at all those M&Ms! Do we get to eat all those?!” But it sunk in a little later that it really was a big deal–Target works with a lot of designers, a lot of designers we really respect, yet they chose us. We talked about how overwhelmed we were as we tossed back handfuls of M&Ms.

TDc- What is the most common mistake designers make?

Sarah- Over designing

TDc- What motivates you more:
a) design freedom
b) the challenge to solve the client’s problem
c) an incredibly quick deadline?
d) all of the above

Sarah- Definitely the challenge to solve the client’s problem. I don’t like design freedom. The more restrictions for me to work around the better. I need parameters. I freak out when I’m given those sorts of assignments that are like, “you can do anything you like…” No! I don’t want to do “anything.” If I wanted to make up my own rules I’d be an artist! I’m not, I’m a designer so I need a specific problem to solve.

Deadlines help too. Not necessarily to come up with something but at least to get the project done.

TDc- What part of the business has changed the most in the last ten years?

Sarah- Technology. Boring answer. Sorry.

TDc- What was your favorite project and why?

Sarah- Oh dear, isn’t that like saying which child you love best? I love them all the same. Well…some less than others. But if I have to choose one I would probably go with Hillbilly Hollywood. It was so much fun going through all those photos of the incredible clothes and hearing all of the stories. The author, Debby Bull was full of stories, more than she had room to put in the book.

Working on all of the Mrs. Meyer’s things has been great too, primarily because they are the best clients ever. They trust us, they respect us, and they always have a very good reason for having to make changes to the design.

TDc- If you were lecturing to group of students about to graduate from a design program, what is the single most important aspect of design you would recommend them to concentrate on?

Sarah- Problem solving and communication. Have a good reason for doing what you’re doing and be able to explain that reason.

TDc- How does a small two-person shop, manage such big projects?

Sarah- We just do. We get on with it. We don’t spend a lot of time in meetings. We work hard. We rely on really great printers and amazing writers and fantastic photographers. We’re up front about our size and don’t take on more than we’re capable of–although we push it sometimes–and clients take no surprisingly well. We’ve found that they’re much happier with us, and more willing to trust us if we tell them that certain things are outside our realm of expertise, but that we’d be happy to find someone they could Re TexasDesign.com interview f.ems work with on that.

TDc- how do you attract new clients?

Sarah- Primarily word of mouth. We don’t advertise or seek out work, although we do enter a lot of design competitions. If a client comes to us because they’ve seen our work in a design publication at least we know then that they are design-savvy enough to pick up a CA magazine or a Type Directors Club annual.

Because we’re small we can pick and choose our clients better without having to take on a bunch of bread-and-butter clients, and because of this we can do work we like…which leads to more work we like.

TDc- Who/what are your inspirations?

Sarah- printed ephemera, old design, books, stuff, stuff, stuff–all that everyday stuff all around.

TDc- What book will you be reading or what music will you be listening to on the flight?

Sarah- Well I just stopped at the bookstore on my way home from work tonight so I have three choices for my reading selection and I think I’m going to go with The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank, primarily because it’s the smallest, best for traveling.

As for the “what’s on my iPod” question, I’m listening to The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. I’m addicted to audiobooks. I like to be entertained all of the time. But no, I can’t listen to one book and read another so for music I feel like it should be some good Texas music to put me in right frame of mind. Maybe some Willie Nelson or Alejandro Escovedo.

Sarah Nelson will be speaking to the DSVC Wednesday, September 13. To find out aout times, locaton and pricing go to the DSVC web site