The Egotist Interviews: Fwis

By / April 29, 2008 /

Q: You were just interviewed in PRINT Magazine (read the interview here), being honored with a prestigious group of others as the Top 20 Designers Under 30 in their New Visual Artists annual. How did you happen to get nominated and eventually end up in the issue?

A: As we understand it, PRINT sends out a request to their network of connections asking for nominations. Of those nominations, PRINT whittles it down to 100 “contestants”, so to speak, and they ask them to send in a portfolio. From that final 100, you wind up with the 20 people that make it into the magazine.

We were nominated by Louise Sandhaus of CalArts, and we gotta say that the writer of our article, Peter Terzain, did a great job, and it really was an honor to meet the PRINT staff and our fellow nominees; lots of great talent out there!

Q: Has your inclusion in PRINT led to any interesting new connections or conversations over the last month since the issue came out?

A: We’ve gotten a ton of solicitations from marketing companies asking if we need representation. Annoying as hell.
Beyond that, not really. PRINT threw a big party the other night for all the finalists. We wound up arm-wrestling Mario Hugo and Mike Perry.

We’ve had a ton of internship and interview requests, however.

Q: You guys recently relocated to Brooklyn from Denver and Portland, OR. Why go to one of the trendiest places in the country where so many firms are already competing instead of trying to make a name for yourself in a city that’s more under the radar, namely Denver?

A: It’s funny because something like 4/5ths of this year’s NVA finalists are located in Brooklyn.

At any rate, to say that NYC is trendy is definitely true, but that’s a bit of a red herring. You could throw any adjective at this city and be right to one degree or another. There are so many opportunities here that there’s room for any kind of person, let alone designer. And that’s ultimately why we’re here, to take full advantage of the opportunities that are available to us. We didn’t feel that Portland and Denver could compete. Denver being stagnant and conservative. Portland dooming everyone in its midst to working for a small handful of big shops (W&K, Nike, et al) and thus the competition was fierce!

Q: What about Denver did you find inspiring? Given the nature of this site (Attempting to Help Denver Suck Less, Daily), what do you think Denver could be doing differently to get more people like yourselves to stick around?

A: Inspiring? The view and the weather and the Mexican food.

As for your other question, you need to keep in mind none of us are Denver locals. We were there for a couple years and we have some family there and that’s about it. So our opinion on the matter isn’t exactly the most informed. That said, Denver always seemed a day late and a dollar short. It’s nice to see the New Denver Ad Club try and spice things up a bit, and The Egotist is a great resource that we check regularly, but beyond that the vibe in the city really left something to be desired. Part of it is that the city is just so spread out. No one interacts with each other because to do so means hopping in your Canyonero and driving 30 minutes to get from point A to point B. There also seems to be a severe lack of hunger. We’re over-simplifying here too much by half, but the Denver creative industry seems to be in complete support of the status quo because the status quo is what’s paying the bills. The best solution is the one that is going to keep the client happy so that you can pay off your new house and car and next season’s family pass at Copper Mountain. Because of this, the solutions follow tried and true industry standards that have had their track records proven time and again by bigger and better companies. Save for a handful of projects we’ve seen, the city is extremely cookie-cutter in its approach. Not that we blame anyone. What else is there to do in Littleton beyond spending some cash at one of the 15 readily-available shopping centers?

Apologies if that was a bit harsh. We love doing work for our Denver clients and look forward to finding more. It’s such a great town and it has so much going for it, which makes it all that much more frustrating when we feel like it’s not living up to its potential.

Q: Fwis is consistently involved in non-paying, self-created projects. It’s a big part of what distinguishes you. How have those projects led to paying work? Is that the intent of doing them?

A: Self-generated work is our only form of marketing and we’re basically always busy. So that should tell you something. They’ve led to work through the expected routes, eg. a client saw us on some site and liked our work, or they saw one of our projects and wanted something similar, etc. The intent has always been to put our best face forward, both in terms of concept and delivery. No one is going to pay us to do this kind of experimental work full time until we prove to them how marketable and viable our ideas are. Which we have to do on our spare time. So far it’s been working. We purposefully withhold some our more corporate work from our portfolio simply because we want the kinds of clients that hire us for lateral thinking, which we demonstrate through our self-generated stuff.

We’ve had good luck this year getting some of the most creative, trusting clients you can find, and so our years of poverty and belligerent portfolio management seem to be paying off.

Q: Which of your self-created projects has paid off the biggest so far? Tell us some background on the project and how it originally came about.

A: Both the Readymech project and the Book Covers blog have led us to invaluable connections and amazing clients.

Readymechs came about as a reaction to the over-priced vinyl toy market. Free, downloadable paper toys was something that no one had really done at the time, so it caught on quickly.

The blog was born out of love and admiration for the art and science of book cover design and those that practice it.

We started both of these right as we were coming out of college.

Q: You recently started working with Corbis, creating a pinhole camera campaign that’s garnered much press across industry publications. What is it about this client and others from your past that makes them ideal in your eyes?

A: Corbis is willing to listen to our harebrained ideas, which is the biggest compliment imaginable. We’ve given them a pretty good, measureable ROI on the last couple projects we’ve done for them, so they’re very open to what we have to say. Hopefully we can keep it up!

Q: What kind of work do you most love doing?

A: The kind that leads to a lot of arguing.

If we’re arguing it means two things: (a) We all feel passionate about it enough to piss each other off. Which is a good thing because that kind of heated collaboration always leads to our best work. (b) Arguing is pure brain work. If the project is in our heads to the extent where we’re able to spend a good deal of time debating and talking about it, then that means it’s the kind of concept-driven work that we want to be doing.

Q: What kind of work do you most hate doing?

A: Decoration.

Q: What is Fwis’ creative philosophy in one sentence?

A: We recently saw a poster which said something to the effect of “Design is about making other designers hate themselves for not thinking of it first.“ We’d say that’s pretty close to the mark.

Q: If you could have one thing from Denver with you in Brooklyn that you don’t already have, what would it be?

A: We love Denver and plan on coming back as often as possible. You can’t beat the fresh mountain air and great bouldering locations nearby. The Candelight Tavern. Being able to see further than a quarter-mile at any given time. Grass.

Thanks, we sincerely appreciate your time.