Interview: Laina Leckie

I'm currently the "writer in residence" for The School of Visual Art's (SVA) graphic design department blog. Luckily, I managed to work with a few excellent people who allow me a lot of freedom, and we came up with the idea of interviewing faculty members.

The GDAD Interview series aims to explore the award-winning graphic design and advertising faculty. Each interview reveals the history of the teacher, the classes they teach, if they're working on any special group projects, and their perspective on creativity, learning, and art.

Laina Leckie, also a freelancer in the advertising and publishing fields, has taught many classes at SVA for nearly 20 years. Joey Cofone, a student in the graphic design program, spoke with her about teaching, process, and silly wildlife.

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Joey Cofone: How did you start in graphic design—was there another field that you initially intended to study or did you always know that graphic design was the thing for you?

Laina Leckie: My path was a bit circuitous. I actually started studying in a community college and I got my associates in TV production. Thought it was cool, very technical, I liked the computer aspect and all of that. Then I went on to Montclair State University for my BA and I discovered I wanted to do something a little more individual as opposed to group oriented, because TV production is such a group effort. I decided, “Ooh, let me try graphic design!”

There were no computers at that time and they didn’t bring them in until the year after I finished. So I went to an interview with my big old portfolio of handmade work and got my first job at a printing company. They were starting an art department and hired me to run it. I was in charge! I ended up being vice president of the company. I didn’t enjoy management so much after a while—I wanted to do art!—so I went back to SVA for grad school and got my masters in computer art. While I was getting my masters, SVA asked me to teach, and I said yes.

JC: And for your Computers in the Studio class, which is what you’re currently teaching, what is the purpose of the class? What do you hope students leave with?

LL: That’s tricky, because I think the main purpose from the school’s point of view, and maybe from the students coming in, is to get technical instruction in graphic design programs.

JC: I love that you said “from the school’s point of view.” I’ve noticed that it’s much more than technical application.

LL: For me it is. If I just taught tutorial after tutorial I would get bored after 2 minutes, and so would the students. I hope I bring fun and enthusiasm about discovering new ideas — even new ideas about themselves. What I also want to bring is my production know-how and my business know-how from being a freelancer, and I think that’s valuable to students as well. Teaching the programs but intertwining my real-world experiences—good and bad—to help students know what does and doesn’t work.

JC: In your class today, I liked how you explained the importance of bringing logo options to a client as opposed to just one that we really like. It’s a way to involve the client, to bring them into decision making so that it isn’t just, “Here I’ve cooked you dinner, now eat it.” These things may seem obvious after the fact, but it’s important to discuss them with students who have no experience with that kind of thing.

LL: I think it’s also the responsibility of graphic designers to educate the client, to nurture them in the process. They often don’t know about art that much and so you’re kind of teaching them, but also encouraging them to understand the process.

JC: Sometimes I am afraid to start a project. I truly have fear. There’s confidence somewhere in the back of my mind, but that fear is more prominent. It leads to procrastination for me, and I’m fully aware of it. Recently a friend suggested that when I start a project I should jump in with the goal of initially making the worst product possible. And that’s been working for me. Do you have similar feelings of fear, procrastination—and if so, how do you handle it? Do you have any tricks?

LL: Absolutely! And sometimes I still can’t believe I do after all these years, but it’s human. I think connecting with people who have similar feelings, spending time at creative workshops, and sitting with my inner critic - arm in arm!—it’s almost like art therapy for me. I remind myself that it’s okay to be imperfect. I remember that all I need to do is deal with “right now.” I used to keep trying to guess the future, I’d think about the results before I even put down a line on the piece of paper! I’d be jumping so far ahead or thinking about bad past experiences—I really try to push those away, be right here, right now, and brainstorm away!

JC: I have a hard time knowing whether or not what I’ve made looks good, even conceptually. I’m really trying to be my own critic, asking myself first and foremost, “Do I like it?” Can you relate to that struggle? What passes through your mind when that “Is this good?” question comes up?

LL: It’s a tricky one, I ask myself the same thing all the time. It’s so subjective. We just saw in class that one group came by and looked at two different logos. One group said they loved the first one and the color, the next group said they didn’t like the color and they liked the second one. So there’s this subjectivity that’s really difficult to grapple with. I believe we get training at schools like this with mentors who teach us the techniques and skills we need to visually relay messages effectively to audiences. The time in school working with these techniques gives students this wonderful opportunity to experiment with their creative voice as well, and then they can become stronger in their opinion about “what is good."

JC: Absolutely. One more question, it has nothing to do with graphic design, not directly at least. I think the essence of what we do is, at some point, we have to play. We need to have fun, so my final question for you is—

LL: [laughs] This is the one I’m most nervous about!

JC: You have the choice to be either a panda in pants or a crocodile in sunglasses. Which would you choose, and why?

LL: [pauses] If I think about the accessory, I don’t know if I would do the sunglasses because I hate having glasses. They block my peripheral vision. So if it’s about the accessory, I wouldn’t go with that. If I go to the animal I think about location and the animal’s way of being. [laughs] With crocodiles I think of Florida and that’s where I grew up. I didn’t particularly like it. Crocodiles are so aggressive, tough, stomachs always on the ground—they’re too rough around the edges. Pandas, I tend to think they’re a little lazy, which I don’t like, but I do like their in-the-moment-ness, because they’re just kind of hanging out, eating bamboo. Who know’s what they’re thinking? I love the black-and-white-ness, I used to love cows as a kid, so the panda seems kind of soft and approachable—which I don’t even know if that’s true, but that’s how we tend to imagine them. I’m going to go with the panda in pants.

JC: I love that you went into such depth. That’s the kind of people that we are, or that we need to be. It’s okay to just sit here and be silly, because when we’re silly we come up with things that we didn’t know we could, and that’s what being creative is. We’ve all heard that children are so much more creative and we tend to lose it as we get older. It’s the kids who don’t limit themselves by the level of silliness that create wonderful things. It’s phenomenal that you approached the question from the point of view of the animal, accessory and location.

LL: I told my kids that I was going to be interviewed and I was kind of tickled about that. And I told them you were going to ask me a funky question, and they asked me what I meant. I told them you gave me an example about four giraffes and a toothbrush in a room and what happens. I’m saying to myself, I have no idea what I would answer to that. My 10 year old pipes right up and says, “Mom, this is what you tell him: They got into a big old fight, they knocked each other’s teeth out trying to get to the tooth brush—and then they didn’t even need it.”

JC: That’s a beautiful example! I’m really glad you shared that, and I hope when people read this they don’t overlook this whole animal question, but really ask themselves about the significance of being silly. Thank you very much! I had a lot of fun and enjoyed your insights.

LL: Thank you as well.

[You can check out the original post here.]