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Like Knows Like Gets Into the Head of Graphic Design Superstar Jessica Walsh

By erika - December 3, 2013

in Designer Profiles

You might know Jessica Walsh for her graphic design work, but it's more likely that you religiously (and tearfully, at times) followed her viral side project "40 Days of Dating" with fellow designer friend (even post-breakup) Timothy Goodman. The latter project has blasted her name around the Internet and in conversations worldwide—Warner Bros even recently bought the film rights to the project. But her graphic design starts a conversation on its own. The attention to surreal detail in her ad campaigns, subway posters and branding projects puts her on the "designers to follow" radar.

Her largely abstract, at times surreal work has been featured by names like Adobe, Levi's, Kia and the School of Visual Arts. She's also been known to freelance for the likes of The New York Times, AIGA, Technology Review and I.D. Magazine.

In a mini-documentary by Like Knows Like, Walsh talks about her inspirations (spoiler: her vivid dreams play a large part in her creative process), why she chose NYC as her home base and her whirlwind job search that quickly landed her a role as a partner at Sagmeister & Walsh. Check it out below:

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Matt

10 years ago

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Lovely video. But as is typical, these self-aggrandizing ditties do zero service to their viewers. The reason most of us watch these videos is to establish linkages between burning passions, undying ambitions, early toe-dipping, first failures and ultimate successes. And to learn the professional methods adopted and revised between each of those markers. Tell me where Ms. Walsh went to school, what she studied. Tell me about the risks she's taken. Do her artistic strengths lie in vision or execution? Are the models in the print work featured here hand-painted or digitally tweaked? Did she receive funding that covered the presence of the interactive subjects (sumos, birds) in her "40 Days" installation seen here? Is there a skill she doesn't have that she wishes she did? What are her weaknesses? What was the turning point for her financially, when art no longer answered to hunger? No one cares what she dreamt up; they care how she made it happen. I'd also wager viewers don't wish for an appeasement or apology that oversimplifies her path to success. I'm happy for her. But I still know nothing about her as an artist. Give us anecdotes specific to her process. Film her creating a piece of work live. We don't want to be her, but we do want to learn something. All I know after watching this is that she irons her bangs, isn't married to feng shui and has a proclivity for cork wedges. A beautiful treatment, for sure. But when it ended, I felt underserved. I think she was, too.
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reek

10 years ago

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way to ruin the ending of 40 days of dating for people who haven't read it.
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