SPARK
SI-016, from issue 3: a subjective guide genuine conversation, 2022.
It’s a three part relationship: writer, subject, reader. That’s a sort of weird dance where you have to keep all the parts on your mind and shuffle around. The key here is to: Leave the gaps for the magic to happen.
Rob Alderson was the Editor-in-chief of design blog It’s Nice That, started the editorial portion of technology company WeTransfer. He now works as the Director of Community & Engagement at the video platform Vimeo. Through his long path as an editor, he wrote and edited numerous articles on art and design. Today, we sat down with him for some wisdom on the editorial process.
HB Be mindful of time. Always ask in the beginning how much time you have with the person. And ask yourself: “Okay, this person is giving me twenty minutes. How am I best going to use these twenty minutes?”. Understanding that your time is limited, don’t ask questions that you can find online. There is also tremendous skill to doing a great Q&A. A lot of them are done by email, and the audience can immediately tell when it was an online interaction.
UDÖ In your interviews for It’s Nice That, you fuse your own point-of-view to the text by avoiding the classic Q&A format but editorializing the conversation by turning it into an essay with many pull quotes.
HB I was trained as a newspaper journalist, so that core skill of absolutely staying true to the original quotes is really important to me. But that’s also why I am also more interested in the format you are talking about, as opposed to a Q&A because it allows you to add all this information about who they are, how they come across. Now designers are so much more savvier because there are so many conferences, blogs and magazines that talking about your work became a part of the job. Michael Beirut is a great example, speaks brilliantly, writes brilliantly. There are other Pentagram partners who aren’t as natural even though they are amazing designers. So that’s what I see as my responsibility as the interviewer to bring their personality and brilliance to the page. In addition, not everything in an interview is quotable. For instance, when I interviewed Francoise Mouly, she is the art editor of the New Yorker, she told me a story on the way to the lift. So the interview hadn’t even started yet and she was talking about how she tried to enter through a door that she wasn’t allowed to. Then, she started telling me that she grew up during the 1968 Paris uprisings and she always had a sense of anti authoritarianism. I didn’t ask her any of this. It’s about having your questions but also being super alive to the other things rather than the interview. I am genuinely looking for: “How does who you are shape the work you make?”, so whatever way leads to that is fair.
UDÖ Was there a time that you really cracked open a shell for someone who is not the most articulate about their artistic practice?
HB You just have to be empathetic. Genuinely show that you are listening. It’s quite clear when someone has a set of questions and just wants to go through them. Be interested in them as a person.
UDÖ Let’s say you and I are going to a pub. The best way to approach that is that I come to the pub with zero baggage, so I am fully in tune and listening. But, it is low-key irresponsible to come to an interview without questions.
HB It’s also disrespectful to your reader. It’s a three part relationship: writer, subject, reader. That’s a sort of weird dance where you have to keep all the parts on your mind and shuffle around. There is a reason you want to speak to that person and that may indicate what the piece might look like. The key here is to leave the gaps for the magic to happen. When I was talking to Michael (Beirut), I remember he was passionately telling me the history of the Pentagram building, that it was a penthouse in the 80s etc. But, I also had a motive to talk about graphic design with him, so you balance the unexpected and the planned.
UDÖ How is the experience talking to known graphic designers like Michael Beirut or Richard Turley where your subject comes with a public interest behind them. (this is debatable where interest within design community doesn’t alwasy translate to real public interest.)
HB People have this idea of Richard that he is iconoclastic “fuck you!”, so part of going into that conversation is testing that public perception. But its funny, me and Marcus were in the same conference once where Dan Wieden (founder of Wieden+Kennedy) was speaking. I really worked hard on my questions and Marcus just asks: “How did you come up with Just Do It for Nike?”. It was the most obvious question! (laughs) And Dan Wieden answered and Marcus wrote a piece about it. So that’s a good example of you can’t overthink these questions.
UDÖ What about the times you have more of a scheduled time with someone.
HB When I got to travel to NYC to interview Bob Gill, I went to his flat overlooking Washington Square Park and every bit of his house imbues a sense of who Bob Gill is. From the way he offers you a drink to the way we sit in the living room. But before I leave, he asked me: “I can’t open a folder on my desktop, can you do it for me?” So my last interaction with this famous graphic designer after talking to him for an hour was opening him a set of new folders. But even that plays into the idea that he is soo old school.
UDÖ In your feature for WeTransfer, you conducted a survey and found out that people find more inspiration offline than online. How can conversation be a tool for sparking inspiration?
HB Firstly, there is an immersive nature to conversation. It is a mode of communication that demands the participants to be zoned in. The issue with the online world is that it exists in the familiar bubbles because of algorithms. There is something with conversation that leads itself to a serendipitous and meandering state of mind where one may encounter discoveries. Everyone is awake sixteen-seventeen hours a day and everything is competing for our attention. And conversation is a good sanctuary from life.
UDÖ Should we aim to grab people’s attention or interest?
HB Attention in of itself is not enough. This provocative, shouting and slightly unkind headlines will try to grab one’s attention. However I prioritize respecting and rewarding one’s attention. It’s the idea of looking at a ten minute film and realizing it could actually be a five minute film. And rewarding would be inspiring them or giving them some useful knowledge they would otherwise not have. You have to be really honest with yourself about the work you are putting out there and whether it is going to peak people’s interest and keep it with a reward or not.
Follow Rob Alderson here
interview by Utkan Dora Öncül
Spark Interview-016