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Featured Artist Interview - Neal Ashby
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Neal’s studio - Ashby Design - is popular with the music industry. And add to that, Neal was the Vice President and Creative Director for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for ten years.
In 2005, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package and his work has been displayed at places like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington.
With all this to his name, Neal is a very down to earth person, who also likes to sing and write songs. His clientele explains his love for music further: Emi Music, Forefront Records , Virgin Entertainment , Warner Bros. Records, Esl Music, Rounder Records , Don Cornelius Productions, Dick Clark Productions, MTV Networks...
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Read the review on On Air: MTV by Die Gestalten Verlag at TAXI Design Network’s book review section: The Write Turn
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TAXI >> Hi Neal, please give us a little introduction of yourself.
Neal Ashby >> I’m a graphic designer living and working in the Washington, DC metro area. I teach design at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC, and I run my own firm in Alexandria, VA. Mostly we do graphic design for the music industry, and also a lot of corporate branding.
TAXI >> Your portfolio website with Matthew Curry is titled "The Art of Versions, Thievery Corporation". First, the name--what is the significance of "The Art of Versions", and why "Thievery Corporation"?
Neal Ashby >> Actually, my portfolio website is ashbydesign.com. The site you’re referring to is a subsite of my own portfolio site. “The Art of Versions” is a website that my friend and co-designer Matthew Curry and I made together. After we had designed and illustrated the CD packaging for Thievery Corporation’s new release (called “Versions”), we wanted to make a site that was devoted to sharing the process of how a complex package is created.
TAXI >> Neal Ashby and Matthew Curry are the kind of team so complementary and successful that it invites envy. What links the both of you besides the mutual appreciation for the Beatles' Revolver album cover?
Neal Ashby >> Our relationship was completely accidental. One of my students was looking at Matt’s website, and I thought it was so cool that one person was so talented as a designer, illustrator, and fine artist. And then I saw that he lived in Northern Virginia, like I do. So I just called him up one day and introduced myself. We decided to work together on something if the chance presented itself, and about a month later, the Thievery Corporation “Versions” project came my way. I had designed the last 4 or 5 Thievery packages by myself, and in general, I’m a pretty solitary designer. But I had a style in mind that I knew was going to be too involved to do by myself. I had been collecting individual pieces for a collage-oriented approach over the last 3 years. I thought Matt was the perfect designer/illustrator to hook up with because of his compositional skills and tech savvy with photoshop and illustrator.
TAXI >> In your website, you said that Matthew and yourself "handled the storyline and digital files back and forth...until the lines between design and illustration were blurred". What are the lines that you feel exist between the two, and in what way did they become ambiguous?
Neal Ashby >> What was cool about this whole process was that it kind of started in a traditional art director/illustrator relationship. I was the art director, Matt was hired as an illustrator. But the whole story-telling part of the 32-page booklet ended up being done by the two of us. We both worked together to develop the concept of the caterpillar morphing into the fairy nymph. Matt was also doing some type, which usually falls under the designer and art director. But then most of the pieces of the illustration came from me – the photos, the paisleys. And I was also hand-drawing all of the grasses and the hair. Both us were coming up with ideas for the how the story of the fairy nymph would progress. And we were both doing pencil and digital sketches of the spreads. In the end, we were both art directors and both illustrators. I might do a loose collage of a spread and then hand it over to Matt. It would come back infinitely better. Matt would send something over to me, and I might go in and add twenty more layers in Photoshop, just doing tiny little things that would give the illustrations more texture, or add another idea. Ultimately, what’s so cool is that both us feel like it’s one of our favorite portfolio pieces. And even though we were both involved, we both feel complete creative ownership.
TAXI >> You are very involved in music and its packaging and branding, as well as design. When most people engage in either design or music, you choose to merge the two and create your own flair. What about music fascinates you, and how did you first decide to gel music and design together?
Neal Ashby >> I spent 10 years earlier in my career as the Vice President and Creative Director for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). When I left the RIAA in 2002, I just wanted to do my own thing. I had never really gotten to do any CD packaging when I was at the RIAA, mostly I was doing annual reports and things related to the music industry, but nothing for the music itself. So when I left, I concentrated on finding artists who needed designers. For the most part, I do most of my packaging for ESL Music, the label started by Thievery Corporation. Music for me is my love and my hobby. I’ve tried to be musical: I took drum lessons, guitar lessons, piano lessons, but it was an uphill battle, I have no natural talent to do it, no matter how hard I tried. Design is what I was lucky enough to be able to actually do for a living, and so I’m now a part of what I always wanted to be a part of, just in a different way.
TAXI >> The Beatles' "Revolver" has been a major inspiration in the development of your company. What is the X-factor in it that has shown so much depth and has been a muse that cycles around most of the projects that you undertake?
Neal Ashby >> This X-factor seems to have been a great source of inspiration.
The Beatles’ “Revolver” was definitely the motivation for the design of “Versions.” Over time, I have certain album covers that influence and inform my own design. I have always been into Andy Warhol’s covers like “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones and the yellow peel-away banana of “The Velvet Underground & Nico.” And for about a year, I had the cover of “Revolver” beside my computer. I was fascinated that I could always pick it up and find something new by looking a little closer. And yet, it worked as a whole composition, and it worked as a style. And the simplicity of it being in black and white makes it rise above the other derivative “psychedelic” works of the period. In a way, I like the idea of minimalist maximalism, if you will. When Matt came over to my office, we just kind of looked at it, and said, “what would the “Revolver” of our generation look like? I mean, if you’re going to go for it, shoot for the best.
TAXI >> The idea of the "black and white, 'revolver'-like approach" was the key inspiration for your illustrations, so your first few works circulated around the theme of black and white. How did you develop from there?
Neal Ashby >> It really did start with the idea that we would throw a bunch of black and white photos and drawings and stuff together and it would be just that. But once we actually got just the right texture down, and the right amount of complexity, we knew it looked good, but we didn’t just want it to be about style. So when Thievery Corporation told us the title would be “Versions”, I came up with an idea based on a sketch that Matt had done. He had taken some vector images of phonographic needles and made a caterpillar out of them. I thought of the caterpillar, and the idea that caterpillars go through “versions” or stages of metamorphosis. We like the idea that this caterpillar could walk through this world that we were creating, and go into his cocoon, and become a butterfly. Ultimately, we made him change into a fairy nymph, because the music is very seductive and lush, and nymphs just seemed to be a more exciting thing to create.
TAXI >> Neal, you are the principal of Ashby Design as well as an Associate Professor at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington D.C. . How do you juggle between the two, and is there a conflict of interest?
Neal Ashby >> I’ve actually been a teacher at the Corcoran for about 12 years, the first nine years as an adjunct faculty member. I love teaching because I think it makes me a better designer, and it really makes me better at communicating with clients. As far as balancing the two, I teach in the mornings, and then go back to the office for the afternoons. I then work in the evenings and weekends to catch up. So, I’m definitely busy, but I like the chaos.
TAXI >> How does taking new blood under your wings relate to your work, and will you consider mentoring a few particular students to advance and improve their work?
Neal Ashby >> I actually have an intern this summer (Patrick Donohue) that is one of my students at the Corcoran. He is an awesome talent, and its fun to have someone around to share the design process. I’m definitely harder on him when he’s working for me than when he’s in the classroom. But he’s mature and secure enough to take criticism and let it be nothing but constructive.
And the experience with Matt Curry was so rewarding and productive that we’ve already done a few projects since then.
TAXI >> Besides music and design, what other creative arenas will you consider venturing into in the future?
Neal Ashby >> I’d like to follow in the footsteps of Mike Mills, a graphic designer for the music industry who eventually moved into music videos and then feature films (Thumbsucker). Not that I want to do films, but I like that he continued to find new mediums for his creativity. I’d like to do film titles, and I’d like to take a crack at developing a video game. I’d like to do anything with Apple, and I’d kill to work at The Skywalker Ranch, even if I had to be an intern.
TAXI >> It has been an honor to have Neal Ashby with us on The Front Seat today. Before we end, tell us a place where you want a taxi to bring you to right now?
Neal Ashby >> Take me to Maine, on the shore. I’d like a lobster roll, please.
© 2006 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
In 2005, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package and his work has been displayed at places like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington.
With all this to his name, Neal is a very down to earth person, who also likes to sing and write songs. His clientele explains his love for music further: Emi Music, Forefront Records , Virgin Entertainment , Warner Bros. Records, Esl Music, Rounder Records , Don Cornelius Productions, Dick Clark Productions, MTV Networks...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the review on On Air: MTV by Die Gestalten Verlag at TAXI Design Network’s book review section: The Write Turn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TAXI >> Hi Neal, please give us a little introduction of yourself.
Neal Ashby >> I’m a graphic designer living and working in the Washington, DC metro area. I teach design at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, DC, and I run my own firm in Alexandria, VA. Mostly we do graphic design for the music industry, and also a lot of corporate branding.
TAXI >> Your portfolio website with Matthew Curry is titled "The Art of Versions, Thievery Corporation". First, the name--what is the significance of "The Art of Versions", and why "Thievery Corporation"?
Neal Ashby >> Actually, my portfolio website is ashbydesign.com. The site you’re referring to is a subsite of my own portfolio site. “The Art of Versions” is a website that my friend and co-designer Matthew Curry and I made together. After we had designed and illustrated the CD packaging for Thievery Corporation’s new release (called “Versions”), we wanted to make a site that was devoted to sharing the process of how a complex package is created.
TAXI >> Neal Ashby and Matthew Curry are the kind of team so complementary and successful that it invites envy. What links the both of you besides the mutual appreciation for the Beatles' Revolver album cover?
Neal Ashby >> Our relationship was completely accidental. One of my students was looking at Matt’s website, and I thought it was so cool that one person was so talented as a designer, illustrator, and fine artist. And then I saw that he lived in Northern Virginia, like I do. So I just called him up one day and introduced myself. We decided to work together on something if the chance presented itself, and about a month later, the Thievery Corporation “Versions” project came my way. I had designed the last 4 or 5 Thievery packages by myself, and in general, I’m a pretty solitary designer. But I had a style in mind that I knew was going to be too involved to do by myself. I had been collecting individual pieces for a collage-oriented approach over the last 3 years. I thought Matt was the perfect designer/illustrator to hook up with because of his compositional skills and tech savvy with photoshop and illustrator.
TAXI >> In your website, you said that Matthew and yourself "handled the storyline and digital files back and forth...until the lines between design and illustration were blurred". What are the lines that you feel exist between the two, and in what way did they become ambiguous?
Neal Ashby >> What was cool about this whole process was that it kind of started in a traditional art director/illustrator relationship. I was the art director, Matt was hired as an illustrator. But the whole story-telling part of the 32-page booklet ended up being done by the two of us. We both worked together to develop the concept of the caterpillar morphing into the fairy nymph. Matt was also doing some type, which usually falls under the designer and art director. But then most of the pieces of the illustration came from me – the photos, the paisleys. And I was also hand-drawing all of the grasses and the hair. Both us were coming up with ideas for the how the story of the fairy nymph would progress. And we were both doing pencil and digital sketches of the spreads. In the end, we were both art directors and both illustrators. I might do a loose collage of a spread and then hand it over to Matt. It would come back infinitely better. Matt would send something over to me, and I might go in and add twenty more layers in Photoshop, just doing tiny little things that would give the illustrations more texture, or add another idea. Ultimately, what’s so cool is that both us feel like it’s one of our favorite portfolio pieces. And even though we were both involved, we both feel complete creative ownership.
TAXI >> You are very involved in music and its packaging and branding, as well as design. When most people engage in either design or music, you choose to merge the two and create your own flair. What about music fascinates you, and how did you first decide to gel music and design together?
Neal Ashby >> I spent 10 years earlier in my career as the Vice President and Creative Director for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). When I left the RIAA in 2002, I just wanted to do my own thing. I had never really gotten to do any CD packaging when I was at the RIAA, mostly I was doing annual reports and things related to the music industry, but nothing for the music itself. So when I left, I concentrated on finding artists who needed designers. For the most part, I do most of my packaging for ESL Music, the label started by Thievery Corporation. Music for me is my love and my hobby. I’ve tried to be musical: I took drum lessons, guitar lessons, piano lessons, but it was an uphill battle, I have no natural talent to do it, no matter how hard I tried. Design is what I was lucky enough to be able to actually do for a living, and so I’m now a part of what I always wanted to be a part of, just in a different way.
TAXI >> The Beatles' "Revolver" has been a major inspiration in the development of your company. What is the X-factor in it that has shown so much depth and has been a muse that cycles around most of the projects that you undertake?
Neal Ashby >> This X-factor seems to have been a great source of inspiration.
The Beatles’ “Revolver” was definitely the motivation for the design of “Versions.” Over time, I have certain album covers that influence and inform my own design. I have always been into Andy Warhol’s covers like “Sticky Fingers” by the Rolling Stones and the yellow peel-away banana of “The Velvet Underground & Nico.” And for about a year, I had the cover of “Revolver” beside my computer. I was fascinated that I could always pick it up and find something new by looking a little closer. And yet, it worked as a whole composition, and it worked as a style. And the simplicity of it being in black and white makes it rise above the other derivative “psychedelic” works of the period. In a way, I like the idea of minimalist maximalism, if you will. When Matt came over to my office, we just kind of looked at it, and said, “what would the “Revolver” of our generation look like? I mean, if you’re going to go for it, shoot for the best.
TAXI >> The idea of the "black and white, 'revolver'-like approach" was the key inspiration for your illustrations, so your first few works circulated around the theme of black and white. How did you develop from there?
Neal Ashby >> It really did start with the idea that we would throw a bunch of black and white photos and drawings and stuff together and it would be just that. But once we actually got just the right texture down, and the right amount of complexity, we knew it looked good, but we didn’t just want it to be about style. So when Thievery Corporation told us the title would be “Versions”, I came up with an idea based on a sketch that Matt had done. He had taken some vector images of phonographic needles and made a caterpillar out of them. I thought of the caterpillar, and the idea that caterpillars go through “versions” or stages of metamorphosis. We like the idea that this caterpillar could walk through this world that we were creating, and go into his cocoon, and become a butterfly. Ultimately, we made him change into a fairy nymph, because the music is very seductive and lush, and nymphs just seemed to be a more exciting thing to create.
TAXI >> Neal, you are the principal of Ashby Design as well as an Associate Professor at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington D.C. . How do you juggle between the two, and is there a conflict of interest?
Neal Ashby >> I’ve actually been a teacher at the Corcoran for about 12 years, the first nine years as an adjunct faculty member. I love teaching because I think it makes me a better designer, and it really makes me better at communicating with clients. As far as balancing the two, I teach in the mornings, and then go back to the office for the afternoons. I then work in the evenings and weekends to catch up. So, I’m definitely busy, but I like the chaos.
TAXI >> How does taking new blood under your wings relate to your work, and will you consider mentoring a few particular students to advance and improve their work?
Neal Ashby >> I actually have an intern this summer (Patrick Donohue) that is one of my students at the Corcoran. He is an awesome talent, and its fun to have someone around to share the design process. I’m definitely harder on him when he’s working for me than when he’s in the classroom. But he’s mature and secure enough to take criticism and let it be nothing but constructive.
And the experience with Matt Curry was so rewarding and productive that we’ve already done a few projects since then.
TAXI >> Besides music and design, what other creative arenas will you consider venturing into in the future?
Neal Ashby >> I’d like to follow in the footsteps of Mike Mills, a graphic designer for the music industry who eventually moved into music videos and then feature films (Thumbsucker). Not that I want to do films, but I like that he continued to find new mediums for his creativity. I’d like to do film titles, and I’d like to take a crack at developing a video game. I’d like to do anything with Apple, and I’d kill to work at The Skywalker Ranch, even if I had to be an intern.
TAXI >> It has been an honor to have Neal Ashby with us on The Front Seat today. Before we end, tell us a place where you want a taxi to bring you to right now?
Neal Ashby >> Take me to Maine, on the shore. I’d like a lobster roll, please.
© 2006 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.