by Christian Cacibauda
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Long famous as a director, Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola is also the founder of Zoetrope: All Story, a quarterly literary magazine exploring art, fiction, and film. More than a showcase for literary talent, however, Zoetrope also provides a venue for industrial and graphic designers.

While Zoetrope’s contributors include literary giants and big-name filmmakers (Joyce Carol Oates and Woody Allen, for example), the magazine has also showcased the work of graphic designers since the magazine’s second year of publication.

One of the magazine’s most recent guest designers is Yves Behar, creator of San Francisco-based design studio Fuseproject. According to Behar, his firm’s work for Zoetrope constituted an unusual graphic design commission. Such projects, he said “…throw us out of a comfort zone. They force us to evolve, to stretch the definition of the product designer, and to find a new way.”

Unusual Designs for an Unusual Venue

Fuseproject’s designs for the pages of Zoetrope included an unorthodox set of room dividers (sticks drilled into concrete floors), mobius strips sculpted in Swarovski crystal, and various sketches and photographs of works in progress. According to Behar, Fuseproject began “with the central idea of storytelling,” a mission statement that makes Zoetrope an intuitive partner for Behar and his team.

For the aspiring student of graphic and industrial design, the two halves of this strange partnership represent the diverse markets for today’s design professional. While Zoetrope has featured the work for other famous designers like Gus Van Zant and Tom Waits, Fuseproject produces a number of design projects for clients including Sony, Target, and the One Laptop Per Child project.

Training for Designer Hopefuls

If you’re interested in working in graphic or industrial design, you’ll need a degree in a related field. For industrial designers (Behar’s specialty), a bachelor’s degree in engineering or architecture is a must. Graphic designers (a related and often overlapping occupation) often break into the business with a bachelor’s degree. Degree programs for both specialties are available online.

Online degrees and campus-based programs in engineering and graphic design provide design students with basic and advanced skills in sketching, computer-aided design (CAD) software, and even basic business skills. Degree programs are aimed at producing designers who can tell a story with images. After all, in the words of Yves Behar, “Design brings stories to life.”

About the Author

Christian Cacibauda is a writer and editor based in Northern Nevada.

Source(s)

Fuseproject
Zoetrope All Story