Interview: Meagan Burns

This week i have an interview with Meagan Burns, designer who has a really unique and creative style. She accepted to share with us her experience. In this interview she explains us how she works on her design "I Like Ballons Book". So enjoy this one! :)

She has some really cool works on her behance portfolio and her site. I highly recommend that you check it out at http://meaganburns.com/.






1.Hello Meagan. Please introduce yourself, give me a brief bio, tell me where you're from, and how you got started in the field(graphic design)

My name is Meagan Burns and I'm originally from NJ but live semi-permanently in NYC. I'm a junior at the School of Visual Arts pursuing a BFA in graphic design and I love it. I actually really kind of fell into graphic design by accident, I started coding websites when I was 12 and continued with that ever since. I wound up taking an art class my freshman year in highschool because there was nothing else available. At the same time I discovered Stencilrevolution.com and fell head over heals into the world of graffiti and stencils. At about 16 I knew I needed to make some kind of career out of my love for art, and the only thing that I felt would combine all of these things together was graphic design. Thankfully, I know I made the right choice and I couldn't see myself doing anything else.




2.Your work is pretty unique and full of creativity. Where does your inspiration come from?

Thank you! I get a lot of my inspiration from the graphic design postmodernism era and swiss design. I love Paula Scher and the work she did for the Public Theatre, mainly her "Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk" posters as well as her whole branding for that company. Pentagram Studios always produces amazing work, as well as Milton Glaser and David Carson. I also love love love looking through collections of old magazines from the 1920s-50s.




3."I Like Ballons Book" is an amazing conceptual piece of your interpretation of world of balloons. Could you describe for us your typical 'start to finish' workflow when working on that design?

Thanks! My workflow spanned about 4 months for that book, I feel like my obsession for that book started after browsing a picture collection at the library. It was simply amazing; after 6 hours I walked out with about 200 images. I was so excited and overwhelmed with these amazing photos that I didn't know what to do with them! I then made a list of topics and began collaging the images and playing with color, textures and type. I decided to collage all on the computer only because I wanted to have the freedom to resize, duplicate and adjust the images without wasting ink and paper printing them out. While designing other projects with deadlines, I would break to relax, and relaxing to me was working on that book! After finising the pages, I printed two copies of the book, one was a mini version, 5x8, and the other was 8.5x11. I hand binded the two books which was a lot of fun but somewhat tedious!




4.Who or what were your main influences that made you pursue the field of designing?

Learning that Typography has started wars, saved lived and influenced nations has pushed me every day to keep designing. That and doing research, research, research and reasearch.


5. How does your job as an artist and designer influence your life? Do you feel that you see things around you differently for example?

My former teacher once told me that being a designer is a curse, because you will never ever see things the way you used to. You will constantly be noticing bad design, kerning, leading, etc. to the point where it will make you sick. I agree 100%, however at the same time I have learned to appreciate seeing great design; it makes my heart flutter to see things in my everyday life that are well designed. Graphic Design has also caused me to be a workaholic and insomniac, but that's normal ;)





Thanks Meagan! :)

More Information

Meagan Burns site: http://meaganburns.com/
Meagan Burns Behance: http://www.behance.net/meaganburns