juliette brown graphic designer

The designetwork sat down with graphic designer, Juliette Brown, in her home office (IMAGE 1) to learn about what's in her "cube", if and how these artifacts influence her process and her work. Our discussion with Juliette showed us how directly inspiration can come from the items in your cube.

Juliette Brown was an art director and creative director with Gibson Creative and Supon Design Group for years before opening her own studio, Red Letter Partners in 2002. When setting up her workspace at home, she chose a light-filled room that could double as studio and spare bedroom for guests. In so doing, she's created a warm and eclectic space that is filled with objects that she loves and serve as elements of inspiration. Her IKEA desk is nestled among a 1940's antique bed and dresser with the requisite drafting table. Details of each piece are possible influences: the delicate femininity of the curtain's embroidery, the headboard's intricate curved carving, typography on 1940s French posters.

To the right of her computer station hangs a poster (IMAGE 2) by one of her favorite illustrators, Christian Northeast. Juliette explains the connection she identifies with his work:

"He develops his imagery from the same type of starting point as I. Kind of showing something that is an idea and turning it on it's ear with texture and things that are a little bit exaggerated. Really old color schemes, taking from something old yet making something wacky and new out of it. There's a lot of roughhewn texture in the way that it's drawn. There's a lot of hand-rendered typography but it's based on old typefaces, so it's almost as if he drew on top of an old typeface which is also a technique that I've used."

Additional items in her workspace, books, antique tin cans and glass bottles, illustrate the integral nature of color and typography in Juliette's work. (IMAGE 3) "I love, for instance, the age and the texture [of this Ovaltine tin can], and the metallic sort of showing through as well as typefaces that you may not see today. But if you really study them and you go through your font database you may find something that evokes that sense. And granted, that's not appropriate for everything, but a lot of times when you're trying to find a way to add depth and texture, it's a good avenue to look at.

Similarly, something like this [glass bottle], the look of the emboss, as well as the tint of the glass, which is something that you don't really see today. Sort of that unexpected color scheme. I picked this up at an antique shop because I absolutely love the color scheme. And I will very directly take a scheme like this; the color of the cork with a dark gray with a hint of blue with beige. And make that into a package's color scheme."

This idea of historical reference as an inspirational context is very inherent in Juliette's work.

"And granted it's not a matter of making everything look old, it's quite the contrary, using history to help make something look fresh and not something that's based on trend and now. But based on something that worked a long time ago and may be fresh again or may have worked over time because it's strong."

Antique shops are the obvious origin for most of the items in her "cube", but she doesn't actively go in pursuit of any one object, it's a "fun 'me' thing" to do. Since antique stores are all about the element of surprise and the happy accidental find, you never know how something may actually settle into your life until you get home.

"Once I bought a little French book that was basically done in this hand written cursive, all in French. I got it so I could set it on a little easel because I thought it was neat looking but I've referenced it more for design purposes and never did display it. So it could start as one thing and I guess move to be more inspirational."

How does the historical antiquity of typography, color and shape find a place in her modern-day projects driven by corporate clients and competitive budgets? An effective example of how comprehensive her process and creativity shows in her collateral work for Kearney and Associates, a design and construction firm. (IMAGE 4) Details of the paper and metal fasteners chosen relate to the client's core business and also serve as a reference to their historical use.

"I was looking for some sort of texture that would evoke the mess that was inside of a studio, the dirt and the know-how, and the tools, the stuff that's behind the scenes that you don't see. Whereas the outside was supposed to be slick and finished... Similarly, using this chipboard as opposed to using paper: it's imperfect, it looks rough. It doesn't look like something that you'd use to create a finished corporate package. But at the same time it really speaks to the audience, and it speaks to the senses when you hold it: this feels like board and looks like dirt, sawdust. You don't know why you get those feelings, you just do. That's the kind of thing that I'm going for when I reference those things."

The Spy Museum is another client that Juliette has worked with over the years who continuously pushes her to think more ingeniously. In the various projects that she's developed for them, one book, "The Ultimate Spy", (IMAGE 5) was invaluable as a resource.

"There's this popular sense of voyeurism now that's popular in the media -- being able to see something that you're not supposed to. I studied the forms that are on this page for a long time. I created a membership form that very closely references this type of form that looks like it's been aged. I used handwriting to fill in some of the blanks, I blurred and bled the signatures to make them look there was some age and some grit to them. I designed a stamp for them to officially use on the bottoms of these forms in the future so they would have an official, antiquated feel to them."

There were no flipbooks. No paper promo tchotchkes. No Bart Simpson Pez dispensers, although there were a few photographs of friends and family. What we did find in Juliette Brown's cube were carefully chosen historical artifacts that serve as constant reminders of a broader creative approach. A methodology that dips its hat to history in the process of developing of new ideas.