Meet the Artist: Yoon Deok Jang
Yoon Deok Jang is a Motion Designer and Graphic Designer who works at Smoke & Mirrors New York.
He's produced work for Vice Media, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and Capital One.
His style and skills are multifaceted and he's got a lot inspiring and thoughtful things to say about his craft and the ad industry.
Read below to discover his thoughts on design, his day to day role at his agency and his advice for budding creatives
LBB> How did you get into designing?
Yoon Deok Jang. I have always liked to visualise things using various mediums. At first, design was just vague and too broad for me, but the more I studied it, I realised it was really deep and associated with many things in our everyday lives. I realised even a small detail is there for a reason, and that’s when I really started to get into designing.
I studied Graphic Design and Motion Graphics at the School of Visual Arts where I met and learnt from a lot of people. Design is what I enjoy and where I feel I fit in the most and now it is a subject that I want to keep learning for the rest of my life.
LBB> What’s your favourite part of your job?
YDJ> My favourite part of the job is the going through the process of an idea being polished-creating a style frame from a short sentence, preparing variations, guiding the look and feel. Of course, there are always rules and limitations but when you do problem-solving and bring a vision to life, it is quite exciting.
I also love working with talented people, so sharing and discussing an idea with them is another favorite part of the job. I have to say that I feel lucky enough to be a part of a great team here in NY where they complain about Index Of Refraction charts at lunch.
LBB> Which recent project did you love being a part of and why?
YDJ> I tend to like working on simple and minimal work which I feel is more challenging and requires more time to execute design wise. Coca-Cola’s master brand logo animation was one of them. The client asked to have new logo animation for their global campaign, and even though it was quite open creatively and was a short piece of animation, I had to push hard so it didn’t fall off far from what their brand already had, but still give new life to it. It ended up well and later I saw it on back of the taxi cab while I was travelling in Germany, it was pretty fun.
LBB> What advice would you give to someone starting out in designing?
YDJ> Try to learn new things every day. Anything.
Go to the place you would never go.
There’s a lot you can do without your computer.
LBB> What’s your favourite anecdote or quote that you've heard uttered from a client/ colleague?
YDJ> Just use Helvetica.
