GRAPHIC DESIGNER DISCUSSES THE ART OF SUCCESS
The New Paltz Oracle
Thursday, November 19, 2009
By Jenn Von Willer
Confident and articulate, graphic designer and guest art lecturer Matt Owens stands behind his Mac and in front
of his slideshow, “Type & Image.”
He hosted a presentation in LC 102 to showcase his colossal amounts of personal graphic designs and recognizable client advertisements. With a charismatic voice, a bright red shirt and both of his arms sleeved in tattoos, one might never guess that Owens is the man behind many popular media advertisements. His work includes commercials for clients like MTV, ESPN, VH1 and CMT. Last Thursday evening, Owens invited the students into his visual imagination.
Owens is the creator of Athletics, his second graphic design company. In his new office in Brooklyn, his team fulfills expansive projects, including green screening and photo shoots. Owens is grateful for his business partners who led Athletics towards its immediate success. With relatives added in the mix, his brother, Mark, and his wife, Amy,
elp run Athletics with a team of six talented graphic designers.
His love for graphic design is deep rooted in stories of personal success and failure, dedicating the “Type & Image” lecture to his major inspirations, Paul Rand and Bob Dylan, or artists he considers “self-made men.”
Athletics were recently offered pitch money from CMT to create new commercials for an upcoming show that never aired. Although Owens insisted CMT loved his company’s zany graphics, the network cancelled the program
altogether.
Some of his designs were full of vibrant oblong shapes simultaneously forming into one another as three-dimensional dolphins suddenly swam across the widescreen. There were some familiar ads including the silhouettes of DKNY Jeans models and Zoo York logos.
“Design graphics is making and executing graphic things, and my first love, by using graphics, motion and a script to show information. Graphic design is discipline learned in the workforce,” Owens said after showing his clip about how much money has been spent to help the War on Terrorism.
Owens’ lecture was themed self-discovery—proclaiming that one’s career should be what one enjoys doing and not to think of it as work. He loves what he does for a living, suggesting that, “It’s not about what you do, but how you bring it to the studio.”
From creating Web zines with his brother throughout high school or running an art gallery for six years in New York City, art has always been his passion. The short lecture was also filled with free gifts, including advertisement examples from previous client work, psychedelic stickers, postcards and booklets. The lecture ended with his recent work, “The Road Less Traveled,” a music video that can be found on his Web site at http://www.volumeone.com. Lastly, as the anxious students awaited their free gifts, Owens quickly quoted his favorite “self-made man,” Bob Dylan: “May your hands always be busy, may your feet always be swift. May you have a strong foundation when the winds of changes shift, may your heart always be joyful, and may your song always be sung; may you stay forever young.”
Students reacted positively to the lecture. “I thought it was absolutelyawesome! I’m an undergrad, going into graphics so it got me really excited to be doing graphics,” said Jillian Klasko, a second-year art major. “I’m happy that I got to hear what he had to say about the field and everything.”
First-year art major Mike Hanna said, “I thought it was interesting to hear his views and [see his work] like MTV and VH1, you know you see those graphics all the time. It’s kind of interesting to see the guy behind that. You kind of get an idea of what goes on behind the scenes.”
This page can be found in The New Paltz Oracle Volume 81, Issue X under the Features section on 2B.
Jenn Von Willer 