Sean Adams

When did you fall in love with design and how did you get started?

In art class in high school I drew letterforms while everyone else did pottery. Eventually, someone asked me to design a poster for a school play, then the spring concert, homecoming banners, everything including the school’s stationery. Unfortunately, the only book about graphic design in the school library was about Nazi propaganda. So everything kind of looked like that.

Give us the elevator pitch on what you do.

I used to have a successful branding agency, and then I decided to quit and work to help young designers. I do that by running the graduate program at ArtCenter, doing Command X at AIGAconferences, and teaching online courses through Lynda.com/LinkedIn. I’m sending the elevator back down.

What qualities and skills to you look for in a graduate?

Typography is at the top of the list. If a designer can manage information and content with clear and beautifully crafted typography, he or she can probably do anything. Next, is the graduate open and hungry to learn? There is nothing worse that having someone roll his or her eyes when I suggests a different direction.

What have been some of your biggest disasters and how have you learnt from it?

I’m assuming you mean over my career, not just today’s batch. I wouldn’t call them disasters, perhaps missteps. They all seem to be about staying at the party too long (not literally, but I do that too). I worked with a bad client when I should have quit and found better ones. I ignored that voice in my head that said, “It’s time to move on,” for years and wasted time. Of course it all has to do with fear of change. I learned if you don’t follow the fates, they will drag you along.