END BAD DESIGN: This Week – Zara Gonzalez Hoang
Zara Gonzalez Hoang of Twistcone, creator of the new Monster Coloring Book
Tell us a bit about who you are and the work you do:
I’m a design entrepreneur I suppose. I used to be a designer at a few agencies around town, these days I do a bit of freelancing, as well as running a teeny tiny creative studio called Twistcone that is currently working on some fun products for kids. I’m also part of an awesome little screen printing space/poster shop in St. Paul that is just starting up called Big Table Studio.
What is your go-to font or font combination as of late?
I actually don’t have any go-to font combinations right now. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of illustration and very little typography (or at least very little two-font typography) so I’m all out of trendy font combos. However, I have it on very good authority that these are some fantastic combos.
What font do you think is overused and about to go out of style?
Let’s see the two fonts that have been on my NEVER AGAIN list are Archer and Gotham – Futura used to be there but it’s been retired for long enough I feel like I can maybe pull it out again soon. Those two though, they’ve been used and abused way too much. Time to put them away for a looong time.
What do you wish you could tell new designers to quit doing?
Quit waiting for someone to give you a chance and just do something. There is no excuse for not getting out there and trying to make things happen. You can self publish/promote yourself/start something interesting so easily these days with the internets, no one has an excuse to sit idly by. If you have a crappy job, who cares, make the stuff you want to make when and where you can. You never know what you can do or who might think you’re awesome if you don’t go out and try.
What’s the next trend?
Dinosaurs. Seriously. You heard it here first.
For reference see:
The design-y http://dinodinodinosaurs.tumblr.com/ and the triad of: http://fuck-yeah-dinosaurs.tumblr.com/, http://dinosaursfuckyes.tumblr.com/ & my favorite, http://fuckyeahdinosaurs.tumblr.com/
Which trend is about to be over?
I want to say owls but since I was just at a Printsource (textile and surface design show) where they claimed that owls will be alive and well in 2012. I’ll have to go for my backup, deer. Although woodsy themes are in for 2012, no deer were to be found in any of the trend reports I saw.
What designer do you want to turn our readers on to?
I’m rather fond of Oliver Munday (first off, what a name!) especially his stuff for the Museum of Unnatural History for 826DC. But all his stuff is lovely.
End Bad Design began when Becky realized she had learned a lot more about design from sitting next to a designer at work than from reading any book explaining what ascenders and descenders are. END BAD DESIGN is her attempt to give everyone that access to designer opinions.
Former editions: