LANCE WYMAN
It’s never a good sign when that
happens! What are some major
problems that modern graphic
design is facing today?
I see a lot of them. It’s not just
modern graphic design, I think we’re
learning how to communicate in a
lot of different ways that we never
even anticipated before.
You know, I think that things
are so sped up and we have so much
facility that we’re kind of slowed
by the facility that we have. We
need to get back to basics. I mean
getting back to the human values of
communication. Why the hell are
you communicating? And I mean
that in the sense of really making it
a valuable part of your life. We have
to learn how to do that because the
bullshit is taking over.Getting back to the clarity of the
ancient cultural icons of ancient
Mexico, are you spiritual at all?
You know, I’ve explored some of
that to a degree. I have friends who
are psychic, and my wife is Irish so
she’s psychic! Seriously though, I
think reincarnation is very real... I
don’t put any of that stuff down. If
it’s an experience that’s meaningful
to me, you just don’t know. We
don’t know shit about a lot of things
anyway, so why not explore instead
of coming at it with attitude?!Do you meditate?
We meditate every morning. I go
to the park every morning too, and
that’s kind of a form of meditation.
It’s a matter of just centring myself,
coming from me rather than myeducation. A lot of these guys didn’t
have a chance in life and they were
getting a chance now. So they were
very serious. I was kind of a screw-up
kid out of high school...
So anyway, we’re in this English
class and the professor says, “today
we’re not using any books”, and
these guys went mad. He said,
“I just want you to go to classes
without books, because English is
just a means of communication.”
And you know, the whole semester
went by and what we did was really
learn what communication is all
about. So when I got into studying
design – especially when I got into
graphic design – communication
was the bottom line. You either
communicated something or didn’t,
and if you didn’t, you failed man! No
matter how pretty it was.Why are you still passionate
about creative communication?
You know, I taught for 40 years
in the US and I’m convinced you
can’t teach a student to have a
creative idea. You can sit them in
an environment that gives them
a chance. It’s like learning how to
swim: you can read all the goddamn
manuals you want, but unless your
butt is in the water and you don’t
want to drown, you won’t learn.
Being creative... it’s a joy, you
know? I mean, creative block can be
frustrating, but I’ve always found
the thing that gets me out of bed is
experimenting, not intellectualising
what the hell you’re doing. Just
trying different things, getting the
feeling of something that you might
be feeling! Get it on paper or get it
on your computer, and maybe out of
that comes an idea.And you can’t create in a vacuum.
It has to communicate, speak to,
someone else...
Right. Designing is like telling a
good joke. You can’t explain it to
make it better.COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COMAbove: Since the
1960s Wyman
has shuttled
between New York
City and Mexico
City. In 1972 he
developed the
logo for Vanity
Women’s Wear
in the latter.JUNE 2019