Check Out Jonny Woods’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonny Woods.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I think the main reason I do what I do today is largely due to accessibility. I grew up going to public schools and skateboarding with my friends around Los Angeles so I was exposed to so much different art, music and culture. My grades were nothing to brag about but I remember being encouraged to draw. I would draw my own comics and I would even draw pictures for girls I had crushes on. It became a way for me to say things without words.

I also grew up in the early age of the Internet in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was an early user of Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire and became an obsessive blogspot user in my teenage years. These tendencies cultivated a kind of curiosity and laid the groundwork for a critical mindset. Drawing flyers for friends’ bands was probably the first works of “graphic design” I did.

I took an introduction to typography in community college that gave me the idea and confidence to pursue graphic design. I spent the next 3 years at ArtCenter college of design earning a BA in graphic design. After graduating I oscillated between cultural and commercial work. I began working for a conceptual artist for a couple years then hopped around working for different agencies around LA doing commercial work. I eventually got burnt out doing agency work and was lucky enough to be invited to Zurich to work with a designer I really admired. It was there where I refined my type design skills. After that I worked as an Art Director in a studio in LA that had a great balance of both cultural and commercial work that eventually gave me enough confidence to pursue my own practice.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I think balance was always a tricky thing to manage. I enjoyed taking on cultural work but the pay wasn’t great. Then I would have to work for an agency making soulless work to pay off my student loans. This is not to say that all my agency work was bad and all my cultural work was good. I’ve worked with some amazing people in both sectors. Over the last decade of working as a designer I learned to be cautious of people weaponizing passion. I’ve had bosses and clients convince me that the work we were doing was so meaningful and that I was lucky to be working on such a project. This became a convenient method to encourage me to work more hours for free and ultimately devalue my work as a designer. I’m not saying every project needs to pay well because that’s just not the reality. A teacher at ArtCenter shared a helpful trick for determining if a project was worth taking on. They called it “the 3 F’s” which was fun, fame and fortune. If a project had 2/3 F’s then it was definitely worth perusing and I still use this method today.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Depending on who you ask I could be considered a graphic designer, art director, and/or creative director. The beginning of my career was mostly rooted in print and publication design. I still love the materiality of books and enjoy picking unique papers and experimenting with the printing process.

Currently, I would say most of my work is anchored in branding and more specifically typography. Art/creative direction implies that you have a more wholistic approach to design which usually plays out in more of the branding work as it involves so many components. I think this is why I’m gravitating to branding work at the moment. Like books, it’s this ability to craft a longer form and more extensive message. My love of creating custom typography and logos is something that I always try to include in my work when possible.

I’m a firm believer in research and collaboration. Some of my favorite projects were made because of the people and working environment I was in.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I’m an obsessive book collector and the list of inspiration here is just simply too long. I’ve recently read “Where Art Belongs” by Chris Kraus which was very inspirational. I usually throw on an NTS radio show while I work but if I need a source of inspiration I’ll listen to Montez Press Radio, the Baer Faxt Podcast, Today Explained, and the Daily.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jonnywoods.info
• Instagram: @officialjonnywoods

Image Credits
Perron-Roettinger
Laurenz Brunner