FINDING PURPOSE, COLLABORATION, COLLECTIVE SPIRIT, OPTIMISM AND CREATING TOOLS TO ALLOW PEOPLE AND BRANDS TO FIND THESE THINGS
When I first laid my eyes on an issue of
Surface Magazine, I
was blown away by the innovation, the graphic design, the photography, the
styling and the content in general.
I only wished I could be a part of such a project. I sent the magazine a promo card (this
was when I had just opened my studio) and didn’t let myself even hope. I was thrilled when I heard back from
them, not only from them, but from one of the publishers,
Riley Johndonnell. Turns out Riley was not just a co- publisher, but founder,
creative director, designer, editor, stylist, writer, publicist. There was nothing that he didn’t do.
During my first meeting with him, he explained
why he responded to the images that I sent him, images which later got into the
coveted CA photo annual. Coming from years of studying art at RISD and Chicago Art Institute and
growing up with my Creative Director father, I was used to hearing creative
commentary, but Riley was different. The things that came out of his mouth seemed new, exciting and ahead
of
his time. I was hooked. I needed to work with such a creative no matter what. I snapped up every assignment that
Riley threw at me, I jumped at the chance to be on staff at the magazine, to get
a view of how they created content and how they promoted the magazine. From the beginning, the magazine was
aligning itself with high end brands and causes. They threw the most dazzling events that promoted not only
the magazine and the brands that supported it, but the causes they cared
about. All the while having a
blast and working insanely hard 24/7.
One of the causes that Riley felt strongly about was
supporting up and coming talent. He launched a yearly issue entitled “The Avant-Gaurdian” showcasing edgy
new talent and had launch parties in major cities where big brands could align
themselves with the visual “elite”. It drew attention from major fashion brands and launched the careers for
a number of those photographers. As much as he gave to the magazine, he gave to the people that
contributed. He inspired through his passion but also his support of the talent he recruited.
After he moved on from the magazine, he was pivotal in
creating what was to be known as
the Surface Hotel, a hotel that partnered with brands to create inspiring, cutting edge
hospitality in the up an coming LES neighborhood of New York. It later came to be known at The
Rivington.
From his expert branding work with Surface,
Riley moved into
work that was more civic minded. He rolled his tremendous following into social media success for events
that promoted such causes as gay rights and sexuality to his current project/
movement
UMEWE ( you, me, we) INTO YELLOW
- promoting/ teaching optimism in public events throughout
the country. His efforts are in
part meant to bring awareness to the epidemic of depression our country faces
and seeks to show people how to see themselves as part of a larger whole and thus work and think collaboratively rather than so much about I and me. He consulted with Wework early on on this idea. He has partnered with Pantone to
create a certain color of yellow that promotes positivism.
The NY Times recently covered a story
about Yale’s most popular class being one teaching optimism. Riley has his finger on the
pulse. That is why I
look to him to hear what he is up to to be inspired, to tell him what I am up to and hear his thoughts. Riley is a good friend and a mentor, one who continues to
bubble up ideas a mile a minute that are well ahead of their time. I asked Riley some questions about his story, his path, what
inspires him, how he creates and what he looks for in a photographer, writer, and
stylist. His comments formed more
of a story of sorts.
In college, Riley was studying fine art and art
history but quickly became interested in crisis PR. Along with his interest in art and design, he realized that
he was a social activist deeply concerned with equality issues. He focused on learning how to do
“INFORMED ART DIRECTION”. He wanted to inspire innovation in
innovated ways. Despite not much
exposure to magazines, he became interested in creating a magazine as an art
medium (he believed that the message is in the medium and wanted to explore it's boundaries), bringing conceptual art and fine art to this mass medium (even though
magazines typically focused on making money). A little like what Andy Warhol
did with Interview magazine. He felt that a
magazine could be the bridge between art and commerce. Riley discovered a magazine that was
tailored to the transvestite community called Surface. He thought the name was appropriate for
the message he wanted the magazine to have and re launched it as a fashion,
design and automotive magazine.
Riley wanted the magazine to talk about style, but
style as democratic form of social currency, not just fashion that you can just
buy. During his time as publisher, editor and creative
director/ designer of Surface, Riley focused on making it a tool to inspire
people, rather than the money making “aspire” verb, which he felt magazines
used to get people to want material things that they might never be able to acquire. Making the magazine a tool (which is something
that he still does today) for others to have to create, gain exposure and be
heard. That was why he launched
the Avant- Gaurdian concept, assigning fashion shoots to young, unknown
photographers and getting big fashion houses to lend them clothing for their
shoots, taking a huge risk on these unknowns. Riley felt it was important to give exposure to the young
artists, to give them a chance to be heard. When he felt that the magazine was becoming too much about
aspiration and material desire, rather than inspiring ideas and collaborations,
Riley decided to move on to other things. At that time he felt
that the future in magazines was going to be about readers creating their own
content- and the magazine being a true collective and form of
collaboration. At the time,
Surface wasn’t ready for these ideas. Soon however blogs and social media emerged which were exactly what
Riley had been talking about- reader driven content. Now there are “influencers” rather than editors. These influencers are even curating content that
other people are making- more of the collective collaboration idea.
When I ask Riley what he searches for in artists
and writers to hire or work with, he segways into the idea of synchronicity. When he comes across work or others
come across his work, and both seem to align then it is a good match for
collaboration. He feels that
branding is somewhat over, that no idea should be own-able by one entity, that things are moving towards people
with positive intentions collaborating to make an impact. He notes that the only way to
solve problems is though collaboration and that optimism is an underlying drive that we are already
engaged with. He adds "it isn’t just
about aesthetics anymore but purpose and meaning. "
Below is some of Riley's award winning work for Surface Magazine, as well as some of his branding projects with clients such as Lexus, Mini Cooper, European Trade Commission, Levis, Vueve Clicquot and Lafitte Restaurant (a collaboration that I was part of) as well as some of his automative work, product design (sinks) and trend forecasting work.
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