MEET #4308 MARY FAGOT

Art Director • Los Angeles, CA

WNW Member #4308 Mary Fagot works in both music and advertising. She's worked with artists such as OK Go, Interpol, The White Stripes, & Robyn, and companies like Google, GE, YouTube, & The Gap. Mary served as creative director on the music video for OK Go's "The Writing's on the Wall," which has exceeded 11 million views on YouTube. The video also includes an interactive experience. Mary spoke to WNW about her desire for working to feel like not working and the importance of knowing yourself.

Follow Mary on WNW

1. How long have you been freelancing?

About a month, again. I freelanced for a while a few years back, that was for 5 years or so.

2. Is there a time or place that you feel most creative/have the best ideas?

I’m good in the morning when I’m not really awake, at least that’s when I think I have a good idea… my studio is on the top floor of my house, which is like a wedding cake shape, so its one room and I look out over Silverlake and that’s the best place.

3. What's your ideal Working:Not Working ratio?

I like to have a project on, so I think about 70/30, but I want most of the work to feel like not working, so in that respect it could be 10/90 or less.

4. Do your parents understand what you do?

My Dad worked in the music business when I was growing up, so I was around a lot of craziness and also my Mom was an art teacher so yeah, pretty much.

5. What scene from a movie makes you laugh just thinking about it?

Pee Wee’s Big Adventure is my favorite funny movie ever, I can flash through about ten scenes — Good Morning Mr. Breakfast, Frances!, Is there something you can share with the rest of us amazing Larry?!!?!???

6. If you were stranded on a desert island, with your computer, what 3 websites would you take with you?

I mean, you have to have YouTube to entertain yourself until the people you contacted on Facebook come rescue you from where you discovered yourself to be on GoogleMaps. That’s a very practical answer. One time I was asked what I’d eat if I was stranded on a desert island and could only have one thing and that would definitely be toast.

7. What do you do when Not Working?

I’m on the board of an experimental art space in Echo Park called Machine Projects. Machine is a really unique place for artists to experiment with ideas, together with the public, in ways that influence culture. There’s nothing I’ve ever experienced like it. Mostly I help support other artists projects but coming up I’m going to perform a fake Masonic ritual as part of a take over of the Gamble House in Pasadena by Machine. I also like to check out music, cook and go to visit my friends in Sweden.

8. Do you have a hidden talent?

Whatever talents I have, I do my best to use them.

9. Any tips or advice for fellow freelancers?

I think you really just have to know yourself well. For me, I need to boss myself around, and give myself tasks and schedules otherwise I can become too indecisive about what to do next and spin out a bit.

10. What's your favorite thing on the internet this week?

I love this endless gif of cauliflower on this dude’s blog.

Robyn - 3D Interactive Video

"Ranked by NME as #84 of the 100 Greatest Music Videos...the video for Robyn's track Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do is the first of its kind, a 3D - Twitter API fed - Interactive music video. The first portion of the video features a visualization of Robyn’s lyrics in 3D. The remainder of the video is created by users themselves who tweet what is killing them using the Twitter hash tag, #killingme. These tweets are themselves visualized and credited to the user."