Hey JC! Tell us about your career, how'd you get here?
I’ll try to keep this short. I interned everywhere during college. Anyplace that would have me I would work at. I graduated from Parsons School of Design in 2006 with a BFA in Communications Design. The gracious Kurt Haiman took a chance on me and offered me a designer position at G2 Branding & Design. I’ll forever be grateful to Kurt for that. I really cut my teeth at G2.
That lasted for about three years until I made the move over to MTV. Around the same time I found that I was lettering a lot in my freetime, and this growing obsession with typography led me to do my postgraduate studies in typeface design at The Cooper Union. Working at MTV was a really wonderful and experience. I was one of the founding members of the Scratch team, and the culture there was really great. I’m still friends with many of the people I worked with at MTV. They were super flexible with my schedule, which was important to me since I was back in school part-time.
After about 2 years I had completed my studies, and I was given an opportunity to work with Matt Eastwood and Menno Kluin. They had asked me to head up the design department at DDB New York, and I accepted. That turned out to be a very special time. No one was expecting anything out of DDB which I found liberating. Since nobody was paying attention at first, we made a ton of work. Most of which I’m really proud of. I was able to infuse a lot of the projects with custom and experimental typography. I collaborated with some of my friends, and I was able to hire Illustrators and photographers that I had admired from afar. Needless to say I was given a lot of freedom, and I really grew during that time.
I was also steadily freelancing on the side during that time. Doing a lot of design work and lettering for the New York Times magazine, ESPN Magazine, and PRINT magazine, Not to mention the occasional identity and logo projects. I even opened up a small design studio and boutique type foundry with WNW Member Lucas Sharp aptly named Pagan & Sharp while I was at DDB. Recently I’ve taken the Design Director position at 72andSunny New York which I’m very excited about. Sorry that wasn’t short. I really tried.
How would you define hustling?
I would define it simply as working very hard, and getting paid to do the thing you love, but I would be remiss if I didn't cite “Bucky D” who I think perfectly captured the notion of hustling when he published the definition back in 2005 on Urban Dictionary:
“Anythin you need to do to make money... be it sellin cars, drugs, ya booty. If you makin money, you hustlin. I been workin two jobs, tryna stay on my hustle and make this money, na mean?"
-Bucky D, December 24, 2005
What was the inspiration behind this design?
The Hustling Not Hustling lettering was directly inspired by neon signage. Working late at night is nothing new to creative folks, and the connecting monoweight neon sign look is one that is clearly representative of the late night hustle.
Which piece are you getting?
The Pullover Crewneck. Winter is coming.
Who are some fellow hustlers you admire?
I’m really fortunate in that many of my friends happen to be some of the most talented and hard working people around. Folks like WNW Members Shane Griffin, Rich Tu, Ahmed Klink, Alex Trochut, Kelsey Dake, Craig Ward, and Bruce Wayne. I admire them all for different reasons.
There are so many amazing hustling references in pop culture. Any favorites?
This.
What do you do when you're not hustling?
Probably running, or being a wino.
