"We Should Do It All" (WSDIA), the name of a hot design company in New York, has multiple meanings. I initially thought they were making the confident (and possibly slightly arrogant) suggestion that they are capable of doing any kind of work. After talking with founder Jonathan Jackson and looking at the company's web site, I realized that the name is about being human, holistic, and humble. The first page of their web site shows rows of people holding parts of the following quote from Lazarus Long, in Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
In addition to aspiring to be complete human beings, the principals at WSDIA see their work as essentially interdisciplinary and believe that a designer or artist should not limit himself or herself to one area. When I specifically asked Jonathan what WDSIA meant, he said, "It came from being in school and studying architecture and being exposed to so much. You take art history classes, I took sculpture classes . . . I just think architecture is the highest form of art, but we took so many kinds of classes. I just liked being into everything possible. [The company name] kind of extends from me being into everything possible, and not being limited to one thing."
I discovered Jonathan Jackson and his company when I was looking at the Print Magazine 2006 Interactive Design Annual and glanced at photos of the contest judges and noticed that one of them was an African American man. I did a double take because African American faces are rarely seen in U.S. graphic design publications, and it was an additional surprise that the context was interactive media. I wanted to know more about his design firm, WSDIA (We Should Do It All), and contacted him.
Jonathan is a laid-back young man with an easy laugh who took the interview request in stride. We had to reschedule it once because of a deadline they were finishing. That is a sign of a healthy business--not too much time for interviews.
I caught up with him on the telephone and we started with the basics. He is in partnership with Jared Seavers, who is his cousin, and Sarah Nelson. Like many New Yorkers working in the real estate-challenged city, they operate WSDIA out of the apartment Jonathan and Jared share in Brooklyn.
The cousins started working together when they were both students at Kent State University. Jonathan studied architecture and Jared studied fashion. Sarah is the only one with a graphic design degree, from Boston University. No doubt the combination of discipline backgrounds extends their creative range as a company.
With a laugh, Jonathan said, "Basically a full year out of school. I got kind of fed up. I was hardheaded and went out on my own after working at architecture firms for a year." He continued, "Yeah, I was only a year out of school."
I asked him if he thought we are currently in a design renaissance. He definitely could see the possibility of that. "I can see how computers and the Internet are changing everything. I think if there is a design renaissance, computers would be the thing that is leading the way. In 1995 you could not have started an office one year out of school. The Internet helps so much. We would not have most of our work without our web site. It helps with networking and getting the word out."
I was curious about what the phrase "Knowledge sharing registration point" on the WSDIA web site meant. "It just came from thinking about how to get more people to look at our work, Jonathan explained. "Although they would not admit it, people like to see themselves in different medium forms, like the Internet, and point out their photo to people. That's a potential client right there."
He continued, "The people [on the site] are all friends, family and acquaintances." But these friends, family and acquaintances are anything but average. They are mostly young people, engaged in occupations ranging from epidemiologists to greeting card creators. "We did a call for entries and asked if people wanted to be on our splash page," Jonathan said. "There was no pressure--if people wanted to be on it, great." None of the people featured are directly associated with WSDIA, and their picture can include the web site for their business or work, so everyone benefits.
The group's other current passion is video. They are working on a short film called Sex: An Homage. It is about three different couples in three different settings, at three different times of day, having sex.
WSDIA has been named one of the New York Art Directors Club Young Guns of 2006. As Jonathan said, "It's a big deal." The number of winners grew from 35 in 2004 to 63 in 2006, demonstrating the competition's growing popularity. Jonathan anticipates that after the exhibition opens and the book is published in November, they might see more business from the publicity.
I asked him to speculate on inventing a new technology or media device that does not currently exist. "The sky is the limit, it does not have to be reasonable at all," I said.
He thought about it for a few seconds, then replied, "A time machine. It would be great if every individual could see history as it happened, through time travel—to see history as it happened." At first he said he would not want to change anything, just see things like Dr. Martin Luther King lecturing, or JFK or the space program, but later he added that if he could, he would change the outcome of the 2000 election--with a laugh, of course.
Like most people who regularly work with technology, he is ambivalent about it. He confessed to being impressed by an idea he saw in a TV commercial--someone on his way to give a presentation using only a handheld device instead of a computer. "I thought that was pretty radical that the whole presentation would be on a cell phone or organizer." But on the other hand, he thinks email on cell phones is overrated and that sometimes people should be missed and unavailable.
There is an experimental section on the WSDIA web site that currently says, in bright magenta capital letters, "COMING SOON!!!" Visitors are teased with the promise of "non-showcased projects from a more personal side of the studio." I asked Jonathan what might eventually be found there.
"That section has been empty for a long time," he admitted. "Basically, we are working on three different typefaces, custom designed by us. One is 80% done. It is called MTA, after the Metropolitan Transit Authority and developed out of the painted yellow stripe at the edge of the subway platforms in New York." As promised, he sent me a Quicktime movie they did about the typeface and a jpeg image of the face. The other two typefaces are only about a quarter finished at this point.
In addition to selling the fonts for $30 to $40, they are working on a line of t-shirts with symbols that represent the Robert Heinlein quote on their splash page. There will be an icon representing all the things "a human being should be able" to do.
The group's other current passion is video. They are working on a short film called Sex: An Homage. It is about three different couples in three different settings, at three different times of day, having sex. Jonathan describes it as "definitely tastefully done, not pornographic in any way. We just want to show how important it is to have fun with your partner. So far, we have the music all laid out and we have to find actors. We are researching movies with lovemaking scenes--trying to figure, you know, the best way to go about things. … It's just one of those things we want to do." Because, they should do it all.
When I asked Jonathan if he calls himself an artist or designer, without hesitation he said, "Designer." I asked if there was a big difference. "Uhhh . . . I could say yes because artists are doing things for themselves. A designer is doing work for a client. It's usually for the public realm. With an artist, it's so personal."
"I presume you like doing work with the clients in mind."
Jonathan laughed. "Clients are rough, but we like working with other people, collaborating. Hopefully, the final product will have two voices, ours and the client's."
WSDIA's work is all technologybased. Right now their work is mostly web site oriented, but they are hoping to do more print work and video. Jonathan talked about "balancing our portfolio" to include more architecture.
"We have had two architecture clients. It's great, but it's kind of slow. The whole architecture process is slow, which is one of the reasons I left working for other people."
In contrast to their computer work, the principals still all keep sketchbooks and draw on paper. Jonathan also expounds on the importance of words in his creative work. "Words somehow translate into symbols for me. Sarah and Jared have really good hands, as far as drawing is concerned. When it comes to architecture projects, I am definitely writing a ton. We have an old-style drawing desk in the office. I don't think the pencil will ever leave my design process."
I asked him why he thinks there are so few African Americans in design, particularly working with technology. He answered quickly, "Exposure. I think that's the issue." The combination of lack of exposure to creative fields as a career option, built-in cultural biases, and the "game that is played in design education" constitutes a formidable obstacle for young African American students from inner-city schools. As Jonathan emphatically stated, students from those backgrounds have not had enough art, let alone design, education. He agreed with an article he read recently that said design education should be routine for young children, starting in elementary school. As a result, designers would be smarter and clients would be better.
An architect at heart, Jonathan became more animated when I asked him about current architects he admires. He said, "Zaha Hadid is the greatest female architect." Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron are also on his list of architecture superheroes. He told a story about a visit to Hadid's retrospective show at the Guggenheim in New York. Recalling four young Black boys he saw, aged about five to nine, walking through the gallery looking at the buildings and models, he said, "I don't think I ever got that exposure so early. I know that most black kids don't. It was great to see."
Wouldn't it be great if some New York City Public School teachers took their students to see the work of We Should Do It All in the Young Guns exhibition at the New York Art Director's Club this fall? One small step … .
