Brian Roettinger is an artist and graphic designer who is acclaimed for combining a passion for punk ideology with a sleek vision of modernism. Roettinger has built himself a unique visual lexicon which has been showcased throughout his work, with not only iconic brands, but a variety of artists ranging from Childish Gambino to Jay-Z.

I know we've spoken before in past conversations, so I know you grew up in the LA punk scene. How did you get into it? Was it through friends or music?

It kind of was all of that. It all sort of stemmed first from skateboarding, and then skateboarding kind of made me more aware of music.

So you used to skate when you were little?

Yeah!l It gave me a little bit more taste and helped me curate what I really liked music-wise. It sort of got me into punk, and punk led into different sort of levels of kinds of punk, and then into like, more specifics of 90s hardcore. It was all very DIY, which is funny, because all these bands are coming back now. It's like relevant again! At the time, I just started playing in bands, and making music and I didn't really know how to play any instruments. I just sort of learned on the fly.

Was it just you and your friends deciding, “We love Black Flag, so let’s make our own band!”?

Yeah, it was. Except for me it was The Germs. Thatwas kind of the starting point. We just played shows around and met more people. From there, I started getting a little bit more into design and designing record covers. I started putting records out, and then had a record label. All myfriends also had record labels.

Oh so you had your own record label?

Yeah, Iwas putting records out, designing for other labels and playing in bands. I was also touring, so it was all kind of my world.

What were your first design influences? Did you go school for it?

I went to school for design. Right around that time, like 2000? My earlydesign influences kind of are all over the place. I loved any sort of like 80s or 90s skate graphics! Album covers were my introduction to art. As a kid, I didn't really look at artwork, I looked at albums. My parents had records and I would just like all the album covers and I like to study them. I wasobsessed with them.

Anything particular that you can remember?

Everything Hypnosis. Alice Cooper records I loved. Elton John records I loved. Blue Note Jazz records. I loved old country records, the photography and the typography. That was all from my parent's collection. I mean they weren't listening to the music I listened to, but I would reorganise the records into what were my favourites, and they could never find anything. They'd be like, “Where's this record?” And I would respond with “What does it look like?” I was the gatekeeper.

Sounds you made your parents collection partof your own. [laughs]

Definitely. As a teenager my taste was like, all over the place. I slowly became more into design, and Factory Records was the pinnacle for me. Everything that was Factory, but then there was also this hardcore label from San Diego called Gravity Records, which put out amazing bands. All their records were designed really well. A lot of them used off the shelf materials. They would get a brown paper bag and screen print on it. It was a very inventive way of making use of ready made materials - envelopes that were just cut. I became really interested in sort of DIY methods of printing and making album covers.

Did you connect to this all because you were so passionate about the music? Or more about the art process.

I always judgea record by the cover.

I'm the same, if it's a bad cover, I'm like “Ugh no!”

If it is a bad cover, I’m not gonna listen to it, even if I like the artist. I think we associate so many aesthetics and styles and visual languages with genres of music.

Yes, for sure.

Like, we're like you can point at a bunch of records and say, “That’s a grindcore record, that’s a hip hop record from the 90s, that’s a pop record, and that’s a country record.” I think now we live in this collage culture where things have, ironically been taken from different genres and someone like Justin Bieber is going to make merch that looks like it's a metal band. You know what I mean?

Yeah, it feels like that is a super common idea nowadays.

Well, all sorts of aesthetics and visual languages have been appropriated or used in like, ironic ways. I think I used to think a lot about what it should look like, based off what it sounded like, but now I don't. I kind of removed myself from that thinking, because, the album cover was so much about what is the record telling me. Like, what's the story? I don't even care what it sounds like.

[smiles] Just from this conversation so far, I can see that. What do you need to know?

I just need to know the script. I think that, to me, that was more of a personal approach. I think it's arbitrary to be like, I'm gonna make something look like what I think it sounds like, because what I hear is different than what you do. I always like to point I like to approach it from like, a storytelling.

Did you find going to school advantageous for the theory behind your work?

Yeah, I mean, I think going to school for design made it, at least for me, to know how to think like a designer. I knew nothing about the professional world, but I was very comfortable talking about visual language and aesthetics and the history of design. I was able to navigate the sort of typographic landscape and you know, the basis of graphic design. I think it's a much different world now, where everything's at our fingertips. I think people could learn just as much without having to go to school. You learn so much from conversation, critique, and your peers. I think it's really good in school to make shit work, because that's how you get better. I made a lot of crap for years.

I feel like every step is good. There are no bad steps. You may not achieve what you want immediately, but that is not a bad thing.

Yeah, but I think design school now is so overpriced. Like, how canpeople expect to pay all this money to go to school.

Not to sound disrespectful, as I did go to art school, but a lot of things you can learn now via YouTube or Photoshop if you dedicate time to it.

Or just have taste, yeah, style is important.

You can't teach taste!

No, no, no. You can't teach style, or you can teach style, but you can't teach taste and visual problem solving based off of like, taste level.

I feel like school is so expensive and people put so much pressure on themselves, so they may not get the full benefits. I think a lot of creative fields, you have to know how to speak to people. You have to accept that you might not be what they want.

Right!

You can’t always just run with your idea, and not have the ability to discuss and negotiate. That is purely learned by meeting a lot of people. To me, it's just like, so important.

I think also that new designers just graduating, are looking for work with an inflated salary, as they have to pay back astronomical loans.

Yeah, exactly. It's crazy. So when did you feel like a proper designer? [laughs]

It was always something that I felt the most confident and comfortable doing. I always did it with friends, putting my own things out. It never was a job. Even when I went to school, and I was making things and actually doing things and getting paid. It never felt like a job until I had a real job. I was like, "Oh, shit, is this going to be my life? I guess thisis my profession.”

Was there one project that you think helped with that realisation?

No, but once I was the design director at an architecture school called SCI-Arc,I felt like a designer.

What made you decide to leave that and to go out on your own?

While I was at SCI-Arc, I still had my own studio. I was designing like, mostly records and books, and I would do that at night when I go out or like on the weekend. I was juggling a lot.

How were you getting those external jobs?

I have friends that I went to school with who opened galleries, so I would design their books, or friends that were in bands, so I’d design their records. At SCI-Arc, they had hired a project manager for all the creatives, and there was a moment she came into my office and had acopy of the LA Times and was like, “Is this you in here? You're nominated for a Grammy! Why do you still work here?" And I was like, “You're right!”, and quit the next day. That was it, I didn't have a job. From that point on, I just had my own studio. From around 2016, Willo Perron and I were talking about merging our studios. It took a little bit of time, but it happened in 2018.

Were you happy to have someone to share the work burden?

Yeah, I’m very collaborative. We're definitely different in our approach and how we work and what we do. So I think it works really well.

Now that you've grown the studio to a certain level, is that things that you work on now that you like, super enjoying, that you're trying to lean into?

I mean, I think it's always trying to find new areas of, like, just trying to learn and evolve. It is not about a taste or a style, like I don't care about that. In the last few years, it's been more about product design, and sort of world building and identity.

Would you go more into industrial design like maybe a Teenage Engineering?

Yeah I mean I love this sort of stuff, from cosmetic packaging, to beverage, to industrial design to furniture.

So things that are a bit more tactile?

Yeah. I am getting quite a bit in the cosmetic and beverage space. Everything I'm into, from all my influences, from furniture, to architecture, to graphic design, to industrial design, to shoes, to cars, to fashion, all funnels into this pot. I think the natural progression is to want to make things that are practical and functional.

You're serving a lot of other people with your work. Do you serve yourself in some way? Are you craving something that's particularly for you?

Yeah, I think it's important to have your own work. I can't just do client service.

Do you have a goal of like having a show of your own?

I've done a few in the past.

Like furniture?

No. Art. How I work and make things is, I have an idea. I sit and I think about it, and then I make it and then it's done. You know, and then I'm like, “Oh, maybe I should have a show of this stuff.’

What about fashion?

I just think it's like there's already enough. There's plenty of good stuff and there doesn't need to be more.

I feel like you have to be truly passionate about fashion, as it lot of work for sometimes little reward.

I like nice things, but I also like very utilitarian things. I like things that are nice and for the masses.

Looking around at the aesthetic of your home, and reviewing your initial influences, how do you think you evolved?

Well if you think about it, to me, it's like, quite like if someone was like, ”Oh, you're into punk. I get it. Yeah that messy drum kit.” [Points to a sculpture by ClaesOldenburg called Miniature Soft Drum Set, 1970]

Oh I didn’t notice that!

It’s a sculpture from Oldenburg. It reminds me of like, the end of a Nirvana set. Or a hardcore band. I have all these signifiers that have a connection to my past. Like something feels like a skull, and something else looks like 80s skate graphics.

Do you think you are just automatically attracted to things like this?

Oh yeah, I think it’s just subconscious. There's things that are very, sort of design oriented with like, shapes, circles, rectangles, and square, very Bauhaus. It feels like the merging of punk and modernist design.

Yeah I know what you mean, I can see the connections.

So it does have a style of where punk ideology meets modern design.

Is there something that you really are wanting to do? I am sure you have many opportunities for unique work.

I want to just continue to be able to make things that are bigger and more wide reaching, but at the same time, not commercial? Being inventive and experimental. I don't ever want to get caught up in things that are not challenging projects.

Does a project have to there has to be some type of edge to it for you to agree to work on it?

No, but there has to be a challenge. A lot of people will come and be like, “Oh, we love how you designed this. We want the same.” I say no, everything was created for a purpose. Can’t make it again.

Oh, speaking of challenges, I saw you on a panel recently for the Felix Art Fair, and you mentioned you were colourblind. How do you find working with colour? What can you actually see?

It'snot that I can't see colour, it’s just how I see colour sometimes is a little bit different. So what is green to people, I see as brown.

So you had to get used to recognising that brown is green to others?

Yes,I see that blue really easily, so I like having blue around.

Doyou tell clients about it?

Sometimes. Software now has made it way easier for me. It's called colour deficient, and I've been able to train my eyes. If I need to get different versions of a colour, I'm just gonna find colours that are in that zone. So it's not as hard. I’ve gotten pretty good at it. If I need to, I can ask people in my studio to help me figure out if the colour is actually periwinkle. [smiles]

Interview by Ilirjana Alushaj
Photography by Francesca Forquet
Brian Roettinger wears own clothes