Five Minutes with Aaron Draplin, Designer from Draplin Design Co.

For the most part, it’s stuff in the States. If you hit a record store, snowboard shop, men’s boutique, there’s a good chance you’ll see a record cover or logo I worked on. Our Field Notes are everywhere. And even the highway – I did a logo for President Obama a couple years back and those logos are all over the nation! But you gotta come to the States to see ’em.

You’re also known for taking ‘logo challenges’ and giving logo tutorials. Is there a number one rule for a good logo?

Legibility reigns supreme! I always try to make the logo work at the size of a dime, and the size of a golf ball. The app and social media world dictates that stuff needs to work at small sizes. Rule of thumb: as long as it works in your iPhone app dimension, or Twitter avatar, things will be good. Want to see who’s got their act together? Check out their logo in Twitter. If you can’t make the thing out, that’s a problem.

Just how vast is the influence of design on the modern world?

I like how good design helps everyday people. We just went to Berlin, and to see people filling out German customs forms, they seemed to breeze through it pretty easily. That was impressive, considering that people are coming from all over the world. It’s the smallest stuff that’ll blow me away. And frustrate the hell out of me. I see lazy little shortcomings and am blown away how many things get overlooked.

How has the role of the designer changed over the duration of your own career?

I’m seeing a lot more of the ‘one man band’ thing out there, which is what I’m privy to – one person doing the job of many, just on a smaller scale. Things seem be refining more and more, and the old days of big budgets and bloated processes seem to be changing day by day. And I dig it. Lean and mean, out of extra rooms and basements!

Have you made any mistakes in your career that you’d encourage young designers to avoid?

I’d say the basic stuff like not estimating my taxes properly, letting clients push me around and working a little too much for my own good. But hell, I’m always trying to make things better. I’ve got a solid accountant watching over me, am always getting better keeping the clients in line and making plans to slow down. I’ve been racing for years so slowing down should be able to help all my woes. Or maybe not.