Sheriff's a-comin'

Design Ranch is going on 9 years now. In that time, we've had all kinds of workshop leaders — from the illustrious to the intriguing to the downright quirky. This year is no exception.

We are pleased to host these fine folks, plus we've got a few more aces up our sleeve to be revealed as we get closer to the Ranch.

2011 AIGA Austin Design Ranch Workshop Leaders

Dan Ibarra & Michael Byzewski, Aesthetic Apparatus
Often considered Minneapolis' best totally unknown design super team, Aesthetic Apparatus was founded around 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin by Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski as a fun side project from their "real" jobs. Over the years, their graphic design and limited-edition, screen printed posters have secretly snuck into the hearts and minds of a small, rather silent group of socially-awkward music and design nerds. Now, Aesthetic Apparatus is a full time, full-fledged, insanely unstoppable, and occasionally award-winning design mega-studio. They will break your heart and drink your blood.

Craig Jensen & Gary McLerran, BookLab II
For over three decades, Craig Jensen has studied the history and has been a practitioner of the craft of bookbinding. In 1981, he moved to Austin to head the book conservation section in the Conservation Department at the HRC at the University of Texas at Austin. He left there in 1984 to found Jensen Bindery. In 1988, Booklab, Inc. grew out of Jensen Bindery and was in operation until 1998. After a few years' hiatus, he started Booklab II in San Marcos, which continues through today. All three of his companies have focused on the production of well crafted, limited edition books and specialty boxes and housings. Gary McLerran got started in library preservation as a volunteer at the HRC at UT Austin. He worked with Craig Jensen at his first bindery before taking preservation jobs at archives in upstate New York and California. After 20 years in the wilderness, he returned to Texas to partner with Craig at BookLab II.

Wayne Geyer
Wayne Geyer is a graphic-designer-turned-copywriter-turned-creative-consultant. His work includes brand development, strategic thinking and copywriting for clients in every conceivable industry. Since 1993, brands like Dr Pepper, Domtar, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the American Heart Association and the Dallas Cowboys have turned to Wayne to help them communicate more effectively with their audiences. His clever, conversational style makes his writing smart and approachable. That means his clients typically end up looking that way, too. In his lectures and workshops, Wayne demystifies and simplifies the writing process for design students, visual thinkers, marketing professionals and other "non-writers." He has presented to such prestigious forums as the HOW Design Conference, the National Student Show and Conference, the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts and Montana State University.

Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische is a typographer and illustrator working in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Tyler School of Art with a degree in Graphic Design, she worked for Headcase Design in Philadelphia before taking a position as Senior Designer at Louise Fili Ltd. While working for Louise, she continued developing her freelance career, working for clients such as Tiffany & Co., Chronicle Books, and The New York Times. In September of 2009, after two and a half years of little sleep and a lot of hand-lettering, she left Louise Fili to pursue her freelance career further. Jessica has been featured in most major design and illustration publications including Communication Arts, Print, HOW, The Graphis Design Annual, American Illustration and the Society of Illustrators. She was featured as one of Step Magazine's "25 Emerging Artists," Communication Arts' "Fresh", Print's "New Visual Artists 2009" (commonly referred to as Print's "20 under 30"), and The Art Directors Club's "Young Guns."

Casey McGarr
Casey loves to put ink on paper. He has operated Inky Lips Letterpress for over 10 years now. He prints both the old-fashioned way (with metal type, wood type, linoleum) and the newfangled way (from digital files using photopolymer). Casey designs and prints posters, invitations, and stationery on three presses: a Heidelberg Windmill and two Vandercook proof presses. The shop has hundreds of metal fonts and 50+ wood fonts, all residing in eleven type cabinets.
Casey has worked as the Southwest Region Art Director in Arthur Andersen’s Experience Design Group and, before that, as a Creative Director at FOSSIL for 9 years. He received his MFA in Design Communication at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Zeke Leonard
When his career as a New York-based theatrical set designer began to seem overly wasteful, Zeke turned his attention to objects, to craft, and to a more thoughtful approach to designing and making the things with which we surround ourselves. After pursuing an MFA in Furniture Design at RISD, he joined Smokestack Studios in Massachusetts, creating one-of-a-kind heirloom furniture for a variety of clients. He now lives in Syracuse with his family, teaching a sustainable approach to interior and furniture design at Syracuse University. In addition, he is involved in several community projects and is working to inspire a joy in making and a love of wood in as many people as he possibly can.

Debbie Millman
Debbie Millman is President of the design division at Sterling Brands, where she has worked on the redesign of some of the most recognized brands in the world. Debbie is President of AIGA, a contributing editor at Print, a design writer at FastCompany.com and BrandNew.com, and Chair of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts. She is also the host of the popular podcast, Design Matters with Debbie Millman, featured on DesignObserver.com. She is the author of three books.

Judy Schulz
Judy Schulz is a paper enthusiast and award-winning graphic designer with a love of anything creative. In her twenty-year-long career, she has seen life from every side of a sheet of paper. After several years working in design studios, she jumped ship to share her passion for paper with other designers as a graphic arts consultant and paper marketer. From there, she went on to represent a paper mill. Judy is a part of Olmsted-Kirk Paper—the oldest, most recognized paper merchant in Texas. From the start, she has been involved with Design Ranch—either working behind the scenes or leading workshops. Her past DR workshops have included hand-made paper, bookbinding, and polymer clay. She is a devout AIGAer and currently serves on the Advisory Board of AIGA Austin. Judy is an avid iPhoneographer.

Chris Sickels, Red Nose Studio
Chris Sickels, the creative force behind Red Nose Studio, creates an eccentric world we'd all like to visit. Red Nose Studio's illustrations appear in advertising, magazines, books, newspapers, packaging, character development and animation. His work has been honored by virtually every award institution / annual and has been featured in HOW, Print, Creativity, Communication Arts and 3x3 Magazine. He has twice been honored with the Carol Anthony Grand Prize award from the Society of Illustrators 3-D Salon. Two of his short films, The Red Thread Project and Innards, were selected to screen at the 2005 and 2006 Los Angeles International Short Film Festivals. He authored and illustrated The Look Book, and illustrated the children's book Here Comes The Garbage Barge, released in February 2010.

Keri Smith
Keri Smith is an author / illustrator turned guerilla artist. She has authored several bestselling books about creativity, including Wreck this Journal (2007 Perigee), This is Not a Book (2009 Perigee), and How to be an Explorer of the World–the Portable Life/Art Museum, (2008 Perigee. Her newest book, Mess: A Manual of Accidents and Mistakes will be released fall 2010 by Penguin Books. She writes on occasion for a variety of magazines, has created illustrations for a wide variety of clients and has given lectures and workshops for the Learning, Arts & the Brain Summit at Johns Hopkins University, the HOW Design Conference, the OntarioGraphic Artist's Assocation, UC Davis, and schools across North America. Her work has been featured in publications such as HOW, Step by Step, Print, Bust, and Wired. Keri spends her days playing with her husband and son, reading, cooking and writing books. As of fall 2010, she is teaching part time at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver B.C.

Armin Vit & Bryony Gomez-Palacio, UnderConsideration
Born and raised in Mexico City, Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit are founders of UnderConsideration, a graphic design enterprise that runs a network of blogs, publishes books, organizes live events, and designs for clients. Before establishing UnderConsideration, Bryony and Armin had worked in the industry for ten years, accruing experience in various disciplines, including corporate and brand identity, annual reports, business collateral, web design and programming, packaging, and magazine and book design. They are the authors of Women Of Design; Graphic Design, Referenced; and Flaunt. They reside in Austin, TX.

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