A Bad Crit

An Interview With Nick Mendoza

Interviewer: Davis Ngarupe

DN: Tell us how you became a designer?

NM: I can trace my graphic design roots to my teenage years when I use to skateboard and play in punk rock bands. I would make stickers, screen print shirts, make cassette covers (yes I’m that old that CD’s weren’t around), 7” record covers and fliers for the punk bands I use to play in. After high school I moved to Los Angeles and I put together a fanzine called FAR FROM HOME with a couple friends. Up to this point I still didn’t own a computer so most of the fanzine was cut and paste and photo copies. One of my roommates bought a computer but we only used it to print text since neither one of us knew how to really use a computer. Even when the fanzine moved from photocopies to newsprint we still gave the printer a cut and paste version as the original. I then started to take some art classes at Pierce College in Los Angeles. I still didn’t know what graphic design was until one of my art teachers at Pierce College asked me what I planned to do as a career. I told him I didn’t know. I told him about the punk band I was in and the fanzine I made and he then told me that I should look into graphic design. That is the point I started to look at my hand drawn type and band shirts as graphic design. And the rest is history. I got a BFA in graphic design from Brigham Young University and I’m currently in my final year of the MFA program at the University of Utah.

DN: Who are your design influences?

NM:As far as influences go, I think I’m all over the place. I think it is really hard to nail down influences because of how much information is out there on websites. There are so many websites and blogs I follow that range from traditional Swiss design to DADA and Futurist typography to printmaking to street art. I definitely still have a soft spot for collage and photocopy work. It reminds me of my teenage years. At the moment I’m really influenced by mono-type prints, wood type and screen prints.

NM: The worst critique I remember having would have to be my first semester in the BFA program at BYU. We had end of semester critique with the design faculty. I really was not prepared and didn’t know what to expect. I had heard rumors about students getting kicked out of the design program for not having a good critique. I expected one of the faculty members to be pretty hard on me but to my surprise he sat there quietly looking over my work. I think that through me off so when the other faculty members asked me questions about my work I was not prepared to answer them. They basically thought my work was not good and I that I needed to work on some things.

NM:I went home thinking I should start thinking about picking a new major because I thought that I would be getting kicked out of the BFA program. After a couple days I played back that critique in my head and thought about the things the faculty said to me. I thought about the late nights I had spent designing and studying for my other classes. I figured that if I could spend more time on my design projects and less time on my general ed classes that I could do a lot better. So I did just that. I spent less time on my general ed classes and more time on my design classes. I can honestly say that it saved me from getting kicked out of the BFA program.

NM: I’ve been doing a lot of screen prints lately. I’m currently working on social and political work. As a graphic designer I feel that my artwork should not only help to communicate the brands of the world, but also shed light on social issues that face our society. My artwork addresses the immigration debate between the United States and Mexico. It takes aim at the myths about immigration and the need for comprehensive immigration reform.

NM:I think I will always have my hand in both corporate branding and social political work. My MFA thesis will definitely be around the immigration debate so you can expect a lot more screen prints. You can keep up with what I’m doing at www.heymendoza.com