From a glass conference room overlooking New York’s meatpacking district and downtown skyline beyond, John Paolini (M.F.A. ‘92) can rhapsodize about design with enough artistry that you’re likely to forget about the view. What comes into focus is Paolini’s passion for his field.
In branding “the symbols are about the promise, but it’s the conceptualization that’s continued to keep me excited and happy,” he says of his 20-year career from graphic designer to a partner and executive creative director at Sullivan where he’s helped grow an award-winning creative team. Paolini, and Sullivan, have found their niche helping to define brand experiences for complex products and services, such as technology firms, financial services companies, and universities. (Sullivan designed the striking identity for VCU’s forthcoming Institute for Contemporary Art )
“It’s only thru design experience that all of these complex products and services are given body and soul,” he says. “I couldn’t have come to this place in my career without VCU. So much of my experience at VCU was about the social context of design and how people interact with it.”
While he was an undergraduate at Ohio University, Paolini attended a workshop led by former VCU professor Ben Day. “I realized there was a whole level of strategic thinking around design… that ignited something I felt deep in my soul. I felt: there’s so much more to design than I know.”
Paolini came to VCU to study communication arts as a tool for creative thinking and the larger notion of design’s role. “What I learned from VCUarts, enabled me to stay nimble with design as a way of thinking and a social experience and to stay relevant about ideas and communication – not just about the deliverables of graphic design.”
In helping to rebrand the Fund for Global Human Rights, Paolini’s team came up with a solution that embodies his “design with a capital D” mantra, a philosophy built on removing the disconnect between a brand’s vision and what an audience experiences. The stacked-like-blocks logo hints at the organization’s role on the ground establishing base-level services for aid organizations. It also plays a dual role and on quick read says “Fund Global Human Rights” which serves as a plea and rallying cry for the organization. In this case, and in many in the Sullivan portfolio, the visual design brings an organization’s mission to audiences.
Sullivan itself is bringing its own brand to life through the “White Wall Project” in which the firm invites artists, designers, and technologists to create an installation in its office lobby to help illustrate one of the firm’s tenets.
Beyond the benefit of looking cool, and allowing the creative team to have fun, Paolini has found that “because they’re not viewing the art in a gallery or museum but in an office, the installation seems to empower clients to say, ‘okay, we’ll do that crazy thing you recommend.’” Now that’s strategic thinking in action.
Paolini is the commencement speaker for the 2015 December VCUarts ceremony, Saturday, December 12 at the Altria Theater.
Featured image: White Wall Project, photo by Patrick Struys
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