Fast Company just put out a list of the 50 most influential designers in America. The eight-category list includes interactive, fashion, architecture, etc.
10 of the 50 are in the interactive category. Out of Fast Company’s 10 most influential interactive designers in the world, eight of them are on the east coast, and seven of them are based in New York.
- Ji Lee lives in New York
- Joe Rospars is based in New York and DC
- Robert Wong lives in New York
- Khoi Vinh lives in New York
- John Maeda lives in Providence
- Nicholas Felton lives in New York
- Jake Barton lives in New York
- Lisa Strausfeld lives in New York
Fast Company is based in New York. This east-coast bias feels a little echo chamber-y and lazy. There are influential designers all over the country.
Don Schenck
on 15 Sep 11No, we on the East Coast really DO rock.
Kenneth Vogt
on 15 Sep 11“Influential” does not equal “Best” so be careful about reframing the list.
The east coast undeniably has influence. These kind of unscientific lists naturally have biases.
So Jason, you are well connected to the world of great interactive designers. What do you say about putting out a list of them?
JF
on 15 Sep 11Kenneth, you’re right re: best vs. influential. I’ve removed “best” from the post and focused just on influential.
Carl Hancock
on 15 Sep 11I always see the same tired named mentioned when it comes to influential designers. Khoi Vinh for instance is always a name mentioned. Honestly I can’t recall ever being truly impressed by his work. In Vinh’s case, when exactly has the NYTimes.com site EVER been an impressive example of great design? It’s always been a disaster of a site IMO.
Matt Henderson
on 15 Sep 11I think Khoi gets a lot of mileage just on the coolness of how his name sounds. :-)
George
on 15 Sep 11Is it this:
...a list of the 50 most influential designers in America
or this:
Fast Company’s 10 best interactive designers in the world
Enjoy your World Series, Jason :)
Susanna K.
on 15 Sep 11I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but, how many people who do interactive design for a living think to themselves when working on a design problem WW37SD? I know I do. That’s influence.
Joe
on 15 Sep 11Though you updated the title, you did not update your premise in the text of the post that this is a list of “Fast Company’s 10 best interactive designers in the world”. It’s not purported to be about “best” nor about the world. Very specifically it is: “influential” and “in America”.
My read is that the influence measure is based on how many people (not just designers, developers, or thinkers) their work impacts.
Bryan Sebastian
on 15 Sep 11Not sure how Jason Santa Maria is not on that list, though he is east coast as well. He seems to have quite a following and is, in my opinion, very influential.
Ian
on 15 Sep 11Haters gonna hate.
Brandon Ferguson
on 15 Sep 11Hmm, I agree that there are influential designers all over but I’m curious who’d you replace here.
New York especially is a powerhouse for design. I’d even say much more than Silicon Valley for technology.
Brandon Ferguson
on 15 Sep 11Hmm, I agree that there are influential designers all over but I’m curious who’d you replace here.
New York especially is a powerhouse for design. I’d even say much more than Silicon Valley for technology.
Ashe Thorn
on 16 Sep 11Most – actually almost all of the individuals you point out – live on the East Coast or NYC – but are not “from” the NYC. We would be better served by your questioning why brilliant young designers are drawn to (or forced to) NYC in order to exert their influence. Indeed there are brilliant designers throughout the country – but those willing to relocate to NYC get noticed.
Isn’t this the real issue? I fear Jason has missed the point and/or the “cause” of the NYC-bias. Its not a short-coming on part of Fast Company – its a short-coming of our community that hasn’t found a way to recognize or reward talent outside of the Northeast megalopolis.
@FashionLuvr
on 16 Sep 11This is a weird list. Why would they list only Marc Jacobs, Philip Lim and Alexander Wang for fashion? First off, Marc Jacobs is in his own class. He is the only one that can design for LV, his own brand and his budget minded brand. What about Rodarte? Olympic apparel designer and did the costumes for The Black Swan.
Joshua Blankenship
on 21 Sep 11Ji Lee and Nicholas Felton both work for Facebook now (though I don’t know if they live on the West Coast yet) so I’m not sure referring to them as East Coast-ers holds up very well.
This discussion is closed.