8 Questions: Designer Adam Juresko

8 Questions is our feature where we ask designers, artists and illustrators the same 8 getting-to-know-you questions (sort of like the web series 7 Minutes In Heaven but without the closet and awkward kissing). We’ve chosen questions we think will elicit informative, character revealing and insightful answers, allowing readers to learn from and get to know these lovely people a little better.

 Adam Juresko’s work is decidedly compelling. You can’t look at a single piece he’s done and not get lost in the details of his compositions. His ability to re-imagine movie posters in such a unique and distinct way is enviable. The feat he achieves time and time again is the trick of making the elements of the design fit together flawlessly and naturally which, as any designer knows, isn’t always as easy as it we’d like it to be. He takes the art of the movie poster to a whole new (incredibly enjoyable) level.

The man is a poster making machine and has (lucky for us/you) a large collection of his creations available for purchase in his Etsy shop. If I could afford to, I’d buy one of each. (His prints are really reasonably priced–I’m just ridiculously poor.) Also be sure to head on over to his website for more of his great work on flyers, logos, illustrations and band artwork.

1. Describe yourself in 5 words or less.

Sweet Sappy Sad Sucker

2. How long have you been a designer and what made you want to be one?

Just a couple years.  I’m pretty green and it’s still a big learning process.  I only started using a computer for any art related work about a year and a half ago and I find most of my time is spent watching youtube videos.  It’s pretty endearing and humbling to have some 13 year old kid from Iowa explain to me how to do certain things in programs that I can’t figure out myself.  For me the whole thing started from having to make posters of shows for the bands I was in, or friends bands, or doing album artwork.  I’ve always been a huge fan of diy punk and the aesthetic that came with it and it just took off from there.

3. What would you say are your biggest influences?

A dreary gray morning where the temperature tops out at about 43 degrees.  An endless cup of coffee.  That face Don Knotts makes when he’s frazzled beyond belief and starring into the camera on Three’s Company.  Heartbreak and loss.

4. What is your favorite thing about being a designer?

I can, and often do, work from my bed.  There’s also  something to be said for fleshing out an idea in your head and having that become a tangible object that someone you’ve never met on the other side of the world wants to put in their home.  I’m horrible with words, especially in person, and this is all a much cleaner, efficient way to articulate my thoughts.

5. What’s the worst (non-design related) job you’ve ever had?

Once I was leaving the post office and my friend calls and says she’s around the corner.  We agree to her coming by and picking me up so we can grab some lunch.  Well, this car pulls up and it looks like her car and she’s pulling up kinda right in front of me and she kinda has the same color hair.  I quickly open up the car door and notice her purse is in the front passenger seat.  Since I need to sit there I grab it and (in my head) I’m just moving it out of the way.  It’s about this time that I notice my “friend” is screaming in horror, demanding that I DO NOT steal her purse.  Before I can even  put two and two together the car is speeding away with the passenger door still flapping open and she’s yelling obscenities at me.  I quickly realize that this was not my friend but some poor lady who I mistook for my friend and as far as she knew, I was trying to carjack her.  I sent her a missed connection later that night and we straightened it out.  Carjacker: worst job ever.

6. Who are some of your favorite designers and why?

I like the designers who just barely earned a living making book covers, matchbooks, trade pamphlets, everyday ephemera from the 50′s/60′s/70′s.  People who weren’t known and who probably never will be.  I didn’t go to school to study art.  I didn’t go to college at all so mostly I identify with people who did it out of necessity, whoever they may be.  People that find simple and elegant solutions to problems only they seem to be concerned with are pretty top notch in my book.

7. What are some of your favorite movie posters of all time?

Being born in the late 70′s and growing up in video stores in the early 80′s it’s impossible to not mention Drew Struzan.  His work was featured on all of my favorites growing up.  Everything from “Star Wars” to “The Goonies”.  He did the poster for Carpenters “The Thing” overnight.  Total workhorse.  In his earlier years he did a lot of album cover artwork, too: Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, etc.  Seems like a cool dude.

8. Any advice for young designers out there?

Yeah.  You honestly better love what you’re doing because 99.9% of the population could care less that you just spent the last 17 hours meticulously kerning your new typeface.