AAF: Who are you and what do you do?
Andrew: I’m Andrew Dyer, and I’m a graphic designer at Zipie.
AAF: How’d you end up where you are today, and what brought you into the design field?
Andrew: I was always artistic growing up. Once I learned that graphic design was a thing you could do for a living, I started heading that direction. I never had any doubt that it was what I wanted to do.
I landed an internship at Zipie during the spring semester of my senior year—I was working an on-campus job and doing another internship at the time, but that chaos absolutely paid off. I’ve been here over a year now and things have only gotten better and better.
AAF: What are your favorite and least favorite parts of your job?
Andrew: My favorite part of my job is that it doesn’t feel like a job—it feels like fun. (But I still feel like I’m doing something productive and beneficial!) My least favorite part? Round 10 of revisions, but that just comes with the territory.
AAF: Who or what inspires you?
Andrew: That’s a tough one! My coworkers inspire me, that’s for sure. So does my wife. Music inspires me, too.
AAF: What’s one ad, logo, tagline or idea you wish you’d thought of?
Andrew: Got Milk. No question. It’s so simple—good marketing needs to be that simple. No matter what you’re doing, the message you’re conveying needs to come across that simply.
AAF: Design nerd question: who’s your favorite designer?
Andrew: Has to be David Carson. Deconstruction and Postmodern design have always intrigued me, and Carson’s grungy typography is something I really enjoy trying to emulate. He’s worked for so many incredible brands—from Transworld Skateboarding, Ray Gun, and Surfer Magazine, to Nike and Pepsi.
AAF: What’s one design book that we should all read?
Andrew: “How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul,” by Adrian Shaughnessy. It really shaped how I present myself as a designer.
AAF: What’s one of your favorite projects you’ve worked on?
Andrew: We did a naming and branding project for a thoroughbred racing blog. One of the concepts we came up with was “Sport of Kings,” and I was heavily involved with the design work for it. The color palette I used was outside my usual comfort zone, and I kept the design simple but still able to convey the power and prestige of the sport. The client ended up going with a different option, but I’m still proud of the work.
AAF: What advice would you give to someone wanting to do what you do?
Andrew: In college, I had a professor who was very blunt with us about the reality of our field. He always said “Sleep is secondary.” College students love sleep—I’m no different—but when it came down to choosing to take on an internship at Zipie on top of a job, another internship, a full class schedule, and planning a wedding, that advice encouraged me to step up to the challenge.
Sometimes things are going to be tough and you’re going to be sleeping less and stressed out more, but if you get through it, it can only benefit you.
AAF: What have you gotten out of AAF?
Andrew: It’s exposed me to the local advertising community, which I didn’t really know existed. Obviously I knew that there were a certain amount of businesses and agencies, but I didn’t know the amount of camaraderie between the agencies. Going to AAF events and getting to know people has really opened me up to that. In a field that can be so competitive, it’s great to see so many positive business relationships here in Lexington.
AAF: What do you do when you’re not working?
Andrew: Typically, I’m either playing guitar or watching Netflix. Sometimes doing both. Mondays, Tuesdays, and every other Sunday I’m watching wrestling. Occasionally I’m in a band.
