Pitchfork Michael Renaud Lecture-Katelyn Pesola

           On March 5 I attended a lecture given by Michael Renaud, the creative director for the indie music blog, Pitchfork. Besides reading the description on the website I have no idea what Pitchfork was or about, so I was interested to learn about Michael and his position as creative director. He began his lecture with what he called his “life lessons,” he started off with, “you don’t have to go to design school to be a designer.” I really enjoyed the irony of this statement and the fact that we were sitting in a lecture hall inside of Columbia College. But nonetheless I could understand his point; learning is not something that is only done in a classroom. As a designer you are constantly learning new things and experimenting with new techniques. Sometimes the best and most useful things come from practice, which is not always done inside a classroom. Michael then continued to show some of the work that he had done for Pitchfork. I really enjoy the simplistic style that he works in as well as the style of the website. He works in a very minimalistic way that really allows the work to speak for itself.

            It was very inspiring and informative to listen to Michael speak about his work. I felt that he had a very realistic way that he chose to approach his designs.  I was in love with the design that he created for the Paris Pitchfork Festival. It was so simple yet very elegant, and it clearly communicated what they were trying to represent. I also really enjoyed there interactive magazine-like articles that were featured on their website. I thought it is very forward thinking and a great way to start incorporating what people like about magazine layout with the convenience of reading online. I found it very interesting that their first print magazine came out just last year. With all the talk about print starting to become dead, it was nice to see that there are still designers that believe in print media. Overall I really enjoyed everything that Michael spoke about at the lecture, he was very entertaining as well as very inspiring.  As someone who hopes to one-day work at a magazine it was great to be able to learn some tips from someone who is working in a similar field.