We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kurt Seidle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kurt, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
Trusting my instincts, doing the work, and staying focused. Eliminating the noise and just getting to work. The practice of sketching, writing, and making keeps the mind agile, builds momentum, and leads to new ideas. Thinking too much can sometimes stifle creativity and get in the way. My friend Trapp Tischner is fond of saying, “If I think about it, I won’t do it.” That’s often true. Sometimes you just need to start working and stop overthinking.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I work as a designer, art director, and brand strategist with Grant Design Collaborative, an Atlanta-area brand design agency, and maintain an artistic practice, Knits & Prints, a collaboration with my wife Elizabeth. I attended Maryland Institute College of Art to study graphic design and found that being immersed in that fertile atmosphere opened me up to all sorts of ideas and modes of creation. I sought every opportunity to learn about all forms of expression – through lectures (Louise Lawler and Art Chantry were favorites), trips to the school library, museum visits, extensive art history studies, conversations with department chairs Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller, and my choice of electives. In that regard, screenprinting and photography captured my imagination and I pursued those mediums alongside design. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they both have strong connections to design.
Screenprinting made sense because I was fascinated by color, hard-edged forms, and manual modes of replication. Something about actually being involved in the making of a product – almost like a machine – and trying to attain perfection through a messy, analog process was totally compelling. I fell in love. Mixing colors, pushing ink through the screen with a squeegee, and seeing a series of identical prints drying on the rack was all irresistible.
Through my college studies and 25 years in graphic design, branding, and screenprinting, I’ve truly come to appreciate the push and pull of creating and editing. I love the friction and momentum created by working through the process – often in collaboration with others – of deciding what makes sense and what’s important versus what’s not, and finishing with a product in whatever form that takes.
Having the ability to work in both modes of creation – sometimes with a client and with a particular goal in mind and other times working on a print in the home studio, where things can be a bit looser – keeps things interesting, your mind engaged, and conditions perhaps a bit off balance. I enjoy navigating that territory; that in-between zone is often where the magic happens.
Sometimes my screenprinting work informs my design work (and vice versa). With Grant Design Collaborative’s rug collection for Jaipur Living, for example, some sketches or concepts feel like they’d be more appropriately articulated as an area rug rather than a piece of art on the wall. Other times, a scrapped rug design makes sense as a book cover.
In my design work, creating a cohesive brand image – defining or refining the visual and emotional articulation of a product, service, or company – is endlessly fascinating and extremely satisfying. It’s easy to overlook or underestimate the value of cues like messaging, identity design, typography, photography, social media experiences, and web and print applications and how those things make you feel, yet often it’s the smallest of details that make the greatest impact. Having the opportunity to choreograph these experiences is a true pleasure.
Regarding news, on Saturday, October 19, Knits & Prints will participate in the Cherokee Heights Arts Festival – our annual neighborhood fest – in Marietta, Georgia. My wife Elizabeth will have new and classic knit wares available and I’ll have hand-pulled screenprints on offer. It’s a great day of art, music, and food.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Be motivated and stay engaged. Get out there. Meet new people and try new things. As a lifelong introvert, I know how intimidating this can be, but it’s necessary. You’ll likely make new friends and meet new collaborators. It’s also good practice. The more you do it, the easier and more fun it becomes. Also, people are drawn to interesting people doing interesting things. So start doing interesting things. Now. Today.
It’s the company you keep. Surround yourself with talented, motivated, interesting, fun, and supportive people – the people who you like and who like you. Don’t waste time chasing people who show little interest in you; invest in people who genuinely like you and what you’re all about. Being in an inspirational environment is critical to a happy life.
Eliminate the noise. Focus on your vision and what you can control. Don’t worry about what others are doing, how you might compare to them, or what they might think – that’s all just distraction. Believe in yourself, trust your voice, and carry on.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
People who are on the same page as you. People who appreciate your perspective or approach and see how that might align with theirs. People you get along with and can have open and honest conversations with. It all starts with mutual respect and trust. Trust is the key to successful relationships and making great things happen.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://knitsandprints.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/knits_prints
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-seidle-7155262/
- Other: https://grantcollaborative.com
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
