Guillermo Andrae Fisher
Professional/portfolio: www.surfacade.com
The Silentfusion Collective Presents (writing e-zine - founder, contributor, designer):



Location: Virginia Beach, VA

Tell us a little about your background:
Brooklyn born and raised, 24 years old, went to a science HS for mechanical engineering, discovered web and graphic design in 1997, went to MIT to study math for 2 years, left, worked all over at places I couldn't stand (primarily in New York), 9/11 Survivor, fell in love with design in 1999 after seeing something at the old I/O Republic site that brought me close to tears...now I'm here.

Design Education:
None really. Took a few multimedia design and art classes at a community college in NYC for a semester, but I'm self-taught for the most part. I was lucky enough to have a mentor of sorts to point me in the right direction -- someone to tell me what topics to look into, what concepts to explore, what books to read, etc. -- and so most of my 'knowledge' comes from reading and experimenting on my own and having him and others critique stuff.

How did you start out as an artist and designer?
When I was 19/20, while I was busy experimenting and constantly re-designing my own site, someone offered to pay me to make a site for his or her school organization. Being broke and inexperienced I, of course, accepted and began to market myself as a designer. Since then I've learned tons doing work for lots of friends and clients, and am now in the process of starting my own little agency.

What inspires you?
God, life, my wife, good design, nature.

Describe your style of design:
I guess it's a little grunge, a little 'natural', and poetic and heavily influenced by typography.

Music is a huge influence on designers, what is your choice of music?
More recently I've been listening to a lot of drum and bass, punk and soul music. I've gone through phases with my musical interests, and I think the change in my design style over the years is a reflection of that.

What is your all time favorite movie and why?
All time favorite would have to be Return of the Jedi because...I don't know...I really can't explain. Glowing swords and flying machines and midgets dressed in fuzzy suits making weird noises.

What do you do besides design?
I'm an aspiring writer. I started out writing just for myself, but when I got to MIT I was forced by a friend of mine to read my work at open mic events. My work was well received, so I took some classes and performed at more events, got published in a few places, started my own poetry site, and am now working on my own publication as well as a series of short stories. My poetry can be seen at www.silentfusion.com, which is a site I started (and designed) for poets and writers all over the world.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In my own design studio somewhere in or around Washington DC, doing great, innovative work for clients that think the way I do.

What is more important for a designer, artistic qualities or design education? Choose one:
I'd say artistic qualities. There's tons you can't teach, and there're instincts you can't recreate through instruction. There're plenty of examples of artists/designers with no schooling who've made passionate, sound art...but you can't take someone who isn't an artists and turn them into one with a few classes and an exacto knife. Just can't be done.

Did you go from creating art and then move into graphic design? Or was it the other way around?
I did create a bit before I moved into graphic design -- graffiti, some pencil, pastel and oil works -- but not as seriously and certainly not as frequently. Once I became a 'student' of design, I took a more focused approach to art; I found myself in front of my computer almost everyday trying to both express myself and learn as much as I could through experimentation.

Do you think that traditional art styles transfer across well to graphic design?
That's a difficult question. I'd say yes and no. Yes because, in my opinion, good art holds true to the same principles as good design, so moving between the two stylistically isn't that much of a drastic jump as far as things as form, line, color, etc. are concerned. With graphic design, however, different elements are introduced that make it difficult, in many cases, for certain traditional styles to be put into use; elements like legibility, for example, come into play in print and web design and aren't necessarily issues in many styles of traditional art. It's all relative, I think.

If you could change one thing about Adobe Photoshop, what would it be?
I'd change the way the lasso tool works. I hate it.

On a personal note, I can remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. Could you elaborate on your experience:
I wrote this up a while ago because people were interested to know exactly what happened...I updated it a little for you.

Guillermo's 911 experience:

I reach work several minutes before I need to because my job depends on it (there's a story behind that which could add a degree of mysticism to this, but we'll skip it; because, frankly, this is all strange enough as it is), stroll at a reasonable pace to the elevator, to my floor, past the early morning workers, to my cubicle, to my workstation. I turn on my computer, type in passwords, check e-mail, sort mail, check my to-do list and begin working on something that is ultimately, for the sake of this retelling and for your sake -- everyone's sake -- in general, insignificant; and within a few minutes, the entire twenty-second floor of Seven World Trade Center is filled with a Boom so alarming and indeterminable that all I can say, hesitantly, is "What the...fuck?".

Someone goes to the window -- because I sure as Hell wasn't about to -- to find out what caused the Boom and this is what she calmly, CALMLY says: "A plane just crashed into the towers". Right. There is debris coming towards the window. Okay. I run around to the other side of the floor, frantic, and tell everyone I see "It's time to go; a plane hit the towers...yeah, seriously...let's go." I run back to my cubicle, grab my bag, and head to the...umm...elevator with a bunch of people from my floor and then I remember that "we should take the stairs...", but no one cares. We head down the elevator into the main lobby and there is madness ensuing. There are people with bandages on their faces and people holding hands and confusion and there are doors locked all around and cell phones and I am trying to call my girlfriend who's in New Jersey but I can't get through because the entire population of Seven World Trade Center is doing the same thing. There are people crying and women trying to hold my hands because they are afraid and I am moving away from the wall of glass and steel that we walk through everyday to get to work because I know I should and people are still holding on and crying and asking for my phone but I can't get through. I am looking for doors with angry white men in business suits demanding to know why the exits are sealed. I am moving in and out of rooms I hadn't been to before, going up and down hidden staircases but there is no way out. There is nothing. There is another Boom. There is talk of generators going out and causing the noise:

but there is
also a man outside with
his suitcase over
his head, running from
the towers, flaming metal and paper and
his hands hitting our door. he wants.
in. there is no in,
or out.

And I turn away, angry, and waiting, and afraid, and then there is a surge towards the rear of the building. I am right in the middle of it. There are firefighters leading us out of the building to safer ground. I am running. I am running over pairs of high-heels that have been left on the street, and pieces of clothing; and I am trying to call my girlfriend. I am running and looking for co-workers -- the bosses, the richer ones, the ones who will know because they should, the ones with more expensive, better cell phones. I see them and we all care how everyone is doing.

"I saw a few people head towards the park."
"Yeah, I saw them, too."
"I think everyone is ok."
"I hope so."
"Can you get through? On your phone?"
"No...everyone's clogging up the airwaves."
"I'm gonna try to get to a payphone."

I don't remember any goodbyes. I am trekking towards my girlfriend's voice. I turn around and there is a movie playing in the sky: fire and smoke, and damaged real estate.

Then there are things falling -- things I cannot make out from where I am standing, but things nonetheless, falling from the flames, from the smoke, and there are people around me shouting and screaming and crying and holding their faces. There are people falling from the towers. There are suicides being committed, and I am watching. I am hurt. I am appalled. I am wounded and I turn away, sick to my stomach.

Towards Stuyvesant High School, in and out of stores trying to see if phones work but dammit Jersey is long distance. I will call my house but no one is ho-- MY MOTHER. My God WHERE THE FUCK IS MY MOTHER?! I am looking and she works a few blocks away so I have to see her in this crowd but I don't and where is oh Jesus my fucking mommy PLEASE...please...please....please.

We can't go back. We have to keep moving. Looking for phones, past screaming people and more shoes and clothes. I wait in line for a payphone and talk to someone about how close he came to being in the world trade center. He was lucky, he said. I agreed. He said they were terrorists, and that the pentagon was hit. We wait, and I'm almost next. Then another Boom and I stare at the sky, fists clenched, thinking -- honestly, this is crazy -- that America is going to destroy whoever is doing this, thinking there are more planes hitting more buildings. No planes. Eyes on the street again and there is a huge white cloud coming towards me. Running, and running, and running, all the way up to Houston, and more waiting for payphones. I cannot get through on the payphones.

Walking, and running, and talking, and resting.

There's not much more to tell after this except that I walked home across the bridge with this dude I'd been speaking to since I'd reached 14th Street, and there were carriers in the water under the bridge scaring the Hell out of me, and I made it across to Brooklyn to be greeted by Hasidic Jews passing out cups of water, jumped on a crowded bus that took me to Utica and Dean after waiting for forever, then my boy picked me up and gave me the only hug he's ever given me, and I called my girl (now my wife) who was hysterical, and I got 9 of the most beautiful voicemail messages I'd ever received in my life and was moved to tears, and my family was happy to see me, and my mother didn't go to work that day, and I couldn't sleep because I kept hearing planes in the sky, and I couldn't go to Manhattan for weeks because I was so afraid, and just thinking about seeing any of my co-workers again causes me to panic, and I lost my job for retarded reasons, I moved to Cambridge, and moved again to Virginia and I'm happy now.

How long have you been doing poetry? Can you give our visitors a sample of your work:
I've been writing poetry since somewhere around the 3rd grade. The piece I'm showing you was written recently.

The Last Time
--

there isn't any
more I can say to you
that won't come back
to me in a way I'll
recognize; so I'll
say this, this way/all, for
the last time

I Love you

and keep my shirt tucked
in for stranger days:

I: will always Love you.
"It is a lie -- any talk of God
that does not
comfort
you." and sleep

does not come easy
when the words underneath
you are pendulous.

and so I move,
slum stride, echoes for eyes,
pacing unending dawn.

PDC: Wow, amazing. Thank you for sharing that.

What growing trend do you see in the industry that does not look like will last:
I think the whole "digital abstracts" trend has already begun to fade away and will continue to do so as more and more designers try their hand at it without a purpose in mind. I've seen several sites appear over the past few years that feature lots of empty, meaningless, cool-looking art, and I've seen books and magazines put together in the same vein. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that style -- I own some of the aforementioned books -- but I think it's been overdone. There should be some more innovative work created using that style to kind of balance out all the uninspired stuff.

've notice your first source of inspiration is God. Are you a spiritual person?
Yep. My most recent personal stuff, design as well as writing, all has some type of spiritual message hidden behind the lines. My belief in God is a very important part of who I am and who I want to be. I use art to help me flesh out my spirituality.

Thank you for doing this interview, is there any last comments you would like to share?
Thanks for the opportunity, PDC.

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