Personal stories and designer jokes pepper guest talk
October 23, 2009
It wasn’t a lecture and it didn’t feel like an interview. More of a friendly discussion. This one happened to be between two of Boston’s best known graphic designers.
Fritz Klaetke, owner of Visual Dialogue in the South End, was the interviewee. Clifford Stoltze of Stoltze Design in Fort Point Channel asked the questions. The event, cheekily titled Inside the Designer’s Studio, was held at The Art Institute of Boston and sponsored by AIGA Boston, a professional design association.
True to its James Lipton-inspired form, the questions were just as much about Klaetke himself as they were about his work. The result was a more informal presentation featuring plenty of insider jokes and a looser than usual audience question session (Klaetke was queried for the best dishes at a South End diner he once frequented).
The discussion began with Detroit, where Klaetke was born to an architect father and an artist mother.
“I had no choice in the matter,” he said. “It was genetically pre-destined that I would be a graphic designer.”
Early influences in high school and college at University of Michigan found him starting Visual Dialogue almost as a lark. His design of a college football player of the year trophy landed him the cash to move to Boston.
In the nearly 20 years since he has gathered a significant stable of clients, including the Barbara Lynch restaurant group, Smithsonian Folkways recordings, The Art Institute of Boston and other higher education institutions. His firm is usually just him and an intern - often from AIB - working with subcontracted photographers, web developers and others. Visual Dialogue, Klaetke said, was kept small on purpose.
“I got into design because I like designing,” he said. “I don’t like managing. I don’t like any part of the business side.”
Today, Klaetke lives in a renovated South End building that doubles as his studio. The home will appear on Planet Green Network’s Worlds Greenest Homes in January. The outer wall was also the site of a trademark poster work by Shepard Fairey, designer of the Obama HOPE poster. Klaetke showed photographs of the work, as well as the graffiti angry neighbors weighed it down with.
Klaetke also discussed his influences, his favorite works, his family, his reputation for disagreeing with clients and, humorously, the fact that he is colorblind.