We’re absolutely honored to feature Don and Ryan Clark of Invisible Creature for our last issue of 2013! Like many who have found their way into the world of design and illustration, Don and Ryan’s journey started with music. From there, it branched out into running their first design studio, Asterik, and then Invisible Creature. The work that Don and Ryan have put out over the years is astounding, and we think you’ll enjoy getting to know them personally. Sit down, relax, and take some time to read about how Don and Ryan found their footing in a niche that is very much a reflection of all the things they love, and let it inspire you to find a way to dive headfirst into what you love, too. —Tina
Interview by Ryan & Tina Essmaker December 24, 2013 Photo by Invisible Creature Invisible Creature designer illustrator musician Founded in 2006, Invisible Creature is a multidisciplinary design and illustration studio in Seattle, Washington. IC has received four Grammy nominations for music packaging, and has worked with clients such as Target, LEGO, Nike, Adobe, XBox, the New York Times, Nickelodeon, and MTV. Their work has been featured in the pages of Print, HOW, Communication Arts, IdN, and Juxtapoz, as well as publications of the hard-bound variety. TGD Traveler: The perfect travel-sized version of our beloved large format magazine—small and light enough to take anywhere—packed with the same inspiring content our readers love. Buy Now Interview Describe your paths to what you’re doing now. Ryan Clark [RC]: I’ll let Don go first because he got started in design before I did. Don Clark [DC]: Ryan and I are four years apart—a lot of people think we’re twins. Despite the occasional headlock, we got along great as kids, and we’re very close now. Our grandfather was an illustrator at NASA and our dad was, and still is, a woodworker—he makes guitars now. Grandpa had an amazing, broad range of styles and, because of him, the idea that someone could get paid to draw was with us from early on. We grew up wanting to emulate what he did. And like most kids, we loved to draw— RC: That’s pretty much all we ever wanted to do. DC: Yeah, we knew we’d make a living in the arts, even though we didn’t know if it would be in music, design, or illustration. RC: Our parents were really good about putting us in extra-curricular courses. Any time we wanted to take an art class that wasn’t part of our schooling, they signed us up. Birthdays and Christmas gifts were how-to-draw books, Prismacolor pencils, and sketchbooks. Our parents were cool with us wanting to do art. Tina: How did you actually make the transition from high school to making art for a living? RC: Both of us took a detour into music. I don’t think we considered visual arts post-high school, although it might have been a fallback somewhere in our minds. I’d had different garage bands with friends, but when I was 14, I started a band that was a bit more serious. We played a bunch of shows and got signed to a label when I was 15—my parents had to sign the contract—and, at 17, I did my first US tour. Around that same time, Don had also started a band. We were simultaneously playing in bands and not doing much design or art. My band broke up right after we got back from tour; we were way too young to cope with it all, and it was very much a reality check for us. When I got back, Don was still working with his new band, but they had lost their singer, so I joined Don’s band. We were in that band, which was called Training for Utopia, for probably four years, up until around 2000. At that point, we’d done two full-length records and two EPs, three to five tours, and had played lots of local shows. Eventually, the drummer wanted to go back to school, and we were starting to focus on jobs and asking what was next for us—it didn’t seem like the band was going to be that. Then Don had an opportunity to move up to Seattle for a dot-com job. I’ll let him talk about that. “When a lot of our peers were going to college, we went on the road and into the studio. We completely skipped college, and being in bands was almost our college experience.” / Ryan Artwork by Don and Ryan’s grandfather, who worked as an illustrator at NASA DC: Like Ryan said, we didn’t know exactly what we wanted to do when we were in high school, but we knew it involved art. We got so immersed in music, and in the hardcore, punk-rock scene— RC: When a lot of our peers were going to college, we went on the road and into the studio. We completely skipped college, and being in bands was almost our college experience. We made a lot of friends and built relationships that would come back to really start feeding us once we were designing. DC: We also got married around the same time and there was more responsibility to figure out what was next—you know, our 20s were over. That’s when we took design and the company more seriously. At that point, we already had relationships from music, and we had so many contacts and friends in the industry. When we decided to do design full-time, the natural jump was album packaging because it fused our passions, and we had so many opportunities with friends and labels. That really blew up around 2001. RC: Yeah, we didn’t really have to reach out; it just snowballed from one job to the next. We’ve never actively sought out work. It was the kind of thing where we worked with a band and then they got signed to a label; then we got in with a major label and their art director; then maybe that art director got laid off or went to another label, so we got in with that label. We’ve followed bands, art directors, and managers, and they’ve kept calling us. It’s been really cool. “Tooth...