Photos by Thomas Hawthorne
The idea that Phoenix is a blank canvas awaiting diverse artists and designers to transform it permeated the third Downtown Devil Discussion of the semester Tuesday evening.
“You can put a stamp on this city and design it,” said Justin Katz, the creative director of Flock of Pixels. “It’s kind of like this new land of opportunity.”
Katz joined Douglas Miles, founder of Apache Skateboards; Michelle Ponce, executive director of Ziindi: Indigenous Art Zine and director/curator of 1Spot Gallery; and Wayne Rainey, photographer for Rainey Studios and founder/owner of MonOrchid Gallery to discuss what makes Phoenix’s design scene so unique.
Rainey said Phoenix has its own rich talent base and culture, things from which people withdraw in other parts of the world.
“The biggest thing going for Phoenix is that it is a land of opportunity,” Rainey said. “There is extraordinary opportunity to make impact on a city.”
Although the easiest way to define a city is through comparison with other locations, the panelists said Phoenix is its own place.
“Phoenix is not L.A.,” Miles said. “Phoenix is not Chicago. Phoenix is not New York City. Phoenix is not Santa Fe. Phoenix is not even Scottsdale. Phoenix is Phoenix. Phoenix does not have to be any other city than what it is, because Phoenix is a unique city to this region.”
Miles noted the Native American influence on both Phoenix and Arizona as a whole. Native American patterns and designs inspire a lot of art in the Southwest, he said, and it was indigenous people who built a lot of the state’s basic design infrastructure, such as canals.
“Diversity gives us our power,” Miles said.
Katz, who moved here from New York six years ago and went straight into the advertising world, has been inspired by the design community of Phoenix.
“The community here has been phenomenal to me,” Katz said. “There’s no place that I’ve experienced that you have this kind of support and you have people rooting for you, which is really, really rad. In New York, there are so many people and in L.A., there are so many people, in Chicago or even Austin, that you become a small fish in a big pond. You just become another person.”
Ponce said affirmation from the community helps sustain artists, which in turn betters the community. The support Phoenicians have for each other is part of what makes the community unique, she said.
However, Ponce said a healthy dose of competition between artists is welcomed, too.
“Edging each other on is so healthy, so good,” she said. “When you see this other artist, who came up with this other amazing show, and you’re like, ‘Oh snap! They did not just do that. They raised the bar,’ when you go back to your studio, can you really make the same old stuff you’ve been making? No.”
Ponce said design can inspire a whole city to grow, succeed and move forward. She said that growth slows when design is stifled.
Quality should not be sacrificed for quantity, though, Miles said.
“Designs from this city and designers must be good,” Miles said. “Good design is about good communication. You want to communicate that idea, that concept, that product, whatever it is that you have to give to someone.”
Katz said involvement from the community is key to preserving Phoenix as a place in which people to create.
“If you expect for there to be a design community here, then you need to participate,” Katz said.
Contact the reporter at kim.olson@asu.edu
