Dan Cassaro is a designer, animator, and illustrator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. He puts words on paper so that they might be accountable for themselves. Young Jerks is his one-man design studio specializing in custom type, illustration, logo design, and powerful 70s rock and roll.
Dan Will be speaking in Louisville on July 19 at 6 p.m. at The Green Building. The event is organized by the Louisville Graphic Design Association.
Questions for Dan Cassaro were provided by Tyler Deeb. Tyler is a graphic designer living in Louisville. Tyler works under the name Pedale Design and because of his admiration for Cassaro’s work was a natural fit to conduct the interview.
Everything from your design work to your Twitter feed has had a consistently obscure, skillful and humorous approach. Have these qualities always been important to you as you have built your brand and client base?
Those qualities have always been important to my real life. The fact that dad jokes, wise-ass comments, and musings on obscure music are actually associated with my work is a huge bonus. I feel lucky to be able to infuse my personality into my job. Not everyone gets to do that, you know?
Absolutely. But do you find it more difficult to accept criticism or find rest from your work since your personal interests and character are so wrapped up in your work?
It’s always hard for me to take criticism about my work. I’m a huge baby about that and it’s one of the things I am trying to work on. On the other hand, I gave up worrying about people dogging on my personal tastes a long time ago. It evens out.
You throw the word “boner” around pretty often as an adjective (book-boner, dad-boner, etc.). When did the word “boner” become such an important descriptive word for you?
Ever since I saw Princess Leia in that gold bikini. It’s just a great word. There are very few words that express the full range of human emotions as well, and none of them are as hilarious as “boner.”
Jabba the Hutt, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker from episode, IV and V would all agree with your source of inspiration. But, as with all trend-setters, there will be a time when someone in pop-culture will ruin and popularize trends a person creates. What person out there could single-handedly ruin the word “boner” for you?
No, “boner” is too fringe to go mainstream. McDonald’s is (sadly) never going to offer the McBoner Burger. Also, I hope you are not positing that I started some sort of “boner trend.” This thing is bigger than me. Bigger than all of us.
I am pretty sure Michael Scott started a trend that would follow up your answer perfectly. You live in Brooklyn, New York. Do you find it a comfortable place to live and work? Does the dense population of incredibly talented young creatives and entrepreneurs make your community feel competitive or apathetic? Encouraging or cutthroat?
It’s intimidating and inspiring and I wouldn’t want it any other way. There is a healthy competition that exists within the creative community, but I would never use the word cutthroat. As big as this city is, the creative community is still pretty small. Being a nice person always works to your benefit.
Can you briefly share a story in which you were intimidated but later inspired while living in Brooklyn?
Ha, I was scared to live in Brooklyn when I was at school. Everyone seemed like they were doing exciting creative things and had such nice haircuts and pants. When I moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn after graduating it was a huge relief to find that everyone here was just like me. We’re all just trying to make nice, meaningful things and pay our rent.
We have an unoriginal expression here in Louisville that goes “Keep Louisville Weird.” If you could describe Brooklyn using the “Keep Brooklyn…” motto, what would it be?
Maybe no word after it? That would be kinda heavy, right? Just KEEP BROOKLYN. People would wear a shirt that said that.
Dammit, Dan. Is less always more?
Nope, only sometimes. Less is more and more is more, but just a middling amount of something is Nickelback.
Let’s imagine that both your hands were cut off due to a horrific ski lift accident in the Swedish Alps. They were able to stop the bleeding and get you to the hospital, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful in reattaching your hands. What next?
WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT? YOU’RE A MONSTER. I would figure something out. I would find some way to attach paintbrushes to my stumps and start painting letters and then someone would write an inspirational New York Times article about it. Honestly, I would be more concerned with things outside of work, like how I would go to the bathroom by myself.
Woah! That would be seriously inspiring. In fact, you often make posters with little nuggets inspiring advice. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
There is a quote attributed to Woody Guthrie that goes, “Take it easy, but take it.” I love it. He didn’t give me this advice directly of course, but I really have taken it to heart. It helps me to remember to never take things too seriously, but always work hard and get shit done. Having a good balance seems like the secret to a happy life and that quote is a good reminder for me.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
Our creative director, Matt Dobson, is a huge fan of Dan Cassaro’s work and is the president of the Louisville Graphic Design Association, the organization that is hosting Cassaro’s visit.
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