Summer Interview Series Featuring Mig Reyes

The Summer Interview Series continues this week with Mig Reyes, a designer and self-proclaimed cookie eater from Chicago. He’s now two years out of college, and has already worked at some amazing design studios such as Rule29 and Segura, Inc. After a stint at an ad agency, he realized that just wasn’t for him. Now he has found a home “within the confines of awesome,” creating for the web at the best t-shirt company in the world—Threadless.

Humble Pied is such a great resource for students and young professionals…but…why Pie? With you being such a cookie man, why not, say, Smart Cookie?

I’m definitely into cookies, but Humble Pied wasn’t so much a kitschy name as it is an actual reference to a slang term for humility. As young designers, it’s easy to caught up in our early successes and build an ego. To eat the humble pie is to be taught humility, something I think every growing designer needs to practice more. With Humble Pied, I wanted to curate and archive bits of honest advice that will ultimately help inspire and nurture fledgling creative types.

The Show and Tell Show is a great (free!) program for Chicago designers. Everyone has a favorite show and tell experience as a kid: what’s yours?

Without a doubt, I was (probably still am) a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. I went home with a fairly good report card, so parents got me the Technodrome. My mind was blown: it was the coolest playset on the market—I had to show everyone. Fast forward to now: it was a huge honor to be a guest on Mike and Zach’s Show and Tell Show, sharing my early experiences with Threadless and a passion project I had in the works. Keep a look out, though. I may or may not be playing a role in The Show ‘n Tell Show now, and I hear there’s some exciting things planned for it!

Merge, AIGA Chicago Mentorship program, AIGA Social Media Liaison…I’m sensing a theme here. Share your thoughts on the importance of making connections and how social media is affecting our profession.

I credit most of my success in my career to the mentors and peers I’ve met along the way. That being said, I also disagree with the way people consider traditional “networking.” I once wrote about how I felt about it, and presented this idea at the HOW Conference. Simply put, networking is bullshit. I always sought to make friends and build relationships, not add contacts and swap business cards. Bevel-Emboss and Merge were events setup to help people meet people who are passionate. I’m involved in Dawn Hancock’s AIGA Mentorship program to pay my experiences forward.

For those of us that missed the HOW Conference this year, give us 3 things (either from your presentation or others) that everyone should know.

The general vibe I got from this year’s (really great) HOW Design Conference in Denver was that you need to capitalize on your passions and do what makes you happy now, not later. Mike Perry offered to everyone that you need to just “Make Stuff.” In my presentation, I touched on how inspiration is temporary, so when you have the itch to pursue a potentially great idea—do it! I could pitch to you this idea I have for a “place to store a bunch of video interviews,” or I could actually act on the idea and make something like Humble Pied. People talk about real projects and things that are tangible. A designer I met out there, Laura Sanders, also doodled some notes from my presentation.

You love to experiment with type: what are you working on now?

I’m actually still experimenting with bringing proper typography to the web. I relish moments when I can figure out hanging punctuation or small caps on the web. I also have a few experiments that I plan on turning into a series, like the illustrated Lego typography and the Google Maps typography.

All images © Mig Reyes

Tags | AIGA, Chicago, job hunting, promotion, SIS10, web design