elli rader interview
July 11, 2007

from the art on tour blog (mike mckeever / mck designs)

Looking at McK Designs website there are some very cool aspects to see. Very neat layout. Very easy on the eyes. The person responsible for all this work is elli rader. She is a local graphic designer and collaborates with McKeever on different projects. Lets try and find out where this all comes from.

1.) Where did you grow up and how did that shape who you are as a designer?

ecr:  oh boy. these are good questions….i did that thing you’re supposed to do on tax forms and applications where you read all the questions first before you start to answer. where i grew up is probably the hardest thing to answer about myself. i moved around a lot starting at age 3. bought a house last fall and counted lifetime total moves to date….fifty four. i think as a designer it gave me a kind of worldly eye and open-mindedness. and probably more importantly, the ability to be resourceful. oh, and the ability to talk to strangers easily even if i don’t necessarily want to.

2.) There is a long, interesting history of artists and the art world. Where do you see yourself in this world today as a web designer?

ecr:  i don’t really see myself as part of an art world. or maybe i am not sure what you mean by art world? if you mean THE art world as in…uh…fancy painters and people who live in big cities and have nice things and go to parties…well…that isn’t me. i guess i see myself –and this is ironic–kind of in the business world, in a way. a lot of what i do is meant to support local and small businesses and help them create a presence on the web that is appealing and cool and what they want without having to break the bank or go on the supercheap and resort to those template thingies that you can’t change very much and don’t look very nice. i have had the good luck to work with some really cool artists and musicians in addition to business owners, or sometimes a combination of those and it has been very rewarding. i like to help people make cool stuff and get what they want.

3.) When was the defining moment in your life when you realized you had a love for art and design?

ecr:  i don’t know that there was one. i have always been into art–but i was actually more into poetry and literature and art as it applied to those, or inspired me to write. i always thought i would just be a writer and ride my bicycle in the park all day singing songs and shouting poetry and generally living a life of leisure without having to worry about money. i went to college for a bit and i know there is a question about that later, but i took a class called basic design and it was the first time i realized people did design as a job. i got a terrible grade, but after that i got really interested in how things fit together on a piece of paper…and i started to cut out magazine pictures and made collages, and pasted bits of poems on them. i have an enormous book of it and i think that was my first real design project. it took me five years. are my answers too long?

4.) Can you name some artists or media figures that have influenced you or gave you inspiration?

ecr:  there’s a book called the art of modern rock –i got it for christmas after going to the rock poster exhibit at mcad a while back. it’s totally inspiring to me, and it also makes me feel like a tiny bug who has no business even trying, which makes me try even harder. maybe that’s how i get inspired, i beat myself down and then rise up to overcome. just kidding! but seriously, the book is cool. it’s not a person and i guess you asked about a person. music…always inspired by music and i could go on for just days and days about that. i suppose the two musicians who have consistently inspired me on many different levels would be jay farrar and richard buckner.

5.) What other interests do you have?

ecr:  i love to take photographs and travel. i used to do this thing where i would sit and uh….read books. weird, i know. not much time for that with the small kids around, and they rip the pages. i look forward to my future reading years when balance can be restored in my brain. just taking a break from it.

6.) Obviously there had to be some kind of formal training to set up websites and do all that crazy technical stuff. Where did you go to school to learn that?

ecr:  as i said, i went to college for “a bit.” by that i mean not so very much at all, and it had absolutely nothing to do with computers. i was in the fine art program at the university of oregon. many unfortunate circumstances prevented me from finishing college, or from even rightly getting going in it, so i taught myself everything. mostly by just opening a program and clicking on stuff until i figured out what it did. in fact, i spent a few hours teaching myself some stuff just a couple of days ago, and you will be able to see the results on the mckeever site one of these days here.

7.) Art and music are always closely related. Who are some of your favorite musical artists?

ecr:  yeah, i’ve already alluded to the music thing a little, this is an enormous subject for me. i like many many different kinds of music and my favorite depends on what i need mentally at the moment. i bought a record right before i started answering these questions, it’s called omnibus and it’s by a band called tarkio. it was colin meloy’s band before the decemberists. i listen to a ton of local music. ok, i will go do a random shuffle on my itunes and give you the first five things: 1. billy johnson; 2. vetiver; 3. arcade fire; 4. tom feldmann; 5. six mile grove.

8.) Where do you see yourself and the web world in ten years?

ecr:  i want to keep building on my skills and teaching myself design–not just the technical skills or the programs, but the big picture of design and also the history. i am going to begin designing my own fonts. i am going to start painting again. and i would actually like to go back to school at some point if i ever have the time or money. anyone want to give me a scholarship?

- Neil Gonzales – beat writer – PC pop art