Friday Fives: INDUSTRY's Brooklynne Worthington
September 24, 2021
Most Fridays we give #highfives to a different designer from our extended family of PNCA students, faculty, alumni, and guest lecturers. 🙌🏾🙌🏻🙌🏽 This week, we're doubling the fun with two conversations, with communication and brand designers from the independent, global creative consultancy INDUSTRY. Next up is Brooklynne Worthington. We asked her five questions, and are posting five images.
Brooklynne is a graphic designer who values community, connection, and storytelling. She aims to be candid and explorative in her work, and believes you can advance and engage culture while having fun. Most recently her projects have been focused on layout, art direction, and defining overall tone. Aside from work, Brooklynne surfs, swims, works on her garden, and crochets…always seeking peace amongst the hustle and bustle.
Along with her colleague Gavin Rear, Brooklynne joined us on 9/29/21 for our Design Lecture Series, a student-powered conversation with visiting guests, current PNCA Design students, faculty, and friends, presented in collaboration with FISK. (See recording at the end of this Q+A!)
Graphic Design department head Kristin Rogers Brown spoke with Brooklynne in September, 2021.
Q: What feels vital to the future of design, to you?
A: Respect! Respect for the environment, different cultures, people’s worldview, their privacy, etc. A lot of design is driven by consumerism, and I think that opens it up to being potentially exploitative. As designers we have the opportunity to shift perspective and be agents of change, and with that comes the responsibility to make sure our work is rooted in respect for others.
Q: What is one thing you want to learn right now?
A: Woodworking. There’s something very satisfying about physical craft that you don’t get from digital design.
A big shift for me was realizing that my passion and point of view are much more valuable...
Q: What advice would you give your former self?
BW: Let your passion drive your work. In school I spent a lot of time making work that I thought would get me a job, and at the start of my career I was really focused on pleasing clients. A big shift for me was realizing that my passion and point of view are much more valuable than doing the “right” thing.
Q: If you could get critique from one artist (living or dead) who would it be?
A: Ken Garland! I hope he’d be proud of me. <laughs>
Q: How has your work style, or collaboration style, changed since graduation?
A: I’ve learned to work fast and have streamlined my process. Coming up with a bunch of iterations and ideas in a short period of time feels much more efficient than fixating on one thing. Even if what I have is far from perfect, quick comps serve as a jumping-off point and help inform my final work. And you get to have more fun!
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Hear more from Brooklynne in conversation with students and faculty in our Design Lecture Series (recorded, below). Talks are in person for PNCA students, staff, and faculty, and also open to the public streaming FREE with registration (we'll send you a link). Co-hosted by PNCA Graphic Design and FISK. See more from Brooklynne on instagram at @brrooklynne, or through INDUSTRY @industrypdx.
Follow along with our #fridayfives on instagram @pncadesign.