Work by Fritz Messenbrink check out his site for more of his work: hallofritz
1. What year did you graduate?
2005… Although I never turned in one of the forms for my internship, so I don't actually have a diploma. I should probably do that.
2. What is your place of work? How long have you been working there?
I freelance full-time and currently work from my house or a Stumptown or any other place I can get on the internet. I've been freelancing full-time for almost a year now & I'm also currently in the process of finding a studio.
3. Where else have you worked since you graduated?
I worked for Mike King for a while screen printing posters, did a little time at Sockeye Creative and then got a gig at Wieden+Kennedy where I was for two years before leaving to freelance.
4. What projects are you working on currently?
A couple of secret Stumptown projects, a Nike project I can't talk about, a branding project for a renewable resource company (working with Jeff Meakins, also PSU alum), a branding project for my friend John Basioli's new clothing line, a hangtag project with Holden Outerwear, some T-shirt graphics for a couple of bands, my friends Evan & Mandy's save-the-date cards, wedding invitations, website, etc. & an online store for my girlfriend's clothing store, Frank James.
5. What do you like best about your current project/s?
I like the variety and the freedom for sure. I'm getting kind of tired of working by myself, I really feed off of other people's energy and love to collaborate, so I'm currently trying to do a lot more of that.
6. In what ways (faculty, program, projects, classes, etc) was PSU- GD successful in
preparing you for being a professional designer?
I had a great experience in the PSU design program. I loved that almost all of my professors were actually still designing things on their own, not just talking about it, actually doing it. I also felt like the program was great at getting you connected to the design community of Portland. Most of the adjunct professors I had classes with worked at design studios around town, so I instantly had a lot of connections at a lot of places when I graduated.
7. What suggestions to have for PSU-GD to improve upon or information/content that
you should have had in school but did not get?
I would've liked to have gone a little further with typography, I would've enjoyed having typeface design class for instance. I also found some of the students frustrating. A lot of them didn't seem like they were that into design and it felt like we were wasting our time discussing their work. On another note, I really wish I had taken a photography class or two at some point in my 6 1/2 total years of college. Although, I've had a lot of fun learning on my own in the past few years.
8. What recommendations do you have for any current students and/or students graduating?
Just go for it. Put yourself out there. You'll never get what you want if you sit around waiting for it.
9. Any other thoughts about being a designer that you would like to share (things
you wish you had known or just any thing of interest to you) with us?
hmmm.
10. Would you share a link to a site or a book or ? that you frequent for inspiration?
I'm super into information graphics like Feltron's annual reports, I follow NotCot , ISO50 , I like FFFFOUND!. My main sources of music are eMusic & Pandora. I like to read Dwell and look at a lot of furniture books for inspiration. I'd really like to start building more furniture.
11. Please send us a link to your site.
http://hallofritz.com