I'm a designer, maker and educator with over two decades of experience in translating strategic objectives into innovative, relevant solutions.
As Design Director for IDEO, I broadened my scope by bringing a unique perspective on user-centered research and multi-disciplinary collaboration into the overall design process. Through my work with Gap Inc. and as Design Director of Banana Republic’s Marketing team, I discovered new insights into branding and consumer messaging which I'm able to leverage in both in practice and in teaching. Prior to joining Academy of Art University in 2005, I spent several years anchoring the Graphic Design program at the University of California Berkeley Extension. My visual-design work has been featured in numerous books and publications such as Print, How, Critique and Wallpaper magazines.
I'm as comfortable in the workshop as in the classroom — and you can find me designing and building furniture at NorCalMod.com, and audio equipment at Cyanovox.com. You can also find me detailing DIY construction and renovation projects at RedneckModern.com. My design/build work has been featured by Dwell, CA-Modern, ApartmentTherapy, DesignSponge, IkeaHackers, DWR Design Notes, and West Elm's Front+Main... and it's a bit weird how often I find myself re-pinned via Pinterest.
When not in the classroom, I can be found blogging about design education at www.room557.com and you can find more at www.linktr.ee/hlwimmer
I dream of a world without double-spaces after punctuation and can tell the difference between maple and birch by the smell of the sawdust. I've also become disillusioned with referring to myself in the third person.
07/02/2020
file under: teach
As the Associate Director of Graphic Design, I wrote and worked to oversee most of the core-conceptual-track and branding-track of our graduate-level (MFA/MA) graphic design curriculum. In doing so, my work is best shown through the work of our many talented students who most often come into the graduate program with no previous experience. My job is to get them from the question of "what's a font?" to the work you see below and ultimately to earning an advanced degree in design. I keep a robust blog about it all.
As a 36 (MA) or 63 (MFA) degree program, our curriculum is divided into a two-track path: conceptual and formal courses. I have conceived, written, refined and taught in each of our seven semesters. Special attention is paid to the process as well as the outcomes of each course.
Click below to read and see more.
Zack Simons chose the films of Sam Pekinpah as the focus for his Integrated Communications project. You can see more of Zack's work here.
file under: photo
I'm as handy with a camera as I am with a hammer, pencil or mouse. Having spent most of the early 90s in the darkroom, I tend to approach photography from a traditionalist's standpoint, but am adept at current digital processes. I not only know what the "burn/dodge" tool in Photoshop does — but also where it came from.
All that said, my photo work is too often integrated in other media — design, building, etc., so my portfolio is fairly scattered. Below are a few excerpts, but you might be just as wise to wander over to one of my many Instagram channels: hlwimmer, norcalmod, cyanovox, and redneckmodern; Flickr — much of which is architecturally based; or a few discrete PDFs on specific projects inked below:
Charlie Brown: I was fortunate enough to be tapped to photograph the installation of Richard Serra's Charlie Brown for Gap Inc. and Don Fisher. It was pretty epic. Playing with the symmetry and juxtaposition of the before-and-after installation visages (and large vs. small aspects of the work vs. the installation team), the photos were shot in tandem with PBS's Art21 series. There's a VHS video of it somewhere.
Robertson-Ceco: Tandem with my design work — and in partnership with Ted Bluey at Oh Boy — I photographed the metal-building company from the inside-out. On his shoot, we purposefully shot very low-fi print film (vs. the more typical transparency... in 1998, digital photography was not yet "a thing"). The result was a very genuine aesthetic that paired with the concepts for the annual report for the following two years.
Growing Up Happy is a collection of casual portraits captured over the years... mostly of a very personal nature.
Go West chronicles a 1995 road-trip over 16,000 miles in a 1963 Galaxie 500. I still had hair ... and a 50s era twin-lens Rolleicord given to my by a photo mentor, George Nan at VCU.
file under: build
I spend almost as much time in the workshop as I do behind a podium or computer. Below are some fo the design/build initiatives I have running — from renovation to furniture building:
NorCalMod // Furniture design and design/build construction. There is some natural overlap with Redneckmodern as much of the furniture and renovation work stems from my personal projects, but typically, the furniture side can be found at Norcalmod. There's also a robust Instagram page.
Redneckmodern // Mid-century-modern renovations + restorations (also done under the Norcalmod moniker). Check us out on Instagram as well.
Cyanovox // Hand-built audio. This started with a few audio experiments of my own and grew into a fun offshoot of the workshop.