A fantastic interview from the depths of the last decade—2003.
CK: Did you make any money off of it?
MG: No. It was all pro bono.
CK: Oh my God. “I ‘Heart’ New York” was pro bono! Yikes! Frightening!
MG: No, that’s what it should be. You want to do things like that, where you feel you can actually change things.
CK: Yes, and affect the culture. Do you mind that the logo is ripped off so much?
MG: No. I mean, look, we have such a weird idea of the relationship of design to the culture, but—I believe the best people in the world are involved in making things. There’s this talk I give in which I compare the idea of Thanatos and Eros, the instinct towards death and the instinct towards life. And people who make things are on the side of Eros. For the right project, you can get good people—the best people—to work for nothing, which is one of the characteristics of being in the world of Eros—you don’t work for money, but you certainly work for your peers’ approval.
CK: [To microphone] Did you hear that? That’s why I’m in publishing.
MG: That’s true of everyone who cares. So I’m very happy when I see an idea that I have enter into the culture, whatever form it takes. The only thing one worries about is when your ideas become repeated sufficiently so your own work looks banal and stupid.
CK: Pssssh. I don’t think that would be the case with that logo.
MG: Well, that logo has an odd characteristic by now, that it doesn’t look like anybody designed it.
CK: No. Exactly.
MG: It looks like a weird historical thing.
CK: The design itself is invisible.
MG: Yes. Basically, you don’t have a concept, “Oh, this is something that was designed.” It just seems so… I guess, inevitable. And the best sort of things you do look inevitable, I suppose.
see more at The Believer, a great art & literature magazine.
