We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Randy Ludacer ("RL").
Randy Ludacer is an award-winning designer that helps make the World a better place with their original and innovative creations and advanced design works.
Randy Ludacer Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Randy Ludacer.
Randy Ludacer Design - Bakers Dozen 13 Pack Egg Carton
Designer Interview of Randy Ludacer:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
RL : Technically, my very first graphic design project was as a child, when I designed the winning school “Crest” for my elementary school. Being a graphic designer, however, was never an early aspiration. I had harbored hopes of becoming an architect or perhaps a fine artist. Graphic design (and packaging design) was something that we just clumsily stumbled into.
DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
RL : BEACH is literally a “mom and pop shop.” Deborah Davis and I have been married since 1982 and business partners since 1990. Our home-based design firm is named after the street where we live and work. Namely: BEACH. We started out as “Beach Street Design.” In those day, we were more like “general practitioners,” handling brochures, catalogs, logos, business cards, etc. Eventually we became specialists in package design and related branding, changing our name to "Beach Packaging Design." (Later shortening it to just “BEACH".)
DI: What is "design" for you?
RL : Ideally, design work is problem solving. But, of course, not everyone will agree on what the problem is, and some solutions are in the eye of the beholder. In some ways, however, the marketplace will ultimately decide which solutions work best. Still, it can be dispiriting if (what one thinks is) the best solution gets shot down to soon in the elimination process.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
RL : I like it best when I arrive at a solution, with no preconceived idea about how it should look. Structural packaging projects are often like that. Having more to do with materials and process and less to do with decoration.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
RL : I think our first project was some sort of line-art graphic (a baseball & bat) that we designed for Macy’s Corporate Packaging sometome around 1990. If I remember correctly, it was also the first artwork created with our new graphic design computer: a Macintosh IIci
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
RL : I think mornings are best for creative thinking. Later in the day, my productivity becomes more mechanized and repetitive tasks become my wheelhouse.
DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
RL : Honestly, I don’t consider the designer any more responsible “for society and the environment” than any other occupation. As humans, I would agree that we all bear some degree of shared responsibility.
DI: How do you work with companies?
RL : We are pretty flexible. We try to hit the ground running and we’re naturally curious about new products being invented and brought to market. We’re not shy about suggesting things, but we’re not "prima donnas.” If a client wants something very specific, we’ll usually try and and accommodate them. It’s still a business, after all, as much as we’d like it to be purely creative.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
RL : In house, we have a team of two partners. We both design, and we each handle our own accounts. Deborah also handles product photography, while I do most of the photoshop work—retouching etc. It would be foolish, of course, to forget that the client is also an important part of the "team."
DI: How can people contact you?
RL : We have our phone number and email links on our website, as well as a contact form, for those who prefer filling out forms. Those who contact us on Facebook, do so at their own peril. (I just don't check it as often as some folks seem to expect!)
DI: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
RL : Wash your hands. Stay safe. And please wear a mask if you're attending a gala, even if it's not a masquerade!