DESCRIPTION:
Tracy Jenkins, who graduated in 2004 from Yale’s MFA program in graphic design, had spent the six years prior to graduate school at two studios in Chicago. Today, Jenkins is a designer at 2x4, New York, which she sees as “a lucky extension of grad school.” Jenkins also runs her own studio, Village, with her partner and husband, Chester, of Thirstype fame. With her former thesis advisor Michael Rock, she recently worked on the Rem Koolhaas Harvard Project, the City book, and is currently producing a Thirstype poster series.

VOICE:
In her graduate thesis, Jenkins makes an impassioned case for the importance of craft, which she believes is too often left out of the design conversation. She believes it’s where the designer’s voice lies, whether or not the intended audience can immediately identify its elements.

Jenkins likes to invent “weird and downright stupid systems— and then use them only as far as it’s interesting or makes sense to—as a way of tricking myself into going somewhere I might not otherwise go.” She also finds herself in favor of pink these days, which adds a touch of cheekiness she can appreciate. “It’s one of my favorite colors to use because it’s so lovely,” she says, “but it’s strangely inappropriate.” DISTINCTIVE MARKINGS:

HABITAT:
Village is in a tiny spare bedroom in New York’s East Village. “Village is mostly an idea,” says Jenkins, “and aside from being a tax benefit and a health insurance provider, it is a place we use to make works with and for friends and ourselves.”

SPOTTED BY:
Rick Valicenti, Thirst, Chicago: “I have had the unique pleasure to develop personal projects in collaboration with Tracy. She brings a level of intellect that is rich and pointed. Her tongue is firmly planted in her cheek. Adding to her conceptual point of view is her well-focused, modern typographic approach.”

CONTACT:
646.654.1506 | www.vllg.com

Written by Tiffany Meyers