NAME: Alex DeArmond
LATIN NAME: mt. doomus
AGE: 33

Task “uses design as a starting point to talk about a lot of other things,” says Alex DeArmond of the new magazine he produces in collaboration with the designers Emmet Byrne and Jon Sueda. “Recognizing that just about everything in life has a design product —or by-product—somewhere in its story is a point of access for us into strange and interesting worlds.” The magazine includes stories by and about designers who are doing things differently— “an attempt to give voice to our own frustrations and hopefully connect with other people who are feeling the same way.”

DeArmond knew Sueda through the California College of the Arts and Byrne was a colleague of his at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. All three of the collaborators are designers, but they find they spend more time on the editorial aspects of making a magazine than on its physical design. “All of our conversations are about articles and content,” says DeArmond.

When, during an interview for the first issue, the designers were asked who would be designing the magazine by the Dutch designer Armand Mevis, the answer was, “We all are.” The fact that they are located in different cities—LA, Boulder and Minneapolis —might seem challenging, but DeArmond is confident that a combination of an organizational software program such as Basecamp, iChat, regular working meetings and the fact that they have a “really nice rapport” will ensure “smooth sailing.”

In addition to working on Task, the first issue of which printed in early 2007, DeArmond splits his time between teaching at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and working at McGINTY, a design studio based in Boulder, Colo. Prior to moving to Boulder with his wife, DeArmond worked as a senior designer at the Walker Art Center. “The Walker is a totally unique place to work as a designer. The ‘client’ interactions are with people who are your close colleagues and who share your priorities —it’s a team effort.” While at the the Walker Center, DeArmond took home a slew of awards, including several from AIGA and I.D. magazine.

DeArmond admits that adjusting to life after the Walker has been challenging. “I feel like after more than a year I’m only just starting to get my priorities straight and chart a course that will work for the kinds of things I really want to be doing.” Alice Twemlow

TOP:Program guide and poster for the 2006-7 University of Colorado at Boulder Visiting Artist Series. Every year the department of Art and Art History hosts a series of free lectures. Part of a long tradition of commissioned posters going back to the 1970s, the use of repeated images and multiple versions allows for spontaneous compositions to emerge when several are posted on a wall.