Fizz Creative is an award-winning collaboration between Jasen Melnick and Katie Major. Fizz Creative started out simply, over a pint of beer. After working various design positions, they still found ourselves wanting to do more projects that excited our passions. Realizing their unique talent for patterns, branding, packaging, and ideas, they decided to strike out on their own.
1. What’s one of the most surprising places from which you derive inspiration? We find that some of the best ideas come when you’re doing something else. Often, our ideas come when we’re in the shower, doing dishes, drifting off to sleep, or doing some mundane task. Often the inspiration comes after we stop the deliberate design process and try something else. Because our ideas seem to pop up after we leave the computer we carry moleskins with us everywhere just in case. Our creative thoughts can sometimes leave just as fast as they come so we have to write them down or they can be gone forever.
2. Over the past few years, what’s one thing that has really challenged you creatively? Creatively, it’s challenging to be productive in a timely and manageable process—to be very efficient with our time. We also have learned each others strengths and how to best work together. Jasen is great with fine detail and really putting the polish on a design; while Katie is good with concepting and giving the project a direction. We have found that it’s crucial that each of us use our strengths efficiently to get the best work out of us.
3. Who are you most looking forward to hearing/seeing at WMC Fest? Julia Kuo, she has beautiful work Jennifer Daniel looks like a lot of fun
Johnny Cupcakes, always been curious what he’s like.
Tad Carpender, we follow his tweets and he seems hilarious.
Friends of Type, they have such interesting projects!
Jen Myers, we both did webinars at the Emerge Conference and would love to chat with her!
There is just so much talent that is going to be at this year’s fest, it’s hard to pick one!
How does music play a role in your life? What bands/albums are on heavy rotation? We both have very difference taste in music so we’ll answer separately.
Jasen:
I never really geeked out with my music library, so everything is just piled into one file that plays on random. I skip a lot of songs. Playing music while I’m working makes me feel more relaxed. I often don’t really hear the music when I’m deeply engrossed in something, so blogs and podcasts don’t work well for me. I tend to listen to most of the same bands I did 15 years ago. Heavy hitters include Nine Inch Nails, Flogging Molly, Rammstein, The White Stripes, Incubus, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, 311.
Katie:
I have never been big into bands or albums, just songs. Based on my itunes “most played list” here are some top favorites: Trent Reznor (great for design inspiration), Lighthouse and the Whaler (first heard them at WMC fest!), Massive Attack, Solid Gold, Anberlin and Rihanna. Music inspires me as I work, it keeps me going when I’m running, and wakes me up in the morning as my alarm clock. I love listening to music and can’t wait to hear some of the amazing bands at this year’s fest.
You can follow Fizz Creative on Twitter or visit their site! Find Jasen and Katie at WMC Fest at the iLTHY Workshop all weekend!
Click here to order your tickets to WMC Fest today! If you’re interested in joining us as a sponsor for as little as $50, there are numerous packages available here.
