Women Throwing a Hissy-Fit
I recently attended a fun and inspiring lecture given by the two, long-term best friends of Number 17 - Bonnie Siegler and Emily Oberman. The evening was the first installment of the 17th Design Lecture Series of the AIGA of San Francisco. From the laid-back and extremely light-hearted presentation given by these two, you'd never think that their work has been sought after by clients such as Orbitz or Saturday Night Live. Bonnie and Emily are not only extremely talented best-friends, they're also extremely funny.
The partners showed us samples of some of their best campaigns, including Colors (by Beneton) Magazine and the Sex and the City book, and told hilarious stories and anecdotes along the way. The stories surrounding their Air America (hence, the "hissy-fit" reference) and Lucky magazine experiences had the crowd rolling. It was refreshing to see, and hear, that designers can experience the same sorts of trials and tribulations no matter how high-profile the clients or work are. These two seemed so approachable and outgoing, I felt like I had been a friend of theirs for years.
A particulary funny story centered around mimes that were hired to don an astronaut costume, made by a prop-guy, for a clip to be used in the updated branding of MTV. To make a long story short, the costume had no ventilation in the suit or view out of the helmet, which caused the first hired mime to pass out in the middle of his "space walk". Tragic, yet funny!
The evening was rounded-out by their ongoing and recent work for Saturday Night Live. We got the inside scoop (dish, dirt) on what really goes on behind the scenes of this long-running television program.
You didn't hear it from me, but, the word is that when the two actually hit "Number 17", they're calling it quits. Who knows? They seem to have so much fun together that I'm sure whatever they do, it will still have an impact on our popular culture.
Oh yeah, and if you think that their website doesn't adequately reflect the work they do - they're "getting to it". (Don't we all say that?)
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