NeueJournal — the online media platform for NeueHouse

Personal art & design blog Soft—Skills

Matthew Boblet is an independent artist and designer crossing the intersections of art, culture and technology — “Lately I’ve been become increasingly interested in crafting image and content, and thinking past the idea of design as a vessel for content, but rather how the two may not need to function separately, but in unison.” Since graduating, his work has been commissioned for clients such as NeueHouse, WAX Magazine, the Whitney Museum of American Art, BULLETT Media, Slate Media, Bloomberg, and design studio Base.

What were your favorite classes at Parsons?

• Core Interaction w/ Brian Watterson
• Thesis w/ David Yun
• Core Typography w/ Geoff Han

Core Interaction was particularly eye-opening—aside from being my first real introduction to programming and all things digital design, which would later play a large role in my work—this class taught me most of the essential principles of design, how to create a harmony between content/images and typography, and how crucial empathy and experience was to design. The web was simply the medium in which we employed these ideas. Ultimately, Thesis was the crucial exercise in combining a personal concept with all the principles and values learned up to that point. For myself, much of this was also heavily influenced by what was learned through the really powerful liberal arts classes at Eugene Lang, as throughout my time in school I found myself constantly questioning what roles do art and design play in contemporary society—the visual practice was just my tool of choice for exploring these questions.

Promotional visuals for record label Give Them Decadence

Who do you look up to in the design community?

Lately I’ve been become increasingly interested in crafting image and content, and thinking past the idea of design as a vessel for content, but rather how the two may not need to function separately, but in unison. With that in mind, people like:

Michal Sukup: http://osim.tumblr.com/

Brian Vu: http://www.brian-vu.com/

Hassan Rahim: http://hassanrahim.tumblr.com/

and the people at Haw-lin: http://haw-lin-services.com/

All have been big inspirations to me as of late.

Special mention to Folder Studio: http://folderstudio.com/ for just being so good at everything.

Logotype and font for an erotic magazine in the upcoming film Saturday Church

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

I feel like I’m way too young in my career to determine that kind of defining moment, but I’ve been blessed to play a big role in some really big cultural projects, that I’d never expected to be. Being part of the design team at The Whitney that brought the museum’s new identity to life, and working with NeueHouse from the ground up as part of developing their brand and their media platform—the NeueJournal, are definitely two of my proudest moments thus far.