Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Andresen.
Mark, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I lived here in Atlanta back in the 1980s, I helped design Creative Loafing, Atlanta Gazette newspaper, and Atlanta magazine, as well as posters for the legendary 688 Club. I left for New Orleans around 1989 and had a number of great projects – restaurants, jazz events, musicians, voudou priestesses and the city’s tourism. I loved that place, but when Hurricane Katrina came and wiped us out we moved back to Atlanta, a very changed city, 20 years later. I’ve been here a while now, but not quite plugged into the design or the arts community like I’d like to be.
Has it been a smooth road?
People elsewhere quickly forget disasters and how they change people’s lives. It took 10 years to get out from under the debt and rebuilding that was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I can’t go back. Atlanta is lucky it never had such trauma. The biggest challenge was, and is, to find a way to be a part of Atlanta, a part of the design community or arts community here. So far I haven’t succeeded as I’d like. But there’s still time.
So, what should we be on the lookout for, what’s next in store for you?
Future plans are classified information at the present. No, not really, I’m working on an illustrated book. Plans are to go worldwide.
Let’s explore some of the challenges you’ve faced along the way. What was the most difficult part of your career so far?
Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath in New Orleans. A hurricane changes everything. The chaos, the loss, and the destruction involved are enormous. Both the material things and the emotional things are up-ended. Priorities get a new insight as to what is important. Moving to Atlanta was a Plan B, not the course I wanted. At the time, this was not an easy city to find creative work in as I struggled to get a new footing. It’s all over now, and I find work elsewhere than in this town.
Do you ever feel like “Wow, I’ve arrived” or “I’ve made it” or do you feel like the bulk of the story is still unwritten?
Maybe one example though When my design work with Emigre was featured in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in New York City.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.behance.net/markandresen
- Phone: 4048433825
- Email: mark.andresen@att.net
- Other: www.ello.co/mark-andresen
Image Credit:
all images copyright by Mark Andresen
