Tails of a graphic design wingman #5 - Alex Bogusky

John Bielenberg had been running a design workshop in Hale County, AL, which is a story in itself, but as a result of that, it somehow gained the attention of advertising legend Alex Bogusky. Alex had recently left CP+B and was exploring his options. We were still working in California at the time, but John was always looking to be near great minds, and with Alex in Boulder, a visit and meeting were quickly arranged. We had a game of guessing what type of car some new client or collaborator would pull up in. Waiting for Alex, we had the typical Boulder cars pegged to him - Range Rover, Porsche, Tesla. To our surprise Alex ripped up on his cruiser bike - that was unexpected. 

There are all kinds of industry stories about “Alex,” how difficult he was to work for, and his ego. Maybe when he was in the thick of agency life, there was some truth to it, but I found none of this in the guy sitting across the table. Alex was nothing but incredibly positive, collaborative, and hungry for ideas. I’ve been around a lot of top designers, and Alex is one of the fastest, smartest, and most talented I’ve met. He gets in and gets his hands dirty - literally. He is the real deal, and his success is well deserved.   

Initially, I worked with Alex to design a set of logos for Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project. I developed an elegant system based on a simple green circle, which worked across a few divisions of the Climate Projects. Alex was, of course, the in-between working with Al and getting his feedback. As we were finalizing things, Alex passed on a small change from Al. The former Vice President wanted to add the famous “Blue Marble” image taken from Apollo 17 to fit inside the green circle. We both knew there were many reasons not to add a photographic image to the logo, which needed to work in all sorts of media and various sizes, but Al had requested it. I learned then even the best in the business can get topped and need to compromise. Alex handled it gracefully, and nobody knew the difference.