INTERVIEW: Tom Pappalardo the face behind Standard Design, author of Broken Lines
Katie McNeill - published May 11, 2007

Broken Lines: Book One of Four, Maybe is simply about good and evil. You have evil firemen vs. a Cowboy complete with six shooters, a Spaceman who feeds red licorice through his suit, and Maggie the waitress. These characters come together to form Standard Design's delightful self-published illustrated novel.

What is Standard Design?

Standard Design is me, Tom Pappalardo. It's the name I do design work under. In the context of Broken Lines, Standard Design is also the publisher, I guess, since it's self-published. By me. Tom Pappalardo. And I'm Standard Design. See?

Would you mind telling us what Broken Lines is about?

Broken Lines is about a good and evil, death, redemption, and boredom. And lousy coffee. Lots of lousy coffee. You've got a grumpy cowboy and a goofy spaceman on a road trip in a stolen moving van. They save a waitress from her rather uninteresting life and boom! - she's tagging along on their cross-country mission. Naturally, they are being pursued by Bad Guys.

What made you decide to do an illustrated novel?

Well, I'm always sitting on a backlog of story ideas - some comic, some prose, some just scribbled outlines that could go either way. But my actual output has historically been pretty low, because, you know, I work for a living and stuff.

So it occurred to me that maybe I should just combine a bunch of unrelated ideas into one big story. I knew it would be a major undertaking, take forever to do, and require a lot of discipline that I don't by nature have, so I had to create a set of rules for myself that would let me complete the damned thing without giving up a third of the way through it, you know? That meant allowing myself the freedom to switch from drawing to writing to whatever I needed in order to get the story down on the page.

So the book's "illustrated novel" format is sort of the result of my short attention span, my impatience, and ultimately my desire to force the story out of my head and onto paper. I have found it to be a very enjoyable way to tell a story. It works. I like it.

Where did the idea for Broken Lines come from?

Broken Lines is a reaction against a lot of junk I see in movies, TV, and books that just drives me nuts - dialogue that makes me cringe, contrived plot twists, characters with no history or personality. So even though the story itself is a bit outlandish, I wanted Broken Lines to be grounded with characters that talked like real people and responded to weird situations like normal people would. I wanted everyday settings, and I wanted an extremely unromanticized, uncool, un-"comic booky" take on a hero story. I mean, why doesn't Batman drive a 1999 Ford Econoline moving van? They're very spacious.

I have to ask you about The Firemen because I laughed so hard while reading about them. Why did you decide to make firemen evil?

Well, the pragmatic answer is that I needed an army of bad guys that all looked alike so I wouldn't have to sit down and design a new character every time I needed a new bad guy on-scene. So, you know, they're my lazy equivalent of storm troopers, I guess. Other than that, the choice was pretty random. Just a bunch of dumb dudes wearing full-face oxygen masks. I had a serious doubt about making them firemen after 9/11 because real firefighters were being so revered for awhile. But fortunately, America has a short memory and we've gone back to ignoring their important contributions to society. So thank God for that.

What do you think is most appealing about your work?

It's got moxie.

Do you have a favorite character from Broken Lines? Why?

Currently, it's me, the omniscient narrator. I hog a lot of the funny lines, because I want everyone to think I'm clever and witty. My second favorite character doesn't appear until Book Three, so hold your breath til like, 2010.

Would you mind sharing a little bit of what the future holds for your heroes?

Their future is everyone's future: Lots of sitting around, a few laughs, then death. Then maybe a few more laughs.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/05/11/180940.php

 

INTERVIEW: LETTERX, 2006



GIGPOSTERS.COM INTERVIEW
gigposters.com newsletter, October 2002

How long have you been making posters?
Well, since 1992 or 93, probably. But, you know, I've only been taking it seriously for about, oh....three weeks or so.

Do bands or venues tell you what they'd like their poster to look like?
No, not really anything beyond "Don't do color - we can't afford it."

How did you first get in to making posters?
Trying to hype my own band. I hear that's how Albrecht Dürer got his start, too.

What's your day job?
I make graphics and animations for corporate sales presentations. Like, PowerPoint slideshows for salesmen guys. It's sorta goofy, but the job has taught me mucho computer skills. The other cool thing is that I get to work from home. It's just like being a freelancer, except without that sinking feeling of dread stealing over my soul when the rent's due.

Where do you get your ideas?
Jesus, I don't know. I come up with all sorts of stupid ideas all the time. I fill sketchbooks with 'em and don't use most of them. To me, thinking up a good idea or concept is more fun than actually making a nice finished piece of art. I guess my only criterion for an idea is that it has to amuse me until I'm done drawing the damned thing.

What are your favorite bands?
Uhhh.... Clutch, Tom Waits, Clash/Strummer, The Police, Replacements/Westerberg, Tindersticks, Maiden, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Smith, Bjork, Johnny Cash, Run-DMC, Nick Cave, Fugazi, Soul Coughing, Meters, fIREHOSE/Watt, random turntable people. I dunno, lots of stuff. I worked at a music store for a bunch of years, so I sort of developed that annoying eclecticism that goes along with the job.

What would you say is the best show you've ever been to?
Nick Cave. Amazing mix of super-pretty sorrowful piano ballads and heavy, amazingly heavy Evil that punches you in the sternum.

What techniques do you use to make your designs? Computer, silkscreen, copies?
When I actually draw, it's Sketchbook+Sharpie+Pilot Precise pens, touched up with that ProWhite stuff. I almost always go out to coffeehouses or somewhere to draw, so I usually have to cut the ProWhite with medium roast, sugar and half & half. Everything eventually ends up in Photoshop for layout, color & cleanup. The only Photoshop filters I use are blur, sharpen, and color halftone; I arch my eyebrows suspiciously at all the other ones. My output is either laser copy or photocopy. I stay away from bright colors, usually. I avoid bright green or bright yellow like I avoid twentysomethings wearing ironic Goodwill-purchased T-shirts. I stay away from hand-lettering because my hands hurt alot when I do it and it just doesn't come out very good. I like clipart, but only if I screw around with it. I like a limited palette.

Which other designers have influenced your style the most?
I like Saul Bass, Reid Miles, old Russian posters, Charles Shultz, Chris Ware, Ted McKeever, and I have a bunch of those Chronicle Books collections of different logo & poster stuff. I like all that junk but never really spend alot of time looking at it or thinking about it, so I'm not sure what influences the crap I'm putting on paper. And Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee influences me. His style is no-style.

Do you do any other art? Graphic design? Fine art?
I've done two-and-a-half buttloads of cartoon stuff in my day, most of which will never get published. I wrote a comic for Matt Smith ("Through the Wood, Beneath the Moon" from Caliber) and a hopefully-upcoming one for Mister Reusch. I've recorded 2 CDs with my lame-o band No-Shadow Kick and we're working on another. I've done a handful of web design stuff and Flash animation. I have a rusty old Mustang that I work on myself. I have a stinky old house that I work on myself. I consider all of these half-assed endeavors to be creative art.

What do you consider your best poster? Why?
The two dudes about to get hit on the noggin by the pickup truck. Why? Because I'm not sick of it yet.

 

- back -

site map