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Pete McCracken '95

pete

Creating A Strong Voice

PNCA alumnus

Principal at an independent design firm. Musician. Letterpress and silkscreen expert. Entrepreneur. Installation artist. Budding filmmaker. Taking on a multitude of roles, PNCA instructor and alumnus Pete McCracken has developed a strong voice that crosses over from medium to medium, landing his work in galleries, magazines, ad campaigns, and on CD covers, posters, and TV screens.

“I think that it really boils down to philosophy, honestly,” he theorizes. “Film as opposed to audio or print: they’re all going to be the same.” Text is central to much of his work, whether he’s creating an installation piece or developing custom typography for clients such as MTV, Nike, Adidas, or a Star Wars movie.

pete posterPoster from Episode I International advertising (creative director: John C Jay, design firm: Plazm, client: Lucasfilm)

“It’s a voice and a vocabulary that I developed while I was in art school. I’d always been interested in writing — clever writing,” he says. Words drew him into design in the first place. With no design experience, Pete moved back home to Vermont after a trip to Europe. “I applied for this position at Burlington Free Press as a paste-up artist and I thought, ÔPaste-up artist. Hm. I wonder what that is?’”

He ended up spending long hours pasting up classified ads by hand, but it wasn’t long before he was designing ads at the Free Press and freelancing for Vermont Magazine, where mentor Elaine Bradley urged him to pursue an education.

“I had heard amazing things about Portland,” Pete says, grinning. “I remember getting into PNCA, how excited I was and how amazed I was, too… That was really the start of discovering letterpress and silkscreen, and how I could combine all of that with design, how it could cross over. Along the way in art school you learn all these great things about 3D and different materials. I had a wonderful experience and some amazing instructors.”

pete poster 2Poster for “9.11 Artists Respond” exhibition

Through a PNCA program, Pete spent his third year at the Rhode Island School of Design. “They asked me to stay, but I wanted to go back to Portland to finish.” Pete graduated from PNCA in 1995.

In the early 1990s, he joined up with Plazm magazine, which became known for its innovative editorial design and fonts, and worked freelance for Weiden + Kennedy. Plazm evolved into a media firm with Pete as a principal, creative director, and head of Plazm Fonts. In 1995, he founded Crack Press, a fine art and music studio specializing in letterpress, silkscreen, and custom typography.

Despite his “balancing act” between the two businesses, Pete still takes time to teach at his alma mater. “My students have been incredibly inspiring.”