Stantec Q&A: Mark Jasin, Mr. Identity

Mark Jasin is a senior graphics designer for Stantec, but he doesn’t design buildings, parks or brochures—he creates environmental branding for entire communities and living environments, like Tokyo MidTown in Tokyo, Japan; YAS Island Resort in Abu Dhabi, UAE; and Value Retail Villages throughout Western Europe. From within Stantec’s historic brownstone office in Boulder, Colorado, the process is intricate, the passion is deep, and his insights are candid.

Mark, entering Stantec's downtown Boulder office

Q: How long have you been a designer?
A: 30 years—I started as an editorial illustrator for one of California’s first full-color papers. That was a cutting-edge time and place—using computers to make commercial designs was a new idea and, through that job, I was able to do some very progressive work that was fairly unique to the design industry.

Q: You now design brands and identities for entire environments and communities. How did that become your forte?
A: Before I came on-board full-time, Stantec in Boulder (formerly CommArts) was a client of mine. I was well-established as a freelance designer/illustrator. Through this job I was introduced to the world of environmental graphic design (EGD). I had the opportunity to do three-dimensional design work, much of which is decorative patterning and architectural motifs. Environmental graphic design wasn’t really a formal discipline twenty years ago, so CommArts typically hired traditional graphic designers like me that could adapt.

Q: Creating an identity for a community is huge responsibility and effort. What’s your process?
A: Henry Beer is a principal here in the Boulder office who has a simple, great design mantra: “memory and prophecy.” It means first having respect for the history and the culture of the place you’re branding (a.k.a. ethnographic research) and, with that knowledge, you can envision its future. The more informed you are, and your understanding of the end uses, the better the project will be. We also listen to our clients and always have their interests in mind. Branding environments is a discipline—we create a design brief (the preliminary document which describes the design direction) and the client gets to be a part of the design process, directly providing input.

Sample logos from some of Mark's projects

Q: You also create logos or “identities” for environments. Is that approach different, harder?
A: It’s not always the same formula. Sometimes we need to let the environment evolve first, sometimes we’re trying to rebrand. A brand is really the ethos of a company—a symbol needs to be aligned with that ethos. It also needs to be reproducible in every type of medium. You try and be creative and take risks but do so with the knowledge of what’s practical for the client’s needs.

Q: What does your home look like?
A: Designers always suffer from “imagery overload,” so my home has very little imagery. I have some of my original paintings hanging though. Those paintings take a great deal of inspiration from Mark Rothko, a minimalist artist. For me, his color-field work is unsurpassed.

Q: What’s it like visiting an environment you helped brand or create?
A: It’s amazing—you feel like you contributed to bringing an environment to life. It’s also a learning experience. You see things that are successful and usually you can learn how to make something better. It’s also difficult seeing it new—you’re too close to the project to really see it the way everyone else does.

Q: Do you have a favorite project?
A: It’s not so much one project that stands out as being challenging or successful—I’m excited by how the process has evolved for me personally. There are times where I have creative break-throughs and I find this fulfilling, creatively… I become more informed in the process and the projects are generally better over time.