WEDNESDAY, JUNE11, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN =11
BUSINESS
KU grads build pro bono 'Humble Empire'
Zach Straus/Kansan
Peter Heffner, St. Louis graduate, is the cofounder of Humble Empire, a graphic design studio "without a front door." Humble Empire is a group of recent college graduates who are offering their artistic talents to clients with little or no budgets.
By Richard Gintowt rgintowt@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
In their last year as graphic design students at the University of Kansas, Peter Heffner and Matt Cassity worried that taking comfy corporate jobs would squelch their passion for design.
A year later, Heffner and Cassity have those jobs, but their passion remains. It's just slightly misplaced.
Heffner and Cassity are the ringleaders of Humble Empire, a collection of six KU graduates who do free work for bands and other clients with limited or zero budgets.
"We work day jobs to facilitate what we do at night," Heffner said. "We wanted to be like Robin Hood; to rob from the rich and give to the poor."
Cassity and Heffner created Humble Empire while working for The Arts Group, a design team based in the KU School of Fine Arts that works for University clients. They were inspired by Tiber Kalman, a successful designer who did pro bono work for bands like the Talking Heads.
Unlike Robin Hood, the only commodity Humble Empire members rob is their own free time. Heffner said he had often worked 20 hours a week for Humble Empire on top of his 40 hours a week at Indicia Design in Kansas City, Mo.
"When you have a design job you don't get to pick your clients," said Cassity, who works for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, Mass. "You need something to keep yourself sane after 5 o'clock."
For Cassity, Humble Empire presents an opportunity to work with more creative clients.
Heffner designs all of the flyers and album covers for Archer Avenue, a Lawrence-based record label that includes the bands Getaway Driver and Kelpie. He also designed and screenprinted 3-by-5 foot posters for Out of Focus: Local Film and Video Showcase that took place May 12.
Jeff Ruggles, Out of Focus co-producer, said he was blown away by the posters, which were printed backwards on transparent plastic so that the text was truly out of focus.
For more information about Humble Empire, visit www.humbleempire.com
"I really wanted to pay him," Ruggles said. "It helped spark interest in the event."
Humble Empire also includes Sam Spratlin and Kate E. Burke, KU graphic design graduates who work in Chicago. Lawrence filmmaker Matt Blume and Chicago writer Mark Hansen round out the Empire.
All of the Humble Empire members contribute their talents to Kallide, a collaborative music and film project that gave its first performance in April at The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St.
Heffner and Cassity said their first priority was designing for bands, but they wanted to work with writers in the near future.
— Edited by Kevin Wiggs
"We want people to think like us," Heffner said. "We don't want to put all our creative energies into making money."