Ryan Schmidt of Contributing Editor Interview
Trey Taylor: Can you please fill this out?
Name: Ryan Schmidt
Age: 31
Occupation: Creative Director and Co-founder of thecontributingeditor.com
Currently Resides: New York, NY
Favourite Song: All time favorites include Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang by Dr. DRE and Still Ill by The Smiths to name few.
Also We’ve featured a couple really cool new bands too on the site, and I love discovering new sounds that way.
Trey Taylor: First impressions. You design for Contributing Editor. What do you think about See Like Me? And make it as brutally truthful as possible.
Ryan Schmidt: I love that it’s all about the interviews and it’s not complicated. The web is full of flashy, copycat and often ugly sites, so the clean simplicity of See Like Me is really nice. And I’m a sucker for paintbrush style handwriting.
TT: What is Contributing Editor all about? Who came up with the idea and why do you think it works?
RS: Contributing Editor is a place where the next generation of talented creative people can collaborate with us to realize their vision beyond what they could do for a typical print magazine. At the time we decided to start Contributing Editor, I was working for an advertising agency, but wanted a small project where I could really experiment. Matthew and I were talking and I mentioned wanting to do a web project. I love the immediacy of working online and it turned out he had been thinking the same thing. We started talking about different approaches and it grew from a tiny kernel of an idea into what it is today. It’s an ever evolving project and it’s grown so much already since we launched in September ‘08. Contributing Editor has the freedom to capitalize on the ever evolving technology of the online medium. Having said that, I think the core concepts that have made it successful were integral to the original vision:
1. A venue for new talent, new ideas and new ways of interpreting fashion, style and culture.
2. Having new stories constantly on the site.
3. Commisioning people we think are forward thinking and inspiring them to think without parameters. It’s more difficult than one would think.
TT: What is your role at Contributing Editor?
RS: Overall art direction and design, story layouts, editing pictures, and concepting stories with Matthew and all of our contributors. I’m involved from the start of the story to actually posting it on the site. We prefer to develop stories with photographers, stylists, and writers from inception rather that just taking submissions. It’s important for the point of view of Contributing Editor to be evident in everything we publish.
TT: Tell us all about your days as a young-in. How was your childhood? How did you come to be where you are right at this moment?
RS: I grew up in Seattle and Portland, in the middle of the west coast scene. I got into art through doing graffiti, went to art school and ended up at FIT. I didn’t graduate, but I did get some great work experience during my years at school. Early on I was an intern for an very cool set designer named Marla Weinhoff. Marla worked on lots of amazing projects including many Vogue stories with Steven Meisel. My first day on the job was a Meisel cover shoot for Italian Vogue! I was blown away, and I knew I had to be in the middle of that. The atmosphere was incredible.
After FIT I went to work at Harper’s Bazaar for then Creative Director Paul Eustace. At Bazaar I met Matthew and had the chance to work with a group of really talented people, many of whom went to on to be fantastically successful like Thakoon Panichgul, Terry Tsiolis, and Jaime Perlman (who is the Art Director of UK Vogue).
TT: Would you call yourself an interesting person? How do you explain your job to other people?
RS: I think in general, my life is pretty interesting (to me at least!). I’m surrounded by so many different people in New York and I just kind of soak up their vibes and take it all in. New York is an amazing place because you can roll in so many different circles; from really out there artists and graffiti villians, to the fashion crowd. The young, creative and gorgeous all collide in an interesting way here. That’s my life at least. I’m so influenced by my friends and I love working and playing with diverse types of people.
TT: So it looks to me like you’ve worked for quite the range of big league publications. How did you get into that? Did you enjoy it?
RS: See question 3. Haha, yeah I love it. It’s nerve wracking sometimes but I’ve been privileged to work with some hugely talented people and personal heros over the years. People like Doug Lloyd, Alasdair McLellan and Terry Richardson have all been influential on my career and my work. They are just so out-of-this-world creative it’s humbling.
TT: Do you feel as though Contributing Editor actually contributes? And if so, what to?
RS: I hope it does. It’s a constantly evolving project, and we have some really cool editorials upcoming, so stay tuned. We push everyone we work with to do something out of their comfort zone and I think the results have been exciting. Working online is somewhat of a challenge due to my traditional print background, but it’s been an interesting experience. Perhaps not coming from an online background allows us to be more creative when we use the medium and not so precious to what has worked online in the past. We want to do things differently and we don’t really care about what’s already been done on the web. I’m really looking forward to the launch of the new website design we are working on, I know it’s going to elevate the way people see the content.
TT: Why did you decide to team up with Matthew Edelstein? Have you guys always been friends?
RS: I’ve know Matthew for a decade and we’ve always sort of talked about working together. We share an aesthetic and frame of reference. He’s a huge force in making Contributing Editor happen. He’s a machine, always working! I aspire to his level of commitment. He has an incredible taste level and and amount of experience in publishing. Everything on the site is filtered through that.
TT: If you knew one thing that might change the way somebody thought, or how they wanted to pursue their dreams, what would it be?
RS: For me personally, my career hasn’t been a linear path, and if I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn’t have done things the same way. Having said that I do think experimentation is key. Surround yourself with people you are inspired by and learn from them. Thanks Trey!
TT: Thank you Ryan! I hope that the site grows and I would love to work with you in the future! Cool stuff.
