My name is Isaac Moylan, and I am an artist and designer. I have a background in art and comics, with an MFA from Brooklyn College and a number of self-published comics to my name, but I make my living from design. What unites my practices is my interest in seeing how things work.

I enjoy going between art, which has no rules, and design, which is full of them. (Hierarchy! Clarity! White space!) But what I found in grad school was that serious art might not have any hard rules but it requires sustained research and rigor - taking the time to be aware of what artists have done and are doing, and knowing about my chosen topic before I start making art about it. I keep that in mind in my personal projects and I bring that focus to design work. 

My most recent project, a graphic novel, takes place in New York City and the “Borscht Belt” - a number of resorts in upstate New York popular with Jewish people who’s heyday ended in the 1970s. It was important to read about these resorts and what significance people have assigned them. Even if little of the research goes directly onto the page and my characters don’t start quoting essays at each other it is still important to have knowledge that informs what the characters believe. This is similar to designing, for instance in creating social media posts for a non-profit earlier this year. Researching what other related non-profits were doing in their social media I saw some very interesting work with textures and illustrations and as someone who draws it was tempting to also illustrate. But I recognized the needs of my client and created simple patterns to work with the photography my client wanted to use in creating a design that met the professional standards expected of a non-profit. 

If you have any projects in mind or want to ask me something I would love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a line at isaacmoylan@yahoo.com.