robin andersenPortfolio CV Contact Statement |
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I acquired my first book on typography at the age of eight. Soon thereafter I began emulating typefaces by hand. Just as Hunter S. Thompson copied Hemingway line by line—I imitated the facets and features of various fonts and typefaces. I acquired my first 35mm camera at the age of nine. The addition of a Super-8 movie camera—found at a yard sale—rounded out my quiver of image-capture equipment. I furiously documented every aspect of my young life—a passion that has stayed with me. Everything was fair game, my neighborhood, friends, and school. By the time I reached high school, I was effectively combining my love of text and image through my work on the school paper as the layout and photography editor. The seed was sewn, this was where I wanted to go with my life. Shortly after high school I had the good fortune to be caught up in the tail end of the first wave of the dot-com boom. During this period I worked for the California Energy Commission and a B2B startup. I gained web design skills and honed my business communication skill set. After the bubble burst, I turned—as many at that time did—to finishing my education. I was accepted into the San Francisco Art Institute on partial scholarship and studied within the Design & Technology Department. I was fortunate to have solid understanding of the mechanics of design—online and traditional—but my time at the Institute offered me a chance to dig deeper. |
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I explored not just the 'wrist' side of the equation—production skills and the like—but the combining of design theory and critical thinking models that the Institute has cultivated for more than a century. While at SFAI, I also reinvested myself into photography and filmmaking. Employing digital and traditional formats, I repeatedly built upon—and broke apart— conventional narrative models in order to push my boundaries and to sharpen my acumen as a photographer and filmmaker. While deconstructing and reconstructing my photographic and film work at school, I also asserted myself in the professional space as a photo assistant and was quickly promoted to the position of videographer. This gave me two distinct playgrounds where I could at once satisfy the experimental and the real-world. This was tricky, I had to balance combining regular trips across the U.S. for production summits, and keeping up with my studies at school. It paid off, I was able to distill invaluable knowledge and experience from the academic side, at the same time I was able to work shoulder-to-shoulder with top-notch videographers, photographers, and producers. Through the process I was able to pick up techniques and processes that very few—if any—of my fellow students could hope to have access to. My early passions for mimicking letterforms and visually seizing moments through the lens have coalesced into a formidable package. I am excited to see what the world offers and what lies just around the bend for me as a photographer, videographer, and designer. |
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