idsgn (a design blog)

Continuing our Fresh & Hungry series, Chris Rubino speaks with New York-based art director Christine Gignac.

CHRIS RUBINO: The variation in your work is what immediately attracted me to it, I’ve
 enjoyed your long-running needsforsale.com and wantsforsale.com sites for quite some time. You partner with your husband (artist Justin Gignac) and work at Mother with a team, is collaboration an absolute in your process?

CHRISTINE GIGNAC: 
Collaboration is very important to me. It’s so easy to get stuck when you’re working alone because you get lost in your own head and start to forget what makes sense and what doesn’t. My best ideas seem to come out when I have someone else as a sounding board. When I’m having a conversation there’s less pressure and the ideas flow naturally. You never know when one of you will say something that sparks an entirely new idea for the other. Working as a team just inspires me more and pushes me harder than I could on my own. And it’s more fun.

I agree, I’ve only recently started to learn this.

I love that there is a wink in a lot of your work. How important is humor in
communication, do you feel like this makes your work more accessible?

Humor definitely makes my work more accessible. The funniest things are usually the ones we can all relate to. People don’t want to take themselves too seriously. So if you can make them laugh or smile it brings their guard down and they’re more receptive to your message. 

The sense of humor behind Wants For Sale is a huge factor in it’s success. The idea itself is very straightforward and the paintings are simple, but the fun nature and cleverness behind the idea attracts people. Where else can you find paintings of video games and buffalo wings? If the style and subject matter were taken more seriously the concept definitely wouldn’t be as successful.

You seem like someone that is on a thoughtful trajectory, do you have a specific plan for yourself?

I don’t have a plan. I want to try as many different things as I can. In the past year I’ve made a documentary, produced a choreographed light & dance show and directed my first TV campaign. I never expected to do any of those things and I didn’t even know I wanted to until the right ideas came along. I hope the future is just as surprising and diverse. More than the specifics of any one technique, I love the process of coming up with a new idea and getting to take on something I’ve never done before.

Very exciting! Thank you very much Christine.

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To see more of Christine’s work, visit christinegignac.com.

Explore the Fresh & Hungry series:

• Introduction
• Jessica Walsh
• Frank Chimero
• Tomas Mankovsky
• Micah Lidberg
• HelloVon
• Jennifer Daniel
• Christine Gignac
• Always With Honor

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Chris Rubino is a New York City-based artist/designer whose work has been exhibited in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and the U.S. He likes to spend his vacations in the desert and has been in a number of motorcycle accidents. He would very much like to meet Lawrence Weiner one day. Visit his work at www.chrisrubino.com.