Since 2013, the Mohawk Maker Quarterly has celebrated both Mohawk Paper and the modern creative maker. “There is a huge movement of people who are passionate about things made with care, craftsmanship and intense consideration. We wanted a platform to honor the wonderful and inspiring work that is happening,” says Dora Drimalas, executive creative director and co-founder of Hybrid Design, who works with Mohawk to produce the Quarterly.
Each issue takes three to four months to produce start to finish. “The timeline allows us to create great stories,” Drimalas says. “It allows time for collaborations with artists like Tom Sachs (Issue 11) and allows time to really work through the craft of choosing paper, doing press tests, proper preproduction and color work. We get to play with the art of creating content, designing an object, then making and printing it. It is a dream project.”
Trying to improve and learn with each issue is Hybrid’s personal goal. Although the firm started in the print world, print was not a large part of their business when they began working with Mohawk. Through that work, they’ve found a new appreciation for the different paper choices that are available, and it has helped them recommend interesting print projects to other clients.
Drimalas says her favorite things about working on the quarterlies are the content and the clients: “The first is creating the content: curating issues, themes and stories. I can’t stress that enough. You don’t often get that level of creative freedom on projects,” she says. “The second is that Mohawk is one of the greatest clients and companies ever—period. Great people, great products, great culture and great vision. All of that with a four generation–long track record. They could teach us all a thing or two.”
The Quarterlies are a large team effort, and the Hybrid team is always pushing themselves by asking, “What’s Next?” From editorial, artists, writers, illustrators, design, pre-production, paper and materiality to printing to the client, all of the players have to work in harmony and challenge themselves with each issue for it to be a success. Drimalas calls it equal parts passion project and object lesson for Mohawk and Hybrid. “We both loved the idea of creating an artifact of the maker movement,” she says. “A wonderful time capsule executed in an engaging and well-crafted way.”
Title Maker Quarterly Issue 10: Beauty; Issue 11: Process; and Issue 12: Partnership | Design Firm Hybrid Design, San Francisco; www.hybrid-design.com | Creative Team Dora Drimalas, Caleb Kozlowski, art directors; Mike Andersen, Brett Newman, Patchara Charoensiri, designers | Client Mohawk