Interview #002: Dan Cassaro of Young Jerks

by Jay Delaney

Dan CassaroAbout Today’s Subject:
Dan Cassaro

Creator of: Young Jerks, Springstreets, 50 and 50
Day Job: Freelance Designer
Location: On the road
Websites: Young Jerks, Open Highway Reader,
50 and 50, Springstreets
Twitter: @youngjerks

Dan Cassaro is Taking Graphic Design to the Road

Today I’m posting the second interview to Create the Map (scroll down to check out the video), and I’m proud to share this conversation with a true pioneer, Dan Cassaro.  I met up with him at a pretty exciting time, just before he set out on a brand new adventure.  Dan’s new home is the road, and as I write this he’s headed westward across this great land.  He just recently left his full-time job with a design firm to not only become a freelancer but also to travel cross-country with his scientist girlfriend Niamh.  They’re embarking on what they’re calling a “science and design caravan.” (I’m really happy to be publishing this interview now to commemorate their first week on the road. Congrats Dan and Niamh!)  Dan is an enormously talented illustrator, and if you’ve ever seen the commercials for LivingSocial, then you’ve experienced his talent firsthand.  He developed the lettering (“type treatments”) used in two of their commercials.  (Click here to watch one of the LivingSocial commercials featuring Dan’s work.)  Aside from that, he’s the guy behind two awesome projects we discuss in detail in the interview (see more below).

I met Dan at the 2011 Weapons of Mass Creation Fest in Cleveland, Ohio.  This interview is the second one I’ve posted of several I conducted at that event.  Dan was a speaker at WMC Fest, and I was lucky enough to hear him dazzle the audience with his tales of creation.  I first met him at the WMC Fest art gallery where I purchased two of his Springstreets prints.  Springstreets is a road map he created capturing the streets and landmarks from Springsteen’s first seven albums.  (If you ever wanted to see the lay of the land around Thunder Road, this is your opportunity.)  During Dan’s talk, he also discussed his 50 and 50 project (aka the State Mottos project) where he brought together designers from all 50 states to contribute designs and prints representing their own state motto.  Add to all that his recent decision to hit the open road and travel across the states, and you can understand why we clicked and why Dan was an ideal interview subject.

“If you care about it enough and you work hard enough at it, other people will care about it. It’s totally that simple.”

What stood out to me is that Dan is a shining example of the potential to transform small, personal side projects into big, impactful projects that connect and unite people.  Part of the secret behind this seems to be his belief that if you’re passionate about something, then it’s pretty likely other people will be too.  That doesn’t mean it’s easy in the beginning or that everything just falls right into place like clockwork.  But I really like that Dan is living proof of this idea that if you do what you love and put it out into the world, then it’s likely that there’s an audience for it who will really connect with it.

Proof of the Power of Small Side Projects: 1,300 Prints and Counting

Springstreets PrintSpringstreets started as a personal project for him, and yet at the time I interviewed him he had sold about 1,300 prints of what became the finished product.  It began when he decided one day to draw a map of Thunder Road to try to capture the imaginary map in Springsteen’s head as he writes his lyrics. But as Dan scratched the itch, the project grew.  He decided to map out the entire Born to Run album.  He didn’t stop there.  He decided to keep going deeper into the rabbit hole.  And then, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 albums later, he was done.  It’s a pretty glorious piece of art that he’s created.  He did an initial run of 500 prints.  Then another run of 500.  And he’s now on the third run of 500, having sold about 1,300 prints in total.  I love that what was originally a small side project grew into something that’s now been experienced intimately by the 1,300 people who’ve purchased prints of it.  Springstreets got lots of love and was featured in places like Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Paste.

Uniting 50 Designers from 50 States for the State Motto Project

50 and 5050 and 50 also started as a small, personal side project.  He calls it a “designer’s atlas.”  As a travelin’ man with a love for road trips, he dreamed up the idea of creating designs for each of the 50 state mottos.  But quickly he realized it would take an incredible amount of work to do it all by himself.  He came up with the idea of inviting other people to be part of the project to make the project even more rich.  He recruited 49 other designers who each took on the awesome responsibility of representing their own state motto with their own designs.  He reached out to some of his design heroes through the project to invite them to participate, and everybody – except for one person – said yes.  It took a lot of work, a lot of managing logistics, and a lot of wrangling.  Each step, the project gained more momentum, and now it’s complete with all 50 states represented by a powerhouse of designers.  It’s a great example of how great ideas can have a snowball effect and how you just never know what someone will say until you ask them.  Be sure to check out your own state and the 49 others here.

You have two options:

  1. A Taste (1 min. clip). In case you only have a minute.
  2. The Feast (full 20 min. interview). If you want to spend some quality time with Dan, choose this.

Option #1: A Taste (1 min. clip)

Option #2: The Feast (full 20-min. interview with viewer’s guide)


Video Tip: If the video plays slowly or skips at all, hit the play button, then pause and give it a few minutes to load.

Viewer’s Guide for the Full Interview

I’m an advocate for checking out the full interview, of course, so you can really get a good idea of Dan’s story.  Here’s a quick summary of what we discuss, in chronological order.

  • Cliffs notes version of Dan’s bio
  • Dan talks about where the idea came from to travel across the country
  • A preview of the route they plan for the road trip
  • His game plan for getting clients on the road
  • The Springstreets project
  • The 50 and 50 project
  • Doubts / inner critic related to the 50 and 50 project
  • The positive pressure that comes from getting others involved in a project
  • Lessons from the 50 and 50 project
  • A few big risks he’s taken
  • How he gets unstuck (yes, he does get stuck)
  • What’s mattered most for him so far in life
  • Feeling like he’s who he’s supposed to be
  • Advice for people who are out creating their own map in life

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