By Kylie Sczepanski
Haley Kluge is the youngest ever creative art director at Variety magazine. The 29-year-old journalist and Forbes 30 Under 30 winner made a full circle this year, finding herself right back where she started in her media career: East Lansing. A former MIPA kid and MSU Journalism student, Kluge was nothing short of elated to come back and give the keynote address at this year’s summer workshop. She will also be teaching one of the workshop classes, Design Like a Pro.
This year’s keynote address took place at 8:30 p.m. in the Business College with more than 200 journalism students from around the country in attendance. After the presentation, students were encouraged to ask Kluge questions.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to go into journalism and graphic design?
A: I knew I wanted to do journalism (that “13 Going on 30″ thing really did stick with me, and I watched “The Devil Wears Prada” too much.) But it really wasn’t until Sara-Beth’s class that I dove into design — it wasn’t something I’d ever really thought of. I wanted to be a writer, and then as I did MIPA camp, I was taking design classes and got involved as a page designer for the newspaper and the yearbook. That’s how I fell more into design.
Q: How did you go about getting internships in high school?
A: My internships were all in college, but what I did do in high school is stuff for the local paper, the Lansing State Journal. I was writing stories for the Comet’s Tale school newspaper, and I was emailing the editors of the Lansing State Journal like, “Hey I wrote this story, if you have any interest, here you go.” That got me published in the Lansing State Journal three or four times when I was still in high school.
Q: What were your college degrees from Michigan State University?
A: I majored in Journalism and a minor with a concentration in Graphic Design.
Q: After getting out of college how did you approach getting a job?
A: I applied to Men’s Health through one of those generic HR portals and never heard back for months. Then I saw the job posted on a job board somewhere and I ‘stalked’ the hiring manager and I said, “Please hire me”. That kind of persistence is how I got the job.
Q: Did you work your way up to the position you’re currently at at Variety?
A: I was hired into Variety in 2018 as a junior designer – I was the most junior person on staff. Then after about a year, I was promoted to associate art director, a year after that I was promoted to an art director. They all from a day-to-day perspective do very similar things, just at different scales. And, then I actually left for a year. I went to Netflix, worked there for about a year, and then Variety brought me back to run the creative department.
Q: What was your position at Netflix?
A: I was an art director in Netflix’s Fandom branch, [where there’s] this website called Tudum and it’s news for and by Netflix. I was part of the inaugural design team on that so I helped design that website.
Q: Do you work more solo or in collaborative groups?
A: So I have a team of seven people. I work with them and also the photo department, so it’s a pretty collaborative effort in that sense. My page designers/art team, they’re the ones that usually design the pages every week, and then they give them to me for feedback and approvals and things like that – so it’s very collaborative. But for things like our cover, for example, I work with my photographer, my photo editor and my editors-in-chief. Then I get to send it to the finish line. So, kind of both solo and collaborative.
Q: Have you met any celebrities?
A: Many, yes. On my first day in the office I ran into Bill Hader when I was filling out my HR paperwork. It’s a pretty normal part of the job.
Q: In your job, do you write?
A: So most creative directors don’t write, but I actually do. Since I went to school for journalism and my background is in writing and I love theater, I will still write about Broadway.
Q: What allowed you to get this far at such a young age, and what opportunities has it brought you that you never thought would happen?
A: I like to think that I am very rarely the smartest one in the room, but I hope that I am always one of the hardest working people in the room. So my goal is to always really be a good team player. I like to think I’m a really good collaborator – and that quite honestly is what’s gotten me promotions and movement in my career.
Q: What keeps you going?
A: I am fortunate enough to love what I do, and I have the luxury of getting to do some pretty exciting things in my job and my career so that’s kind of my motivation.
Q: Especially in today’s world, do you find it harder to use photoshoots and physical designs like a notebook rather than graphic design and technology?
A: I love playing with both and mixing those mediums, because I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly physical artist – like I’m not a good painter or drawer or things like that. I’m better at the computer, but I love when I get to craft and make things, so when I get to marry the two that’s the most fun for me.
Q: What’s a piece that you have worked on that has been really memorable to you?
A: I have a cover that I did with Scarlett Johansson. We photographed her for the Cannes Film Festival. That festival is set in France, and it has these iconic red steps. We shot her on these very cool red steps and she’s in this full red dress. It’s like a big red cover. It’s just so graphic and cool and simple, and I had her sign it like an old French movie poster — so I think that was one of my favorites.
Q: So you work a full-time creative design job. Do you ever feel burnout? What ways do you curb that?
A: I do, and I think as writers and as creatives you would inevitably feel burnt out — like sometimes you’re just tired. For me I really am revitalized by finding inspiration in other people’s work that I love, so I have Pinterests that I save, Instagram tabs that I save and I have a collection of designers that I go back to consistently for inspiration and for research purposes. I kind of create that creative bubble when I’m feeling drained. And also working with my team.
Q: If you weren’t a journalist, what would you be?
A: I mean I’m not talented and I cannot perform, but I would love to be a Broadway performer. I’ve always loved theater. I grew up in East Lansing. My family would go to the Wharton Center musicals all the time. I feel like I just love theater, so if I had the ability to do that I would. But if not that, something in travel. I’d love to be a flight attendant and just fly all over the world.
Q: Do you travel a lot?
A: I do. My mom’s actually a travel agent, so I’m pretty fortunate we got to travel quite a bit. I also travel for work on occasion too.
Q: How best do you approach constructive criticism? How do you like to both give and receive it?
A: One thing I firmly believe in is you can’t fix a problem you don’t know exists. So if there’s a problem with one of my designers or their pages – like they’re constantly doing something that’s not to our style – if I don’t address it I can’t be mad if they keep doing it. So I think the first thing is addressing it because I think a lot of people feel uncomfortable with that confrontation in general. I like to lead with the positive, sandwiching that feedback and also ending with something positive. Finding a productive way to have the conversation is important.
Q: What does a typical work day look like for you and how much work are you doing from home?
A: I work from home two days a week unless I’m on shoots. A normal day for me starts at a 9 a.m. news call meeting with all my editors and our writers and our staff, and we go through the news of the day and what we’re expecting to cover and work on. And after that, I would go through emails and that sort of thing. And then at 10:30 I meet with my staff. We have a weekly budget, so part of my job is to delegate stories and assignments to our designers and basically track progress of the projects and then also provide feedback to my team as they are designing. I’m also designing features. I’m designing cover stories and that means going on those photo shoots and sets and then actually designing them on page.
Q: How do you deal with writer’s/designer’s block?
A: That’s a good question. I scroll a lot. And I flip through physical magazines. I love looking at the New York Times Magazine, I love looking at Wired, I just love seeing what other designers are working on. There’s an instagram account called cover junkie that’s one of my favorite places to follow. So it’s usually about sourcing other designs and what they’re doing and that kind of pulls me out.
Q: How selective of a field do you think your profession (print and design) is today?
A: In full transparency it is becoming more rare everyday. Print publications are folding and people are going online only. Even when I was at Men’s Health we had layoffs. It’s kind of a norm – kind of a joke – that it’s a right of passage in what I do. At one point, I was laid off. It [graphic design] is a specific skill set, but the great thing about it is it’s super transferable, which I think is nice.
Q: Do you think that there are any opportunities out there for high school students or teenagers, and how should we get experience in the field?
A: During one of my MIPA camps I made a little fashion magazine just for fun just because I loved doing it, and those are the projects that I’m showing at job interviews. So it wasn’t necessarily a class assignment, it was just something I did and was passionate about and was so excited to share. I think creating even if it’s on your own time is helpful, and that’s how you build what’s called a portfolio to interview with. That would be a good investment of your time.