Monitor: The Futurists
The Truth About Honest
Words: Sue Apfelbaum
Photo: Jan Hilmer
Choosing a provocative name like Honest for their design company took guts. After all, Parsons School of Design graduates (and now professors of Broadcast Design) Stella Bugbee, Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott (pictured from left to right) knew they were entering a field in which making things look good can be misleading. So while design may not always be deception-free, Honest's work is refreshingly without ego and genuinely marked with integrity.
Based in New York's Chinatown, Honest creates experimental, often playful, motion graphics for such clients as Nike and Ultra Records, as well as brand identity for the Andrea Rosen Gallery and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. "Our style is that we don't really have a style," Murnion admits. Bugbee goes on to explain, "It depends on the client. We have a style, but we like to present several options and let them decide." When allowed to express themselves freely, what comes out can be a Monty Python-esque Web site for quirk rockers Ween (created because Milott told the band that theirs sucked) or the squishy earplugs promo for AIGA that resembles a lost scene from Fantasia. They even like to make sports-themed short films, such as Rubin, about a sit-ups competition inspired by years of humiliating gym classes. The future should hold big things for Honest, if they do as their site declares and stay honest.
