Welcome to Wheels Off, a show about the messy reality of the creative life.

I'm Rhett Miller.

Aaron Draplin is not just a graphic designer. He is a force of nature. He's also an author.

He's the founder of the Draplin Design Company. He has done work for everyone from Nike to the Obama administration.

He released a book in 2016 called Pretty Much Everything that is just that.

It's a retrospective of his work, which spans anything you can think of.

He's done it.

Notably, he does rock and roll album covers.

He's done some covers for the old 97s, as well as

for a solo record of mine. He is a badass. He is intelligent and as excited and excitable as

they come. He's bursting out of his own skin. He's a blast to talk to. He sat down with me in the workshop

behind his home in Portland, Oregon. Please welcome to Wheels Off, Aaron Draplan.

Hi, Aaron. Hi, man. Thanks for coming over. Dude, I'm in your office. This is okay to say, right? I'm in your office in Portland. Yeah, we're in the backyard. I mean, can you work in your backyard? The answer is yes. And can your commute be 10 steps. The answer is fuck. Yeah. Are we allowed to swear in this? Yes, you can. I'll keep it real gentle. But, you know, I work downtown. So we're, you guys at the Wonder tonight, right?

Yeah, the old 97 is very time to play at the Wonder. So it's about the same distance to where I was on Third and Stark. And that would take me 65 blocks would take me an hour sometimes. So instead of bitching about it, Portland's changing fast. We built this. and I get to be in my little sort of den back here and hide.

And it's more efficient.

And, um, changing fast we built this and I get to be in my little sort of den back here and hide and it's

more efficient and we're saving a little bit of money but the power's in our hands you know

when we yeah so um I'll start where I always start with my guests what are you working on

right now and how does it inspire you?

Right this very second.

Are you ready for this shit?

Yeah, fit me.

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