MEET MAY ALUM OF THE MONTH: TAYLOR LOUTSIS ’07

  • AMHS

After graduating from AMHS in 2007, Taylor attended Washington State University before transferring to The Herberger Institute of Design at Arizona State University to study graphic design; finishing an 8-year undergrad. While in design school, he had incredible opportunities working at design studios all over the world–from Germany to Singapore–while also spending one summer as an artist-in-residence in New York City.

After graduating from AMHS in 2007, Taylor attended Washington State University before transferring to The Herberger Institute of Design at Arizona State University to study graphic design; finishing an 8-year undergrad. While in design school, he had incredible opportunities working at design studios all over the world–from Germany to Singapore–while also spending one summer as an artist-in-residence in New York City.

After graduation, Taylor moved to San Francisco to join a studio specializing in exhibitions, branding and environmental graphics, where he worked with established tech companies like Google, Adobe and PayPal. He eventually relocated to NYC, where he has been a part of legendary design agencies 2×4 and Pentagram, designing for cultural institutions and global brands like Prada, MIT, Smithsonian, Apple, Samsung, among others. Taylor has also served as co-chair for the Society for Experiential Graphic Design, NYC Chapter, coordinating educational events and other programming for members of the design community.

Taylor lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the Founder & Creative Director of Studio Loutsis, a brand strategy and graphic design practice.

You recently started your own brand strategy and graphic design practice, would you tell us about it?
Studio Loutsis formed in early 2018, and recently relocated into a beautiful studio, providing additional space to grow our team and host collaborations with clients. Our work ranges from identity and brand consulting, to partnering with architecture firms on large-scale signage and wayfinding systems, to designing retail packing and books. We work with organizations of varying sizes and objectives, both corporate and cultural. Our defining approach consists of first discovering and developing a unique and compelling narrative with each project, and then communicating that narrative through strategy-driven design. This approach allows for us to determine which medium is best to communicate the narrative: print, digital and/or environmental design.

How did you decide to start your own practice?
I love being able to build relationships with my team and with clients directly. I also highly value the ability to oversee the creative direction with projects. During the years I worked at other studios, I began to notice that many design practices lacked a singular, comprehensive and strategy-based process that could successfully adapt to the needs of a wide variety of clients. I began Studio Loutsis to address this need in the design community.

Can you tell us about the biggest hurdle you’ve faced during this experience? What about the greatest joy?
The biggest hurdle was initially having a lack of clarity with our ideal client and/or project. For the longest time I kept saying yes to nearly all projects, but ultimately I was accepting work that either wasn’t the best fit, or we were overworked and couldn’t deliver work on time. I’ve learned clarity with knowing the type of clients and projects are critical components to growing a successful practice (or any business), and initially this lack of clarity was my biggest hurdle. Then the greatest joy is the ongoing collaboration working both with my teams and our clients. I truly love every phase of our process, from an initial coffee date discussing a prospective project through to production and launching final work.

What has been your proudest moment since high school?
The day I received the keys to our newest studio space.

What experience has changed your life and/or helped you grow?
Without a doubt, relocating to NYC. This city arguably has the greatest movers and shakers in the world within the design industry, as well as equally gifted designers, architects and strategists. Brushing shoulders with this extraordinary talent pool keeps me inspired, challenged and makes my job easier with building world-class teams.


What advice do you have for graduating alums?
Constantly surround yourself with people who are more successful, intelligent and harder-working than yourself. Especially as you begin your career, move on if this isn’t happening. Having this mindset will expedite your learning curve in whatever field you pursue (I like to call this the “experience curve”).


What hobbies/activities do you enjoy outside of your career?
Visiting museums, pop-up exhibitions and book stores; traveling; collecting plants (maybe subconsciously I’m attempting to bring the PNW greenery to NYC?); trying new recipes and finding new running routes around Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Congrats Taylor, we are proud to call you a Wildcat!