For this DMTV Milkshake, ceramicist Bob Dinetz shares how he combines modern shapes with an experimental approach to color and glaze + more.

As a graphic designer, Bob Dinetz has worked for some of the world?s biggest companies ? the ones in many ways determining how we spend our time: Apple, Adobe, The New York Times Magazine, and many more. Good graphic design, he says, is about boiling the brand down to its essence, and responding appropriately ? and at that level, it shares certain similarities in his approach to his highly successful line of ceramics for the home: ?A lot of times in graphic design, which I still do, it’s about distilling a problem down into the elements that are easily understood,? he says. ?It’s about communication and clarity, and that’s what I’ve tried to bring to ceramics. A lot of the shapes I make are quite simple ? they just have a few simple ridges or rims that react to glaze and to light. There’s quite a parallel between the work I do in graphic design and in pottery.?
In this week?s Milkshake, Bob shares several pieces of his own, showing work that combines a patient yet experimental approach to color and glaze ? one that?s perfectly suited to a practice like ceramics, in which happy accidents (and even some unhappy ones) can lead to aesthetic revelations. ?For me, color is really the mixture of clay and glaze together ? which sounds like an obvious thing, but it took me a while to figure it out,? he sa...