Tyler Askew: Communicating Design
By James Oyedijo



Tyler is an inspiration for any young dilettante who thinks he can’t have a career that encompasses all of his interests. He is a DJ, a writer, an editor, and a graphic designer/art director. At the core of all of Askew’s endeavors is a painstaking attention to detail. It can be seen in the thoughtful and innovative design associated with his club night Rude Movements. You can hear it when he’s spinning, you can tell he loves every record he plays. His rebranding of Bill Blass infused the label with a classic yet modern aesthetic. We met a few months back on one of the first warm days of the year for an early dinner at Rice, Fort Greene. I had the shrimp dumplings and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc; Tyler had the miso soup and the tofu steak.

More often than not, young and accomplished New Yorkers can be overbearing, pretentious, and shallow. I really believe some of them think that being as ostentatious as possible is their single purpose in life. Tyler is nothing like that. He’s an affable, humble dude that exudes everyman coolness. He grew up in Atlanta and was a big patron of the Yin Yang Café, home to the city’s soul jazz scene that produced artists like Donnie and India Arie. "Atlanta is amazing to me. I have to give a lot of credit to Atlanta and the whole scene. Yin Yang was like the first place I ever DJ’ed. Back in the 90’s it was a total wealth of soul and musicians. It’s a more homegrown thing. The thing about Atlanta is that you have tons of talent there but it’s not like, you know, they’re not on that whole ambitious path like New York where you have a lot of talent but you also have a lot of hustle."

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