His discovery of London magazine, Straight No Chaser proved to be pivotal in his journey as an artist. "I was a hip hop kid, going to hip hop shows and then I discovered Straight No Chaser at a record store in Atlanta. When I discovered Chaser, I learned about the whole London thing that was going on in the late 80’s/early 90’s, jazz-dance and hip hop soul, Giles Peterson and all of that. And that just became my fascination. I really started learning about London in high school. By the time I got done with high school, I knew I wanted to be there. I ended up developing a relationship with Straight No Chaser and Swifty, the art director. So I ended up going to London during the summers, working with him and getting a taste for design. That was like mind-boggling. I got my first client working over there and that’s where it all came together."

Talking to Tyler is like talking to an old friend. Halfway through our conversation I swore that we’d gone to junior high school together and traded comic books, sandwiches, and played video games after school. The conversation quickly became the kind of tangential back-and-forth you overhear and can’t help listening to. We talked about our disgust for Myspace, friends that we have in common, the lack of diversity in career development in high schools, and table tennis. We got back on topic when we began to discuss the impact of the Internet on print media and design in general. "I’d like to think that print will never die, kind of like vinyl. From a design point-of-view I love print. There’s nothing that beats a magazine. I see online being more of a force, but like with anything, only the strong survive. Myspace freaks me out honestly. It’s amazing and I talk to people everyday and it comes up in every conversation. Every email I get has a Myspace link in it. It’s exciting on one hand but I don’t know it’s like...I’ve heard the word addiction related with Myspace a lot recently."

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