Clark Hook
We live in a highly designed world. From our phones to our sneakers, Instagram feeds to kitchen utensils, everything human-made thing we interact with has been designed. Good design is inclusive. It makes us feel welcome and valued. Poor design, unthoughtful design, is exclusive. It’s confusing. It makes us feel left out. In some cases, it’s dangerous.
In his day job, designer Clark Hook is an executive creative director at a marketing company. On the side, he and his family have founded the brand Triiistate — a line of well-designed products geared toward building awareness about people with Down syndrome. Clark and his wife Angie have four children, including two adopted kids with Down syndrome, and they noticed that products created to build pride and conversation around people with Down syndrome are often poorly designed, or at least uninspiring.
“When I see things that aren’t beautiful made for people like my son or daughter, I feel like there’s an implied notion that they are not as important,” Hook says. “And that breaks my heart and makes me furious at the same time … Despite my kids’ different abilities, they don’t deserve less beautiful, they don’t deserve less stylish, they don’t deserve less awesome because they have Down syndrome.”
“That’s the power of design … it’s like a magic language that we all speak and nobody knows how. I just love it. It’s powerful.”
Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal condition in the US, and it affects around 1 in 700 babies. 38% of us know someone with Down syndrome. In spite of those numbers, we are generally very uneducated about Down syndrome and extremely ignorant about what the life of a person with Down syndrome is like.
Hook and his family created Triiistate to address just that. “Its sole purpose is to celebrate people with Down syndrome and start conversations about inclusion and Down syndrome,” he explains. “People still don't know how to ask questions and they don't know how to start the conversation … So the point of Triiistate was twofold. One, my family, my kids, my friends wanted to wear things that supported the Down syndrome community and supported my kids … and then that would begin a conversation about inclusion about Down syndrome. I’ve given people a window into asking questions they feel weird asking me or my wife or my kids.”
The Triiistate aesthetic is hip and wide-ranging, including gorgeous, chunky typefaces and designs that range from mod to rustic to Supreme-esque. One of their most striking designs, a cap that calls to mind Dustin’s 80s trucker hat from Stranger Things emblazoned with a “123” design (Clark’s wearing it in our interview video) already proved that it works in the field.
“I was in a store the other day, and this guy goes, ‘hey man, I like that. What’s that all about?’ I didn’t know what hat I was wearing, so I said, ‘I don’t know, hold on,’ and I pulled it off and was like ‘oh cool! Thank you!’” Hook says. “It gives people a way to ask me questions they don't feel comfortable asking when they see me with my son or my daughter because they just don’t know how to deal with it. People feel awkward and they don't want to offend you, but they don't know what's okay to ask and what's not. And if we can open a door and start a conversation to me that always leads to a bigger conversation about inclusion in general.”
I first met Clark Hook almost 30 years ago in college. He was studying music production and we spent a lot of time in his Nashville apartment listening to Matthew Sweet and the Beatles, watching Ren & Stimpy and partaking in the things college kids partake in. At that time, he was the best engineer and producer at the university, and he soon parlayed that into a promising professional career. His shift to graphic design was a surprise to many, but he found that the two disciplines shared kindred spirits.
“Design is the only thing I’ve ever loved as much as music,” he explains. “I think it’s because it has the same two pieces — there’s a technical expertise required and there’s a wild amount of creativity required … we could talk about this for about five hours. I love design more than most anything.”
The power of good design to imbue an object with value, and its unspoken language that communicates volumes without words is exactly what Hook hopes to capture with his Triiistate products. “Just like what happened with this hat in the store, and what happens when people wear the shirts — people notice it because they speak that language whether they know they do or not. That's the power of design … it has a power unlike anything else to communicate a value and communicate a mood … it's like a magic language that we all speak and nobody knows how. I just love it. It's powerful.”
Triiistate’s mission is clear and, for the Hook family, it’s deeply personal. “I just want people to see the value in people like my children,” Hook says. “There’s this default to pity. And I don’t think my kids and people like them need your pity. I think they need your intellect. They need your time. They need your willingness to know somebody different than you … We’re all better if we learn to love someone different than us.”
