Greg Quinton promised a string of pearls for his D&AD North Lecture, which took place in Manchester. Being a Creative Partner at The Partners, and a D&AD Black Pencil winner, Greg was more than qualified to share his secrets of success and also those of The Partners, who are ranked No. 1 in just about every design ranking there is. There were 10 key points of creative success which Greg discussed:
No 1. Have a totally unattainable goal
The Partners wanted to be the best agency in the world, which is an impossible task. Despite this unattainable goal, it has given the agency a focus- something to work towards.
No 2. IDEAS
No 3. Less (strategy) is more
No 4. Don’t be cool
“Are you a styles person or an ideas person?” Design problems can truly be solved through ideas and good design, not through hollow stylistic application.
No 5. Fail
“Failure is good. celebrate and enjoy the failures”
No 6. Make a difference
No 7. Love good clients
No 8. Work damn hard
No 9. Change
Seek to constantly reinvent yourself. A designer is not an artist. A designer is a conduit to solving a problem
No 10. Create the future
Do work that makes you scared and pushes you out of your comfort zone. Work with weird people who want to make weird stuff!
http://www.vimeo.com/19532320
http://www.vimeo.com/20913247
Aspirations, Creatives•
on July 7th, 2010•
Graduate Min-Kyu Choi from the Royal College of Art created this ingenious design which I was able to see at the Design Museum in London. The UK Folding Plug transforms from a bulky three-pin plug into a portable, hassle-free plug ideal for people on the go. When not in use, the UK Folding Plug transforms into a 10 mm-thick flat object. Just goes to show what is possible to redesign for the better in our everyday, mundane surroundings.
Aspirations, Research, Resource•
on October 10th, 2009•
My dream is to one day have a studio with inspirational quotes pasted on every wall to continually motivate my thought-stream. This site is a God-send for such a dream! Great for any quick tit-bit of wisdom from Designers, philosophers and great-thinkers.
Aspirations, Creatives•
on October 9th, 2009•
Every so often, I come across beautiful pieces of design that genuinely impresses me. Nendo not only impresses me, but may be the first complete design hero that I have come across. Oki Sato’s minimalistic, clean works span across the conceptual, to product design, to packaging, amongst many other skills across his varied career. This particular piece is an inflatable lighting display made from thermoplastic, non-woven polyester fibre.
Nendo’s philosophy:
Giving people a small ” ! ” moment.
There are so many small ” ! ” moments hidden in our everyday.
But we don’t recognize them.
and even when we do recognize them,we tend to unconsciously reset our
minds and forget what we’ve seen.
But we believe these small ” ! ” moments are what make our days so
interesting, so rich…
Daniel Eatock is a London living and working artist/ designer who has produced a wide range of works including large-name branding for Big Brother to the more interesting (it’s got to be said) works with minimal, raw interpretations of what he sees around him. His interpretation of the 2012 Olympics logo to the use of felt tip pens to create colourful prints are examples of this.
He states:
“I am interested in connections between image and language, titles, punch lines, miscommunication, subversions, open systems, contributions from others, seriality, collections, discovery and inventing.”
His book can be bought from Amazon which absurdly have his individual thumb print on the spine of every copy.
Eatock seems to add extra shades of grey between the realms of art and graphic design and his minimal approah to producing his works are refreshing in an era of Adobe regurgitation.
Andrew Shoben of Greyworld was probably the most entertaining of all the speakers. He even performed a magic trick on stage! He claims he may be the only Professor of Public
Adrian Shaughnessy (This is Real Art) was one of the big guns of the conference and I’ve got to say, one of the people I was looking forward to seeing most. I am a huge fan of his book, How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul. What amazed me about Adrian was the fact that he was a self-taught graphic designer having had no formal schooling in the subject.
He states three attributes that a young graphic designer needs:
- Cultural Awareness
- Communication skills
- Integrity
Communication
We need to be able to talk about our work but not confuse clients with the jargon which we use as designers on a daily basis. The work will simply not sell itself to clients- we need to explain it.
Presentation skills. As customers, we don’t expect to walk into a sofa shop, expecting to buy a sofa with a thousand pounds in hand and expect the salesperson to not show it you! It is the same principal with our clients. We need persuasion and language skills to build up our presentations. If a client does not like our presentation, it is most likely the presenting or the application of the presentation which they are rejecting, not the idea itself. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re not listening to them. Do we really listen?
A lot of the time, clients will not give feedback. You can diffuse this situation by using humour. Explain everything as if they know nothing.
Integrity
Cutting corners, doing things cheaply etc. is what the industry is pressuring us into doing. We have to believe in something!
Aim for mutual respect with your client. Be strong, confident and respectful. Believe in something and people will believe in you.
The world doesn’t revolve around graphic design! It is essential that we retain that openness. Clients are only interested in the big picture. They don’t care about kerning! They are more interested in what you know about them. You’re more likely to get work that way. As designers, we are really obsessed about what we do, but we are the only ones who care! The client and the world only care about the message.
In reference to how Adrian goes about doing research, he states “my life is research”.
This was one of the meatiest talks of the conference. His advice, along with his book, offers practical tips on being a graphic designers which is simply not taught in schools. Better still, he teaches it without the pomp or self-appreciation commonly found in a lot of design writing.
Aspirations, Research•
on March 25th, 2009•
Design Week offers this advice for graduates seeking job opportunities after leaving university. Unfortuneately it’s just not that useful! Jobs are in short supply so what is the advice? Simply send out more applications!
I’ve subscribed to their newsletters and may decide to subscribe to the magazine after this short trial. I’ll see if it’s worth my limited money.
Aspirations•
on January 19th, 2009•
I’ve included this statement because I feel it is quite pertinent to my mindset right now. In the past, especially throughout school and childhood, we get so very protective and secretive about our work which is continued into adulthood with a more formal varient of it being trademark and copywriting. I am very much appreciative of those who create open-source material for others to incorporate into their own work. I know from personal experience that my best work is only the result after sharing it with others and gaining their feedback instead of hiding it away until it is ready for me to unleash it in some grand unveiling.
I believe that ideas are not our own in the first place. Very little in life, except our freedom to choose, is actually ours. Even our ideas. I believe inspiration comes from a higher source, call it whatever you want- the ‘ether’ if you will- which when we are in tune, we are able to tap into. When the idea of ownership is let go, and our inspiration is shared with others in a spirit of openness and eagerness to learn, limitless possibilities are suddenly open to us and a more cooperative creative environment resulted.
