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!
The Brit Insurance Designs Awards, “the Oscars of the design world,” showcases the work of international designers across seven categories: architecture, fashion, furniture, graphics, interactive, product and transport. I wandered over to the Design Museum in London, to view the best of the best. These were some of the nominations which caught my eye:
Forsman & Bodenfors‘ designed Ikea’s ‘Homemade is best’ recipe book, which also won in the Award’s Graphics category. The focus on the minimalistic, even artistic arrangement of the raw ingredients makes a refreshing change to the completed culinary masterpiece.
Photo: Carl Kleiner
‘I Wonder’ by Marian Bantjes impressed me with it’s vector-based ornate gilding throughout the book.
Irma Boom: Biography in Books. This incredibly small compendium is typical of Irma’s desire to push the limits of publishing to their extreme.
‘Playing with Lego bricks and paper’, designed by Muji. This excited me incredibly- bringing both childhood joys of lego and papercraft together into one delightful package.
Tape Installation: Numen / For Use. A much smaller maquette of their tape-constructed installations was displayed at the Design Museum. The actual size of their works are large enough and sturdy enough to allow people to crawl through their suspended playhouses.
Photo: Numen / For Use
This was an interesting and beautifully animated motion piece for Coalition of the Willing, Directed and Produced by Knife Party. An engaging approach to solving the global warming issue through open-source collaboration.http://www.vimeo.com/12772935
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.
Mike Dempsey, has worked as a graphic designer for over 40 years. He founded the design consultancy CDT in 1979 and has created everything from stamps to film title sequences and editorial design to visual identities. He is a writer, photographer, broadcaster, painter, blogger and studied acting at the Method Studio London. Mike has won ten D&AD Silvers and a Gold and was elected a member of Alliance Graphic International, was President of D&AD and past Master of The Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. He left CDT at the end of 2007 to form Studio Dempsey which he describes as “an intimate space to dream and create.”
“I want to personally promote something which I love”. One of his passions are music and it was because of this, he did work for the London Chamber Orchestra for very little money.
Mike only works with two typefaces: Akzidenz-Grotesk and Baskerville
12 words to help you grow on your journey
1. Look. If you really look, turning off your brain, then new solutions pop-up from non-obvious solutions.
2. Read. Read the copy you’re given.
3. Ideas. Ideas endure. Styles fade.
4. History. Absorb everything. The richer your experience, the richer your work will be.
5. Passion. It’s infectious. Transmit it to your clients.
6. Curiosity.
7. No. Always push if at first your idea or proposal gets rejected.
8. Rules. Learn rules before you break them.
9. Words. Don’t just think visually. Words are just as fruitful.
10. Voice. Your voice is an instrument to not underestimate. Try to talk directly to your client and not through various business filters.
David Kester was appointed Chief Executive of the Design Council in May 2003. He has refocused the organisation as the national strategic body for design, leading central government policies and regional programmes that strengthen competitiveness, drive innovation and support growth in the creative economy.
This was of particular interest to myself as I have subscribed to the Design Council’s podcasts on iTunes and have found their work and efforts to be highly informative from a business/political perspective as they seek to influence design change on a massive scale. Of particular interest to me was design change in the NHS. New hygienic chairs and commodes have been on show at the Design Museum in response to the ‘Design out bugs’ challenge which hospitals are currently facing. These chairs are easier to clean, being made of very few parts, which are easy to replace. David stated that the designers of these chairs receive payment for each chair made because they are the copyright owners. He also stated that this payment was “rightly so”. I disagree with this. I do believe that designers should be rewarded for their work, as any good Capitalist should; but when these designs have the effect of changing peoples’ lives in a massive way, even saving lives, should their designs be produced for profit? Cameron Sinclair, cofounder of Architecture for Humanity, a nonprofit organisation that helps architects apply their skills to humanitarian efforts offers innovative solutions to housing problems in all corners of the globe. What is most impressive about their work is that any architectural designs uploaded to their site is then made open-source, so that anyone has the ability to build a shelter, without the need to seek permission first, thus saving lives. If this model were transferred to all public/health sectors, in which designers were working collaboratively for the public good, and their works made open-source, what effect could this have on design ability to help save lives?
This aside, David’s talk was fuelled by his obvious passion and enthusiasm. These are some notes from his talk:
Designers are more observant than other groups.
The UK has the largest design industry in Europe.
‘Politics’ definition:
‘poly’ – meaning many
‘tic’ – meaning blood-sucking leaches!
Biggest employers in the world are:
1. Chinese military
2. Indian rail
3. Walmart
4. NHS
When design is used right from the beginning of the problem, that’s when it is used smartly.
Lise Brian, Associate Director of The Chase, joined in 1988 after graduating in Graphic Design. Since then, she has worked extensively with The Co-operative Bankon a variety of projects, as well as other large clients such as Oxfam, Privilege and the launch of Smile. Her work is beautiful and we were pleased to see work from an array of clients, from her bigger projects, to smaller work done for family and friends, all of which being beautiful in idea and execution. She was also a pleasure to talk to and warm in her approach to people as well as her work.
She started her presentation by quoting from The Chase’s philosophy:
“There was once an old Indian craftsman who carved elephants from blocks of timber. When asked how he did it, he would simply reply, “I just cut away the wood that doesn’t look like an elephant”. This story was adopted by The Chase to describe how they do their work:
“First, to be absolutely clear as to what sort of animal the brand or organisation is and, equally important, what it isn’t. Second, to work to a precise brief based on the unique circumstances that create the communication problem. Third, to add the creative spark that brings the solution to life in order to meet the client’s commercial objectives. Finally, to express the concepts in a way in which every mark has a reason for being.”
We don’t put anything extraneous on the page.
Become an advocate for design by talking about it with clients and those you collaborate with- photographers, copywriters etc.
Work with people who are passionate about what they do.
1. Get a name and spell it correctly
2. Don’t attach too many folders
3. Follow up with a call
4. Be nice to the receptionist
5. Got an interview? Try not to nervous
6. Know something about where you’re going
7. Be enthusiastic
8. No jobs? Ask about placements
9. Turn up unannounced. Ask if anyone has 5 minutes free
10. Can I help?
Top 10 tips for your portfolio:
1. Don’t like it? Take it out or redo it
2. Have a good mix of work
3. Keep your folder spotless
4. Treat it like any other job
5. Mock-ups are lovely
6. Don’t put foam boards in
7. Ask ‘how much time do you have?’
8. Given advice? You don’t have to take it all to heart
9. Practice talking through your folder
10. Start and finish with your strongest work
This was my third and final opportunity to attend the 4 Designers Conference in London. The event, held this year on 22-23 Feb, heralded one of the best collection of speakers and talks from the design world yet. Each year the line-up seems to improve and it is definitely one of the most exciting and inspiring trips of the academic year. Thank you to Patrick Baglee, founder of the annual 4 Designers Conference for constantly surpassing himself each year and for his dedication in educating and helping design students. He is one of the most genuine and nice people I have ever met in the industry and I hope that he continues to astound and inspire students for many years to come.
Swathed in a guru-orange scarf and fresh back from a trip to India, a Crocs-wearing Michael Wolff urged an audience of students and professional designers to address ‘real’ issues instead of ‘window dressing’. The lecture, which in Wolff-style, was quite natural and informal, capped the Liverpool Design Symposium, which took place at John Moores University’s Art & Design Academy in Liverpool.
Although he opened the lecture with a caveat not to take him at his word, Wolff later opined that “annual reports are such bullsh*t, really.” Office architecture also came in for criticism for being “ludicrously aggressive.”
He also slammed his former branding consultancy Wolff Olins, saying “the group’s boldness has turned to arrogance, which has not a trace of humility in it.”
He proposed service design in the NHS and care for the elderly as worthy subjects for today’s designers to tackle.
“Branding a city is like attempting to eat a dinosaur”, said Michael Wolff at last night’s D&AD President’s Lecture in Liverpool.
“Whether the word ‘London’ is written in Helvetica or the logo has Dick Whittington in, it will not have much bearing on how people actually think of, and experience, the city,” he said, referring to plans to create an identity for London.
“Branding is an illusion of an easy win for cities, without actually making them any better to live in.”
“More than the recession, the interesting thing about our times is the business crisis, because we are having to ask “what is business for and are we dealing properly with the big issues in our culture?”
After the great success and debate instigated from last year’s Design Symposium in Liverpool, The D&AD are again holding another one with a great line up of speakers and workshops throughout the day, with Michael Wolff headlining. Every opportunity like this is relished when it is not met with the disappointment that a Design Conference or seminar is to be held in London, so a symposium for the ‘Northerners’ in Liverpool should be a real treat. Last year’s Symposium was excellent with great talks by Matt Pyke and Bruno Maag. In fact I was excited to see myself on one of their photos on their website! (Middle of the picture above, sitting in the row behind the front). Consider my places booked.
A full line up and details can be found on their website.
99% is a relatively new website from the Behance team, offering a new and invaluable service along with it’s product range. It is an excellent resource for creative professionals featuring articles, tips and videos from various contributors. The information contained within it’s library is current and up-to-date, but more important than their helpful articles, are their annual conferences, their first one having been held last April. Although the speakers are, admittedly, not the huge-name Designers that we’re used to seeing and expecting to see at such conferences, the content is just as valid for all within the industry. One of my favourite speakers from the conference is this bite-size clip from behance’s founder, Scott Belsky with his equation: Creativity x Organization = Impact.
99% Concept: As creatives, we don’t need more ideas.What we need is better follow-through. To this end, the 99% delivers articles, tips, interviews, video, and events – all designed to help you push ideas forward.
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:
