Saturday 5th June 2021
Guest Lecture – Maziar Raein.
Initial thoughts and questions I have been asking myself in response to the guest lecture:
– How do designers today equip themselves for the changing role of a Graphic Designer?
– Are there demands / needs that designers need to meet to get a role as a ‘Graphic Designer’?
– Are roles becoming more blurred, therefore more is expected of Graphic Designers (UX Design, Coding, Web Design, Illustrators)
– Is the traditional role of a ‘Graphic Designer’ being overlooked? ( I see daily job roles asking for multiple job roles under one title)
– Women in design! Why today is this not being talked about more and the influential women who have played a part in graphic design history?
– What is happening locally in our immediate geographical areas? Should we be connecting more both locally and globally to collaborate?
Sunday 6th June 2021
Ideas Wall Feedback – Question and thoughts to the group
Discuss: Design Culture in my City
key evolutionary design steps:
1. How music (punk) influenced designers
2. Advancement of technology and less use of craft. Computer became a new tool with graphic design but also faded out more traditional analogue design?
Some thoughts on ‘Then’ and ‘Now’
What can we take and learn from the past within graphic design? Have the advancements of technology completely changed the way we work? or is a case of it being another tool to use to communicate and create… another output to explore. As graphic designers I think we need to be more aware of what’s going on around us? locally and globally… From global environmental and health issues to more local happenings such as housing, communities, people, elections and music. I as a designer have always looked more broadly and never appreciated what these events/issue/stories impacts can have on me and influence my practice. From reading about the life of Corita Kent, Neville Brody, Barny Bubbles and more they used the things going on around them and what they were interested in to inform and create their work, working in ways which they enjoyed, creating powerful, bold and influential work. I’ve become more excited about researching and investigating more locally and initiating talks and conversations to produce responses.
Graphic Design goes beyond just ‘branding’
Final outcome
Workshop Task 1 – Design Practices
Tuesday 8th June
Ice House Design, Bath, Somerset.
Company Statement – Ice House Design are a brand design agency, making new brands and renovating exisiting ones. We create intelligent and compelling communications to build meaningful and beautiful brands.
Ice house Design create brand identities for start ups to global mega brands spanning sectors from education, tourism, engineering and photography. Founded in 2004 by Jack Owen, Ice House Design currently has 4 employees based in their design studio in Bath, Somerset.
Ice House Design summarise their outlook as: “Committed, courageous, collaborative and conscientious. We listen and understand. We agree — sometimes. We transform — always. We do the expected — never.”
Reflection: I have driven and walked past the premises of Ice House Design so many times while living in the area and have always been intrigued to know what they do. The black exterior paintwork and simplistic signage oozes quality and excellence? These guys know what they are doing. Once you discover their work there is a correlation to their look to the work they produce. However do they need this exterior to attract clients / or is that it’s intention at all? Based on one of the main routes into Bath it could be a conscious choice to look good and raise intrigue? Ice House Design doesn’t come to mind when I think of Bath based design agencies but they are the most prominent in terms of exterior look… which I find interesting in itself. A very professional presentation from inside and out.
Kerve Creative, Bath, Somerset
Company Statement – We’re Kerve. We work with brands and agencies to build customer affinity through creative technology. We bring brands to life…
Established in 2008, Kerve Creative are a digital agency working with brands from food, education, lifestyle & more to create experiences, interactive campaigns and web design. With a team of 6 Kerve push the boundaries of what can be created with design, engaging the consumer hands on.
Kerve say: “Creativity, Affinity, Technical Whiz-kiddery. It’s what we do every day, and it’s why we come to work. It’s what makes us Kerve”
Reflection: Hands on, creative, interactive, experiential? Kerve have surprised me. I had no idea of the work they were creating. Kerve bring something that wants me to explore experiential design more, the intrigue to get the public involved, get people interacting with design… In contrast to my current practice this goes in a different direction working digitally with UX design, digital innovation, VR, physical installations, robotics and more. In the area of Bath not many are working in this way? Many keeping to more traditional design.
Larkhall, Bath, Somerset
Company Statement – Larkhall is a composer and new media artist whose works combine his music, technology, and visual art. As a creative coder, he designs algorithms that react in real-time to what they hear, creating vivid imagery unique to every performance.
Contacted Chris about his thoughts on location and practice:
Reflection: I wanted to explore other practices which might not be known or not the typical design agency. Larkhall create something different, something I haven’t seen before, an experience? a product which could do so many different things… Compared to the other design practices I have found this is a complete contrast, using music, coding and visuals to create an emotional experience. Is this a practice we may see more of? Agencies diversifying into other areas of application? especially coding, visual and experiential production.
Reflections: of Design Practices and their locations – Bath, Somerset.
Ice House Design, Kerve Creative and Larkhall are all individual in their own right but what I like about them is they all offer up something unique. Bath is a well known Georgian city attracting thousands of visitors every year to see its famous landmarks, The Circus, The Royal Crescent to name a few. Behind the Georgian architecture is a hive of creative activity with award winning studios, freelancers, creative production, printers you name it they’re here. The 3 Design practices for me give a sense of the creative spectrum this locations has and the support the location provides for the likes of these businesses, being a] centrally location to Bristol and B] a short commute to London. Are more creative practices moving location, for example out of London to these creative hubs for a renewed outlook to their business and what they are producing?
Workshop Task 1 – Design Production
Graphic Mill, Wiltshire
Graphic Mill are a multidiscuplinary design, print and fabrication contractor. Working with clients predominately in the food and beverage sector. Graphic Mill specialise in exhibition stands, window and promotional displays. With a core team of 2, Graphic Mill produce stand out work which is bold, eye catching and interactive for the consumer.
They say “Our aim is simple, to deliver exciting displays that make an impact and connect people”
The Straight and Narrow Sign Co
Straight & Narrow are a traditional and contemporary sign-writing and gilding practice, led by Eric Porter. With a sustainable outlook Eric Says “let’s drag traditional sign-writing, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. With a focus on sustainability and reducing environmental impact, my goal is to keep sign painting accessible to all, and preserve its place in the modern world”
Working with local businesses, Eric is meticulous in his approach and execution. Eric produces work for shop signs, canal boats & car exteriors.
Contacted Eric to get his thoughts on the impact he think the location has on his practice
Response from Eric:
Reflection: Under the radar, living on a narrowboat and loving the work he creates. A deep understanding of his craft Eric produces work in a more traditional way and what I love is he’s bringing back to life ghost typography, old shop signs and reviving the ‘shop sign’. Shop Signage can be quite crude, printed on plastic and take away from what we know of the ‘British Hight Street’
Ripe Digital, Corsham Wiltshire
Ripe digital are a digital printers with that little extra. Delivering print across a huge range of papers, cards and substrates, Ripe are a go to for local design agencies and creatives. Based in Corsham, Wiltshire, the team of 7 are are there to help with challenges and produce high quality print.
Reflection:
Research
“Graphic design works in the world of the press, of books, of printed advertisements, and everywhere the printed word appears whether on a sheet of paper or a bottle”
Bruno Munari
The above quote stands out to me and how I, myself have become consumed by my own bubble of ‘Graphic Design’. Im intrigued by the broad application graphic design can take and want to open my creative side up to this. For me part of design is looking at items, stories, objects and working with them, re imagining them, telling a story with them. Currently within my practice (and potentially due to geographical location) I am not opening my eyes enough to what can be achieved.
” The role it plays in the objects we use everyday”
“Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come”
Morag Myerscough
Instantly recognisable, Morag’s work pulls upon location and community’s to create her impactful work. Creating location specific installations she uses her work to create community and build an identity while drawing upon cultural history & heritage. You can’t not feel joy from seeing Morag’s work and what I love about it? Its led by the community’s it pops up in.
Neville Brody
“London has a particular set of politics and cultural influences that has been absolutely instrumental in developing the work that I do”
Neville Brody
British graphic designer Neville Brody, influenced heavily by the pop rock scene in London in the 1980’s talk’s about how his location in London heavily influenced the work he created during the early years of his career as well as pop rock. Neville says ” It’s important to mention that the music scene in London was so vital” Other influences were Dada, Futurism and Constructivism.
When hearing about Neville Brody’s experiences and the influences it makes me question what is influencing me within my design practice currently… My location is quite stale with the town lacking energy & Creativity. This however pushes me to think about expanding beyond the boundaries of graphic design? I connected with Neville Brody’s talk of musical influences as I find audio to be an interesting area to explore with design, the sounds, beats, colour, diversity, angles. The death of the CD but rise of the vinyl cover again?
Exploring new boundaries within graphic design Neville’s influences around London led to the founding of ‘The Face magazine’ and later ‘Arena’ His work revolutionised the look of magazines, advertisements, album covers and packaging.
“Everyone should be taught how to communicate visually”
Neville Brody
Corita Kent
“Influenced by the environment around her”
References
Murphy, R., 2014. “Punk was probably the most influential thing to happen to me”. [online]Dezeen. Available at: <https://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/21/neville-brody-dezeen-book-of-interviews/> [Accessed 12 June 2021].
Morag Myerscough. (2020). Morag Myerscough About. Available: https://www.moragmyerscough.com/about. [ Last accessed 14 June 2021].
Week 2 overall reflection:
Week 2 is finished already… Full of investigations, opinions and exciting discoveries.
How it went – I felt this week went well and I was able to research and start to open my mind to the happenings around me both locally and more widely. I feel I have asked myself questions about my practice which will allow this journey over the next 10 weeks to be explorative and not constricted. This week I also think I have gained confidence in reading, responding and analysing, prompting questions and opinions on design areas/ practices I would have previously not have.
Challenege – For me this was really interesting, being able to explore beneath the surface of our locations to find out what was happening more locally, there is a lot more going on than we see. This highlighted again my motivation going forward to look into issues, conversations and communities more locally rather than just on a broad sense. Graphic Design can be applied in so many different ways and this week has highlighted that further, prompting further investigations and research.
Develop into next week – Start to work on how I present my blog. I am an explorative designer and think I could start to introduce this into my blog. Be more open about sharing work onto the ideas wall and providing feedback. ( including my own opinion)
James Shaw 