Thursday 31 October 2013

PPP3: Design Manchester

Design Manchester


Design Manchester is a design event that has taken over manchester's town hall with a wide range of events from talks to exhibitions. I decided to go to the talks for one day as i thought they would be very beneficial for both my own practice and also for my dissertation to hear designers talk through what they do.

The day event was centred around the theme of longevity, touching on topics of design that has staying power, creating relationships which last and work which is simply timeless. Each guest speaker was asked to talk about themselves to this theme.

Andrew Shoben

The first guest speaker was Andrew Shoben from grey world. Greyworld is a studio which focuses on doing work for public spaces, making interactive location installations which people are invited to interact with, it is public art for the real world, which is accessible for all. Andrew talked about looking for urban spaces to create moment of creativity that can be shared in the public space. The work that they create is very interactive which Shoben claimed leads to fantasy play, the audience does not expect the environment that they live in to have anything different in but then there is an element of surprise when something different is there, especially something that allows you to question what is real and what is not. The last messages Andrew left us with were,
- have a very direct message, cause and effect.
- Without audience there is nothing at all
- clever names = alienation
- staying power = routine , clever
- Simplicity can work better than complex
- approach things differently



The Clockwork forest (2011) from greyworld on Vimeo.

The above is a really interesting project that andrew showed us where they transformed ordinary trees into objects of a fairy tale. If you turn the key on the tree it plays music. Taking an ordinary object that we are used to seeing such as a tree and adding a new purpose to it is a really interesting concept and a good way to break down barriers and connections in the brain as this is questioning the norm and attaching new meanings to a tree.

Kate Moross

Kate morose runs Studio Moross based in London. She describes herself as a jack of all trades and says its not what you say you do, it's what you do, which is a very proactive way of thinking which i think is beneficial. Kate spoke about how you cad no anything you want to, it's about being active. You have to appreciate things and understand them so that you can communicate. Kate Moross spoke of her passion of wanting to make music look good, she see's working with band and musicians as more of a collaboration and likes it when the artist is heavily involved. She also spoke about not getting to hung up on vinyl as there are other exciting ways of promoting music, such a promo cd's , radio, shops, labels, tapes, just treat them all like they are vinyls. Moross says that it is important to build a relationship with the band or artist as it is very important to gain the trust of them. Another topic that was covered was about music videos, she stated that you should make music videos that connect to the sound of the music at the same time as expressing the sound of the music.

Kate Moross gave some really inspirational advise about what happens after college, she said make your own luck, as that is what she has done.
- Have no fear, except that you may fail
- FAIL its good to learn from. learn how to do things  
- learn how to do everything, use youtube teach yourself. 
- don't listen to old rules, learn them then break them. 
- improvise 
- Be open communicate with clients 
- connect with people
- be confident
- over deliver and on time DON't BE LAZY

Colophon Foundry 

Colophon Foundry is a design studio that was set up in 2008. They are a hard working type foundry who create typefaces, in a very long and drawn out way, everything is done by hand, it is for them a labor of love. They are a small studio as they are just a duo, but they collaborate and expand when needed depending on the jobs they have on. They gave the advise that
- you should design for your self / clients / briefs not for trends,
- make things physical not just files.
- interested in putting ideas out there they are keen on acting like a platform, so people can trade with them say a magazine could use  one of their typefaces if they agree to advertise them / they are excited by what the magazine is about.

Mark Farrow

For Mark Farrow music came first, it was his passion, but he couldn't sing, so he turned to design. He was interested in doing his own thing. He spoke about his journey as a designer and the stages things happened in his career which was interring to hear about how he has withheld a long and successful career in design. He advised that the perfect amount of people in a studio is 3, more than that it becomes too much pressure and not the right environment. Farrow also advised that you should have a driving ambition if you want to succeed, you need to work hard on every project.

The Q&A

At the end of the day their was a Q&A session and the following is some of the points that I picked up from it.

- Labels don't matter any more, you don't have to be labled 'a graphic designer'
- Context is funamental to ignore the space is to ignore the audience, who respond to context.
- Drive is more important than money
- Invest time into something you believe in
- Work while learning.
- Don't design with a finish in mind or with one idea, allow things to develop
- open mind use different ways of achieving things
- Measure if a project is 'working' not by how it looks but by how the audience respond to it
- question the brief

Evaluation:

This event has been really useful to go to as it has been a great opportunity to gain an insight into the opinions of successful designers who have made their way in the design world and create their own studios which is something that I find very interesting and useful as i am interested in either working for a smaller independent studio or ideally i would like to set up my own and this event was very encouraging that it can be done through hard work and passion which I have both of. The advise given was very useful especially coming from professionals so I have highlighted it throughout so that i can easily refer to it.

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