Noma Bar

During a critical studies lesson where we all were talking about an artist of our choice and showing examples of their work and Noma Bar was spoke about. I instantly loved the style obtained by the Israeli Graphic designer and recognised some of the pieces from illustrations in the Guardian newspaper. What attracted me about the pieces i have shown here is the simplicity of the ideas and the fantastic use of negative space and colour to convey dual meanings and a combination of elements. The spreads are minimal yet extremely effective. He released a book called 'Negative Space' in 2009 featuring a series of designs.

As i was looking through the collection of work from the negative space book I came across these prints he did for the V&A which fall nicely into the research I am doing about the museum for my end sting project. What i find interesting is the different elements he has chose to include showing the vast range of items shown in the V&A museum. Again Bar uses colour and space to create really effective pieces of design.

The Chase - London

My final portfolio visit in London was at The Chase, an opportunity that came about from my tutor Guy putting me in contact with Chris. I was extremely nervous about going to the chase, due to its stature as a design agency and was pleased i'd had a few visits under my belt to give me abit of practice and confidence before i went. When i arrived we had a brief talk about the corse at Stockport, how it was run and how it compares to other corses. He asked me how i had arrived at the want to do design and where my interests stemmed from.

Going through my portfolio he let me talk through each brief whilst he asked me questions then at the end gave me his overall opinion. He really liked the editorial double page spread using Helvetica Neue, although he said he didn't consider himself an expert on typography he understood good use of layout and structure. We talked alot about the inclusion of the Howies t-shirts, Chris felt they were a weak feature of the portfolio and should be removed. This was quite interesting as i have had relatively positive feedback about the t-shirts however there isn't much to say about them, which sometimes is okay when the idea sells itself. Chris suggested to only include t-shirt designs if the idea was really amazing. Chris really liked the idea behind the photography brief and the title 'Unfolding' he said the wall behind is unnecessary as he understand how the poster would exist. He definitely said the typeface lets the piece down so after many people saying the same thing its something i intent to change.

He seemed quite interested in the Door(way) project and really liked how we came to the decision of cutting down the door, he did however feel as a designer it was a personal project so almost unable to comment on it. He thought it was good to have in the portfolio as i spoke very enthusiastically about the project and suggested having one page with just the open cube and the second page with a blow up of the inside of the cube to show the detail.

When i showed him the typeface i created, again he pointed out his lack of typography knowledge but really liked the design, the idea behind it and things i had been looking at to get inspiration, he then talked about a similar project he did at uni and how to further develop the idea onto a product. My final project was the Water brief, he thought the brief was a little unrealistic to what you would expect in industry but thought the way i chose to communicate my research was great. He asked me lots of questions about how i reached the outcome and my decisions along the way and what i would change etc. Again he highlighted it as quite a personal project yet the story behind it is nice.

After we had looked through all my work we had a chat about the portfolio as a whole and he suggested to have 5 key areas such as layout, advertising, idea based etc and said that he would have rather seen more slides of certain projects over things like the t-shirt brief which was interesting. e.g he suggested to spread the editorial and front cover over two pages instead of just the one.

Considering they were very busy chris spent over an hour talking with me which i was really appreciative of, and was the perfect end to a great few days in London.

Steel

As i was heading down to London i thought it was a great opportunity to go back to where i did my placement in October to STEEL the digital design agency and get some feedback. I was probably more nervous about returning back there as i had spent time in and around the members of the team so expected some very honest feedback. I knew I was having a meeting with Nick Bennet before i went who is one of the partners of the company and head of the creative studio. Upon arrival Nick informed me he was giving me a formal interview which certainly put a twist on what i was expecting and the outcome was actually brilliant.We sat in one of the interview room which was quite surreal and he began by asking me why i had chosen to come to STEEL, what the appeal was. What was great about the way Nick approached the meeting was he not only asked me 'interview-style' questions but also guided me through why certain questions are important. E.g to make sure you have researched into what the company is, how it operates, its clients etc. We had quite a lengthy chat before i even opened my portfolio about the industry, where i'd like my career to go, pinpointing what we believe Graphic design to actually be etc, it was great.

Every project i showed Nick he asked me a multitude of questions, he wanted to understand how and why i had made certain design decisions, this was good for me as its the first time i have really had to justify every single detail, which he seemed really happy with the way i could explain things. He picked up again on the strong use of layout shown throughout the portfolio and also the editorial and font specimen sheet. He really liked the idea behind the photography brief yet felt the typography completely undersold the piece, suggesting the typography needed to have the same impact that helvetica neue had on the editorial pages, where the titles was powerful but didn't disturb the background. He absolutely loved the Door(way) brief, he thought the idea, concept, hands on approach were all really great and added something different to my portfolio. He then delved into lots of questions about how i work individually and within a team, giving me scenarios and problems to solve on the spot. which again was great practice for me to start answering those types of questions but also a great confidence boost to realise he agreed with my answers. We had a lengthy discussion on how to improve the pasta festival project, he was hesitant that the idea was becoming too graphical and was keene to get an organic feel back in to the poster, otherwise he absolutely loved the idea. He said that i should definitely include the pictures of the real pasta on the plate for further interviews as it really communicates the idea.Finally we came to the water brief and again he asked me lots of questions and was quite impressed with the outcome and decisions i had made about certain elements of the newspapers. The only unfortunate aspect was the writing in each of the newspapers didn't match the style of the front covers, which is something that has cropped up when speaking to people about them, this was something unavoidable at the time as the front covers were completely a last minute addition to the pieces but is definitely something worth considering if i return back to the project to retouch it.

Overall Nick was brilliant, he acted in a really professional manner, kept me on my toes by asking me some tough questions which really put me on the spot, i think this was a great way to approach it for me as it was completely different to the other visits i had had. A piece of advise he gave me was to try and include something digital in my portfolio by the time i leave or set up a professional website to use instead of my blog, which is something i am definitely considering.

Very Studio

After walking back and forth past this pub for about 10 minutes I gave the studio a quick ring to see where they'd hidden it and it turns out its just above the pub!! I had the visit with Richard and we sat downstairs in the pub, which was abit surreal. We had a brief chat about what i had been up to, what sort of thing we had been doing so far this year etc. Rich was dead down to earth so I found it pretty easy to chat to him. Initially i went through my portfolio explaining each brief and how i had tackled each project then at the end he gave me feedback. On the whole i felt it was really positive, he commented on the attention to detail and layout that ran throughout the portfolio and was pleased with the small amount of explanation used. He suggested over the next year to define the order of the portfolio better and to maybe think about introductory pages before the Water and Door(way) brief. He really liked the pasta festival idea and we had a good chat about how that project can be taken further looking at creating Italian landmarks and making them out of pasta then putting them against a London backdrop. The only other thing he mentioned was maybe reducing the Water brief down to two slides instead on three as it was better to communicate it in that way.

Overall he gave me some great advise. We had a great chat about living in London and the benefits he has had as a designer moving to the capital. He happened to be on the same corse as Craig Oldham and know James from Thoughtful too so we had abit of a chat about them and the degree at Stockport too.

St. Gallen book design - Evening talk.

When I was looking into events at the St. Bride library i noticed a talk was being held in the evening about the book design exhibition, which i thought would be really interesting to attend. I have never been to a talk about an exhibition before so i thought this was a great opportunity. The talk was held by 3 publishers Roland Fruh, Richard Hollis and Robin Kinross each talking for about 20 minutes each.

Roland Fruh:

Roland Fruh mainly talked about Rudolf Hostettler, an infamous typographer and print maker who was the co-editor of SGM a typographic magazine. Within the magazine was a dispute for years between Max Bill and Jan Tschichold about the difference between traditional design and new typography. Fruh talked largely about the articles written from both sides of the argument highlighting examples and influences. He talked alot about the importance of continual debate within Graphics and Design and how design is always evolving through time and with added technology.

I wrote down a quote he read out that i thought was really interesting.

"with every thesis someone believes himself to be telling the truth; he only notices that is merely half of the truth when he meets the other half of the thesis"

He also highlighted some familiar design magazines such as Eye, CR, Issue etc that he said generate a form of debate yet are formed by careful editing and many of them lack controversy stating "they all have something, but they all lack something".

Richard Hollis

I was really excited to hear Richard Hollis speak as I own a few of his books and find he explains things in a really understandable way. He began talking about Hostettler similarly to Roman Fruh, and about the influence English typography had on him and his remarkable understanding of Graphic culture. Hollis talked about the intense precision that the Swiss aplied to their books, the sensitivity they had for the content of the book paired with the design. and the careful use of typography that ran throughout. Hollis talked through all the names that shaped The International Typographic Style, from Josef Muller-Brockmann who was the creator of the grid and formed the Swiss style to Paul Klee who was a typical 'Basel designer' who very much worked Asymmetrically and in block type. He went on to talk over the two types of design in Switzerland with symmetry linked to book design and traditional symmetrical layouts and Asymmetry linked to modernist typography and advertising.

He finished by highlighting the pleasure in the exhibition of being able to look, feel and read the books, he talked about the how beautiful the books were and how beautifully they had been made. and a rare treat to hold them.

Robin Kinross

The final speaker wrapped up the night by briefly talking about the achievements of all 3 speakers and the importance of their role as publishers to understand the depth of the St.Gallen book collection. He spoke mainly about Switzerland as a country and the character it has explaining that no single city is Switzerland, that each city has its own unique character and history and acts individually.

I am really pleased i attended the talk as it gave me a greater understanding about not only Swiss design but some important factors that relate to modern day design practices aswell. I was able to buy a copy of 'Ultrabold' which is the quarterly journal of the library which covers talks, exhibitions and literature held there.

Exhibition: Book design in St. Gallen

During first year, each student was given a typeface to work with over a series of projects. The idea was to research the history of the typeface and really understand how to use it. I was given Helvetica Neue. Up untill this point I didn't really know a great deal about Swiss typography or the International Typographic Style which emerged in the late 40's in Switzerland. Since learning about Helvetica I have grown really interested in Swiss graphics and the use of grid systems looking at many artist such as Josef Muller-Brockmann, Max Bill, Jan Tschichold, Armin Hoffman etc. So when the opportunity to visit an exhibition that celebrated over 60 years of book design from St. Gallen (the most northern of Switzerland's cities) I was really excited to be able to visit. The exhibition was held at the St. Bride Library which is a fantastic old building with spiral staircases that not only acts as a library but holds exhibitions, talks, a theatre and Alan Kitching's typography workshop. The books on display were a really nice collection of traditional editorial and structural editorial designs which looked at graphics, illustration, and many different genre's of art.

What I was really impressed with in the exhibition is I am so used to seeing things in glass boxes and having to admire something from a distance. About 90% of the books shown in the glass panels were available to look through at the back of the room. This brought many of the books to life for me as the textures and paper styles of many of the book covers were the real essence of the design. It was great to be able to see the differences between the books and feel them with my own hands.

There were a few typographical posters on display such as the one below. I love the way the faded type overlaps and the general dynamic of whole poster i think its really striking. Also in the room was a series of huge old printing machines. What suprised me about them was the sheer size and mechanics that went into them. Overall the exhibition was really informative and a brilliant display of some beautiful editorial and book designs.

Pat Carroll

During my time doing Visual Communication in Art Foundation. I was fortunate to be taught by Pat Carroll, who was a member of Central Station Design Agency which was the face of factory records and the music scene that Manchester controlled. I have begun to contact quite a few agencies and am preparing to leave the 'Stockport College nest' so before i do i thought it would be a good idea to utilize the talent around and get as much practice in as possible so i arranged to see Pat to show him my work.

Showing Pat my work was a great idea. He talked through every project with me asking me exactly what my trains of thought were and how i approached each project. We spoke lots about how my pasta festival brief can be furthered and the importance of making the logo work at logo size! He really liked the diversity in projects i had and thought that i communicated the ideas behind the projects really well which has given me a massive confidence boost. What was really interesting was he picked up on the 'Perspective' photography project that i was abit unsure of after my first meeting with Chris, he said the second idea was alot more interesting and i was more enthusiastic about the 'unfolding' idea so this reconfirmed to me that it was better out than in.