Mike Rigby - Words of Wisdom - 26/11/09

Mike Rigby is a Graphic designer who came in to give us a few words of wisdom about his life as a graphic designer and what we should come to expect when we leave University. 

What stood out straight away to me as he showed us his contents page was that he was going to discuss his experience of taking a break and going abroad, and how that opened more doors for him. I think this caught my attention as this had been a decision I have been thinking about, whether to travel first or get experience first, and this lecture to some extent answered my question.

Another part of the talk that stood out for me is the way he described being a designer, that it wasn't a job it was a lifestyle choice. And I remembered I had heard this somewhere before, Craig Oldham from Music had said this before in his talk, which is also mentioned in my blog.

Mike talked to us about placements, and how they 'speed you up'. This is by working on real projects, networking and going on free nights out! He mentioned going out and being sociable is key to getting to know other designers. Advice that I think went down very well!

It was when Mike was talking about what he did when he first received a brief, then using a quote from Ray Gregory he said "What is it that I've been asked to do?" then something clicked. He showed us examples of briefs he was given as a student then what he did to answer them. 

He said the brief was to come up with a different design to sell underlay. "So how do you sell something invisible?" he said. Make underlay desirable. And then thats when he thought of the heart packaging.

It was then after the lecture that I had a look at both my Tolerance and Ted Baker briefs and things that hadn't stood out before suddenly became apparent! 

I really enjoyed seeing where he had been abroad, I hadn't really been to a lecture before about graphic design where they also went into detail about their travels and where they'd been, Thailand, New Zealand and such places are where I have been thinking about traveling too so it has encouraged me to stick with that plan.

He also encouraged us to create self initiated projects, as being a designer is a lifestyle. 

But he also mentioned that it is essential to have a life outside design too, 

"The more interesting life is outside of design, the better at design you will be." - Mike Rigby

Tolerance Research and Idea Development

For the Tolerance and brief, me and my work colleague Mike wanted to develop one of our ideas that we hadn't cracked yet we thought the concept worked. A reminder of the tolerance brief is that Manchester City Council want to have a month long festival and have the meaning of tolerance promoted to the people of Manchester. We came up with the concept 'count to ten' where when ones tolerance is tested, sometimes counting to ten is a technique people use to calm down. We thought about how we could portray this visually, and so this is an idea we came up with.


We didn't think this was really showing what we wanted to say, and additionally it could be made visually better. We also wanted more versions of it to relate to different situations people had to tolerate. It was proving difficult and so we decided to raid the library for inspiration. This is where I saw this work in the D&AD annual 2006. This is just a sample of 5 posters that were created from 10. To view the other five then they are on this website http://awards.dandad.org/2006/categories/prsa/press-advertising/09194/words-come-alive






D&AD Awards 2006
Words Come Alive -
Press Advertising / Newspaper Press Advertising Colour

Typographical elements had been used and in-distorted in anyway to show an idea. The strap line linked to the Typography symbols brings the idea to life. This made me think that we could use this technique, and make our posters as simple as posters and edit the strap line to bring the idea to life.

With this is mind we designed a series of posters.

These ideas still need to be simplified and edited, for instance the Clock may need a re-think as it additionally uses the numbers 11 and 12. But through research we have been able to push the idea further and find direction with this concept again.

Ted Baker and Stop Frame Animation Research

A brief I am working on currently with my work colleague Sophie is a campaign for Ted Baker for the launch of their Autumn/Winter collections. 

As part of the campaign the store windows should be used as the primary vehicle. What the brief is asking for is something to grab peoples attention, and by this we could even ignore the fact that it is Autumn completely. It needed to be scale-able, simple to understand, must capture the British sense of humour and project Quirkiness. 

One of our main ideas was to use British idioms, that we thought are British, Quirky, can be made strong visually and can specific idioms can be linked to weather. Initially we began visualizing such idioms as 'Raining cats and dogs' 'A penny for your thoughts' and 'Bakers Dozen' , but this lead onto another idea. 'Blown Away' by Ted Baker.

The idea was to have mannequins in the shop window but have them on a slant, infront of a huge fan (that would be hidden) to show them fighting against the wind. The clothes would be blown so the viewer can also see the inside of the garment, something you usually wouldnt see on static mannequins. 

In the Background we thought of having a projection of things blowing in the wind. Either a shopping trolly, an old lady, even someone on rollerblades with a newspaper in their face. We thought this would be something humorous to add to the window, and the viewer would be more inclined to stick around and see what was going to blow past next. 

This lead on to even more research and ideas as to how we could present this, and the technique of stop frame animation presented itself. Making something blow naturally across the screen proved tricky in filming, and so with research in to stop frame animation this seemed like a really interesting concept that seems like it would work well with our idea.

We decided to research into campaigns and performances that had used stop frame animation so we got a better idea of what to do. Here are some of the things we found. I find all of the se remarkable and mind boggling as to how much time it would had taken to stop-frame each one. It still seems exciting to have a go at doing this ourselves.


"Get out and play" 2008 - The Human Snake

New ad by Big Yellow using stop frame animation. Directed by Dougal Wilson. Animation Director Drew Lightfoot. Agency CHI & Partners.

Norman McLaren's famous Acadamy Award winning stop action animation from 1952.

 

Human Skateboard by PES. Directed by PES. Commercial for Sneaux Shoes. Advertising Agency: Margeotes, Fertitta & Partners, New York.

Osbert Parker. Film Noir (excerpt, short film 2005).

Tracy Kendall

When first starting the Ted Baker brief and we realized one of the issues to be taken in mind was to make use of store windows in our campaign, was to do some research into how to make good use of wall space and decoration.

On www.tracykendall.com it says "Tracy Kendall creates new and innovative wallpapers using hand techniques and modern technology to expand the vocabulary of possibility for wall coverings. The wallpapers are all starting points, often from elements already within a room or space, and convey a strong design concept, one which interact with an interiors identity, but without dominating it."

Here are some examples of Tracy Kendalls work

>

Graphic Design and Surrealism

For my new project that I am working on with my work colleague Sophie is a brief for Ted Baker to design a campaign but primarily  focused around the store window, and that extends throughout the rest of the store. As Ted Bakers sense of humour is quirky and strives to be different to other retailers, I feel like this project needs a surrealist spin on things.

To help me with this I have researched into quirky surrealist graphic designs that I have found on the internet.

Mas Pelas by Jerico Santander from http://www.designflavr.com/Mas-Pelas-Jerico-Santander-i450/



The Octopus World by Heri Irrawan from http://www.designflavr.com/The-Octopus-World-Heri-Irrawan-i1277/

Gold Leaves by Richard Roberts http://www.designflavr.com/Gold-Leaves-Richard-Roberts-i946/

Florin from http://abduzeedo.com/daily-inspiration-217

Longo from http://abduzeedo.com/daily-inspiration-217

Barbour Design, New York

On Wednesday 11th November me and my work colleague Grace went to visit Barbour Design in New York City.

Grace had previously emailed and talked to the company founder, Ava, and had organised the visit for this specific day at 3pm. 

As we walked into the studio I was first amazed how professional the studio looked, so I knew this was quite an upbeat and busy design environment.

When we met Ava she was very friendly and interested to see what we had to show her. I introduced ourselves and said where we were from and what we wanted to get out of the visit, and how important feedback on our portfolios was.

And so Ava began by looking through my portfolio, and seemed pleased with the work she saw for Manchester Literature Festival and Ted Magazine. Also she asked about the process for 3 men and a Wardrobe and the idea behind the end sting for Black and Decker. 

However she found it hard to comment on my animation for murder she wrote as it wasnt clear what was going on, and I have found this with other visits so I think it is time to take this piece of work out.

The feedback was also positive on Graces portfolio and so we found the visit very successful. 

After we showed our portfolios Ava showed us around the studio and introduced us to her work colleagues. She also gave us advice on our CV, as she herself had viewed many CVS in her time at Barbour and said to us that spelling and also the design of the CV was very important. It needs to capture your personality so she can have an incling on who she is going to interview.

Kenneth Funk from Coffee Cup Design, New York

On Tuesday 10th November me and Grace decided to give Kenneth Funk a call and see if it was okay for us to come and visit him. He was very friendly and pleasant on the phone and so it was easy to not get nervous about visiting our first designer in New York.

We arrived at the door of Coffee Cup Design Studio on the 10th floor. When we first walked in and greeted Ken he was very friendly and seemed happy to see us. The studio was small but the space was used well, with shelves upon shelves of design books and several files which we later discovered was full of typography. Ken said he had over 5000 fonts.

He was very interested in our course and what we were up to. He discussed his early career and his design work before computers were invented as he had been in the business for over 20 years. He described the way he had to cut out each individual letter for the Type work and then when sending it to print, he wasn't just as easy as converting it to PDF and clicking a button. To send the final print with colour to the client the piece had to be divided into 4 negatives with each of the colour combinations 'C' 'Y' 'M' and 'K'.

Since computers were invented and the competition increased, he says it is harder for him now. However, we asked what he was working on at the moment and the brochure he is working on appeared impressive.

When we showed him our portfolios he was very impressed with our work and the ideas behind some of the content. There's a few things in my portfolio that I seem to be very proud of to explain to anyone who views it, this is the bracket in my 'Manchester Literature Fesitval' poster that resembles an open book, and also my TED magazine that rolls up to resemble a magic wand. So I think it is safe to say I am definitely keeping these pieces in my portfolio. However, my animation piece is more illustration based and lacking in idea and I find that it is hard for anyone to comment on it, so I think this is going to be taken out of it.

At the end of the visit Ken suggested places for us to visit in New York whilst we were there. These were a Type Designers Club, a studio called Number 17 and the oldest pub in New York located on Greenwhich Street. As time went so quickly and we didn't get round to doing any of these, I still am very keen to get in touch with Number 17 and also research Ed Benguiat who Ken said he saw once speak at the Type Designers Club. Benguiat designed the logo for the 'New York Times' and the logo for 'NASA' that is on the side of the space shuttle.

Ovarall a very relaxed and successful visit, and me and my work colleague Grace plan on staying in contact with Ken in the future.

The Logo

Kenneth Funk and Grace