OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Eve Warren contact

The second professional I contacted was Eve Warren, who is a graduate from Leeds College of Art who focuses on colourful and expressive work which I personally admire. Ive known of her work for while studying here at LCA but we also follow each other on Instagram so I took the opportunity to contact Eve through Instagram. She was more than happy to help as she's been in the same situation as me before with the creative report.

 

Her in depth responses were exactly what I was after as I particularly got a lot from learning how a studio such as Koto works as i'm a big fan of  Koto's bold work. Learning how she also contacted studios and kept the momentum up from third year into the industry was inspiring but also assuring to see how other graduates have done it in such a competitive industry.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Joey Barritt contact


The first professional I contacted for the creative report about graduates in Leeds was Joey Barritt, Joey is the resident designer at the Tetley who only recently graduated from Leeds Beckett University. His work has a  infatuation for typography and he thrives for well informed and conceptual work that enables him to communicate with purpose and clarity. He works within print, web, spatial design and books so he has a multifaceted approach in his practice. Below is an example of his promotional work while at The Tetley, and it clearly shows his infatuation for typography.













For initial contact with Joey I messaged him through instagram and simply introduced my plan to conduct interviews on graduates from Leeds, then compiling them into a creative report. He replied soon enough and was happy to help with him providing me with his personal email.

The interview over email went well with later expansion of the questions leading onto more of a conversation about his practice. I felt confident from this first interview and was pleased about the expansion of the questions, but what I got from this interview personally was learning about how his process didn't change much after graduation. The hours and amount of work he was undertaking at university allowed him to easily adjust to industry.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Creative report questions

The questions I sent to all the practitioners would all be the same as I felt it'll give different perspectives on subject points. With all the practitioners being graphic design graduates from Leeds, I wanted the responses to relate yet be completely diverse and I believed this would be accomplished through the questions. The main aims of the questions were to learn more about the transition after graduation and the comparable differences between university and industry. The questions are below:

What was your transition from university to industry like?
Can you tell me what you’re currently doing within the industry?
Could you tell me your working process?
Have you made any big adjustments to the way you work since graduating?
How have you found studio life compared to working within a university studio?
How did you approach studios before or after graduation?
Whats the best advice you would give to a graphic design graduate?
What do you think of the current graphic design scene in the north?

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Change of direction for creative report

After mulling over what to do concerning the creative report, I started to think what I genuinely wanted to gain from undertaking an interview. Its great to know the ins and outs of studios or practitioners practices in which I admire, but what will personally help me and what I'm doing now.
I started to think about less of what I'm interested but more of what I'm concerned and intrigued about, examples of these include the transition from university to industry, studio life and the working process in the industry.

When it came to who to contact then I wanted the professionals I'm contacting to relate to me in some way. Every practitioner has been a design student at one point and been in the same situation as me but if I focused on graphic design graduates, who graduated from the three Leeds universities then I can gain so much more from their advice and experiences. Furthermore instead of just focusing on one professional, I wanted to cover a wider variety to get different perspectives which will benefit me more.

I decided that a complete different approach in contact was required too, instead of emailing I would privately message professionals through Instagram. Using my design related account I would message people in a more laid back way, being brief and concise and through this more relaxed contact method I believe people are more inclined to message back. Firstly because I believe its more personal, this is because whoever I contact will be able to view my feed and learn a little bit more about me as a designer before they decide to message back. Secondly because most people and especially designers are constantly on Instagram, they are more likely to view a message through private message as most the time you will receive a message request.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 02 - Studio creme contact

My first steps for the creative report were contacting Studio Creme, the reasoning behind contacting them first was because I felt I had a better chance of conducting an email on one of the smaller studios I highlighted. Previous to this I contacted both Build and Founded but I didn't receive a response from either, I took into account that they both must be incredibly busy so from this I went forward and contacted Studio Creme.

James from Studio Creme replied within a day which was encouraging but as we exchanged emails it was apparent that even though he was open to answer some questions, it was finding the time to answer my questions which was the problem. I knew that relying on others wasn't the best idea for the creative report so I needed to change my approach and possibly who I was contacting.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Reflecting on Berlin

Looking back to my trip to Berlin I know for sure I need to return as I loved the city that much, with only a short time to see the city I knew that I wouldn't be able to see everything I wanted but nonetheless it was a great experience. It was a great experience for a number of reasons, firstly it was an opportunity to relax and step away from university work for a week even though I had it in the back of my mind the entire trip. Another small thing I enjoyed was socializing with other members of the class who I've never really spoke to in depth before the trip, even socialising with tutors outside the classroom was an enjoyable part of the trip. Whenever on a city trip I love finding my way around the city on foot as I believe you take more in at your own pace, I was able to do this in Berlin even with a bigger group. In the first day I walked a total 11 miles with the worst hangover of my life from the night before at legendary club Tresor, nevertheless I managed to battle through and enjoy my day by visiting iconic landmarks such as the Brandenburg gate and the holocaust memorial.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Type in Berlin

Whilst in Berlin I was always on the look out for typographic posters and unique typography, prior to the trip I did some research into the typography and Berlin street graphics so I sort of knew what to expect. Therefore I was really hoping to see some Bavarian inspired typography but sadly I didn't get the chance to see enough of it, nevertheless the U-Bahn and the streets of Mitte supplied me with plenty of typographic inspiration to bring back to the UK. Different aesthetics varied throughout the city, with Mitte having more contemporary styles while in Kreuzberg I came across rough and ready typography. One of my favourite parts of the trip was frantically finding my around the city using the U-Bahn, but it was cool to see each station had different typefaces representing each stop, with my favourite being Alexanderplatz.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Chloë Gallea & Eps51

During my time in Berlin I had two very useful and insightful talks from practitioners within the industry, the first being Chloë Gallea who is a graphic design graduate from LCA who is currently based in Berlin. Then the other talk was from Eps51, a graphic design studio who mainly work on cultural design with a strong focus on typography and bilingual design.

To start with Chloe who graduated from LCA in 2011, the talk was a relaxed experience as Chloe was invited along to the hostel to undertake the talk in the relaxed library setting. She started the talk by talking about life during the last months of university and how she contacted Pencil studio in Soho to set up a job straight after LCA. She briefly talked about the time after uni and her two years at Pencil but it was clear that the aim of the talk was to talk about the transition to Berlin and life over there as a designer. After two years in London Chloë boldly decided to move to Berlin, a decision she described as scary at the time as she was moving without the certainty of having a job upon arrival. She retained the hope that through Behance and existing clients in the UK that she'd be able to forge a career as a designer in Germany. And a number of years later and she's still in the capital, working three days a week at Cee Cee which is a weekly email newsletter with hand selected recommendations for the Berlin city life. The other two days of the working week she is doing freelance work but still working at the Cee Cee studio.

As Chloe continued to talk about her life in Berlin, one topic that kept arising was Brexit and whether or not it will affect her life as a British citizen living and working in Germany. She is currently unsure if it will affect her or not but she couldn't stress enough how much she is enjoying life in Berlin, the living rate is still cheap, compared to London it is far more laid back and everyone speaks English. She hopes to continue working in Berlin but keeps the door open to other cities such as Copenhagen and Barcelona. What I enjoyed from the talk was hearing about how she just decided to pack up and leave, this is a daunting task for anyone but it was reassuring and inspiring to know that is was from an alumni who once was in exact same position as me. At this stage moving abroad and finding a design path elsewhere isn't a priority of mine but nonetheless hearing Chloë's story was motivational.

Below is a piece of work Chloë has been involved with while at Cee Cee, its a neighborhood map from Cee Cee x Voo Store and discovers Berlin with the locals through 138 beautifully illustrated tips and 6 walking tours from in and around Kreuzberg & Neukoln. As I was planning on picking one of these maps up from Voo Store when in Kreuzberg but I was lucky enough to get a free copy from Chloë.

My main studio visit of the trip was to Eps51, the studio is an internatio­nally active graphic design studio develo­ping visual concepts with a strong focus on typography and bilingual design. Before the trip I had the choice of either Pentagram, P98a or Eps51 but I chose Eps51 as I believed the work the studio produces relates to my practice at the moment and once the talk came around I wasn't wrong. We were welcomed into the small studio space by Ben Wittner and Sascha Thoma who set the studio up together in 2008. As a group we gathered around a table of printed output from the studio then Ben delved straight into the duos story. They attended university together and during the final months of their degree they undertook a project named 'Arabesque', its a book that is about contemporary graphic design from the Arab world and Persia. With features of examples of recent innovative and groundbreaking design work that is inspired by the richness of the Middle East’s visual culture. After graduation they decided to further the book and continue to develop the idea, subsequently realising they had a strong and passionate interest in how the English and Arabic language can work together.

They showed a real passion for what they produce, especially the Arabic related design which they believe shows the the hidden side of the Middle East's visual culture. Both Ben and Sascha have links to the Middle East as they decided to pack up bags similar to Chloë Gallea and move to Egypt, they spent a number of years designing for cultural clients including an art gallery but after years of political strife in Egypt they had to leave. The majority of the projects they talked through were bilingual design which was great as I'm currently undertaking a D&AD brief in which I'm combining languages including Arabic. So to see and learn and how they mix languages was inspirational for my research for D&AD. Towards the end of the visit I had a chat with Sascha about my D&AD brief, informing him about what I'm doing and asked of the possibility of dropping him an email for possible research. He gave me a business card and was open to answer any questions and ease concerns about working with the Arabic language. Other things I took away from the talk was learning how the pair deal with clients, they boldly only give the client one option. Eps51 have full confidence in only one idea which is a brave option, but they hope the enthusiasm they show rubs off on the client. Overall I really enjoyed the visit and glad I chose Eps51, to see their projects and hear their stories was a great experience.

OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Abstract : The art of design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

Of late I have been watching a new series on Netflix about the visionary designers who shape our world. Abstract is an eight episode documentary series about creativity, about visionary designers who shape the world around us from architecture to illustration, cars to typography. Ive watched a number of design documentaries but Abstract is different as its more fun and light hearted yet still has a strong message of design. Every episode stands as its own film in many ways, as it adapts to the design styles of the subjects. Also the series has very high production values as its shot beautifully, with the use of drones and 4K adding to the film aesthetic.

In the first episode it explores the life of Christoph Niemann who is an illustrator, artist, and author. His work has appeared on the covers of The New Yorker,  WIRED and The New York Times Magazine. I wasn't familiar with Christoph before this episode but during the episode I began to recognise his work and style, and it was interesting to see the process of an illustrator. The episode focuses on a upcoming deadline of his, in which he has two weeks to design a front cover for The New Yorker. It was great to see him working in his small Berlin based studio, it gave a real insight into freelance work and what he gets up to between 9am to 6pm. I noted down an interesting point of his which I can relate to in many ways, during time when he has no deadline he likes to have free creation. He finds this free creation impossible during deadlines but he believes he is creatively dependant on these sparks during time off. I can relate to this as sometimes when I'm creating something which is not deadline related, I can have more freedom which later inspires me more.


An animated response to Yosuke Ushigome’s “Commoditised Warfare”,  by Christoph Niemann.

The sixth episodes indulges you into the life and work of Paula Scher who was the first female partner of Pentagram. As a graphic design student this episode caught my attention the most as one scene shows Paula pitching to a client, it felt like being inside the New York Pentagram office itself. It was insightful but Paula stresses the reality of a meeting such as the one on the show, she talks about how the meeting always starts great but slowly declines as soon as niceties are exchanged. 'See, perceive and accept' is what she said to assure the client if whether or not the public will like the promotional artwork. Paula has had over 40 years worth of experience with dealing clients so it was great to see how she deals with situations of uncertainty in a meeting.

Seeing her dealing with clients was one inspiring part of the episode but also seeing her create was equally as good, she feels like she has to be in the 'state of play' to design. But stepping away from her more cooperate designs, her paintings of maps are coequally as impressive as her vast design portfolio. The paintings aim to ask questions and not answer them, so a complete contrast to her current Pentagram work. This episode is similar to the Christopher Niemann one, in the sense that it both shows the artists/designers stepping away from deadline work. Although deadline work pays the bills and not to say Christoph and Paula don't enjoy deadline work but they seem more creatively free and stress free creating personal work.