Design Manchester

Yesterday I attended another Design Manchester event, this time taking place at Manchester's Town Hall. The day involved a series of talks and presentations from an array of different and talented speakers, including Kate Moross and the Colophon Foundry. The theme of the festival itself has been longevity, and so the talks today were meant to provide a discussion based around design of substance and sustainability, design that lasts and building long client relationships.
It was a fantastic event to attend as each of the speakers had something different and valuable to say, and as well as that, it was well designed and we got freebies from GFSmith. What more could you want?

These are some of the notes that I made through the talks.

Andrew Shoben
Founder of Greyworld, an artists collective creating public art works that involve the interaction of people in Urban spaces.

Interactive design isn't just online. Taking urban space and creating moments of creativity.
What is public art? Why do they call it public art? Who is it talking to?
It's about breaking down the gulf.

The Clockwork Forest (2011) Audience not expecting this when they arrive at Grizedale forest, allows people to interact, and also to not interact if they don't want to.

The works are very direct - no need to explain, bringing cause and effect together. Your audience in interactive art is everybody so don't assume something about them.The audience is the centre of the work. Public art is created for the grey zones and the in between places, and it's about making random connections between strangers, social engagement. You need simplicity in projects like these, if you want work to have staying power it should have some complexity to it but with a simple route in.  Nat Hunter and Mark ShaylerThe Great Recovery Project  - 90% of consumer goods we buy end up in landfill within 6 months. Sophie and Mark run workshops to try and help people become aware. 

Mark Shayler - 25 years in design, runs good for nothing, a charity in Manchester. The simplest way to reduce impact in design is to make things last longer. Design is powerful thing, you can either be the joker or you can be batman. Sustainable design has to be green AND, has to be everything to make it desirable or people won't buy into it. Currently there is a perfect storm of obsolescence, things are being designed to only last for a short period of time to ensure people have to buy the newest thing, Currently our resource systems are linear and fundamentally flawed. Best way to extend value of a product is to make it last longer. If we don't start making in Britain, it will be made first in China. There isn't just a carbon footprint in design, there's also a water footprint. We need to begin to manufacture again. Think about life cycles when you design things.  Design builds understanding of complex systems. Kate Moross

It's not what you say you do, it's what you actually do. She's a jack of all trades, master of some. We are now entering a world where you have to be good at everything. You can do anything that you want to. The future is multi disciplinary, things aren't isolated anymore. Be active in your career and life.Approach to working -  be entrepreneurial. The future - investing, learning and collaborating.Music is about illusion, as well as design. Make your own luck. No fear! Failure is most important part of creativity. Things often don't happen the way you want them to. Learn how, there are so many amazing resources now, there is a way to do anything you want. DO IT! Don't be afraid to be shit at something at first. Improvise. Be open, communicate with your clients. Connect with people, every single interaction is important. Don't be lazy! Colophon Type FoundrySplitting the tasksManifesto - Use our live/commercial projects as a testing ground. Do things the hard way. Remain autonomous. Curate an aesthetic via Colophon. Collaborate with contributors. We are NOT a reseller. Keep prices affordable. We do not design to predict trends. Some of the other talks and interviews were difficult to make notes from, but they were still interesting and valuable to listen to. I think I found Mark Shayler and Kate Moross to be the most energetic and inspiring talks to listen to. Mark Shayler just seemed incredibly passionate about the work he was doing, but not in an annoying, preachy way. He told us the facts, told us not to feel guilty, but just to think about how we design, which I liked and thought was a very successful way to get through to what was mainly a group of students. Kate Moross was very open and friendly, and seemed very approachable, and obviously very knowledgable because of her experience despite being so young.  She also seemed genuinely enthused about being there and sharing her ideas and thoughts with us. 

Design Manchester: D&AD Creative Brief In

Today, Lisa, Tom and myself went to the D&AD Creative Brief In that was featured as one of the events in the Design Manchester festival. The brief-in included a short talk from D&AD introducing the New Blood awards, providing some information on how the awards are judged, and then there were two talks based on technology, given by Adam Todd of Magnetic North, and Tom Bradley from the BBC. In honesty I assumed that the brief-in would be based more on the briefs being set for the New Blood awards, and this was why I had chosen to go to it in the first place, but the main focus was on technology which I hadn't necessarily thought was relevant to my practice. I am glad that I went to it though, as the talks were interesting and gave me something different to think about, and a lot of what was talked about could apply to my practice as well.
These are just a few notes that I made during the talks.

New Blood
Now launching the Yellow, White and Black pencils for the New Blood Awards. The Black pencil is the most coveted, and highly regarded reward in the industry.
16 briefs, launching 31st October.
Got rid of singular categories, this time it is based more on themes and topics relevant to our time. The idea is to encourage multi faceted creatives / collaboration encouraged to ensure high standard of work if you feel that you lack a particular skill.

New Blood exhibitions - the place to go and be seen by the industry.

New Blood entry deadline: 19th March

Exhibition: 1st - 3rd July.

Adam Todd / Magnetic North

Magnetic North are a Manchester based design studio specialising in Digital Design and Strategy, UX+D.
Designing Radio
Interesting technology with a history of reinvention, but less people are listening now, so it's time it reinvented itself again.
A quote from a recent conference - "Radios don't just have to sound good, they have to look like cool toys too". But it's a bigger problem than that, they need to advance the technology.
What is radio? In the UK there are 600 licensed stations, ranging from national to local, community to pirate stations.
Questions need to be asked.
What platforms will our audience be using?
Surprisingly radio on TV is more popular than desktop radio.

How do we visualise radio?
Visualising the records, why can't visuals be applied to radios?
Radio user interface?

What should we keep? What can we do differently?
Interactions -  a new language to use.
Gestures - Facial recognition, voice control.
Awareness of surroundings and joined up experiences.
How do you get everything working linked up, eg car radio, radio in your house?

5 ways of organising information - Location / Alphabet / Time / Categories / Continuum.

AGOGO, an app that slices and dices radio into chunks, so that you can choose to listen to a subject in a chronological order, also reads out what you're listening to.

Radio as art - Matt Brown
Depending on which locations you put them on it changes station.

Perceptive radio - Radio that's aware of what you are. Depending on where you listen to it, it can reference local places to help make it more engaging, it can also be aware of the amount of people listening to it which can affect the length of the radio programme.

Itunes radio launching in two weeks, Apple are the largest seller of music, and their radio links the audience to the record. Good example of integration. They can also use data to give them a better experience.

The future of radio needs to be non linear and aware, and based on new ways of interacting, with visual and interactive content.

Tom Bradley / BBC Salford 

Ideas are easy? Creativity is a skill, not a gift. The challenge is the delivery of those ideas, and turning the could bes into will bes.
In the beginning with brainstorming, ideas get held on to and you need processes to help you choose the best idea.
If you build things piece by piece it makes the task more manageable.
People tend to think design is just for them, but you have to design for specific audiences. It's easy to choose an idea once you have your audience.

Eddie Obeng - The World After Midnight theory. Things are changing faster than we can learn them. Turns out ideas are hard.

Leadership - Teamwork - Creativity - Methods - Environment - all important parts in designing.

You need to be generous with your ideas - helps people and moves a community forward. Need to be proactive.
Empathy and understanding.

How do you measure quality of the idea?
Desirability? Feasibility? Viability?
You've got to do everything.

Creative Environment
Challenge - Freedom - Time - Support - Trust and Openness - Playfulness and Humour - Conflicts - Debates - Risk Taking
Makes best use of the time you have.
Connect experiences together.

PPP Tutorial with John

Having this tutorial was really motivating for me, and although some of the subjects that we discussed have been mentioned before by him, I think finally it might be sinking in, and I fully intend to start doing more acting than procrastinating.

With regards to networking and using Behance, he mentioned the importance of using copyright symbols on my images, as well as not releasing copyright for an image unless I have received payment. I also need to get a LinkedIn account, as I was advised that this is more personal and more useful for networking purposes.

I was also curious about placements and copywriting, and so I asked about this and received the email address of somebody to contact...his son! I will start crafting an email tonight and attempt to sound smart and cool and knowledgeable, and hopefully start to build up my networking skills. He also encouraged me to ask who else I can speak to once I have a reply, so that I can build up contacts. 

Finally, I discussed my idea for the Christmas card charity project, and he was really encouraging of the project. He advised me to get in touch with the chosen charity Simon on the Streets to discuss the logistics of doing this kind of project, and so I have sent an email to them today. 

Studio Talk: The Beautiful Meme

The Beautiful Meme, based in York.
There are 2 copywriters and 4 designers. The creator worked in publishing and magazines prior to opening the studio, and built it from the ground up.

He came in to talk to us about the importance of having a good relationship with a copywriter, as they are a crucial part of the final outcome. I was incredibly interested in this talk because I love copywriting and it is something that I want to pursue more in this final year, although I did want to question whether he felt you could do both, or whether you had to choose to be one or the other. This is something he answered at the end, stating that it was possible, but you could be seen more as a jack of all trades, master of neither, although he didn't deny that designers can come up with good copy, just like copywriters can sometimes make incredibly valid contributions to the designs. This answer was really what I expected, although it does put me in a more difficult position upon leaving here, as I like both, but feel I would probably have more success as a copywriter than as a designer. Obviously it's silly for me to think that even if I do want/get a job in copywriting that it means that I can no longer do graphic design, but it's still confusing my ambitions for after graduation.

Anyway, he clarified why having a copywriter work with us is so important, because the copy broadens the brand, giving it a tone of voice and personality, something that is so necessary with many products as a means to stand out against your competitors.

His little nuggets of wisdom were as follows.
Discuss and articulate your positioning before you do anything.
Brands are ideas, ideas need words.
You need words to sell stuff.
Copy and design challenge each other.
People like well written copy.
Words make your brand more human.
Hierarchy in design is everything.

The designer's job is to challenge every word, and not be afraid to ask for copy to be changed or reduced. In fact, reducing copy is really the job of the copywriter, as they should be able to communicate a point with as few words as possible.

I loved having this talk, but yet again I did not have the bravery to go up and talk after the presentation had ended, and I also haven't emailed them to start begging for a placement yet. I'm just like the cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, only smaller and less hairy.

YCN Event

YCN Student Awards Ceremony, 3rd September 2013 from YCN Student Awards on Vimeo.

The only proof I have (apart from my own images) that I attended this ceremony is displayed at 1.16 on this video, of me taking a photo of my starter with a disposable camera and then doing a little dance. I was THAT excited, which to this day makes me feel overwhelmingly sad about my clearly sheltered existence. I'd really like to thank YCN for capturing it on camera. In all seriousness though, the event was pretty great, and it definitely felt good to have something I had done recognised by Very and YCN as worthy of commendation.

The seating plan also meant that I was sat with designers and employees of Very.co.uk, meaning that in theory I had the chance to network with all of them. In the end, due to both my location on the table and the very loud music playing in the background, my networking options were reduced considerably, although I was able to talk to a couple of more senior members of the team which was useful and nerve wracking at the same time. Going into another situation like this I would have prepared something to say or comment on, as at one point I was asked which fashion brands I personally felt had a strong presence in the market currently, and my mind went blank, only for me to think of the answer after he had left (Netaporter and Mr Porter is what I would have said in case anyone is curious).
Later on in the evening I managed to talk to another member of the Very team, and even summoned the courage to ask for his contact details, and so now I have a business card to prove I managed to do some networking!

Sonya Dyakova / Atelier Dyakova

Here 2012: Sonya Dyakova from It's Nice That on Vimeo.




A couple of weeks ago, when I was in a bit of a sulk because I was stuck on how to approach third year, both in terms of the briefs I should do and how I would manage my time, and how come I still don't know really what I want to do/want to be, I decided to try and find some kind of inspiration online from within the industry, hoping it might give me a bit of a kick up the bottom. Here London was an event organised by Its Nice That, that featured talks from a number of interesting and successful creatives, and this was an event that I had originally intended to attend until I ran out of money. Fortunately they have been so kind as to leave an archive of videos on their website.

The talk I have blogged here was given by Sonya Dyakova, an art director and all round creative genius who runs Atelier Dyakova, a multi-disciplinary studio. The reason I was drawn to watching her video was because the little snippet of information underneath the link on the archive referenced her work with Phaidon, who create books that I fall in love with. Publishing design is something that I really want to focus on this year and so this talk was incredibly useful, as she discusses the concepts behind the art direction of the books, and also the processes involved in creating them. During the presentation, she discusses several books that were created under her art direction, including Ginette Mathiot's I Know How to Cook, a book that I actually have at home, mainly because of how beautiful it is, but also because I really like food. The concepts behind the books are always so well considered and beautifully executed, with a real focus on innovation and playing with the idea of what a publication can be.

At the beginning of her presentation, she also said something that struck a chord with me, and how I was feeling unsure of everything at the time. 'This feeling of not knowing what i'm doing seems to follow me, or maybe i'm following it. And i'm starting to think theres something to it, maybe i'm doing something right'. It was a very reassuring thing to hear someone as successful as her say, because this is the one feeling that has stuck with me since college. I know that I want to be part of the creative industries, but I am still unsure of the specifics. After hearing this, perhaps I should just chase this feeling and see which path I end up on.

PPP3 Presentation

For once I managed to get through a presentation without any heart palpitations/nausea/jelly legs, if that's not progress then I don't know what is. Being able to explain my briefs and COP direction has helped to make these ideas seem concrete and now I would just really like to get on with it all.