Offset Sheffield
Two day event of design talks with some leading professionals in the industry. This event offered many great opportunities to see how professionals work and the fundamentals in their practice.
Studio Laucke Siebein
The first speaker of the event was 'Studio Laucke Siebein' formed of Dirk Lauck and Johanna Siebein, specializing in creative strategies, book and web design. Their practice had a focus on type and creative and inventive uses of type. They spoke about the importance of the client. All of their solutions were informed by what the client wants, this is key in unearthing the best design. They spoke of the importance of using the clients influences rather than their own. This is something that as designers we are all guilty of trying to fit the work around what we want to do rather than the other way around. When they showed their work it used at times very minimal and singular uses of typography. They explained when showing this to the client that the clients are amateurs in the design world and that it is their job to building a story around the design for them to understand. In their work they said that they are always looking for new ways of making their work different the use of spot colours is one way of doing this. Finally, the thing that really stood out to me when they spoke about their practice was the way they spoke about typography they saw themselves as illustrators that use typography as their medium this way of thinking was very alien to me but is very very interesting.
The next speaker to highlight was Steve Simpson the illustrator originally from Manchester but living and working now in Dublin. Though illustration interests me greatly and understanding of illustration is important to be well-rounded designer I was totally surprised by the way he spoke about his practice.
The images above show some of his most successful works, and his playful and creative uses of typography. A massive contrast to the work of Studio Laucke Siebein but never the less appropriate to the product. He explained he always strives to get illustration and typography to match and that the relationships between each shouldn't be so blurred.
Hand drawn lettering is something that he is very passionate about he feels that when hand drawn type is used it shows the viewer that there has been a level of care and time put into the production. Steve Simpsons use of expressive and innovative barcodes was really inspiring transforming regular barcodes into fun engaging and exciting images that communicate something different.
Pentagram's Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell
These two brothers from London explained their ways of working and what inspired them. The first port of call for inspiration they explained was Sci fi movies as they often strive to rewrite the future, and that this can be a way of creating the future we want to live in. In terms of design based inspiration looking for interesting letterforms, ligatures in language and how this can be incorporated to new technologies like emojis and type on social media.
Gaming is another way they get inspired they explained gaming can be a lens for looking at technology as it is such an innovative industry it incorporates new technologies constantly and is always trying to raise the bar of what is out there. Research formed a large part of their talk it was interesting to see where how they go about researching for a project. They explained it is important to be open to finding research from anywhere and the more you look beyond obvious imagery the better informed the work will become. The final point of the talk was when designing judge your ideas against your interests, this would allow you to see past what you like and create the most appropriate solution.
The Amsterdam based designer showed a number of projects all very different including photography, video advertising, editorial and digital branding and art direction. She explained she always strived to create more than just an artwork in singular form and that she felt it was key to build a larger context and a personality in a project.
This brief was to create imagery for a jewelry shop, using some of the shops items. As the jewelry was very bespoke and intricate she created an environment an a personal colour pallet to photograph the jewelry made of found materials and objects.
This idea of creating a physical space as the basis of the design was shown again in her work for Reebok.
Ian Anderson
The founder of The Designers Republic based in Sheffield and a real spokes person for the Northern design world. Ian spoke twice over the weekend once about his own practice and secondly as part of a panel on whether you had to go to London to be a successful designer among other things.
During the talk on the work he had done for The Designers Republic he shows some of his favorite and most innovative record covers. These early covers showed the graphic impacting style featured in his work.
Time limitations meant the work had to be done quickly, he built up a style for the company showing punk and postmodernist highly visual and graphic outcomes. During his explanation on branding and creating effective images and artworks he made a very impacting point. Explaining that any design that has been influenced really heavily by current trends in both style and design that they tend to date really quickly.
This album cover artwork was a really interesting project, he worked out how many pieces of collateral that would be needed for the bands album, then got that number of people to draw their best attempt at a perfect circle then used these images as the basis of the designs. This simple innovative was the whole concept of the designs.
This work he explained was his favorite album cover he designed, the concept being he researched and listed every expense it took to created the album, so that the buyer knows exactly where his 15 pounds is going. A fairly simple idea but hard to carry out, again this singular theme dictates the overall content.
Aaron Duffy
New York based designer and creative.
The basis on Aaron Duffy's talk was 12 steps to close the gap between your intestest and your work.
1. Why are you creative? - for example he liked to impress people!
2. Remember where you started. - Source of an orginal idea
3. Rethink art history. - A Renaissance Super Hero?
4. Give Credit - highlight where your inspiration has come from.
5. Ease up on personal style. - Work out of your comfort zone.
6. Turn creative problem solving into creative project making.
7. Help develop new technologies. - through problem solving in projects.
8. Consider Illusions in work. - Seeing things from a different perspective.
9. Forget about working for the meal or the show real.
10. Create new business models.
11. Keep making stuff it doesn't have to be commercial stuff. - Creating personal work that is inline with what you want to do, this will allow the jobs you get to be within this.
12. Know that it won't be easy.
Ben Bos
Primary member of the Dutch studio Total Design. Ben Bos referred to himself as a written before a designer as he began as a copy writer.
Part of the early modernist design movement. He explaiend his design principles came from the Dieter Rams ideas of good design being as little as possible. 
His work as part of Total Design included the PAM oil company. The simple and graphic logotype and imagery is consistent throughout. This modernist and typically Dutch design style. He explained the idea is always to try and visualise the messge that needed to be convayed.
He explained that the work of Wim Couwel another member of the Total Design studio was the most influential person in his own practice.
His work for the company Randstad is instantly recognisable and is considered one of the most effective pieces of branding in the world. He explained when he first started working for Randstads branding they only had a few stores and was a fairly smalling company. Through really consistent clear and effective branding Randstad was trnasformed into a golbal buissness and still uses the same logo today. The design worked across all platforms and formats this meant that it is effective everywhere. It is amazing example of how just through clarity and consistence branding can be so effective. Ben Bos explained how the most important tool for him were his hands and brain. That everything must be informed by how it looks and how its made.
The final talk to highlight iss the Routes into Design talk with Paul Wilkes (MPC) Pam Baunon of Sheffeild University, Shane Griffin and Alex Dudson from Intern magazine. Apeaking about each of there personal pathways to what they do and advise that they would give. Aaron Duffy explained how he had contacted his heros as one of the first things and soon realised that everyone is human and just as vunrable as eachother, and that no one really knows what they are doing so its all okay!
A question was asked about what impresses you in a (young) designer? they explained..
Showing use of software to a high level.
Confidence and communication skills.
Be nice and be humble.
the idea that its not just about you.
Showing personal work and interests.
Knowing where you wanna go and who you wanna work for.
Fexability
Showing the process
Show what you can do and ask for more.
