Creative report

As my practice is changing and I begin to find out what kind of designer I want to be in the future I think something to consider is the idea of print and digital, thinking about possible people to interview on this topic a few names come to mind, Jeremy Leslie for example is a spokesperson of print, running the Magculture shop as well as the ModernMagazine talks. This could be an interesting and relevant person to try and interview. 

Studio Culture

Studio Culture, book by Adrian Shaughnessy & Tony Brook.

This book gives an exclusive insight into the inner workings of a design studio, asking questions on the mechanics of the studio life. 
The language of the questions is really engaging and gets the best out of each interview, Adrian Shaughnessy is one of the leading professionals in the industry for analytical writing. Therefore thinking about studio brief 02 seeing how the questions are asked, structured and how the next question follows can be very important information. 

The interviews focus on the theme of the studio, its sizes, who is employed, etc, but the convocations constantly flow and change, to get the best out of the interviews this is key.

As the brief requires us to conduct an interview of a working graphic designer it is important to think about what I want to know. Print and its relationship with digital design is a interesting topic and as my practice is evolving I find myself more engaged with the idea of print. This is a fruitful and questionable topic that could be really interesting to explore. 

Stedelijk Museum Graphics

Over the christmas break I was able to visit the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, there was an exhibition showing archived images of the Stedelijks museum posters, catalogues. The posters show works from the 40's, the available print methods mean that one or two colours is often used. Overall the exhibition was great to see the marriage of art and design expressed in poster form. The use of really graphic shapes and hand made type was great to see. 

Exhibition branding is an area of graphic design that really interests me, the range of formats a designer is able to work in, the freedom that is given, the expressive and interesting content. The use of really simple shapes and tones comes together to create effective and appropriate posters. Today these posters may seem a bit stark but as there were limited processes on offer they make due with the best they can.

Theres poster have been incredibly inspiring and show how design can be both playful as well as engaging to the viewer. 

Design Museum - Beazley Designs of the Year.

The Beazley Designs of the Year exhibition at the Design Museum showed their picks for the most innovative projects in 2016. The work on show was extremely thought out, each with a clear idea that often connected to some kind of social issue or problem. All the work showed a further level of development and a clear theme, it was great to see what kind of work was being credited by the designers press and deemed a "Design of the Year". Some projects that stood out to me was the Johanthan Barnbrook David Bowie album artwork as it was a solution that was simple yet so appropriate and effective to the content. The Hello Ruby project for encouraging kids to learn coding as it was a usable and simple design that was really colourful and fit its purpose. Finally the publications shown in the first images were printed in Argentina, each of the books, used a cut out section that really changed the nature and engaging nature of the books, this extra level of production is really innovative and inspiring.

Overall it was great to see how far these projects had been pushed and informed by really in-depth research. All seemed to have a strong connection with people and showed a social continuousness that informed the designs. 

Design Museum

Design Museum 

The new design museum has opened in Finsbury Park, London. Over the christmas period I was able to visit and see it for myself. The building is really a wonderful space and the permanent collection offered a great insight into some of the best designs of the last 100 years in design. The images above are just some of the highlights that stood out, the image directly above shows the statistics that go with different crowdfunded projects over the years, its really interesting to see where money often goes, and encouraging to see design as one of the top hits. Most of the design shown I had seen pictures of but it was amazing to see for example Massimo Vignelli's New York Subway map up close to see the attention to detail put in. All these projects have not only been selected for there design merit but having a influence on contemporary culture, every project has so much to it in terms of a design born out of function.