D&AD came to Preston yesterday for a day long series of events hosted in and around the University campus. The day started in Adelphi lecture theatre where Rianan James opened the event with an insightful introduction into D&AD and also outlining their current and future direction.

Former creative director at The Partners, Jack Renwick, followed up with an inspirational talk on how she got to where she has from starting out as a wheel chair ramp welder.

The second part of the day included a full cast of Designers and Creative Directors discussing ways in which briefs should be tackled using the D&AD White Pencil brief as an example. Hearing how the professionals would handle a brief definitely made everyone feel more comfortable, especially with the approaching avalanche of competition briefs.

The final workshop was hosted by design agency WeAreThoughtful. This was a massively informative presentation with every question you could think of on how to crack the industry as a graduate answered. There was also some really sound advice on portfolio presentation and how best to present work.

Running parallel to the workshops we also had a series of portfolio surgeries where students from across the region had a chance to gain some real industry input.

Advice was provided by designers from Music, The Chase, Cheetham Bell JWT and Because Studio among many others.

Everyone then made there way to The Continental public house for an early evening talk by Gary Aspden. This provided everyone with a great excuse for a drink and opportunity to discuss the days events. It was a very long day for everyone involved but definitely rewarding, with everyone who took part and attending taking away something form a very enjoyable day. We look forward to the next one.

Also a special thanks to Steve Wilkin the Illustration course leader for his part in organising the event at our end. He also provided the most ‘exceedingly good cakes’ for the tutor network meeting.

Harry Pearce & Peter Gabriel at D&AD from Pentagram on Vimeo.

The Talks is a weekly updated online interview magazine.

Over the past decade its founders have met with cultural figures of all kinds, new talks take place while traveling throughout the year.

Its content is thin on the ground as of yet, but over the coming weeks im sure it will begin to fill up.

Earlier this month I had the honour and pleasure of speaking at the 2011 agIdeas conference in Melbourne, Australia. For those who are unaware of the conference, this from the agIdeas website:

“agIdeas International Design Week is one of the largest and most prestigious design festivals in the world. Established 20 years ago by Ken Cato and developed and presented by the design foundation in Melbourne, Australia. agIdeas offers an extraordinary program of events that celebrate design excellence and promotes the value of design driven innovation.”

Themed around the idea, ‘Design is Difference,’ the conference brought together 40 internationally acclaimed creatives (and me) from a variety of fields to deliver talks, host seminars, workshops and social engagements.

Designers, architects, photographers, film makers, illustrators and creative folk from all corners of the globe gathered to exchange ideas and to talk about their creative journeys.

Having never attended the conference I was unsure what to expect. Little did I know I was in for the most exhausting and inspirational week of my professional life. Never have I been part of such a well organised, and utterly enjoyable event. The team running the event (made up predominantly of students) brought new meaning to the term ‘tight ship.‘ Schedules ran like Swiss clockwork, utilising the most sophisticated of facilities, resulting in an truly unforgettable experience for both the speakers and those attending the conference.

For me personally, walking out to talk to a 2,500 strong audience was a nerve wracking but thrilling experience. And I would do it again in a second.

Below is my amateur attempt to capture some of the more memorable goings on…

Breakfast and briefing on Day 1 in the bowels of the Melbourne Exhibition Centre

Some conference collateral.

Nervous hotel rehearsal.

Design heavyweight Nick Bell opened proceedings on Day 1.

Sacha Lobe, creative director of L2M3 Communications Design in Germany, talking through stunning way finding systems.

Nick, backstage manager extraordinaire, explains calmly where we are.

Me doing my thing.

The always up, always smiling agIdeas crew in full effect backstage.

Toko co-ounder, Michael Lugmayr, talking through his studios approach.

Californian artist Iain McCaig talking through Star Wars character development.

D&AD President Sanky (All of Us) gives us a backstage preview of Ole Whitey.

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This years event was a huge success, with Chris’s talk proving to be one of the most popular lectures.
 

Many of you may be aware of the recent Issue25 project organised by final year students from the University of Salford. Ultilising a wide range of media from newspapers to online and social networking the project sought to address many of the issues and concerns surrounding beginning a career in design. The centerpiece was an open debate held in Manchester on the 10th May between students and industry professionals. The event was attended Tom Devonald, not of this parish, who is currently working with us on placement so I asked him for his take on the event for The Disciples of Design. Thanks Tom!

What skills and attributes is the creative industry looking for in fresh graduates? This was the topic of discussion at last weeks ‘Issue25’ debate organized by 24 students about to graduate from design courses at Salford Uni. The event gave the students an opportunity to rub shoulders with a panel of key industry figures from the North West, including Photolink’s John Whalley and one of Salford’s own design legends Trevor Johnson.

The debate was well presented; the students had set up a live twitter feed projected on the wall behind the panel where the topics and questions were logged and people at the event could share their thoughts and post links.

The debate began well and the room listened whilst each member of the panel talked in depth about what they and their agency/business looked for in potential recruits. Although it was all sound advice I doubt there was much there that the students didn’t expect to hear; predictably the qualities included confidence, personality and communication skills. One point to note was John Whalley stressing the importance of showing a breadth of skills and adaptability; his point being that graduates can’t expect to stick to one preferred area of work without getting their hands dirty in other areas of an agency.

After John, Trevor and Gary Armer had all noted the strengths and importance of an eye catching job application and Lisa Parry had offered advice on the strengths and weaknesses of video portfolios the topic quickly gave way to CVs. After a number of the panel expressed a general lack of interest in CVs Mike Carter of Orchard Creative Recruitment caused a further stir when he dubbed most graduate CVs as ‘over-designed’ (to the dismay of a room full of students who had just spent 3 months designing their CVs). His controversial opinion may very well be due to the fact that receiving a classic CV probably makes his own creative recruitment agency’s process much easier.

He went on to advise students to avoid being part of the large number of graduates that apply for jobs above their skill level, he suggested that around 80% of the applications he sees are rejected immediately on the grounds that applicants do not fit the job description as advertised; this caused a few heated minutes between him and a student who argued, perhaps naïvely, that the ‘CV scattergun’ approach is worth doing claiming that there is always a chance to slip through the net because “a net has holes in it”.

Mike Carter has since blogged about this very discussion on the orchard website and when clarifying his position he touches on the most important topic that the debate failed to tackle; the fact that barely any design placements/jobs are actually advertised anyway because proactive students have already approached the companies themselves and filled them. The Issue 25 debate panel analysed CVs at length, briefly touched on portfolios and mentioned networking events (even complimenting the Issue25 team on managing to subtly create one) but actually contacting companies with an email or phone call and what to say or do when doing so seemed to elude discussion. The student who uses this engaging method gives him or herself an arena to communicate their confidence, interpersonal skills and even their creativity; the original heroes of the discussion, far better than they would with a CV.

As many of our readers are about to take their first step into this arena – what are your thoughts on going into the world of work? And if you’re hiring, what do you look for?
Are recruitment consultants a necessary evil or a helping hand?

Getting advice

While at college, you may well find that you get conflicting, often completely contradictory, opinions from tutors – clear-sighted advice can be hard to come by. I would say that one of the key things you need to be able to do by the time you graduate is think for yourself. Don’t try to please every tutor, and do learn to shrug off opinions about your work that you don’t necessarily agree with. The problem is that this is, in itself, a delicate balancing act; if you don’t listen, process, consider and weigh up advice from other people, you will be in danger of learning nothing. You have to be open to constructive criticism and guidance, but ultimately confident enough to make your own mind up.

When asking a tutor’s advice about how suitable your portfolio is for a career in design, you need to talk to the tutor whose opinion and advice you respect and trust the most. This isn’t necessarily the one who is most friendly to you, who is unlikely to tell you uncomfortable truths. Ultimately, the advice you’re given will either chime with something you instinctively feel or it won’t. There are no clear pathways here unfortunately. The bottom line is, if you have a tutor you trust, ask for an opinion, but try not to go to everyone asking the same question, trying to make a decision by committee.

To complete a trilogy of Michael Wolff video posts on here, this is the full film of the Liverpool Design Symposium conversation he gave in 2009. I was at the talk and found it to be one of the most useful, interesting and inspirational that I’ve been to. Recently I’ve been looking for the film of the night and tracked it down to the D&AD site here.

Some of Brian’s most well known work has been within the music industry. He was the designer responsible for creating the album and singles sleeves for bands such as The Verve and Oasis. What made Brian’s talk particularly interesting was not just his passion for design but the stories that lay behind much of the work. He is a great advocate of attention to detail, determination and hard work. He acknowledges he has had a couple of lucky breaks, (the right trainers in the right lift at the right time) but maintains you make your own luck.

Apologies for the poor quality studio shots.

Brian’s work is not merely limited to the music industry as a visit to his company website, Microdot Creative will underline.

Cheers Brian

Behind the TEDTalk 2010 from m ss ng p eces on Vimeo.

Recently D&AD North hosted there first talk “A String of Pearls” by The Partners‘ own Greg Quinton.

Around 10 students from graphics went to the talk in Manchester keen to pick up a few tips on where to take our work in the future.

The talk comprised of 10 pearls of wisdom from Greg each explaining his views on design and how The Partners have used these points to aid their work.

Much like The Partners, we are taught that idea is key. Their work along with that of The Chase’s amongst others, are shown to us on a regular basis. They are benchmarks in the kind of thing that we are expected to produce. Even if you aren’t a past or present student of UCLAN a quick flick through a ‘D&AD Annual’ or ‘A Smile in the Mind’ will tell you all you need to know about the level of work The Partners produce.

So here is a not so brief run down of Greg’s pearls of wisdom and some of the work that was shown alongside these points.

If you think i’m dragging this on, you should try talking to me in person!

1. Have an unattainable goal
It is always a good idea to have a unreachable target, it keeps The Partners focused on being the best of the best and makes sure their work is of the highest calibre.

You are either up for ideas or you are not. Clients are greeted with the below image when they walk into The Partners building to keep them on their toes!

2. Keep ideas simple
Ideas, Ideas, Ideas that is what is important.

Office games

Richard House 5 a side

Ideas don’t always have to be painful, it can just be about observing the detail.

3. Less (strategy) is more
Too much strategy is not always the best thing. Their work for Deloitte actually comes down to one sentence “Always one step ahead” The full stop becomes the star and is run throughout. Simple.

4. Don’t be cool
They don’t try to be cool, they don’t try to be stylish. They are all about ideas. They want to solve problems and make a difference.

They like to work for the not so cool, quirky companies such as Thrislington Cubicles.  They have been working with Thrislington Cubicles for a long time creating award winning calendars for many years (as spoken by Steve Owen). Over 12 years The Partners created these calendars, they became so popular architects and planners craved the newest edition.

They also worked with Eagle Clean, a cleaning company that wanted to work for design companies. A quirky client that produced great results. Have a look at the website for further application of the idea.

5. Fail
Failure is good, celebrate them. Whilst working on a calendar for Thrislington Cubicles they came up with an idea that included fluffy kittens. Greg said he still to this day has no idea why they thought this would work. He said perhaps they were a little pretentious in their approach to the project. 24 hours before they were expected to print, they binned the kittens. In it’s place they came up with the “Spend a Penny” calendar. It was more natural (not forced) and elegant.

(unlike this pixellated image)

6. Make a difference.
A brief came in to repackage Stanley Honey. This was no ordinary honey manufacturer, it was urban honey made in the city. Rather than package the honey in a standard jar. They put it in a reusable clay pot. Once the honey was eaten a flower should be planted and placed on a balcony or window sill to attract more bees, make more bees and make more honey!

Another example of this was their Metro cover last year. As public transport tends to be a unsociable affair they tried to create some interaction amongst the passengers. Flowers were printed on every Metro paper across Britain. And even if only for one day it brightened up the most mundane of journeys.

7. Love good clients.
Keep hold of the good ones and lose the bad ones. The good ones will help to keep the work to the highest of standards, your company and it’s ideas will attract attention and catch on.

8. Work damn hard
The hardest thing in design is to keep things simple. Sometimes you have to fight to keep your ideas that way.

Their work on The Grand Tour for the National Gallery is an example of how The Partners had to work hard to make a simple idea happen.

It took over 2 years to put the paintings around the city, talking to councils, property owners and landlords. The paintings are hi-res scans of the originals and the frames are authentic to the time period. Lots of details that took time but added to the overall effect.

9. Change

Greg recently met two designers who had started up a new company. They spoke of their work, how they were printing on new and exciting paper, using different inks etc for album covers and posters. But they were broke!

He remarked it is important to get the balance right, do the work that pays the bills. This will give you the opportunity to work on the nice projects in between. Designers aren’t artists, art is about indulgence. Design is about solving a problem.

He also explained that technology is changing the way they work. 20 years ago The Partners were producing around £3m of print. Now that figure is just £100,000. Nobody prints anymore. There is less of the massive inch thick guidelines and more quality.

One piece of print they have done was to produce a catalogue for ‘Laboratory’ which was an experimental exhibition designed to put the process of making art under the microscope.

10. Create the future

It’s all about the students, they want to see quirky unusual work, not things that are copied from ffffound. The Partners like the weird stuff so keep it up!

And those are the 10 pearls. I hope i didn’t drag it on too much! The talk was very inspiring and encouraging for us students and I imagine equally so for professionals as well.

It was nice to hear the stories behind some of their better known projects and hear how their ideas developed, some from months of hard work, others from a small piece of observation.

Well worth the ticket, and I think their are more D&AD North lectures coming up in the next few months.