John-Paul Sykes
Graduated 2000
1st class honours

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Profile
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

After two years of arsing about, going to “Tokes”, Feel, Free2Dance, Cream, drinking Old Tom, living in a ten bedroom house next door to a lunatic asylum, working at Pizza hut & JJB, dressing up in 70’s clothes from charity shops, oh and doing a few design briefs now and again, I decided to get out of Preston for a year and do some work. I did a year long placement at The Chase in Manchester, and that really opened my eyes to what good graphic design was, and how much you need to drink to keep up with seasoned designers. By the end of the year I really felt part of the team rather than just a placement, and by the end of it I even quite admired Alan Herron’s dress sense (not really). When I returned to Uni to finish my degree everything seemed strangely simple, and as a result I managed to get a first, and to be voted in the top 20 students exhibiting at the inaugural D&AD New Blood exhibition, so I think that year out made a real difference (to my work, as well as my liver).

After I graduated in 2000 I joined Lambie-Nairn, working under Gary Holt (ex-Preston – good, Man Utd fan – bad). It was here I got some big branding experience, working on identities for BBC 1/2/3/4, O2, Sci-Fi Channel, Astro, Telenet etc. After 3 years there I joined SAS where I have been for 5 years. I took one year out to work in America for Abercrombie & Fitch in-house design team which was fairly mental, sort of like the OC meets Stepford Wives, and swiftly returned to SAS. I am now a Creative Director with a team of 12, and have worked with many large clients such as Ericsson, Freshfields, KBC, Rentokil, Land Securites, BT, Ernst & Young, Slaughter and May, Diageo and Sainsburys.

Career highlights include Design Week Benchmark award for KBC Peel Hunt, D&AD silver pencils for Sci-Fi Channel and BBC Three, Art Directors Club USA, Promax Gold and Silver for Sci-Fi Channel, BDA platinum for BBC Two, Promax Gold for BBC 4, and surviving a 90’s rave revival weekend in Butlins (Bognor) on an SAS Wipeout©.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Disciples of Design Q&A

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
How and where did you secure your first job?
Pure nepotism really. Gary Holt from Lambie -Nairn studied at Preston and knew college lecturer Andy Bainbridge. I did bugger all. Sweet.

Who’s work has inspired / influenced you the most?
People who I have worked with inspire me more than anyone I have never met. Ben Casey, Alan Herron, Martin Lambie-Nairn, David Stocks, Gilmar Wendt, the list goes on. Oh, and Chevy Chase. Never worked with him, but a legend nonetheless.

Where do you get your ideas from?
Looking at stuff. We work in a visual medium, so i cant understand anyone getting inspired from a blank sheet of paper or an empty screen. Walk down the road, look at some magazines, watch a film, whatever. Just don’t start designing yet. A shit idea will still be shit even if it looks pretty.

What would you have done differently at University knowing what you know now?
Not a lot really. The first 2 years I had a whale of a time, and then I got stuck into work. Its the only way to do it.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Getting paid for doing something I enjoy I suppose. And sticking the friday pub lunch bill on expenses (brainstorming session, obviously).

What is the most unusual thing you have done in your career?
Where do I begin? Designed t-shirts for 12 year old middle american nerds. My personal favourite was probably an applique fried egg with the slogan – “The yolk is on you”. Priceless, and almost certainly black pencil worthy. Pretended to be a sports new reporter for a spoof. Driven round the west country in a Land Rover in search of some millionaires house for an estate agent shoot. Got up at 3 am to drive to Dudley to do a shoot in a warehouse in sub-zero temperatures. Flown to Philadelphia to shoot rat-catchers. Pretended to be a lawyer to appear in a comic book (see work below). Had Levi Roots serenade me in a cafe in North London as he poured some reggae reggae sauce on my jerk chicken (for a Sainsburys shoot). Selected my favourite 3 stuffed pigeons from a taxidermist for another shoot. I could go on for days…

What do you look for in graduates and their portfolios?
Talent. Energy. Passion. Dedication. Tea making ability. Choice of football team. Dress sense. Lack of beards.

Any advice for students entering the industry during the recession?
Bloody hell. Good luck. It is absolutely who you know that counts, so pester Andy B to hook you up. Every design agency I know seems to have a member of the Preston Mafia, so its essential. And if you are really good, send me your pdf!

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Portfolio

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

KBC Peel Hunt – Brand identity
KBC Peel Hunt is a medium sized city broker with big ambitions and a low profile. We were asked to create a new brand that helped to raise the profile of the business (”I want to be talked about in the pub”), and present a more consistent, powerful message internally and externally. The central proposition, ‘achieve more’, focuses on the benefits for their clients. It is expressed through a set of five iconic images that show moments of achievement – improbable, but not entirely impossible with the right combination of strength and commitment. (Winner at 2007 Benchmark Awards)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Sc-Fi channel – Brand identity
The Sci-fi Channel was TV for trekkies and geeks. Following a decision by the channel to begin airing paranormal and fantasy shows as well as traditional science fiction, they wanted to position themselves as a cool, more mainstream channel. We took the idea of everyday people having secret paranormal powers, and created five idents to reflect that. The identity modernised the logotype and typography, and ‘owned’ the distinctive purple gradient for strong, consistent branding across all media channels. (Awards: D&AD silver pencil, Art Directors Club USA Gold, Promax Silver)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

RPC – Graduate recruitment campaign
As a city law firm, RPC needed to attract the very best trainee solicitors, as a medium-sized partnership the challenge they faced was considerable – how do they compete against larger, long-established recruiters with much deeper pockets? Our approach was simple: be bold, challenge the ‘norm’ and don’t be afraid not to be liked by everyone. The campaign fuses the visual style of comic books and tabloid photo stories to create an exaggerated tongue-in-cheek view on the world of law graduate recruitment. We follow the journeys of two trainees as they embark on their careers at different law firms – one at RPC, and one at a caricatured vision of a rival firm. The distinctiveness of the execution means the campaign stands out from the crowd and portrays RPC as a very different type of law firm. (Awards: Shortlisted in the 2007 Target Graduate Recruitment Awards for Best Student Marketing Campaign)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

KBC Securities – Brand identity
KBC Securities are a mid sized bank with geographical presence across key areas. However, this reach and scope is not widely communicated. We needed to help them raise their profile and awareness for the brand. The central proposition was that KBC Securities believe that banking is a craft, not an art or a science – they are modern craftsmen. Therefore, we created an identity based on the premise that if they ‘Get the fundamentals right, then everything else follows’. To reflect this concept, we created a symbol of the way they do business – a perfectly crafted, solid wooden building block. They formed the foundations for the whole identity, every element is based on the 3×1 block – from the typography, the grids, graphic elements, even the ratio in the colour palette. A series of iconic images were also created, each based around 1 of the 5 ‘fundamentals’, a series of guiding principles that the company follows.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Homeless Link – Brand identity
Homeless Link are a charity organisation for frontline homelessness agencies in England. Their mission is to be a catalyst that will help to bring an end to homelessness. When researching the identity, we found an ancient hobo language based entirely on symbols, which was used to secretly pass messages on to other homeless people. The symbol we used for the logo was taken from this language, which appropriately means “Don’t give up”. This symbol was the starting point for all other communications, where in each image we always find a way to highlight the secret symbol, and therefore subliminally getting across their powerful message.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

BIG thanks to JP for sharing.