Day one
Studio Laucke Siebein
"Dirk Laucke and Johanna Siebein specialise in creative strategies, dynamic identities, book and web design. Their design studio (based in Amsterdam and Berlin) combines a strategic approach with high-quality design within the scope of different media with an output that is both serious and playful."
It's great to work for architects.
Worked with Aurel VR?
They set up their studio in Berlin in 2010.
Love books - they have a lot of them - and they like to make books. Making books is the most complicated discipline as there's so many peoples involved. You never have all the content when you start designing the books. It's a complex compromise.
Architecture
Alphabet
Books
Colour
Dutch Design
Futura (they love it)
Frieze.de - did design art direction
Good Story - a good story makes good design not just a good style
HSD - type design
Identity - dynamic
Interns - can't help in the design process, however they come up with new ideas as they're young.
Jaarvesaug - annual report in dutch
Created a book for the best art spaces in Berlin
Lenica
Modernism - isn't beautiful. Nothing is beautiful until they explain why
Novels - books for banana fish publisher. They see themselves as illustrators using type. Their work for banana fish is a good example of this
O is for Holes - they like them and use them a lot!
Plagiarism - students can't copy but are let off more. Someone copied their mouth drawings.
Production - Believe in quality - recommend Pantone spot colours
Quit - at 6pm. Can't concentrate more than 5 hours a day
Rijksakaemie - grant, workshops, studio - closed for the public. Make artists not art. Their OPEN event, once yearly, is huge. Shows 'open' screaming art. Produced the campaign for the event. A dentist also asked if he could buy the poster
Scarface - gangster movie
Scheibler Mitter - Berlin gallery - hard to work for artists, they're close to discipline and head strong. Don't try and be smarter than the artist you're working for
Tradition - references to the past
Uncomfortable - they feel uncomfortable talking to us. If you make things you're vulnerable. Don't be afraid of making things and being ridiculous
Visions - magazine
Working together - long distance no problem
X - fingers crossed - hope they get the work
YAE - fashion magazine
Zig Zag - process of their work - no process. Complicated zig zag route
Zero - the moment when everything starts and ends
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| Pastoe — Identity on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Like Pastoe, 100 Years of Design Innovation’ at Kunsthal Rotterdam |
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| RijksakademieOPEN 2015 — Identity for the RijksakademieOPEN 2015 event |
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| frieze d/e marketing campaign — Subs cards |
with Pip Jamieson founder of The-Dots
"Get the inside track on showcasing work, networking, collaborating and (most importantly) connecting with commercial opportunities with Pip Jamieson, founder of The-Dots."
The-Dots is a bit like LinkedIn for the creative industry.
Jamieson used to work for MTV in Sydney
LinkedIn is too corporate
When she posted jobs on job boards she got bombarded with CV's
She worked off word-of-mouth at MTV for hiring new people. Though this meant they were getting no fresh skills or diversity. Getting the same type of people. No fresh injection and ideas.
The-Dots is a platform that's easy to promote yourself online
She found there was nothing to connect talent to real jobs.
Never thought she'd start her own business
She built The-Dots with Matt Fale.
60% of creative industries in Australia use it.
Fale however got married and had kids and it was all too hard work so she sold her share of the business and started from scratch in the UK.
They're looking for pure brilliant talent, not looking at who you know or where you went to uni.
She lives in a houseboat in London as that's the cheapest way to live
Small team
Self promotion online
IT'S ABOUT THE WORK TAKING CENTRE STAGE
They do portfolio workshops in London
It's all about the story behind the work - this is what employers want
Give credit behind work - trying to solve, so on The-Dots you can tag collaborators
Connect with brands - BBC, Dazed, WIRED, Wolff Olins, Channel 4, Squarespace, Airbnb, Universal, Facebook
There 1600 jobs on the site constantly roughly
Very London-centric at the moment due to the size of the company. They're trying to expand.
Portfolio masterclasses in London - monthly. They had a graphic design one at Pentagram for example
LESS IS MORE when it comes to portfolios. Include 3 amazing pieces rather than 8. Don't put rubbish bits in just to flesh it out.
Include passion projects - something that means something to you
Crack and Cider - site you can buy things for the homeless that'll improve their life (passion project)
People want to see the stories behind the art, not just the final piece, they want to see the creative process
You can apply online for the portfolio masterclasses. Jonathan Barnbrook hired 3 for interns from a previous masterclass
Work hard and be nice to people. Don't burn any bridges. Just smile.
Christopher Doyle - branded himself - saw a lot of great designers but not a lot of great people
The hardest thing to automate is creativity - machines can't take over
Portfolio should be a working project, keep adding to it and creating it even whilst you're at uni
Follow companies you love!
It's better to have things you're really proud of rather than filling your site
Senior, mid and junior jobs is an even split on The-Dots
AKQA is a digital agency - they want to see a variety of work
Look at what companies you want to work for, look at the people who work there, and look at their portfolio as to what to put in your own
The-Dots can't put up a role if it isn't paid
'illegal' for companies to ask you to work for free
Digital designers - everyone wants one
UX design is huge - there's a massive shortage. Email her - she's always looking for UI/UX designers
This years mission - get out of London
UX/UI portfolio workshops at Google, Facebook, AKQA. Google hired 9 (?) people from the workshops
Print isn't dying it's just changing, there'll always be jobs there
Checklist your way to a dream job - creative review article
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| Pip Jamieson at OFFSET. |
Moving Brands
with Darren Bowles (Creative Director)
"Moving Brands are an independant, global creative company with studios in London, Zurich, San Francisco and New York. Executive Creative Director, Darren is responsible for the creative output of Moving Brands, London studio. He firmly believes that, by bringing together people from very different creative backgrounds, you can create something that's truly unique. They partner with established and emerging businesses to design and transform their brands and experiences to thrive in the moving world."
"Creativity for a moving world"
18 year old creative business
We create businesses, brands, products and experiences.
Apple, google, Barclays, Deviant Art, Norton & Sons, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, BBC, Hp, Virgin
Offices in London, New York, San Francisco, and Zurich
Design has become too "squeaky pants" too clean, smooth, refined, slick. Lost quirky and opportunity
Design is a messy process that ends up beautiful
You've got to love the stuff you're making
Rebels - against expectation (mini vid). This is what teen rebellion were like
Eir - film (turned into an add). Super funky, massive change in the brand
Be playful and seemingly pointless
Changed 3D printer into a chocolate printer
Embrace collaboration, let clients get messy and involved
Work with BBC's UX team for the past 3 1/2 years. Being able to augment their team with your team - inject objective ideas. Show them all the rubbish, warts and all - let them choose, feedback
Colin Burns - head of UX at BBC?
BBC Newsbeat and iPlayer kids
Make new brushes to paint with. Sketch? programme. Create, make and code new tools/programmes, make tools that will make their minds more open to what they can make
Be unapologetically experimental. Be beautiful
Stella McCartney building using tiles. Each tile has a generator so could move and form a low res screen - each tile is a pixel. Each tile can rotate on an axis. Cane move independently. Started off as play then it got serious and big prototypes. Responsive facade for shop. However, the structure wasn't strong enough for movement in the end, so it's a static facade, hopefully will be working one day.
Look for specialists - the best of the best
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| Moving Brands at OFFSET. |
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| Moving Brands at OFFSET. |
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| BBC iPlayer kids. |
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| Eir. |
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| Eir. |
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| Stella McCartney. |
Moving Picture Company (MPC)
with Ryan (Senior Art Director)
"MPC are a creative studio and one of the global leaders in VFX, renowned for adding visual wonder and creative expertise to the advertising, film and entertainment industries. Some of their more notable projects include Godzilla, the Harry Potter franchise, X-Men, Prometheus and Life of Pi, as well as famous advertising campaigns for brands such as IKEA, Coca Cola, Sony, John Lewis, and Channel 4."
MPC is generally viewed as a visual effects company.
They're moving more to general design
London is their base (12 years), but offices in Vancouver, Bangalore, New York, LA, Amsterdam, Montreal, Paris, and Shanghai.
MPC Film and Advertising are their largest branches.
MPC Creative - offices in London, LA, New York is a production company within MPC.
Outlet for advertisers to come to them to flesh out ideas
'Boss Everyone' for Adidas. Very unpolished and rough - hard for them to do as they're used to being so polished. It's used on awnings around football fields.
'Reebok Classics' - Palace skateboards. Really rough. Jonah Hill starred in it.
MPC Advertising (commercial side)
'The Corridor' - RSA and Black Dog films
Four identical corridors but fit together so people are all in the same shot. Toby Dye directed.
'Kenny Koala' - Cushelle
All done in-house. Vertility software. Illustrators - Koala sketches, driver. 2D artwork to make into advert. So cool! 2D art mapped onto 3D frame.
MPC Film
(He worked on Guardians of the Galaxy, Jupiter Ascending before)
Film graphics is becoming bigger
Lots of politics in film - hard decisions. Always agree with them but push them in a direction that helps you.
'Passengers' Sony Pictures
'Ghost in the Shell' Paramount Pictures. Trying to keep it like the original
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| Ryan from MPC at OFFSET. |
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| Passengers. |
The Creativity Hub
with Founders Anita Murphy and Rory O'Connor
"The Creativity Hub is an award winning company that was founded by Belfast based husband and wife team Rory O'Connor and Anita Murphy to publish playthings that foster imagination, empathy and self-esteem. Rory's Story Cubes have sold over 5 million sets in 50 countries and was listed as the top selling Holiday item by Amazon.com. The Extraordinaires Design Studio is their latest project to inspire a new generation of designers and inventors."
"We make games and play things that foster imagination, empathy and self esteem, because we want to see a world where these..."
Play with purpose
Created story cubes - 5 million sets sold in 52 countries. Problem solving cubes
"A product like this comes along once in a generation, don't be in a hurry to move onto the next thing" Richard Gill (Trivial Pursuit)
Make a story using the cubes. Small box compared to standard big boxes
A lexicon of story telling
Each set has a theme
810 icons in total - how do they all interact with one another, not just within own sets
Encourage people to mix the sets to create more stories
Keep it human. People do business with people
Go to factories and talk to people - this lead tot hem changing how icons were designed to reduce wastage
Money = FUEL
Karam Foundation - bring play to refugees. Went over and gave workshops within the cubes to refugees
Trojan Horse. Getting play to those who don't value it. Worked with Batman, Doctor Who, Scooby Doo, Loony Tunes, Moomin.
Inspiring creativity in others.
Totally Random - kids loved randomness of stories you can create
The Extraordinaires. Designing everyday objects for extraordinary characters. Write whole backstory for all characters. Try and break stereotypes. Lets children role play being a designer.
Try and align what they're doing with the world rather than forcing their design on the world
Analogue experience
Trying to get it into education
Showed them how to design something for others not for themselves.
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| The Creativity Hub at OFFSET. |
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| Rory's Story Cubes. |
Pentagram
with Judy Hudson-Powell and Luke Powell (brothers)
"Brother Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell joined Pentagram in October 2015 after successfully running their own creative studio, Hudson-Powell for over ten years. Their multi-disciplinary practice encompassed creating brand identities, motion graphics, interactive design, creative technology, immersive experiences and art commissions. They have a portfolio of clients that ranges from the likes of Canteen, the BBC to Uniqlo, Google and Coca-Cola, amongst many more."
Multi-disciplinary work
Commercial and self-initiated work
They worked as Hudson-Powell from 2005 as their own business
They've since been at Pentagram for a year
There's 21 partners at Pentagram, who each have their own mini team
Hold phone up to the real world and it would create holes in the scene for a game-path
Life as gaming engine - Pokemon layered over app (Google Maps) - like Pokemon Go
US Military prototype combat situations for these games
Underage Festival - created by kids for kids - the kids created logo for festival, which rotates so everyones logo is shown at some point
AI - what is it? They're working with two clients
Embrace technology - get stuck in and do lots of stupid stuff
All ideas are worth pursuing no matter how ridiculous they seem at the time, as in 5 years time they may not seem so ridiculous.
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| Pentagram at OFFSET. |
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| Underage Festival. |
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| Second Home. |
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| Any Point of View - Rockerfeller Centre |
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| Mastercard |
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| Royal Botanical Gardens - Kew. |
"Marta Veludo is currently working in Amsterdam as a graphic designer and art director. Inspired by the pop-culture, folk art, pound shops and Tumblr and fascinated by inventors, colour, movement and compositions. She designs and conceptualises for both cultural and commercial fields. Whether in the digital realm or on a three-dimensional scale, she combines different disciplines and mediums to build engaging experiences. Oh we nearly forgot to mention her beautiful colour palette."
Born in Lisbon
Very active, loves sports, gymnastics, ballet, football.
Lived in Lisbon for 21 years, Barcelona 5 years, and now Amsterdam for 3 years.
Restored (shop in Amsterdam) x Marta Veludo - Confetti Cap. Used party poppers to create a pattern for hat. On launch made real pinata for people to hit. Made window display.
Reebok Creative Hub. Works with Ricky Martin in more of an art direction role. Produced 4 intro films for their products. Quick action and reaction - cartoons are full of this. Built 4 different worlds - balloon, fire, paint and another with featured shoes.
OH THUNDER, sweat of the sun, tears of the moon
Lead singer and music very mystical.
Looked into rituals. Make the performance into a ritual.
Created an icon for each band member
Produced flags to show this is our tribe and stage for the performance.
Band members had own uniform each with their own icon on their jumpers
Decorated stage with blue fluffy fabric
Press photography for album and social media
They performed at Down the Rabbit Hole festival in Holland
Current obsession - the spell of the rebels magazine for jewellery designers
Came up with concept for editorial piece for an edition for the magazine
Got sent 6 pieces of jewellery for inspiration
Finding worlds for each jewellery
Jewellery is precious so she used materials that are very ordinary for worlds
Distract self from function of object and you'll find beauty in it.
Deli .. Paris
Made by girls for girls - beauty web zine
Fast beauty - it's a world in a rush
Logo made .. made into boobs, things are better in pairs
Produced stickers to do with something in pairs
Website - read beauty routines and shop the products
Make time for idleness, boredom and procrastination and ideas will come easier as your brain isn't full of stuff
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| Deli..Paris |
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| Deli..Paris boob dot eyes. |
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| The Spell of the Rebels jewellery editorial piece. |
Ian Anderson (The Designers Republic)
"The Designers Republic (TDR) is a graphic design studio based in Sheffield run under the ever-watchful eye of Ian Anderson. Now in its 30th year their bold graphics and concepts have reverberated around the world provoking responses and dialogue for everything from soft drinks and video games to record labels and night-clubs."
Born in 1986 in Sheffield
Started as a sculpture and philosophy student?
There was no digital things when he started off his career
Designed for bands
Wipeout for PlayStation and GTA
Coca Cola in USA. Rebranding uni's
Was in a band at uni (which later became Chakk and signed to MCA) but left to do fanzine
Designed record for Chakk with a thursday-monday deadline
Used wood blocks. Letra setted lyrics letter by letter on the back.
Early on stuff was hand drawn - didn't know anything else
Album cover design for Chakk funded the beginning of The Designer's Republic (TDR)
FON (Fuck off Nazis - record label, did album covers for their bands) 1986 designed their logo
Lot of things drawn by hand on graph paper
All designs were black and white stripes on spine, left front and right back so when on the shelf saw lots of black and white stripes for their designs - distinguishable
Done a lot for Krush through FON
WARP (We Are Reasonable People) (After FON) - Record shop in Sheffield.
Music is very futuristic - designs must reflect this.
Made all the covers purple. All albums were recognisable as being by WARP
People/bands wanted their name on a purple sleeve, big reason a lot of bands signed to WARP
Slabbed off entire sections of buildings in purple for WARP's 10th anniversary
Moloko - Milk in clockwork orange language. Did a lot of imagery using milk for the band
Pulp. His and Hers. Sheffield band
Cyborg airbrush artist
Pulp logo, hand drawn
Jarvis album cover. Shoots in Paris. First solo album cover. Adapted for Fat Kid Single. Further album cover "further complications". Had bad back at the time so doing a lot of pilates. Shoot with Rankin. Leaning awkwardly against walls. In a box but box is the record cover - not so over done and obvious.
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| Jarvis Fat Kid single album cover. |
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| Jarvis Further Complications. |
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| WARP 10th anniversary. |
Aaron Duffy (1stAveMachine and Special Guest)
"Aaron first made his name as a director with an appealing handmade aesthetic in ads like Audi's "Unboxed" spot. This caught the eye of Google, resulting in the Chrome Speed Tests and, famously, the 'Parisian Love" Super Bowl spot. We loved Aaron's mind-bending and award-winning work for OK Go's "The Writing's on the Wall" video, which he co-directed and has over 10 million hits to date."
Do it for the meal or do it for the reel (meal - job, money. reel - passionate, portfolio). Closing the gap between the two
1) Why are you creative?
Step back from the project, why are you doing it?
2) Remember where you started.
Putting hands and feet in plaster blocks for 48 hours
3) Rethink art history
4) Give credit
Audi Q5 advert, co-director, first thing he directed
5) Ease up on personal style
Google Chrome was his sculptural style
Produced Google's first TV and Superbowl commercial. Nearly turned it down initially because it wasn't his 'style'
6) Turn creative problem solving into creative problem making.Google Chrome fast and magnets attracting - speed of both
7) Develop new technology
8) Consider illusions
See figure 1. Middles are the same actual size but the brain sees the right as being bigger because of the size of the outer circles.
The Writings on the Wall film
9) Forget the meal and the reel.
Created a safe place for trans community to ask questions.
Understanding starts with asking
#askfransfolks
10) Create new business models
Special Guests website - dots represent everyone whose on the site.
11) Keep making steps
12) Know that it will be hard
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| Aaron Duffy at OFFSET. |
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| Figure 1. |
Parisian Love Story
Google Chrome Experiments
Day Two
Florence Blanchard
"Florence Blanchard is a French painter, muralist and screen printer based in Sheffield. She began writing graffiti in the early 1990's under the name Ema, and spent ten years based in New York where she graduated with a science degree from NYU in 2008. Her work is directly inspired by her training as a scientist and depicts abstracted molecular landscapes with a strong graphic aesthetic."
Visual artist, large scale paintings
Likes colours that contrast
Bold, abstract - works well in industrial, warehouse areas
Like an explosion of colour
Works indoor and outdoor
Vinyl work - Millennium Gallery Sheffield
Has a PhD in Biology
Put together science and art background.
Sheffield University challenge for Festival of the Mind 2016 - cant use ladder and wall wasn't primed.
Shapes under a microscope - inspiration for some of her paintings.
In Japan, you don't use someone else's building. Painted wall mural to make an old building look more attractive. They demolish buildings when they're finished with them, however her mural stopped them demolishing it for a while.
Has a background in graffiti.
Use to live in New York. She went back and saw an old painting she did and retouched it.
Use to do a lot of graffiti but the did a PhD in biology and spent a lot of time looking at fluorescent particles through a microscope which influenced her current style of work. She does a lot of work that looks like particles under a microscope.
When she's not doing murals she does small illustrations. She only does huge or tiny work.
She likes to paint on small circular pieces of paper.
Also paints on 3D objects, such as an elephant for Sheffield Children's Hospital, which was sold to raise money
Experimented with 3D printing. Shapes assembled together - particle related.
She also has her own gallery, and has curated 20 odd exhibitions in it. Space in Sheffield is so cheap, so she could have a huge studio with enough room for a gallery. She got a studio in the first place to hold her screen printing facilities.
BandBGallery.com
Feature Walls
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| Florence Blanchard at OFFSET. |
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| Biomembrane - Festival of the Mind 2016, Sheffield. |
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| Latest mural in Sheffield. |
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| Topsy. Sold to raise money for ArtFelt, Children's Hospital art programme. |
"Developing from a hobbyist model maker to Design Director of the LEGO Star Wars team is no small feat. Jens has been working at LEGO as a product designer since 1998 where his role quickly progressed to Creative Lead. As Design Director Jens has created LEGO Star War's largest project in the Millennium Falcon Ultimate Collector's set and have overseen other phenomenally successful product lines with Star Wars, Harry Potter and Batman. #DreamJob"
Educated in graphics trade 7 years before he joined Lego.
He started off as a freelance designer at Lego and then moved up to become a permanent designer.
He was a huge Star Wars fan from a young age.
When he became part of Lego Star Wars he hadn't actually seen any of the films.
He's worked with Lego Star Wars for 17 years.
Also worked on Lego Harry Potter and Batman.
In Lego Star Wars design team there's 11 product designers and 4 graphic designers
Mixture of old and new designers.
Lego is based in Denmark
They go to graduate shows and recruit from positions advertised. You have to attend a workshop if selected
To get into the mood of designing toys, you have to play with the toys. Got slightly out of hand so they had to scale the play down
Test products on children from all over for feedback on the products. Kids handle toys differently to adults and they have smaller hands.
The age of products is determined by the complexity of the product and the amount of pieces it has
1 1/2 years before the launch date designing begins
Lego Star Wars is a core product line
They try and use as many regular bricks as possible. Show kids what they can build with regular Lego
New pieces as simple as possible so they can be sued across many product lines
Several hundred Star Wars minifigures
Works with Lucasfilm and Disney on Lego Star Wars. They're working on their products the same time the movie is being made. Film massively impacts on products made/changed.
Imperial ship - all white in film, in Lego it's shades of grey to provide ease of build.
They sometimes add humour to products that may not be in the film
Lego Star Wars has a big adult fan base
Ewok Village is a large set, and complex even for adults. Kids build it with help from their parents.
Large 16+ millennium falcon was the largest Lego product ever (until the Taj Mahal took over shortly after) with over 5,000 pieces. It's manual was an actual book and took 6 months to design. It started as a personal project to produce a minifigure scale with 4 people in the cockpit. Lego asked him to make it a product with as many pieces as he needed. They didn't have a current box big enough to hold the final product.
Jens Kronvold Frederiksen at OFFSET:
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| Star Wars minifigures. |
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| 16+ Millennium Falcon. |
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| Large Ewok Village. |
Shane Griffin
"Named an ADC Young Gun in 2012, and Print Magazine's New Visual Artist '15 Under 30' in 2015, this award winning Irish born Designer / Director is making serious waves in all fields of visual arts. Shane has created work for some of the worlds leading brands including Nike, Ford, Google, and National Lottery, his most recent work for the 2016 AICP sponsorship reel held in the MoMa in New York City is quite simply exquisite."
Motion graphics animator
From Dublin, now based in New York
Does animation, graphic design, illustration, CGI, live action, and sculpture
The more personal work you do the more work like that you attract
Science-like abstract set ups
Personal work (science-like abstract set-ups) led to work with Nike
More design and print orientated
Visuals related to speed, precision and ferocity for Nike shoes Kobe. Exhibition in Madrid, designs as posters and actual sculptures too.
Nike - Air Yeezy. Concept - illuminati, sound reactive and intricit design. Originally for billboards around New York, ended up at 100x100 photos on the website. Pyramid like hairs on arm standing on end.
Nike - Sneaker Ball. Sculptural piece. Concept: legacy shoes x3, sculptural, epic. 3 epic shoes smashed together with concrete. Really detailed. Palacio Cibeles, Madrid, Spain sculpture was actually made.
Live action with Adidas x pro era.
National Lottery. Rube Goldbery, 6 steps to 1 million, forced perspective. Miniature, so small and detailed. Actual model.
Road safety authority - wheelman. Gangster road film to show how you can only die whilst driving texting.
sundayafternoon.us
shanegriffin.nyc
@grif
@wearesundayafternoon
- Collaborate as much as you can
- Invest in yourself as much as you can
- Don't do your life on the cheap
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| Shane Griffin at OFFSET. |
Strange Reactions from Shane Griffin on Vimeo.
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| Nike - Sneakerball by Shane Griffin. |
"Join Aaron Duffy (SpecialGuest) in conversations as he shares insights into his work and process including poetic slow motion work for Squarespace."
Launched Squarespace 7 with Special Guest.
Build it beautiful campaign
3 'locations' for camp
Build a beautiful website with Squarespace
Making sure small businesses have their presence on Squarespace
Normally when he's hired it's because he's got a certain style they want
How visual communication affects the world
Lego movie is his favourite movie - it's a 90 minute commercial for Lego
See's commercials as features
Kids don't appreciate ad's being rubbish any more
Big tech companies are developing creative culture internally
A lot of creative culture areas are being built within companies more and more recently. Google creative labs, Facebook factory, Squarespace, Lego for example.
First - tear apart a brief (to understand it)
'more making less meetings'
Go away and come up with ideas then join them all together
Everyones input is important. Whole team should help with ideas
Absolut Vodka sponsored it but it isn't about Vodka. Spek Jones?
Lego movie sponsored by Lego and it's about Lego - super synthesised but doesn't feel like an advert/promotional
Casper - sleep symposium, talk about science of sleep and sleep itself. Not advertising mattress, but when you think about sleep more you're thinking about your mattress. Value of life connected to value of brand/mattress. Not all brands can do this.
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| Aaron Duffy at OFFSET. |
Routes into Design
with Pam Bowman, Shane Griffin, Alec Dudson, and Paul Wilkes
"A panel discussion on how to kickstart your creative career with insights educator Pam Bowman (SIA/SHU), designer Shane Griffin, editor Alec Dudson (Intern Magazine) and industry recruiter Paul Wilkes (MPC)."
Paul - Global recruiter, head hunter
Shane - as previous
Alec - Intern magazine founder
Pam - Vis com courses at Sheffield Hallam, Dust Collective
Shane - Learned on the job. A guy brought him into his uni.
Pam - Product design at uni. Recruitment for games artists. Talked to lots of people, went to tons of events.
Alec - First internship at 27. Was afraid of networking to start with. Turns out everyone's confused, even if they should know what they're doing by now.
Paul - Look for people who know what they're doing already. People need to be able to talk to big boss people, even newbies.
Pam - Not just about the right portfolio. It's about you as a person fitting in with the existing team.
Alec - A lot of people think once you graduate you're going to work for free for a bit, which devalues yourself. Sell yourselves high, be confident and strong. People just take it and don't argue. Sell yourself!
Paul - First they look at your work, not your CV. They don't do unpaid internships. Even for runners. It's very uncommon unpaid internships in the visual effects area.
Voice - Design studios should be responsible - fair exchange of input and time. Good digital designers are hard to find. Training them up at lower rate until they are senior designer and producing the right level of work.
Shane - Personal work shows people you're passionate. You're thinking about design outside of the job.
Pam - If you've got a beautiful portfolio but send it to the wrong places it's a waste of time.
Voice - Showing your process is so important as it shows flexibility.
Paul - If you just show the final outcome, people don't know how you did it, or how long it took. It's getting the balance right. Succinct. Get to the point quickly.
Shane - Presentation goes a long way. Show all the ways a piece can work. Contextualise your work.
Voice - Do what they need. If they ask for more then show them after.
Sabrina Bongiovanni
"Sabrina Bongiovanni is a Dutch born, London-based photographer creating work in fashion, advertising, fine art and beyond. She is a master of developing visual ideas and known for her distinct graphic and abstract take on fashion and portrait-esque photography. Her work has an otherwordly atmosphere that draws you into the fantasy of fashion in such a seductive way."
Her photography from 2012-2016
Had to photograph clothes on mannequins as clothes were really old. National Gallery Den Haag 2016. 'Ode to Fashion'
Customised mannequins in black and white lines.
Themed clothes, each had their own location and mannequins.
Initially photos were only meant for the catalogue, but it developed to be a big part of the exhibition. Locations from photos were recreated in the gallery for the exhibition.
Does as much on camera as possible.
Editorial work too - Jill Sanders - uses products as inspiration for the editorial design/settings/backdrop. For Muse magazine.
Has her studio in Amsterdam.
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| Sabrina Bongiovanni at OFFSET. |
Kids Play: Designing the Future
with Jens Kronvold Frederiksen (Lego, and Rory O'Conner and Anita Murphy (The Creativity Hub)
"Jens Kronvold Frederiksen (LEGO) along with Rory O'Connor and Anita Murphy (The Creativity Hub) discuss the role of creativity in children's development."
CH - Kids nowadays don't get bored as much as there's more to do. Different ways of playing in different countries. In Korea, if a child's not learning it's a waste of time. Interesting different cultures and where they place value.
Lego - Larger sets - for families. Play set after build is made. Gives parents excuse to play.
CH - Adults are reluctant to play. If adults played more kids may play more.
Lego - Adults are more inclined to play if there's a clear goal/end. Don't want people to build it and put it on a shelf. Want people to build it and use the pieces for their own creations.
CH - Today's idea need definitive lists about what things are, not encouraging exploration.
Lego - Trying to mix physical with virtual play. They've got an app where you can mix sets together and change colours etc. Kids play simply to understand.
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| Jens Kronvold Frederiksen and Rory O'Conner and Anita Murphy at OFFSET. |
Making an Impact
"Designer Morag Myerscough and Cat Powell (Artfelt) on their new design installation at the Sheffield Children's Hospital."
Commission artists to make hospitals nice.
Run workshops - bring artists in - keep kids entertained. Therapeutic.
Worked with Thomas Matthews - walls down to the operating theatres. Art with purpose.
New atrium, huge play tower - accessed on each floor going up.
"Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come."
Wall paintings - hand painted.
Wants kids environments in hospitals to feel like home to them as some are in there for months on end.
Tigers on curtains, when ids come around after operation and sedation, think they're being attacked by tigers. Have to be careful when designing.
Designs can be kiddy, 15 year olds in the same hospital rooms as younger and they don't want Disney or childish stuff on the walls.
Designs must have longevity and not age.
Scanned in wood grain and digitally added colours so can digitally print them so it's all clinical for the hospital but have the soft wood effect.
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| Kim Powell and Artfelt at OFFSET. |
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| Artfelt at Sheffield Children's Hospital. |
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| Artfelt at Sheffield CHildren's Hospital, |
Droga5
with Alex and Felix
"Felix Richter and Alexander Nowak, AKA "The Germans" in May 2016 were promoted to Group Creative Directors at Droga5, and are arguably two of the best in today's advertising industry. The pair were behind the powerful spot created for Under Armour athlete, Michael Phelps in the lead up to the Summer Games. The spot was at D&AD, and took 4 Gold Lions for Film and Film Craft and the coveted Grand Prix in Film Craft at Cannes. But who is counting?"
Alex and Felix are German and have been at Droga5 for 5 years. They are creative directors at the advertising agency.
There's 650 people at the Wall Street, New York office.
They work with big and small clients.
The general public generally don't like adverts.
They work with brands that like to take themselves seriously as they're German and not good with humour.
Clients: Hennessey, Under Armour, Google etc
Advertising is all talk!
Pitch ideas to team partner, then the creative director, then the client.
"You can only express with words what words are capable of expressing." Gerhard Richter
Talking about visuals is difficult, how do you talk about visuals that don't exist?
Use references - it'll look a bit like this.
Nobody can make something out of nothing.
References very good tool. Works better with other creatives than corporate clients.
Prototyping as much as they can. Saves a lot of time and meetings. Only works with certain things.
Conceptual thinking - limits self to ideas can already be talked about easily.
To illustrate x we do y
Clear and simple.
Conceptual thinking is our most essential skill (in advertising)
Throughout production the concept usually serves as a compass that informs every creative decision.
The Vague: Meaning is connected to wonder not knowledge
The Complex: life is not so simple
Not everything can be talked about. It's normal if you can't articulate why solution A is better than solution B.
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| Droga5 at OFFSET. |
OFFSET Sheffield reflection:
OFFSET has been such an inspirational experience for me. It has opened my eyes to more areas of the design world beyond static graphic design, and all the possibilities that my degree can open for me. I really loved watching the advertising and moving image talks, such as MPC, Shane Griffin and Aaron Duffy, and I was surprised by how much these inspired me, as I had never considered anything to do with moving image before. Florence Blanchard was also such an interesting talk, as her style is so bold and colourful, something which I try to achieve in my own work. Connecting The-Dots was also super helpful as it gave me such good information about what to include in my portfolio, and how clients recruit people as well. This encouraged me to really get a move on with both my portfolio but also my social media presence on LinkedIn, The-Dots and Instagram.
OFFSET has really recharged and inspired my batteries, and given me the energy to really plough on through final year, and challenge myself to try different things.
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