Bryan Edmondson

Graduating from Newcastle University in 1992, Bryan co-founded SEA Design in 1997, a multi-disciplinary design consultancy specialising in brand identity. It was interesting to see what inspires Bryan – simple yet strong messages. He showed an advert from the 50’s consisting of a close-up of an old man’s face eating a chocolate bar, he said how it was an unforgettable advert which inspires his work.

I find his approach to design inspiring; my favourite project he’s worked on is the identity for G.F Smith paper merchants, such a simple idea of photographing ink dispersing in water to promote paper with it’s vivid colours, love it.

Another project he worked on which I found really interesting was a limited run of an issue Grafik magazine where they randomly chose colours and screen-printed the front colour so each was unique, an interesting concept for a mainstream design magazines. 

Push Print

This seminar on design for lithography print was helpful in terms of how to communicate with printers, different types of binding and paper stocks.

Types of bind:

• Perfect bound
  
• Saddle stitched – stapled
  
• Exposed binding – opens out perfectly
  
• Square bound
  

Paper merchants:

• G.F Smith
  
• Fenner paper
  
• Fedrogoni
  
• Robert Horn
  
• Independent paper
  
• Dixon & Roe
  

Specification:

• Ask for a quote by a specific date – ASAP is not specific.
  
• Title of work
  
• Format
  
• Size
  
• How many colours? Any pantone colours?
  
• Stock
  
• Finishing
  
• Quantity
  
• Mention budget – printers can advise about stock, finishing to keep within budget. 
  

Examples of Push Print's work Marissa brought along with her:

Russell Hancock

I left this lecture feeling totally inspired and motivated, it was encouraging to hear Russell’s journey into design, the mistakes he made and his advice about assessing free work thoroughly before taking it on. He gave mixed reviews about free work discussing its good and bad points. The good points being how it can build a relationship with a client who may return as a paying customer, the bad points being that the clients will take advantage and could possibly rip off or edit your work without your consent.

The terms and conditions and various other forms he discussed and gave us were completely invaluable, it was scary taking a step in the direction of actually understanding how to become self-employed, deal with clients and cover your own back by getting that all important signature. 

It was reassuring hearing how you don’t have to move to London and work in a studio to be a successful graphic designer; clients are everywhere, as every industry needs design.

Being aware of your limits as a designer is important, finding a balance between work and your life so you don’t overwork yourself and make yourself ill or ruin relationships. A good piece of advice, which could generally benefit everybody’s attributes, is making yourself in disposable, being helpful and willing to take the rubbish out or put up shelves will make you more a more reliable and valued employee.

A useful piece of information he gave us which was very helpful was the idea of the ‘Theatre of Design’ where you have to paint every picture for the client because they don’t think and visualise things how designers do, mock-ups are exceptionally important for clients to see work over a range of media.

General good correspondence, keeping in touch and being remembered are good points to refer back to so clients and potential clients know you’re genuinely interested and willing to take on more work. 

Emily Alston

Emily Alston, who calls herself ‘Emily Forgot’ is a London based graphic artist and illustrator, she has been in the creative industry for 5 years and has worked for a rather impressive diverse range of international clients including Adidas, Orange, MTV, The Guardian and Selfridges.

Emily’s illustration work is visually stunning, flawless and mesmerising; she has a very unique playful approach to her work and I find her sensitive attitude to lighting really beautiful making her work bold and beautiful. 

Morag Myerscough

What I loved most about her work was her use of large lettering and the fact she hand painted most of it herself to keep costs down. All of her work was interesting but my favourite was the ‘branding’ for Westminster Academy School in London, I love the rich colour scheme and think the bold use of typography for the signage is beautiful and makes a statement within the school. She mentioned how the design of interiors changes people’s attitudes toward a particular space as the students at WA haven’t vandalised the building but respect and admire it. 

Running her own studio since 1993 and only working with a few people, Morag’s been really independent and successful, though she did stress how successful collaborative work can be, even working with non-creatives, ideas spark and can be bounced off around the group. All in all was a really interesting lecture, shame it had to be cut short and a great insight into creating and building exhibition spaces.

^ No confusion as to which floor you're currently one with this beast, keeping in sync with the building by using the concrete and not purposefully blocking it all out. 

She has a very distinct style about her work, bold, colourful and playful, which I love. 

Craig Oldham

Craig Oldham, formally from The Chase but currently working for Music based in the heart of Manchester. His lecture was basically telling us the 12 things you’ll learn in your first 12 months after graduating from University. It was also a great insight into how to communicate with people to maintain working and social relationships, and keeping sane.

12 points [I didn’t get the beaut of a leaflet so had to research/steal these.]

• Understand Graphic Design and what it means to you.
  
• Have a life outside of Design.
  
• A portfolio isn’t just for an interview, it’s for you.
  
• Share your ideas.
  
• Placements are important.
  
• Making mistakes is good and part of your development.
  
• Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses.
  
• Everybody knows each other in the Design industry.
  
• Being a Graphic Designer is a job, being a designer is different.
  
• You don’t have to work in London.
  
• Work hard and be nice to people.
  
• Designing is only about 20% of your job.
  

Music’s work is absolutely amazing; it’s extremely playful and not afraid to push the boundaries and try new things. I love their visual identity and marketing material for a new development of holiday accommodation in Turkey, they’d created a bespoke box to house the booklet in which resembled a pair of flip flops. It is such an innovative idea sometimes I wonder how people think of these things.

Hamish Muir

I missed this lecture due to illness but thought I'd research him so I didn't miss out :)

cba atm though

Libby Scarlett

Libby was asked to come and talk to us about D&AD third year and to try and clear up confusion over the Journal module. Seeing her journal was a great inspiration to me, she stressed how important it is to keep logs of what you do while it’s fresh in your mind. She’d made her journal into a little archive of postcards under key topics, her idea was to document everything she found interesting and inspirational and in the postcard format, could forward it on to some other creative who may also be inspired. 

Nicola Rowlands

I really enjoyed Nicola’s talk as a recent graduate from D&AD, she’d made the effort to make it funny and engaging and I was amazed at how confident she is, I really admire that. She gained so much experience in her third year and gave us a rough guide to the way she succeeded and how we can do the same:

• Be nice to your teachers because they can give you contacts or recommend you for a job.
• Be genuine and yourself when contacting designers for work placements, show interest, specifically state work you like and why so it doesn’t seem like a default email you ‘sent to many’.
• You don’t have to be wacky to get noticed.
• Make it easy for people to view your work, create a blog and a website to display it and play to your strengths.
• Be open to everything, at this stage accept any work given to you, it’s all experience.
• Ask questions, showing an interest can get you further than being passive.
• Try to blend in when on a placement; acting like you belong there puts people at ease.
• Reading and being aware of the news and what is going on in the world can be great conversation starters to avoid awkward silences.
• Most importantly being yourself and keeping in contact with any creative you come into contact with for future opportunities. 

Obviously it's not a set of rules to follow, but being aware of these will definitely help me throughout my third year.