#4designers

Travelled from Gloucester Road tube station in Kensington and Chelsea which is in Western parts of Central London. We arrived in Holburn tube station to get to ‘Conway House’. 

We spoke to officials who created and managed the event and who done well. 4 Designers was first brought out in 2000 but the company who created the conference firstly come out in 1973. 1st speaker wrote and created two children’s book.

Joy & Design - Jim Sutherland. One of the first comment which he said was ‘Design can inform and communicate.

Jim studied in Norwich school of Arts - He studied Art, physics and Maths but then he went to Norwich and graduated in 1988 after studying art and design. He went to Norwich School of Arts to think he will only do Art but he did mostly Maths and physics and only Art on Friday afternoon which was not good. So a change to just Art really helped Jim Sutherland so as he graduated in Norwich in 1988 he created projects which is still on-going in some cases.

Jim created quite a few type projects. He used type to hide messages. 0.1pt on some of his posters as his text in the box which is quite interesting but I do get why he thought this.

Boxes in boxes is another project which is aimed at creating boxes to make something which is new and innovative. The follow up on the boxes in boxes project is ‘robox’ which is still on-going as it is this year (2018) project as he aims to create a robot out of boxes which is an amazing thing to do; leads up to creating something new and different to get his work more up there to be see in a different way.

Next project which Jim spoke about is ‘Somos Brasil’ - ‘We are Brazil’. 120 Brazilians took a DNA test from ancestry to map those who did the test to see where they originated from and where the DNA was from and most of them had Japanese, Africa, India, Spanish and Portuguese. This was interesting and he created a photographic book which has a map what he designed to show where different Brazilians originated from in their culture which was interesting and relevant to myself to be honest.

Final project he said was ‘Smart-rite shoes this is a company which he created the entire brand for them to represent retro and childlife in the hay day. 

Katherina Rudball

She is part of super union and Shew design agency or even compared her presentation to ‘18 years in 45 minutes’ which was interesting way to put it. 

Bookl Her book which she wanted and read mostly through her college years was called ‘A smile in the mind’ very well known book to all designers.

Kath graduated in 2001 with her future business parter Julia and a quite of few others which later Kath created a group called ‘The partners’. 

Her advice is ‘Stay with tutors, friends, people you see in your future’ which she repeated quite a few times in her presentation.

She is continuing at the moment with a Shakespeare project which is on-going and not much to add as of yet.

‘Visual identity guiding principles’

1. Elevate the globe name.

2. One globe

3. Don’t over simplfly.

Don’t above all.....Bring the identity alive.

I had a question which read out as ‘Have you got any tips or advice on how to start a business?

Kath said ‘NO’ straight up not add anything which was not that good, but Jim answered shortly but efficiently. He said scribble things down, Be authentic, be confident. But from all they screamed (not literally) that ‘have collaboration’ working with others such as textile, photographers, fashion or even english students to meet up and arrange projects to create something NEW!

Bryan Edmondson

Bryan (1979-1992 - He left Newcastle in 1992 and was graduated in this year as well. 

Bryan stated that he moved to London as it was centre of design but recently it has changed and Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Manchester for example have a strong design centre. 

The business of Design.

‘Never had the experience’ - like what you will get now. 

He has and still carried out work for ‘GF smith’. Which he has stuck with this company for over 20 years now.

Bryan has his own studio and in quote he said ‘ Running studios does come with problems’. He stated ‘Monotype’ was a huge in the hay day which this was first brought out in 1953. But Bryan used through his life currently.

He spoke about collaboration and said design is about collaboration and ‘in particular photographers’

Jonathan Barnbrook

Social and political debate.

ADVICE:

‘Don’t worry about grades’ - No one cares about them.

‘Be nice’

‘Shake the world in your way’

‘Have no fear’

‘Be authenitic’ 

‘Know what you want to do’ - Which is hard but it is better if you do as a good start point.

‘Don’t get distracted’

Jonathan worked alongside and purely with David Bowie. He mostly worked and created a few album covers which was very controversial. He later spoke about cultural work which personally I do like this part but partly as he spoke about community work but not that much. 

‘Not always a problem solver sometimes a problem revealer’ - Jonathan

He also added ‘you are solving a communication problem’ - That is design. 

Conclusion:

Phil Carter

Phil Carter of Carter Wong Design was the speaker who inspired me the most. He continues to work creatively on paper and despite not being a user or design software he produces outstanding and unique work from life. It is this organic process that I admire and wholeheartedly will try to incorporate in my own creative process.   During his lecture he gave ten tips, 1. Open your eyes 2. Read, tell a story 3. Creative impulse and understanding 4. Be curious 5. Work on paper before moving to digital work 6. Seize opportunities 7. Be connected keep in contact 8. Just do it! 9. Make a list 10. Be original

Bruno Maag

Dave Palmer of LOVE

Alan Dye

Alan Dye played a major role in establishing NB Studio in 1997, now a large-scale branding and communication studio. He is a varied practitioner who appreciates the coming together of different skills.  This reflects itself in the way he works collaborate with other designers and the work he produces being of two assimilated images.  Listening to Alan Dye speak showed to me the breadth of the different disciplines a designer can become involved with.  He has done work for various well known brands and businesses, including the D&AD’s campaign for New Blood which featured numerous high ranking members of the creative community appearing to be taking their lives making way for new blood.  I really liked this piece of work, in a darkly comedic way it addresses the difficulty new comers have in the design industry.

Given during the conference earlier this week:

"It's okay to panic." (Alan Herron)

"Get up early." (Dave Brown)

"Work hard. Work harder." (Frith Kerr)