OUGD502: Hand renderd type // Matthew Wynne

After visiting the Tetley Book fair, I purchased an experimental book by Matthew Wynne, utilising hand rendered typography and minimal aesthetics to break the conventions of the possibilities of art and design, as well as conveying honest, simple messages in an extremely powerful way.

Generally, art os considered to be this highly polished artefact with great aesthetic quality. This is not. At an initial glance the messy typography is almost unspecial and oppressive, however when the eyes relax it's almost like optical illusions are created within the negative space and rivers within the typography, creating outlines of illustrations resembling scenes of the possible lovers, discussed loosely within the content. The illustratively fluid style is more related to artistic disciplines than strict typographically- the rules of legibility are thrown out of the window,  with words deconstructed and broken down to best fit/fill the space, rather than give a meaning in their verbal communication. This reminds me of David Carson's WingDings editorial, saying how it was total crap so there was no point in reading it, but it was there anyway, and the overpowering use of letter form. The quality of the handwriting is manic yet clearly legible still, deconstructing there preset rules in a humble way. How Wayne uses negative space and uses simple hand rendered capital type, black on white, is a tool of visual communication (and illusion), which is great inspiration to me. 

Wynne has influenced my personal style enormously, especially with his hand rendered aesthetic as a quick way of communicating what the artist wants to say. His way of constructing type has influenced works such as Paris/Madrid/Tokyo, as well other aspects of personal work throughout the year. His quality is very DIY, almost punk in its tactility and resilience to human contact and culture, not trying to be fancy or stand for something it is not. If I was more on the ball I would have tried to arrange an interview with Wynne

Two people holding hands/raising arms, with chalices and a love heart in between them. Busy rectangular composition with the typography complying to the needs of the illustration, making it a tool of illustrative purposes juxtaposing its regular intentions acting as legible copy, providing the viewer with information- now it has been reappropriated to confuse the viewer, not sticking to one line, a technique I want to try myself. 

Ambiguous with form and guttering, yet using typographic rotation to act as a tool of communication and confusion for the audience

People with signs // Child like countryside out of typography, with the run conveyed with Rays, as well as rolling hills and small illustrative aspects of a fence- combining pictures and words in a way

Related research:

Paula Scherr MAPS and record covers etc

Hand Job Book exploring quirky hand rendered typography

The Happy News & Illustrator Emily Coxhead

OUGD502- Saul Studio Talk

Saul Studio is a Leeds based design firm working on design, identity and books a like. Dan Saul Pilgrim, founder of Saul studio lead a talk discussing how he got to where he is today. It was really great to hear first hand HOW Dan became successful, and what aspects I can take from that to be successful in my own right too.

He started off aiming to work with "great" clients (I guess much like myself), and create typography led minimalist work. Saul later worked on music videos with film production company Left Eye Blind, doing music videos for friends at Leeds University. Whilst at uni, became friends with Matthew Logan, who shared the ambition of setting up a design studio 'Logan and Saul'. He was given a scholarship to the careers centre by the university, to help with the start up. Training was provided, giving information on law, international property etc as well as financially. This something I could look into doing at LCA, perhaps revisiting the Business Course/ Life After College events, or even applying for a residency if my practice evolves to utilise the facilities more.  

Self initiated Work

To raise money the pair screen printed t-shirts saying 'We haven't got any work', yet the donations were not enough so Matthew and he parted ways. In aprox Jan 2015 Pilgrim undertook another self initiated project to get his work out there, this time centred around publication and print yet again. He selected a passion, coffee, to base his graphic design around. Pilgrim said how he was inspired by the work of Justin Swee in the photographic exhibition Evoq. He contacted Swee and pitched a publication about the coffee shops in the north of England, which was surprising as it hadn't been done before. Called 'The Coffee Shop Project'. This gained a great response and the photographer was on board!

8 Cities Covered. First test shoot in March with Justin Swee, by Aug the Kickstarter was finalised and by October it was successfully funded. After the book was financed, he contacted writers for essay content. First design started around December. April was the start of printing and the promotion of the publication with a launch event and exhibition at Colours May Vary.

When considering the quality of the overall product, negoatiations had to be made and costings altered. The cover initially"felt like a flimsy dust jacket", and actually featured a photograph of an employee in a coffee shop in Holbeck. 10 days before print Pilgrim switched to an image to Lanes cafe in Leeds, as the image had a much more vibrant quality than the black of the previous portrait.

Coffee Shop North has been developed holistically as a brand, creating a unique typeface and logotype for the identity, as well as reputable client base and distribution channels. Pilgrim did not contact an official publisher continued to promote the book over time, so it was his job to contact and distribute to ideal stockists. The book was nominated for a British Book Award so he said it was rewarding to see the book stocked in places like Tokyo and Berlin.

The importance of self initiated work has allowed Dan to be put on a global map, making his own opportunities rather than waiting for them to come to him. He has been proactive in contacting publishers, photographers etc, which is something I need to do myself if to drive my own practice in the way I want to. 


Kickstarter

To fund the Coffee Shop Project, a Kickstarter campaign was started, describing the project as "the first visually led book exploring coffee shops in the north of England", defining a clear gap in the market for coffee enthusiasts to delve into, as well as other demographic statistics, such as geographic location and income (often those who enjoy good coffee earn higher salaries and have a larger disposable income for luxuries such as this). The kickstarted includes the spec of the book, after being negotiated with Precision Print Ltd, Leeds based creative printers, and GFSmith, so the budget was pre-negotiated and costs were defined.

(The importance of accurate budgeting and a plan if imperative when creating tangible work at an expense, something I have found myself when undertaking my jewellery/print making practice.)

The Kickstarter offered the public things for their donation, so they were essentially repurchasing rather than donating, e.g.: £30 = Book and Totebag- a pretty fair deal, widening the possible target market!. The aspects of project management Saul discusses is important, as without him doing all this extra work then the Coffee Shop North project would not materialise.


Experience


- Yorkshire Boast- celebrate and showcase great things about Yorkshire they may not know. Each page was a very zoomed in swatch, of places across yorkshire. This included Rhubarb and Sheffield Steel linking it back to the Yorkshire industries and wider history.

- Collaborated with an illustrator to create a pioneering icon with the Yorkshire rose

- Cold Cut Hubbards vinyl cover, exploring abstract shapes through typography. The final design evolved and tour posters and merchendice was also produced for European distribution.

- Had the idea of a photoshoot with Porcha Blunt, derived from the immediate creative communication Instagram can bring.

- Dan Saul Pilgrim also worked with Graphic Design graduate on another self initiated project after first being contacted on Instagram asking to collaborate. He discussed how they developed a photographic essay, representing each of the figures as of one of the evangelists. Each shot was styled in a way to reflect the architecture of each location, with Pilgrim on hand for Art & Creative direction.

- Colours May Vary flyers which moved away from their current identity. The design was inspired by primary colours, oriental shapes and the stores name. Saul also introduced a rewards card system, rewarding loyal shoppers.

Off the back of Coffee Shop North, The Hepworth were looking for a new identity for their new award, looking to celebrate any UK based artist based in sculpture. Saul pitched 'Goulax typeface' is reflecting Hepworths work and was extended over poster design, incorporating photography and typography.

Again, off the back of his self directed work he was commissioned to produce a blackboard infographic for a coffee shop in Sheffield, so he created a range of icons to describe coffee mixtures and brewing times.

- King St Social is a current work in progress for Saul, where he will be creating identity guidelines to give to the clients, so they can look over it and anyone can use it consistently. This will include secondary type, inverted logotypes, social media collateral, colours, typefaces, spaces and witch of height, minimum pt size for screen and print, as well as a few contextual elements to show how this could be used in setting. This will include business cards, menu's, type bags, paper table card's etc, all in theme with the King St concept.


Advice


- Design holistically, taking into account three main aspects- typeface, colour and stock.

- Your attitude is important to make it work

- Get yourself in the right position, meet the right people and get on Instagram! So many speakers are coming in discussing social media (Instagram especially) as a tool to meet creatives, so this is definitely something I plan to harness more throughout my practice.

- Find people that understand you and create contacts! (Network, network, network!)

- Collect graphic design, look at it, buy books, collect anything that interests you and use it as inspiration

- Holding something in the flesh is always better than looking online or blogs

- Find your niche, don't go into an overly saturated market. Sauls niche has become food and drink and I am still searching for my niche. My aim for Level 5 is to try and figure this out a bit more, finding that one area I can really shine in, much like Saul and Coffee Shop North.

- "Its not as pretty as it looks" - Clients that don't pay, are impossible to please

- Do/ Don't move to London - with the right attitude you can make it work anywhere!

The talk with Saul was really inspiring and the emphasis of self driven projects is something I want to really push myself. As a person I am extremely interested in fashion editorials and the production of identities for fashion brands, window displays and runway. Combining all of this into a holistic self driven project of some kind may be a way forward for me to find my niche, however I want to use Level 5 as an opportunity (whilst I still can) to explore all the aspects design related to fashion and editorial has to offer, whilst exploring other personal interests such as illustration.

______________________________________________________

saulstudio.co.uk                 @DanSaul

OUGD502: Contacting Designers 03

To gain a wider knowledge into the industry of Graphic Design, I have been using LinkedIn as tool of networking, making professional connections and finding possible collaborators. Antony Conboy is a Graphic Design alumni from the University of Salford, specialising in experience design, UX, UI, Front End HTML & CSS. Surprisingly, he added me to his LinkedIn connection (probably because I have been connecting with a wide range of designers lately), yet Anthony stood out. 

A personal project I am working on at the minuet is the branding for ZOG couture and the rebrand of ZZG clothing, I need to expand my knowledge of digitally based design as I will be designing a website, 'bots' and organising an efficient e-commerce system, so thought Anthony's experience would be extremely relevant to what I need to learn, in order to best succeed in this opportunity. Based in London, Anthony isn't too far out of reach for me to pop down and possibly interview, but for now I sent him a message on LinkedIn, thanking him for the connection and putting out feelers for asking some specific questions. 

His email address is available on his profile, however I felt the personal level of LinkedIn would be more appropriate at this stage- I have found from emailing other creatives, the response rate is much higher and quicker on more social platforms, so will harness this to my advantage. 

OUGD502: Walk about Leeds

While the rest of the class were in Berlin, I went out and took some pictures in the parts of Leeds I am not so familiar with. As I have been to quite a few places in Leeds this was quite a struggle, so utilised this opportunity to go off the beaten track. I took some photo's along the way...
Along the way I was especially drawn to the use of typography in settings, not just documentary shots.