Creative Convos : Regular Practice

Tom Finn and Christopher Sølling - Regular Practice Developing methodologies as a student through to commercial practice - masters at RCA - consider themselves as technically efficient but tried to challenge and push themselves into making something they don’t normally make - working together was like a break from their college - tried to portray an industrial manufactured vibe - re-contextualising found typography to move forward with their design - they were allowed the freedom to produce interesting work - use commercial level printing - icon magazine was their first piece of work at Regular Practice Tinted Window// - they had both worked with them before which aided them as they knew what they were about - were allowed to do experimentive type flow British Council// - directly linked to posters they had done in college - curator Lauren Child - needed to work alongside her work - gave her a blank template of 4 posters to draw as she wants Serpentine Work Marathon// - weekend of lectures / talks Mute Records// - exercise of form - something you can apply to form - a lot of their work related back to RCA Prepping for industry - nothing can replace good work - don’t make a website in a night - focus on documentation and a strong PDF portfolio first - Utilise your time in education to make interesting work - push practice whilst you can - strategise and customise your approach to people - make it different for everywhere you are emailing - go to stuff - make connections and show your interested - documentation of how you do stuff swell as finished product is key

Creative Convos : Bafic

Bafic - mainly work in film, photography, musicians - graphic design has helped his process - did a 2 year course in london - why we need structure - the researching etc - Bafic is the his name in date of birth in letter form in alphabet - design is in everything - opportunities that lie ahead are not easily defined - things he does : videos + images + other stuff - he thinks more about the narrative, story the medium is just the vessel - corporate brands have core messages, becomes less about product and more about their personality - branding is design just in another way - in some cases you need to show the brand who they are through research, as time goes on they forget their ethos / who they are - the core corporate brands keep their ethos tight - they know who they are - there isn’t defined rules - you can do anything - why is album artwork square - from cd’s which was from record - change it - there are waves and trends which people jump on - but they are ever changing - “the qualities that make a graphic designer a good filmmaker really haven’t got to do with the specific aesthetics of deign” - read tipping point - pop culture shows you the power of branding, designing etc - ‘Choice Errors’ first video made, graphic design on a moving image - moving image can include elements of graphic design - NikeLab x Roundell - elements of type and imagery are the glue that holds the moving image together, taking you from frame to frame - Ask Around video - one rule was the camera had to be attached to the car at all times - director of oceans 11 shot another film on an iPhone - high flying birds - mabel - our place studio

Inspo : Nadia Lee Cohen

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Nadia Lee Cohen is a photographer and filmmaker who is based in London but also does a lot of her work in LA. I will be lucky enough to visit LA in April which is something else that I am very excited about. I will try to visit some studios out there.

I am interested in the art direction and styling that Nadia does. Art direction is an aspect that really interests me as I think layouts and putting things together whether being on a page or on a shoot is something in my own practice that I am good at. 

Film making has also been an interest of mine, aspects of this like production are things that I am very interested in and would love to learn from somebody who knows a lot and has had a lot of experience from it. 

There is a lot of similarity in a lot of her work which is something that is very unfamililar to me. I think I am a very volatile creative person who uses research as my main focus to motivate any project.

Creative Convos : Eva Cremers

Eva Cremers

-       Graduated last year :

-       Interning at company called man v machine

Man vs machine is a design and motion studio based in London and LA:

-       After high school studied International Business, quit then went to Art Academy Minerva

-       Snask – to get internship she filled pink box with pink stuff as their studio is all pink, with a letter in it, below is the work Eva did for them on her internship, she was doing it solo

-       Ask yourself what you project could become?

-       You don’t need the confidence, you just need the courage. You can either feel safe and bored or challenged and scared. But you can’t be safe and challenged

-       Boost your Instagram

-       Think of fun projects to do

-       Learn new skills

-       The design kids interview – check them out

-       Cinema4d – she started learning through sketching – grey skill gorilla

-       Got email from NY Times and did artwork for them

Things I’ve learnt so far:

-       Throw your work online

-       Use the positive side of instagram – use #

-       Pinterest is training

-       Don’t be afraid of ‘big’ designers

-       Being insecure about your work is normal

-       Its normal to have no idea what you’re doing or what your plans are

@evacremers - instagram and website :

Creative Convos : Kieran Walsh

Kieran 

Studied Graphic Design at LAU, graduated in 2016, moved to London got a job in a start up company, for a year and a half. Went Freelance then now work at WIRED magazine. 

• make a work instagram - its the first thing people check - try to make the feed aesthetic to the places you want to apply - match them 
• make your site good - its what people look at
• learn what css / html is
• learn how to prioritise - get the main stuff out there, finesse once everything is done
• go to the signings / parties / talks / openings
• stay in and research the company, find out who the art director is and who they socialise with - who are they talking to - go on their instagram
• compliment the ad’s new jacket - be a nice person to be around 
• no more than 4 at work drinks - keep professional 
• learn ae / cinema 4d / sketch / invision - say you have a working knowledge, to develop on the job

• spell check your cv
• future proof your skills - after effects 
• find an excuse to talk to that person
• consistent name through platforms / contact1
• enter competitions / zines - get out there - dazed / vogue 
• is the attached pdf cymk, make sure its rgb - check the little details

WIRED

• how technology influences how you have a meal / how you get to work 
• technology becoming more engraved in every day life

brief 

• tease the story on instagram
• massive attack : unfinished symphony
• how technology is influencing their shows 
• 1:1 Image & type gallery, animation, video, series
• instagram post 60 sec max &stories 15 sec max
• how would you get people excited and promo the story
• has to work on twitter and fb also
• use the shimmer in the zine
• 27th due

Looking at html and css:

Creative Convos : Chris Moorby, Commission Studio

- Graphic design studio specialising in branding 

- branding in all varying sizing brands

- strong interest in fashion but also specialising in design, lifestyle, wellness, hospitality and technology

- loves print finishes and little details and materials interests - playful approach to high quality end products

Espelma - natural candle brand - silicon bubble stickers - concept was inspired by wax spillage effect

Franklin Till - trends in colour and materials - unique business cards based on the material and colour rather than other design elements

How to make your work look good :

There is no point being a good graphic designer if you cannot sell your work, you have got to bring your clients along with you on your creative journey - you have got to visualise it and present your work with as much effort as the creation of the actual work

Document your work, think of it as part of the project and not the end point

Do it well and it will lead to the next project - logos are not forever, hence the importance in documentation

Old Spike Coffee - employ homeless people to work for them, help them build their cv and get them off the street. Product is premium.

Their first approach was that all coffee bags are in brown paper packaging, hand crafted look. So they felt they needed to take a new approach if the product is premium this needed to be evidenced in the packaging.

As documenting is one of the most important parts you must 'create a mood' - how you want it to feel, use the internet to gain the research. This is an essential part of the process in gaining a really well informed product.

The breeze block an its simplicity in the old spike allowed the outcome to be all about the product. Do not forget you can always re-document your old work.

Other Approaches -

Keep it simple - Haw-Lin Services

- clean black background

- all about the graphics

Suits the style of their work - very clinical and modern - showreel for itsnicethat amazing

Context and Pace - OK-RM

- versatile styles of photography, example - Real Review - beautiful scanning techniques - added context and texture to the shots

Advice

Arty shots even when there is not a great breadth of work there - allows it to look more together and as if there is more there. Try to work with photographers to gain these outcomes. Thinking within the realms of what you can actually achieve yourself. 

Half a day spent on creating the 'mood' for the projects.

Always think about the context, when is the appropriate time to apply these techniques.

Rinse paper merchants for techniques and new materials, push uni resources.

Make more out of your projects!

Creative Convos : Andrew Odong

"Creative Production : from freelance to start up"

- He studied physics with astronomy at Leicester. Made the transition to creativity as he didn't want to be defined by his degree
- got job as a conference producer - researching everything behind events and brands. Learning a lot of transferable skills - communication, research, networking, project management and business accumen
- v process driven, squeezing creativity out of him

For 1st 'creative' job it was more about active pitching - looking at what the brands want then pitching the idea

- big brands are not focussed on one person, big umbrella of people working towards an ideal. He wants his company to be bigger than just him at the moment. He wants to democratise production
- read Shoedoc book
- Pesa Production - his company set up. A content driven creative production company which specialises in premium events and creative content

Events, Film, Photography and Podcasts are the different types of creative production. Production is a service as-well as a product

{Look at Julie Verges}

Why you should all be producers?
- proactive about your idea and practical about the steps needed to bring reality
- identify and maximising opportunity
- being great problem solver

Relationship between design and production
- be a good listener and understand the producers vision

5 things you should know -
- value based networking
- identify your value
- customer and client experience
- ideas are useless w/out action
- find your actovates

Marketing managers - linked in are the people you want to be keeping in touch with
- research people before you message them - show them what you can offer / what your intentions

Remember =
- what is your USP
- whats your audience?

Creative Convos : Valentina - Suspira Magazine

- her 1st job was in Berlin fashion styling and buying
- her 1st creative job was social media with the W project - unpaid for a year
- at W project she did an event W project x Tate exchange - all female curation
- Caryn Franklin on : Going grey
- Its important to get paid but at first you might have to do odd jobs whilst you are building on own projects and ideas. Valentina had to work 3 days a week unpaid at one point
- She said as she was working for free she wanted to work for free with her own ideas rather than for other people

Did you always want to be a creative director?
Loved taking the idea and rolling with it through to he end, so yes kind of. 

Biggest challenge?
Paying my bills without selling my soul!

Concept for Suspira?
- 6 months talking to creative people thinking and rethinking
- themed issues developed it 
- took a while to develop the cultural aspect e.g. literature and film
- the female voices really shone through for her

- Working on Suspira helped her develop the issues she had about her work and let people see her work for how good it was without her being scared to show it
- The process for workflow for the 1st issue took a while as unsure what the visual language should be - how graphic it should be (7 months)
- the 2nd issue took around actively 5 months in comparison - working closely alongside 2 Italian graphic designers who were also interested in horror. They had a hands on approach and were able to all bounce on each other 
- the monster issue (1st theme) - huge research process, covering a lot of ground e.g. mental health 
- evolution of the monster, relationship between monster and the woman was interesting to her as it was like a damsel in distress, always some sexual aspect in it. 
- she learnt a lot through the research process of Suspira 
- the issues are quite textured thus meaning its an immersive experience meaning at the moment it will stay a print magazine 
- the cover is v tactile, including all the elements
- there are elements that have consistency however due to the themed aspect there is flexibility to adapt the aesthetical change
- throughout the two issues there are a few consistent aspects = paper and typeface
- The fetish issue (2) runs with the intersection of horror with sex which had snowballed from research that happened in the 1st issue and from the late 60's. Marrying together the graphic horror and sexual aspects and creating a visual that is aesthetically pleasing
- Social media / mainly instagram is a big push to publicise the issues
- The first event is happening soon 'titty twister' - it is sold out and is to push the magazine
- Valentina got an investor who paid for the print and the graphic designers
- Features for the 1st issue she reached out to a lot of people 
- the 2nd issues the features came through more submissions as they know what they were getting into
- Suspira based on human psychology so people can respond to it, fear and desire to most primal human things
- originally she wanted it to look grungier however the aesthetic matches the idea - not too feminine whilst talking about the femininity in horror

Getting published research

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Getting published

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It is encouraged to try to get yourself published as it will help you get yourself out there as a creative or designer. This will then have a positive effect and more footfall on your website / Instagram. Being publish includes both print and online. 

Print-based: print magazine, printed pages

Online: it's nice that, creative review, intern.

Insta feed: the design blacklist, design and branding, design.pick


To get yourself there research aesthetics and see what they are featuring as if your style is not the same they may not feature it.

Research the place you want to get published and let it influence your creations. 

Use the guidelines set by the place you want to get published, especially is you are applying to get published.