HORT & Rapha Talk @ Bakken & Bæck

Free beer and tacos? Count me in!

A couple of months back Bakken & Bæck, a design studio in Oslo, had an open house night with two guest design speakers; Eike König of Hort & Luke Scheybeler of Rapha. Having heard of both HORT & Rapha before but never actually knowing much about either of them I figured this talk would be perfect to give me an insight into building up both a design studio and a clothing company.

HORT is a Berlin-based design studio that has been around for more than two decades, and Eike gave a great talk on a lot of the work they've done and the trials and tribulations of working with big companies such as Nike.

Their work came across as playful but not childish, they produce very strong work especially the work they've done for Nike. Turns out they've been working with Nike for many years now and they've so much work for them that they made a Tumblr page just to display everything that didn't always get used.

Aside from that is was very inspiring to listen to a professional who's had a range of different clients but most importantly has been in the industry for over 20 years and has a lot of knowledge to share with us.

The second guest speaker Luke Scheybeler, co-founder of Rapha and fellow northener. Rapha is considered, by most, to be the world's nicest cycling brand. As Rapha's former creative director, Luke was responsible for a large part designing the branding, graphics and website. He spoke a lot about the origins of Rapha and how they came to be, taking a look back at the old cycling gear worn by cyclists they soon realised there was a real market for a high end designer wear. This was where they stepped in, realising how over complicated the cycling clothes were at the time they decided it was time for a huge change and simplification of the style and materials used.

Old style cycling clothing

They took certain aspects of the old style and adopted it into a new minimalist style, one which stood out in the world of cycling gear.

I also managed to catch up with Luke later after the talk to chat about Rapha in more detail. Even after a couple of drinks this was very much nerve-racking for me, but I some how mustered up the confidence to go over and speak to him. Soon after establishing that we were both from a similar town back home, I asked him about how Rapha came about. I was surprised to find out that in actual fact cycling wasn't a big interest for him, co-founding a brand of any kind generally you'd assume that both people have a real interest or passion for it. But it seemed to be more down to the fact that there was a market for what they wanted to produce at the time, which I guess was partly down to having an eye for it but also a little bit of luck to jump into the industry at the right time. Either way safe to say that Rapha revolutionised the way cycling clothing was designed.

S.O.D (Social Oriented Design)

Whilst away in Oslo I had the opportunity to become part of a group called S.O.D, it's a group that designs for social oriented issues and exhibits it all wherever they are able to. The group was set up a couple of years ago by Yann the graphic design tutor at Westerdals, he figured that social issues are something that affects us all and is something that needs to be addressed more and what better way to do so than through the use of design. Although the group began small, they're always expanding hence how I was able to become a part of it.

"Based on the fact that I truly believe that most of our daily related problems are due to stress, lack of interest regarding the others and selfishness I decided to see what we, graphic designers and creative people in general, could do to light up people's everyday.

Our goal is to find effective and cost free solutions to solve social related problems (these problems can be big or small)" - Yann

In recent years they've been able to exhibit their work both local and worldwide with exhibitions at Grafill in Oslo but also a place over in New York.

S.O.D at Grafill

Each year they aim to address and express, through design, a social issue that some of us or maybe all of us. Their most recent issue was loneliness which I believe is definitely an issue in our "connected" society.

Umer Ahmed's piece on loneliness

The meetings for the group are generally every few months so luckily I had the chance to be a part of one whilst in Oslo. There was roughly 15 people there on the night and we sat and discussed potential topics on which we could create work around for the next exhibition hoping to be held during the summer. A few topics included that of: 

Fear of the Unknown
"Fear of the unknown and a generally small amount of knowledge is common in today’s society, and often the very reason people choose to avoid (and hate on) others with different backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, sexualities, etc. Those who feel the need to shout the loudest are often the most ignorant (and maybe afraid ones), and they try to compensate using BIG WORDS." - Fredrik

Dehumanized
"According to many studies Economical Materialism is associated with anxiety, depression and broken relationships. In hope for better self-esteem people tend to fill the emptiness with possessions, likes and jealousy. I tend to investigate further why we get sucked into this void that is Economical Materialism, how it affects us psychologically (self-esteem) and how brands brainwash us through marketing and visual communication." - Umer

The Human Standards Manual

"We want to look into the expectations society puts on the individual: from the obvious pressures like body image, to the more bizarre specific issues like what kind of job you have. The goal is to shine a light on how these expectations affect us, and how absurd it is that we are so hung up on them. We were originally thinking about making a book and a website, but we realise this might be too big of a task for the amount of time we have. We might start off making the website, then begin creating a book afterwards if we have time for it. Maybe even make another product entirely." - Nico & Ben

These are only a few of many ideas that have been shared at the moment, but soon we aim to narrow it down to one and expand from there, creating pieces of work that best represents our views on the topic and how we could shed light on something so important.

Hey! Design Talk @ Belgrave

Booze, pizza and comfy sofas? Sounds like a perfect combination to me and what better way to spend it than listening to a mixture three designers and developers. All of which seemed to have a positive outlook on their careers regardless of how crap it may be from time to time and all of which seemed to have something valuable to share with us.

Stefan was first up although he seemed very nervous he soon got comfortable and began sharing his experience so far as a front end developer. Much rather than following the usual trend of going to university and then into the industry he jumped straight into an apprenticeship at Sky. He spoke a lot about going against the grain and how that can be challenging especially for someone at the time of starting was only 18. Joining the industry at such a young age can be difficult, staying up till 2 or 3 in the morning simply just to get up to scratch with learning the programming languages only for them to change a couple months later. With being a front end developer the languages always change and so having to adapt constantly even whilst you're still learning appeared to be the main issue he spoke of. I think the most valuable thing he spoke about was how learning new things and not always succeeding can knock your confidence and I think this applies to anyone of any job. So it's good to keep in mind that you just have to push through it and hearing this from someone of the same age who has experienced more of the industry than me, is something I will definitely take on board especially considering university can have it's challenges all the same as a job.

The second person to talk was Emily, her presentation was a lot about our habits as designers and developers be that good or bad ones and overcoming the anxieties that come with it. Habits are something that we all have and I think that the one that we all have in common is thinking that we're not good enough or that we're bad at what we do. Anxieties I think are very common amongst design students because it's hard to stay consistent with our workflow and quality of work, hitting creative walls can especially knock our confidence on some days forcing into a spiral of thinking we aren't good enough. Emily spoke also about a good habit to get into is thinking like a child, like a beginner because that way you always approach everything with a pair of fresh eyes and open mind. I think this is especially helpful for designers often we can become narrow minded after working on a piece of work for so long and so speaking with others and in a way resetting yourself can be helpful in approaching your work in a new way. She also mentions that we should always be seeking to burst out of your comfort zone and aiming to stay inspired all year round!

The third and final design talk was by Chris who's main theme for his talk was about designing your own career. He talked step by step on how we should aim to create our own futures, so that we can become the the designer we want to be. His presentation was a series of bits of advice, a couple of those being:

Design is iterative
Have a vision
Think critically
Think laterally
Design is a process

Baring these in mind when designing I think is important because often as Emily previously mentioned, we can get into bad habits, ones that can often trump our creative process. But as Chris emphasised during the talk, design is a process, as is your career. Going from junior designer to senior is more than just a matter of time, it's everything you learn and experience on the way that forms the designer that you will become.

These talks I feel gave me a boost of confidence in life, but also especially when it comes to designing. With Stefan talking about going against the grain is challenging but rewarding. Emily discussing we need to push through our anxieties and get into good habits and finally Chris discussing how our careers are a big process and that we should be constantly striving to improve ourselves any which way we can and to form a career that we want.

University exhibition!

At the end of the second brief there was discussions of displaying our work within an exhibition that would be held within the uni. Unfortunately this was happening after my time over there, sometime in January but I still had the chance to display my work within there.

I organised my work and sent it across to a friend within the class to set up my work (thanks again Neno). It was a shame that I wasn't there to take more pictures and have the chance to chat to people but I was still happy with being able to have my work within the exhibition.

Having complete creative freedom

For the second brief we had complete free reign over what we could do, the brief itself was to be designed and set by yourself. Having so much freedom was great but also daunting at the same time, typically I've always worked to set briefs so for the whole thing to be set for myself, by myself was a task in itself.

Something that's always intrigued me psychology, why people do what they do. Especially in todays society where people always feel the need to be socially accepted by others around them. A big contributor to this is social media, it has a huge impacts on people's everyday lives from trying to snap a picture perfect photo of their outfit to having the most followers on Twitter, Instagram etc. All of this leads to a hugely anti-social society because as much as we seem to think that we're connected in more ways than one with there being plenty of social networking sites out there, when in actual fact scenes of people sitting round at a bar and each person being on their phones is all too common. Are we really as connected as we think?

What influence does social media have on our behaviour, both as individuals and as a society as a whole?

My whole project was based around social media and the effects it has on us individually and as society as a whole. As much good as social media can do, connecting people, sharing work etc. it can do damage as well to relationships, personal wellbeing (anxieties, depression) and even something as simple as ruining your productivity. 

So something I did myself as an experiment was to cut out several forms social media that being Snapchat and Twitter to see if I really needed it as much as I used it and to see if I would miss having it. Surprise surprise I didn't, not one bit. In fact using social media more in moderation made my productivity increase and my wellbeing also improve. It made me care less about having to be 'always on' in terms of having to reply to every notification as soon as it comes through and allowed me to get on with my work without being distracted every 5/10 minutes.

The result of this brief was a physical piece that kind of mocked society (and me included) in a couple of ways. The idea behind it was a physical representation of how we are always sucked into our phones and have a disregard for the real world and instead focus our attention too much into this virtual world in our phones. But also to take a dig at how us as consumers are pretty stupid in some ways, we give in too easily to phoney products that are advertised on the TV that claim they will improve our lives in some way or another.

The product allowed the user to view their phone through what is essentially a cardboard box. The idea was to brand this as if it was an actual product by creating a commercial similar to those in America in the 80's. The branding and tone of voice used back then was very energetic and over excited, making it out as though the toy is the best thing since sliced bread. This worked perfectly for what I wanted as it contrasted (sarcastically) with the fact that this is a very boring product that, in reality, no one would want.

This whole project was possibly the hardest yet most satisfying work I've completed to date, taking on the task on filming, directing and editing a video is something I've never touched on before. Luckily I had friends within the class and from other classes to help me out as actors and I think they did a pretty good job of acting like kids, reminiscent of the 80s.

Final Commercial

Designing an app

Our first brief of the semester was to design an app for the government funded railway company, NSB. Given that that the company was soon to be broken up into different sectors for their competitors to fight over and purchase, the main idea behind designing this new app was to create something that would make NSB stand out in the market and withhold their rights to the company.

Having never designed an app before it was something entirely new to me, but using them day in day out for years on end I felt I was capable of creating something that users would want to use. The main premise for my app was to create something personalised to the user but also to try and involve the company with the local communities within the cities as I felt this is something Apple do really well. Staying involved with your community and giving back dissolves this idea of both hierarchy and a one way stream between a company and their consumers, instead creating a tight knit community where everyone has some sort of involvement.

Personal Feel

In the same way a personal assistant would sort out your morning coffee at work and notify you of any your upcoming meetings for the day etc. the app follows this same idea of making the whole catching a train process smoother and easier for the user by essentially being your personal assistant. 

The account page of the app was something that had to be a visualisation of the user's journey both in the real world and the points system within the app. 

The points system is something that allows the company and customers to give back to their communities through giving rewards when hitting a point milestone that can be spent in local independent stores.

Living & studying abroad

For the entirety of my first semester I had the opportunity to live and study in Norway, more specifically Oslo. Aside from the cold extremes and almost borderline illegal prices for a pint, the time I spent there was extremely valuable as I had the chance to improve my social networking skills and also my knowledge and ability within the design world.

Being thrown into a completely new environment both physically and socially, meant that I started off slow. Leaving behind pretty much everyone and everything I'd gotten accustomed to over my first year at uni, only to have to restart all that again in a country where I was considered a foreigner; it was a strange feeling to say the least.

Fortunately for me I already had somewhat of a head start by having two of my friends with me in the same boat, meaning we were all as confused to begin with as each other. But once the ball got rolling with the first initial brief things went onwards and upwards from there. We'd made some friends within the class and sourced a couple of local coffee shops to keep our caffeine needs fulfilled and in one of the world's largest coffee consuming countries it was hard to stay away.

With the way the system worked at the university, it meant that we studied with 3rd year students all ranging from the ages of about 21-26. Most of which also had completed one or two internships during their studies giving them a wide knowledge base on design and an increased confidence within their work. I feel this definitely somewhat rubbed off on me during my studies as I'd not long finished my first year of uni. Having only really just started getting to know the industry and starting to improve my skills within design, I felt I started the semester off not all too confident with my work. But over the course of the 4 months studying there with a range of culturally different students and tutors, it gave me a lot of confidence within my skills and the work I produced from the two briefs. Although over the years of doing graphic design I feel my work has improved each year, as that normally is the case with most people, I think that I even made a huge jump within just those couple of months giving me a much more thorough approach to design from start to finish.