Getting in contact with Craig Oldham

Craig is someone who I came across when I found out about his book In Loving Memory of Work which is a visual record of the coal pit strikes that took place in 1984-85. His work immediately struck me because of the amount of passion and effort that's been put into every aspect of this book. The strikes and the events that followed is something very personal to him, considering that his dad was himself a coal miner who lost his job to the closure of the pits, which ultimately led to some tough times that followed.

I could instantly tell that he was passionate about this through his work but also through his tone of voice during his talks. This I would say is partly due to the amount he swears, which is entirely appropriate given the context of his talks.

During his talk for Nicer Tuesdays, he makes a big point about how design shouldn't be for the sake of design, instead it should have a purpose, have a meaning, it should be communicating something. His strong opinions on this are evident through his work as his work has a clear obvious point he's trying to communicate. This is why I'm so interested to find out more about him and his views towards design, because I myself, like to think that I design for a reason.

I wrote up a letter explaining my reason for wanting to chat with him, I think that a letter is much more personal to the recipient but also because back in 2012 Craig did The Hand Written Letter Project which was based around how personal a letter can be in this day and age when our inboxes are filled with spam, junk mail. I think that sending a letter is definitely a much more personal form of communication, it requires a lot more effort to hand write a letter, buy a stamp and post it off than to send a quick email.

S.O.D Collective Pitch

For the third brief within this module, it was to form a collective of up to 6 people and to pitch an idea/concept for a collective group of work. The output could be an exhibition, publication or online presence , or perhaps a combination of these. Given that both me and Jon are already a part of S.O.D it made sense that we pitch this already existing collective and to push the group further so more people become aware of it and have the chance to join in as well.

'Through research and planning you will explore the basics of how to identify an appropriate venue, audience and market, structure your team to optimize your individual and group skills and knowledge, investigate the legal and financial obligations of developing and launching a creative initiative, seek appropriate professional support & advice, plan and control finances and effectively promote, brand and communicate your presence to external parties and partners.'

This is something that has already been considered that we've help to develop also for as long as we've been a part of the collective which is all included in our presentation.

Questions to consider:

• What skills and services do you have to offer individually and as a group?
• Who is your target market?
• What form will your showcase take?
• What are your costs, charges and financial considerations?
• How will you structure your collective?
• Who will be responsible for what?
• How will you promote your showcase? To who? Using what media?
• Is it set in a physical location ? then where?
• How will you manage communication through the group?

Presentation

My PPP Presentation

Presenting in front of people has never and probably never will be my strong suit, but it's something I've always tried to improve mostly because it's something I'll likely have to do a lot in the future, so there's no avoiding it. Also doing presentations like this on a regular basis will increase my confidence, both talking in front of people but also in myself and in my work.

One thing I picked up on last year from Stefan Sagmeister's Happiness by Design talk was making the presentation flow, with one thing leading onto another and not jumping from one topic to the next. I think this helped me hugely in my first year presentation as I would typically have a very choppy presentation with each section divided up by a separate title slide but is something that definitely stuck with me into my second year PPP presentation. Making use of every slide as almost a visual aid to my speech also helped me a lot this year, I aimed to have little to no words on the majority of slides so that the audience will be taking in by the picture, taking the focus off me a little bit. But also so that if I do happen to forget what I'm supposed to be talking about at any point, the slide itself will give me a hint and hopefully get me back on track.

I feel like my presentations are always on a very personal level, often using pictures of my life and on goings not just always my work. This gives me much more confidence and fluidity when I'm talking, but can hopefully inject some humour into the talk.

Within my talk, I began chronologically at the beginning of the year as this made most sense to me; starting in Oslo and finishing with what I learnt from this year. A lot of my presentation talked about my Erasmus trip to Norway for the first semester as this is what I would consider a big step up in my life. Moving to a different country, experiencing a whole new culture and with that new people was a challenging thing to do for me, especially considering I'd never lived in another country before, let alone on my own. Also getting involved with a collective over there was another big thing, being a part of something much bigger than just my own work within university meant that I had to the chance to do good with my design work and to have it displayed in exhibitions in other countries, this was something again that boosted my confidence.

Presenting in groups also means that I was able to see other people's presentations and their way of presenting things, which helps me in some ways. Some people have clever ways of presenting which helps give them confidence, this ultimately gives me a better idea of how I should be presenting and ways in which I can improve.

Doing a presentation of this scale and importance did a lot for me and my confidence, it puts into perspective the difficulty of situations like this but allows me to tackle it one slide at a time, only for me to realise afterwards that it's not as hard or as nerve-racking as my mind often makes it out to be.

M&C Saatchi Interview & Tour

Shortly before the trip to Berlin I managed to get in contact with an old friend who moved over there about 6/7 years ago. Not knowing that he was in the design industry, I asked more about where he was working at the time, turns out it was M&C Saatchi and so I asked if it would be possible to do a small interview with him and/or another creative there and also a tour around the studio space. He said yes, woop!

Advertising is something I'm pretty interested in and so what better what to do it than with a big agency like Saatchi. Seeing the workspace and meeting the people was interesting and enticing. There was a sense of family and connectedness within the space; there was a small team of creatives which is the kind of environment that I think would be nice to be involved in when it comes to working in the industry. I took along with me Matt and Harrison as they themselves were also interested in finding out how an agency works.

The interview/chat with Timothy Cook

Somehow I lost the first 20 minutes or so of the interview (I think maybe it corrupted?) but luckily still got around 40/45 minutes of content which I think I could potentially use for PPP, although I do still intent to get in contact with a couple of other studios to have interviews with.

When we asked about how the individual job roles such as art director, copyrighter etc. and how the whole design process goes, he mentioned that the idea for a project is no one person's idea, it's the teams idea and then ultimately the agency's idea which is interesting to see how it works because I would generally see it as the more hierarchal person would be seen as the face of the idea.

"Good work get's killed all of the time"

I asked about how he copes with creative blocks since this is a common occurrence with all designers..

"Walk around, get outside, do fitness, whatever you gotta do, meditate"

What keeps you motivated to constantly want to push your practice?

"It's the drive for always wanting to produce something, I always want to make something. With solving problems, you're always working towards fixing something."

What happens in the run up to the pitch, during 'pitch week'?

"Well you start losing your mind a bit to start with"

"But ultimately you're refining ideas, the justifications for those ideas and the visuals" 

How would you recommend going out seeking out and getting an internship?

"Do you have LinkedIn? If so a shit load of stalking and trying to connect with creative directors through there, sending over your portfolio and a cover letter."

As far a portfolios are concerned how would be the best way to display your work?

"Be yourself, talk the way you would approach someone in real life within your portfolio such as slang words etc. but keep it concise, no more than about 25 pages within a PDF of work because it can get too much."

The interview was actually really helpful especially about how to seek out an internship and how to display my work, coming from someone who's done this lot in his time, which is how he got his job at Saatchi by seeking out the creative director and sending his portfolio over.

Pentagram Talk

During our trip to Berlin we had the opportunity to have a talk by one of the partners of Pentagram, Justus Oehler. Straight from the get go, I could see why and how he was in the position he was, he talked a lot about graphic design being a passion and not just something you do passively. Unlike like maybe other career choices where people's parents might have a heavy influence on what they do, he said and I quote..

"we do graphic design because we fucking want to". 

Quote of the century, surely.

The first part of the presentation was giving us an insight into his contribution to the industry and the work he'd done over the years which was interesting to see who he'd worked with. But he then moved onto more important matters within graphic design that I personally think we should be aware of when designing, mainly within branding projects.

Taste vs Timeless

Often companies can make the mistake of following trends and their own taste in design rather than choosing a design that is timeless. Trends come and they go, as does someones taste in design but what doesn't change is timeless designs, ones that will last years in comparison to ones that will fade out when the next trend comes along. Companies such as Coca-Cola and AT&T have made this mistake before. Their original logos were solid and worked perfectly fine across all mediums, but making the mistake of following a trend meant they fell victim to the other trends that followed. AT&T for example below, their 2007 logo was following the trend of gradients and transparency, which may work for the moment but again will likely change in coming years to keep up with the trend.

Coke made a similar mistake, although not necessarily following a trend they attempted to change their logo in 1985, maybe down to a change in taste. But soon realised it didn't work nearly as well as their well known original logo and so quickly changed it back a couple of years later.

Another really interesting point he made that I'd never even considered before was how there is no public debate on graphic design. Other areas of design like fashion, cars etc. are discussed on a regular basis, which means that most people have a good idea of what's good, bad or trendy within that area. But yet with graphic design, only graphic designers themselves for the most part discuss what's good and bad design meaning that when it comes to the majority of the public they don't have much of an idea of what's good or not. This can lead to bad design as clients don't know what works and what doesn't.

It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be

Having already read Paul Arden's previous book, Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite I was intrigued to find out that he also had another book published in the same style and given how insightful it was, I knew this one would be equally as good. Having spent a lot of time on trains recently, I found I was reading a lot more so much so that I read this book twice over in one weekend (can you tell I liked it?) and I feel like a took a lot of useful advice from it.

"Don't seek praise, seek criticism"

Often when it comes to giving feedback for other people's work or asking others about my own work, people are likely to say nice things about it, which is good for me and my ego but it's doesn't help in terms of the development of my piece. So Paul suggests always instead asking questions to provide critique on your work; what's wrong with it? What could be better? This is very important for me as I usually don't ask enough questions during a crit session or don't ask the right ones leaving me with general feedback which doesn't always help developing my ideas.

"Don't be afraid of silly ideas"

As creatives we can often come to a sudden halt in our work flow, otherwise know as a creative block. At this moment in time, I feel like this is all too relevant but Paul suggests that the best way to unblock a mental block is to lose our inhibitions and stop worrying about always wanting to be right. Personally, I always worry too much about being right all the time with my work, whether visually or conceptually, to a point of where I become narrow minded and clueless. This ultimately drives me into a ditch of anxiety and worst all boringness as far as my work is concerned, I think sometimes I just need to let loose with my ideas.

"Don't give a speech, put on a show"

Another huge help for me being the terrified little mouse that I am when it comes to presenting, having never done much before in the past aside from last year's PPP presentation, I think my presentation skills and confidence are lacking. So Paul puts forward the idea that your lectures/presentation should be more than just talking, giving your advice etc. instead you should try painting a picture for the audience, as he puts it 'putting on a show'. I think this is something that I should take into account when it comes to presenting, even within the classroom and carrying on into the future at pitches etc. by creating a more visual presentation it will make for a much more interesting presentation and also something that will be remembered by those watching (fingers crossed).

"GET OUT OF ADVERTISING!"

A little over exaggerated I'll admit but this is for me, potentially one of the most important pieces of advice he gave through the course of his book. Although I don't always work on pieces related to advertising, I think that the advice applies to anyone within the the design field of work. By this he's referring to a lot of the inspiration that comes for new ideas for new ads come from advertising itself, be that old examples of it. instead Paul suggests getting out of the area you're working in and to take inspiration from elsewhere, unexpected sources, your environment, anything at all that surrounds you on your day to day life in the hope that it will spark new and original ideas for your work.

A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music

Ask anyone who knows of him and his work and they'll all tell you the same thing, he's an inspiration. He talks a lot of sense about things that matter but without coming across as your stereotypical arrogant artist, which is one reason why I look up to him. 

Pitchfork recently posted an article titled 'A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music' and after having a read I feel like a took a lot from it in terms of being an artist and how we should all approach our work. To me, he's someone that stands out because of how different he is to your typical producer because as Phillip, editor of the article, puts it "the 68-year-old has made an entire career out of turning convention on its head". In an industry saturated with people try and wanting to do the same thing, unconventional ways are exactly what makes you better than the others; taking risks, being different, being original. This is something that I think stands true within my field of design specifically, but design on the whole also because as Herman Melville puts it 'its better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation'. (which has also just become my new favourite quote).

Having been a producer of music for many years now, he's grown to work in a particular way when it comes to producing the music itself, like most people do within their field of work. But this one stood out to me as being particularly effective in theory, I mean if it works for him it's definitely something I should consider. In reference to his studio habits when producing his music he said:

"As a maker, you tend to do too much, because you’re there with all the tools and you keep putting things in. As a listener, you’re happy with quite a lot less."

This is something that really resonated with me because this stands true with all art forms. We have it in our head that we need to keep bashing something and putting everything we can into a piece, but yet the moment we step back and put ourselves into an observer's shoes, we soon realise that at times we're just overcomplicating it. I'm sure we can all relate to this in some way, me especially because often there has been times when I've been told to revert to an old idea in a critique session for example because of having gone too far with the idea and overcomplicating matters for no necessary reason.

To link in with this idea of stepping back from a piece, Eno talked about sitting back and listening to a work in progress piece and observing it to listen to what works and what doesn't work within it. Although not given as direct advice, I definitely took it as that. One bad habit I have is trying to go from start to finish, from sketches to final product with a brief far too quickly. This means I can miss out on ideas or other perspectives to take with it all because I didn't allow time to sit back and observe or give it time and come back at a later date to see what about it works and what doesn't.

All in all, a very interesting article with the man himself giving out advice I'm sure we could all do with from time to time.
Link to article: http://pitchfork.com/features/interview/10023-a-conversation-with-brian-eno-about-ambient-music/?mbid=social_facebook