CONSTR
UCTION
EDITOR’S LETTER SEVN is a student publication that aims to showcase and celebrate the MMU Graphic Design course, whether that comes in the form of responses to the latest briefs, competition success, or accounts of experiences and events. We wanted to build an outlet that we could dedicate entirely to our practice, yet that would be engaging and accessible to others outside of the course. Each issue is compiled by seven contributors, and as the pioneering seven, we were responsible for creating a blueprint for future editions. This notion, along with the unavoidable and persistent presence of the construction site located directly outside the third year studio, inspired the premier issue’s ‘construction’ theme. We viewed the process of assembling the publication as similar to the process of assembling a building. Much like architects, we had to consider which elements were best to use and in what format so that the structure would stand secure. Throughout the publication development, the construction process became our design philosophy. We hope that the first issue of SEVN highlights our individual and collective design talents, and generates excitement and anticipation for issue number two!
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CONTENTS
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CONTRIBUTORS
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Our creative responses to the theme Construction RESPONSE
Who are the makers of this months SEVN?
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SHOOT Focusing on the construction site for the new Art and Design building
LIVE International and national competitions coming up to keep everyone busy
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CURRENT Taking a look at MMUs third year’s work for project BANG!
03 ASK Chat with Designers Republic founder Ian Anderson
EVENTS What have the third year’s been up to? and what is happening in and around Manchester right now?
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Jonathan Buschenfeld
Zac Crompton Emma Dalquist
Laura Jackson Emma Lacey Laura Stanworth Nick Yates
CONTRIBUTORS
THE
CONSPIRATORS*
From naive first years to beautiful, design savvy third years.
The 7 designers responsible for what you see before you answer a couple of questions about themselves.
Why ?
If by ‘Why?’ you mean ‘What’s your favourite cereal?’, then Weetos.
THEN
What’s your favourite pen?
NOW
I don’t have a favourite pen. I believe that all pens are equal; whether they’re black, white, brown or even red. I do however enjoy felt tips because they remind me of a simpler time.
Jonathan Buschenfeld
What’s your favourite pen? A lovely, beautiful, special one that helps me work.
Why ?
Cos I like to work.
Zac Crompton
What’s your favourite pen?
I don’t really have a favourite pen but my pencil case is full of the pencils that you can get for free in IKEA.
Why ? Because they’re free and I’m not a millionaire.
Emma Dahlquist
What’s your favourite pen?
Uni Pin Fine Line. Nib size 0.1. Water and fade proof. Pigment ink.
Why?
Because it’s the only pen I have that does not have a sphere for a point.
Laura Jackson
Why ? To get to the other side.
What’s your favourite pen?
My favourite TYPE of pen would have to be the reliable black BIC biro; it may not be specialist and its life expectancy may be short, but the fact that it comes in a pack of twelve supersedes these issues. In this case quantity outweighs quality. As for my favourite pen, it is a BIC number 11.
Emma Lacey
Why ? Why not?
What’s your favourite pen ?
At the moment I’d say it has got to be my recent souvenir bought in Paris, a pen shaped like a baguette! And they say designers should avoid cliches...
Laura Stanworth
What’s your favourite pen? Pilot BP-S Fine
Why ?
Nick Yates
I find that a standard Bic biro will only do when no other pen is available. The point is far too large and it makes my hand writing look like a 5 year olds. The Pilot BP-S Fine however, is a far superior biro in many ways. It’s thinner nib leads to smarter hand writing and the almost scratchy nature of putting this pen to paper is quite satisfying. The aesthetic design of the Pilot BP-S Fine is also, frankly stunning. The Pilot BP-S Fine is the Rolls Royce to the Bic Biro’s slightly cheaper, slightly not as good to look at and slightly less easy to write with car.
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RESPONSE
CONSTRUCTING
CONSTRUCTION
In a Snap / Laura Stanworth In model kits, pieces come in a grid-like sheet of snap off plastic parts, to be deconstructed, before being put back together again. In my response, the letters are the parts, which come together to make up the word construction, but could then equally be snapped off to construct new words and forms.
Simple / Zac Crompton
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Mechanical Thinking / Emma Dahlquist A reflection of just how powerful machines have become in our modern life.
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Oh, Dad / Nick Yates Yes, there is a rich history of construction in my family. No, my Dad isn’t in the Village People. I wish.
Bert’s Loft / Laura Jackson The Pigeon Palace – a first class stay for the pigeons of today.
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Esperanto / Emma Lacey Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language; it is completely artificial as well as tragically beautiful.
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Lego Brick Horn / Jonathan Buschenfeld Tom wondered if building on top of an ancient Indian burial ground was the main cause for these ‘unforeseeable circumstances’.
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CURRENT
BANG!
SEVN takes a look at the third year’s recent project ‘Bang!’ and at some of the work that was created. Whilst we all started at the same nucleus, ideas radiated outwards fffrom the word ‘Bang’, into the unknown. From recognizable themes fsuch as a gun, or war, to responses no one could have predicted, Sevn showcase a diverse range of some of the most impactful outcomes...
Rebecca Guyatt
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Sam Hall
Leona Bell
Emma Dalquist
16:14> SWIMsuitMODEL69 Says:
Katie Hilton
Hey there, im Sophia. 16, 175cm tall, size XS & blonde. Are you naughty? wanna c6?
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Zac Crompton
Jan Agulto
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Jonathan Buschenfeld
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Emma Lacey
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Laura Jackson
Jade Stones
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PHOTOGRAPHY
Rowan Purvis
Clare Merrick
Lisa Barlow
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TYPOGRAPHY The ‘Bang!’ project lead to several students developing their own typeface as an answer to the brief. The typefaces influenced by ‘Bang!’ are shown here. Due to the number of new typefaces being created for project 3.1, a new blog dedicated to 3rd year type is now in production. Hopefully this will lead to more typefaces being developed in future briefs. Although all the typefaces created have all stemmed from the same ‘Bang!’ starting point, each has been inspired by something completely different. From Laura Stanworth’s typeface designed to promote awareness of the condition: Fragile X, to Lottie Wakefield’s destruction of Helvetica. There’s a typeface that’s been created solely from the insides of a chicken kitchen timer and one that takes the idea of the word ‘Bang’ as a type of hairstyle instead of an explosion.
Laura S ta
nworth
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- Fragile
Ha n
h na
nt on
or Th
e Jo
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as
on
Co
C ion llis
e ours
27 -F rin ge
e
Angst
Nick Yat
s-
!
ch
ey
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a
l nd
kH
c Ni
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it Gl
Cha
rlot
te W ake
field
- He
ll-ve
tica
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SHOOT
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Up and Down
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Work in Progress
After Hours
Early Rise
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ASK
IAN N O S R E D AN
s some blic’ offer u p e R ’s cts. r e lved proje e Design o h v ‘T f in o t r n e e d his stud The foun sight into in d n a e advic
Was there a specific reason why you took an interest in the hoardings project? I enjoy what I do here; I have a connection with The School of Art in general. I took it on, on the condition that rather than it be a piece of branding work, it would be a project that would involve the students in some way. Also, I’ve known David Crow for twenty years, and wanted the opportunity to see him on a day-to-day basis. The original idea was to involve students in the design process; I thought this outcome would connect more with a specific audience, the existing students, prospective students and their parents. The hoardings would allow them to see what kind of environment they could be studying in for the next three years, what experiences they could have, what kind of people they would be mixing with, and who their peers would be. It’s not about the building, the building is secondary. It’s about the group of people you’re with, and about involving and ingraining them into the building process.
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Now is a more exciting time than the time when the building will be finished, there is no downside, just optimism, and I wanted that to be reflected in the Hoardings.
Are you pleased with the degree show branding as well? The two weren’t originally meant to be linked were they?
What were you expecting to receive back? Did it meet or even exceed your expectations?
No they weren’t meant to be linked, I mean what David wanted out of the Hoardings project was something that would have a life beyond university branding gobbledygook, something we could do something else with. Subsequent to the Hoardings Project, there was a conversation about how we could tie things in with the degree show. We thought that using the original Hoardings images for this too, was a way of involving everyone; it stayed true to the university, and ensured that the Hoardings project did have an extension beyond the original intentions.
The parameters of the brief were designed in such a way that any response was a valid response. I controlled the framework of the data. What each individual student did was less important than the overall thing. When you walk around, you think of it like a terracotta army, or guardians, or Gormley’s figures, it’s repeated imagery. I wanted it to be so that even if there weren’t responses that were as good as I hoped, you’d get lost in the good ones or it wouldn’t really matter. Some people didn’t do anything, and whether they couldn’t be arsed or whether they were presenting themselves as ‘this is me’, it didn’t really matter.
I’ve been doing workshops and talks for nearly 20 years, it starts with people in Hitch’s position or equivalent, who are looking for speakers from outside, or, quite a lot of places ask students who they want to hear talk, and I guess at that time The Designer’s Republic was the flavour of the month, year, decade, whatever, so I was asked to do a lot of talks. I enjoy doing the workshops, because for me, I find that it feeds back well into what I do. It’s a way to give something back, it sounds corny, but that’s what it is. I started doing workshops all around the world, but what I found frustrating was that you couldn’t develop an idea over various workshops; you go there for two days, and you interact with the students, but then you go. Then Hitch asked me to be external examiner at LJMU. I didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do as external examiner, but I got quite involved with the students. Rather than
coming in and approaching it as an external examiner would, saying ‘oh yeah that’s great’ and leaving, I sat down for a 10 minute session with each student, but ended up being there till 10 at night. I thought then that if I had two visits each year, and had some contact with the students, that they could ask me for any information they needed. So that’s how I got more and more involved. And then when Hitch moved here, to MMU, it just seemed like a better fit. Hitch is brilliant, and without him in Liverpool, it kind of fell apart, so I came here. The other thing that’s true, is that, when you have kids during this process, that whole sort of thing of giving back changes, I don’t think ‘Oh you could be my boy, or you could be my girl’ but you don’t just see students or young people. I hope that when my kids grow up there is someone who gives a toss about them. It’s a bit sappy but there is that, it’s a big thing, it’s an important part for me.
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I always say the biggest gift I can give to anyone, is the question
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In relation to universities, what made you decide to start your workshops at Manchester School of Art?
WHY?
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“
“
nobody employs your portfolio, they employ
you.
How does teaching compare with designing? Is there anything you’ve learnt since you’ve started working with students that stands out in comparison to what you might have learnt in the design world? The main thing I’ve learnt is ‘don’t take things for granted’. When I started doing workshops I couldn’t get my head around the fact that these students couldn’t comprehend some of the most basic things, which to me were self-evident truths. But then I sat back and started to realise, well it cant be that every single student over the last 10 years I’ve met is stupid, it must be that I know these things that they don’t because I’ve learnt them through experience. You don’t realise how much you’ve actually learnt without realising you’re learning it through experience. It makes me think twice, I’ve learnt that sometimes you have to explain the obvious, not because people don’t get it, but because they’re not inside your head already. You have to explain the starting point. I’m used to being in an office with the people that work for me and I can’t explain every thing from the starting point, so the ones who are successful and stay, are the ones who get it, the ones who are on my wavelength. Is there a piece of advice you would give to the third years as they’re finishing education? This is equally as cheesy as the question but I always say the biggest gift I can give to
anyone, is the question ‘why?’. The one thing that students don’t do when pitching, is to be really clear. Ask yourself ‘why are you doing it?’, ‘why are they asking you, what do they see in you?’ and ‘why do they want the work doing?’. I think you need to be really clear about what you want to do, it might be that you don’t get your ideal job first, but if you know what you want to achieve then that’s alright, it’s a stepping stone in the right direction. Unless you’re really sure of yourself, don’t go for your ideal job first, because if you go there and you mess up, everything is downhill from there. So let’s say you want to work at a particular agency that specialises in something, but you know you’re not quite there, maybe if that’s your aim, go somewhere first that might be able to teach you more. The other piece of advice is you need to get your portfolio perfect, and your presentation skills need to be perfect, because nobody employs your portfolio, they employ you. Quite often, I look at someone’s work and think ‘oh that’s good’ and actually if you’re employing somebody, it’s who do you want in the office with you? Nobody wants to employ some cocky git, I want to be the cocky git in the office, I don’t want competition there. That’s the main thing, just be clear about what you want. All through your life, as far back as you can remember, it’s been about you. Education, whatever you think, is about you, university is about teaching you, and then suddenly you leave here and it’s not about you anymore, it’s about what you can do for other people. In the nicest possible way, they’re only going to use you if they need you.
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LIVE
After receiving a commendation for her Ted Baker work, 3rd year Katie Hilton tells us about her trip to the
Y.C.N. AWARDS L
Shoreditch Town Hall
AST YEAR we were given a selection of competition briefs to work on as part of our unit. I chose to develop the Ted Baker for YCN. We had to create an integrated campaign that articulates the Ted brand in a chosen category, specifically focusing on the irreverent British humour of the brand and untilizing non traditional media. I chose eyewear, and went with the theme of flying glasses. I was inspired by the surreal nature of British comedy (such as Monty Python) and decided to almost personify the glasses, and show them, (and the Ted brand), as being completely different and unusual. I wanted to physically show these glasses flying, in a promotion that could be handed to people and physically experienced. Through researching Victorian circus’ and sideshows, I developed this Graphic style and had the idea of creating some Victorian animation devices such as the Thaumatrope and Phenakistoscope. I then continued to extend this theme into the surrounding POS and packaging. After submitting my work to the YCN competition, I later found out it had been commended out of 170 entries! I was invited to the annual student awards ceremony held at Shoreditch Town Hall in London. It was a really nice evening of celebration and presentations from some of the designers and illustrators that work with YCN. As well as it just being an enjoyable night and having my project recognized, it was a opportunity to network with some people from the industry, something I’ve not previously had the opportunity to do. I met the Senior Designer, Creative Director and Brand Communication Director from Ted Baker and spoke to them about the awards, the process in picking the commended five and what they are working on at the moment. From talking to them I now have the possibility of a placement with them sometime in the future!
L
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The Brief: Design a poster for the D&AD North Lecture Series, titled ‘GBH is 12’. The Winner: one of our very own 3rd years... For his winning poster entry, (below right), Nick Yates concentrated on one part of the brief which stood out to himthat GBH would be giving away design artifacts in a Q&A raffle.
D&AD NORTH
POSTER BRIEF
Out of 170 entries from North West universities, he was one of 3 shortlisted, and went along to the lecture where his poster managed to win 1st place! Below are some of our other entries.
Laura Stanworth
Jan Agulto
WINNER!
Nick Yates
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COMPETITION BRIEFS
Harvard University Press Classical Library of India
Your list of competitions to enter over the next few months starts here...
Design the book covers for the series ‘The Murty Classical Library of India’ that will bring the classical literature of India to a global audience. Designs should include logo, logotype, and jacket design, to be applicable to numerous titles in the series. Deadline: 1st Dec 2011 Prize: $10,000 and credit on all books in the series.
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Colour Group Logo Design
Entyce Creative Starlight Walk Logo
Colour Group draws together those from both science and art concerned with different aspects of colour. We would like you to design us a new image based logo, with a contemporary feel that speaks of colour to both scientists and artists alike.
Entyce Creative is once again looking for the North West’s finest creative talent, this year teaming up with the charity, the Hospice of the Good Shepherd. There are five categories you can enter, including a logo design for the Hospice’s annual Starlight Walk.
Deadline: 20th Jan 2012 Prize: Cash prize of £500 and work exhibited
Deadline: 24th Feb 2012 Prize: Placement at Entyce and work published
RSA Student Awards Postage Stamps
RSA Student Awards The Good Journey
Penguin Design Awards Penguin Adult Prize
Brief 1: Social Mail Encourage the art of letter writing through a set of stamps that entice the sender to post a letter. Brief 2: World with a Future Design a set of stamps to encourage consumers to make positive environmental changes.
Identify a daily journey – either your own or someone else’s – and improve it in a way that improves it for many people. Regular short journeys are, for most people, a mental and physical burden, what more can be done to make it a highpoint of the day?
Penguin invite students to design a new book cover design for Ken Kesey’s ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, for a new generation of readers, avoiding the obvious clichés and steering clear of the film promotional graphics. Originality is key.
Deadline: 16th Mar 2012 Prize: Cash prize/ Internship at Lewis Moberly/Pentagram
Deadline: 16th Mar 2012 Prize: Internship at DragonRouge, London
Deadline: 19th Apr 2012 Prize: Cash prize of £1000 and internship at Penguin
EVENTS
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Early in October, three students, and two tutors upped sticks and hopped on a plane to Barcelona to spend two days listening to the wise words of various renowned designers.
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HOW?
WHAT?
WHY?
AGI Open
October 2011
Barcelona Zoey Brown and Lottie Wakefield give us an insight into the
AGI Open conference.
The event; AGI (pronounced ‘aaghie’) was housed in the fairly spectacular ‘Coliseum Theatre’, slap bang in the centre of the city. Over two days, twenty-five designers gave presentations based around the given theme ‘What, How, Why’ whilst giving the audience a snapshot of their current work. By the end of day one, certain themes were beginning to emerge, such as ‘responsible design’, ‘mapping’ and the slightly contradictory advice to “just design what you want”. Highlights from the first day included Christoph Niemann, Chip Kidd, Joost Grootens and Isidro Ferrer. Niemann kicked off the first day of lectures with a really witty, brilliantly executed presentation. He set the standard for the day and there was a real buzz about the crowd when he concluded. Chip Kidd showed us the value of good presentation skills as his ease on stage and ability to entertain the audience came across stronger than the work he’d decided to show us. As an architect by trade, Joost Grootens’ lecture was particularly refreshing. Although he approached design from a different angle, his beautifully produced
books proved he could more than stand his ground as a talented designer. The only lecture of the conference to be given in Spanish was by Isidro Ferrer. He showed animations of his work whilst narrating them. He was a good all rounder and his presentation left a lasting impression on all of us. Day two had a lot to live up to after the slightly overwhelming start to the conference. With expectations raised we returned to the ‘Coliseum’ for the 2nd installment. Stefan Sagmeister started off the day’s lectures with some great examples of his work. He’s clearly a seasoned professional when it comes to giving presentations and his relaxed demeanor on stage left the crowd a little bit star struck. He stuck to the brief, yet tailored it to talk about the work he wanted to. His latest project, ‘The Happy Film’, left the audience in a stunned silence.
who we thought would be impossible to follow. However, Mariscal came on stage singing and dancing, with some brilliant animations and illustrations playing on the projector behind him. It was a perfect, lighthearted way to end the conference, and we left the Coliseum, blinking in the sunlight, heads very full of ideas. The conference had a really good mix of designers, illustrators, animators and typographers and we would urge anyone who gets the chance to go, to take it. (Hong Kong next year, and the slightly more financially viable London in 2013).
More AGI p
hotos over
the page
Midway through the day Marina Willer showed us some extremely inspiring, colourful work for big names ranging form the Tate to Amnesty International. The only downside to the lecture was that she ran over by about twenty minutes, making her presentation twice as long as everyone else’s, and pushing back the next speakers. The conference was brought to a close by Javier Mariscal. Preceding him had been a fantastic presentation from Michael Bierut,
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His latest project, ‘The Happy Film’, left the audience in a stunned silence. 77
We left the Coliseum, blinking in the sunlight, with heads very full of ideas. 77
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29.09 – 02.02 Lost In Youth - An Exhibition by Kristian Jones 18.00 - 21.00 Common Bar
Common hosts Kristian’s first ever solo show combining fine art works and street art paste ups, exploring childhood fears and emotions saddled by a world of fast food and materialism. Limited prints, totes and t-shirts for sale throughout the exhibition.
01.10 – 18.12 Cornerhouse, with Asia Triennial Manchester 11, is pleased to present the first major UK public solo show from Rashid Rana, widely considered to be the most prominent and original contemporary artist working in South Asia today.
Rashid Rana: Everything Is Happening At Once Mon - Closed Tue - Sat 12.00 - 20.00 Sun - 12.00 - 18.00 Cornerhouse
12.11 – 13.11 Photography Workshop Multiplicity & Meaning 11.00 - 18.00 Cornerhouse A key approach in Rashid Rana’s ongoing body of work is the challenge of photographic form and the concept of two-dimentionality; ranging from dilapidated dwellings to graduations of skin and waste. In this two-day intensive workshop, award-winning photojournalist Mimi Mollica will encourage participants to develop their own eye for the urban locale. The second day will involve the use of post-production methods in our Mac studio suite under expert assistance to experiment with multiplicity and meaning.
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01.11 – 22.11 Paul Digby Cornerhouse Cafe/Bar
Leeds based artist and lecturer, Paul Digsby will exhibit a number of paintings from recent bodies of work. Drawing on interests ranging from comic images and computer games, he injects his work with a sense of stillness and timeliness, otherworldly and enigmatic. His formal concerns are inscribed with human emotions of love and loss.
24.11 – 18.12 Suite Studios Cafe open hours Cornerhouse Cafe/Bar
Cornerhouse Projects presents a specially curated selection of artwork from Suite Studios, Salford. Participating artists are: Andrew Bracey, Jonathan Carson and Rosie Miller, Julie Cassels, Fiona Donald, Lesley Halliwell, Tim Machin and Susie MacMurray.
NOVEMBER DECEMBER
11.11 12.11
AVC 09:30 - 13:00 Common Bar
Life drawing dot-art at the Bluecoat
Respected bassist Andy Champion launched his superb quintet ACV in 2009 to play compositions reflecting his wide musical interests - drawing on influences as diverse as Prog Rock and Free Improvisations, but with Jazz always at heart. In the time that the band has been in existence, they have already performed at venues and festivals acros the UK to great response and have been featured on BBC’s Jazz On 3 show and UK Jazz Radio.
Saturdays Friends In Common 21:00 - 02:00 Common Bar
Common invites their favourite friends to play their favourite records. Expect to hear music you never knew you liked. Pop music played with sense and sensibility, country and soul, and maybe something will make you dance.
24.11 Art Night 18:00 Onwards Cornerhouse
A social shinding for anyone who loves art, likes art, hates art or makes art! Art night is an informal opportunity for debate around the value of creative practice in our increasingly cash-strapped economy. We’ll also be launching our latest Cornerhouse Project which will feature a range of affordable prints and original artwork. Plus there’ll be a screening of the vintage Tony Hancock comedy The Rebel.
All day The Bluecoat (Liverpool)
Roy Munday leads a programme of Saturday daytime sessions with tuition, developing your skills in life drawing, including accurate measuring, colour and drawing and painting techniques.
16.11 D&AD North Lecture Conversations in Creativity with Gary Aspden 18:00 - 21:00 The Continental (Preston)
From Peter Saville to Kazuki Kuraishi via A Bathing Ape and Ian Brown, the results of his time at this legendary brand have been diverse to say the least. He’ll reveal how he spent the 80’s immersed in the northwest of England’s subcultures. Their legacy is still being felt today and has been evident in Gary’s work at adidas. The D&AD North Lecture is presented in association with Creative Lancashire’s ‘Conversations in Creativity’ Network.
24.11 – 04.12 Sketch-O-Matic Open daily (including evenings) Cornerhouse Cafe/Bar
Sketch-O-Matic is a full size photo booth situated in the café-bar, but where the machinery should be, is a tiny, fully equipped artist’s studio. You, the public, are invited to sit inside as if for a photograph and make a donation to the artist through a slot for a self- portrait. Wait five minutes and the image will appear. It may be a pencil drawing, doodle, cartoon, collage or even word-poem.
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