On Friday the 13th of October I went to a day-long conference in Manchester as part of Design Manchester. The conference featured internationally celebrated and influential speakers presenting and discussing their creative work spanning brand, architecture, film, typography and service design.
Naresh Ramchandani (Pentagram)
- Spoke about creating an LP as he wanted to do something different and music is powerful to tell a story.
- Make mistakes
- Be vulnerable
- Always try new stuff
- Be experimental
I didn't particularly enjoy this talk as he was just telling us about creating this LP which we didn't get to hear any of the songs. There was little to take away from this talk other than the encouragement to push yourself out of your comfort zone and do something different.
Jane Murison (Head of User Experience & Design at the BBC)
- Spoke about designing the right thing on the internet.
- Worried about the effects of using phone / laptop.
- The internet is driving us mad
- The internet / social media is distracting
- More decisions are being asked - choice making is harder.
- People aren't able to make informed choices
- Repetition of articles - propaganda - leading to fake news.
- Where is the design for - solace, critical thinking, forgiveness, informed choices etc.
- The BBC Reality Check - helps to filter fake news and how to recognise it.
I found this talk to be really engaging and interesting as it is something I have thought about. Jane raised many points that I think are important for a designer to be aware of and maybe how I could tackle this issue.
Louis Mikolay (North)
- Spoke about recent project on the Science Museum group branding.
- 15 people studio
- Works on brand identity
- Science museum got negative comments - normalising judgement.
- They wanted to create an identity that fits together fluidly across the museums, this way funding for the smaller museums is more likely.
- Strong consistency
- They did thorough research into successful / non successful museum branding.
- They wanted something that would reach / appeal to a diverse audience.
- They did site visits and visual audits
- The current branding had no consistency, different typefaces which meant that internationals struggled.
- 'Groupness' wasn't there
- Did lot's of meetings / interviews
- Criteria for success - Representative - Inspirational - A measure - Simple
- Emotional process
- Create for longevity
- Generally shorter name = greater potential for brand.
- Brand name and title can be used separately
- Evaluating the current identities - where can we improve?
- Consistent typographic voice
- SMG SANS - 6 weights - always takes up the same amount of space - rules of application.
- A system that can grow and evolve - way-finding with pictures (map).
I really enjoyed this talk, Louis took us through the whole thorough process of how they came to the final design for the branding. It was a very in depth process and we were shown lots of designs that didn't make the cut for the final outcome. It was sad that in a way he had to explain all of this so meticulously to the people that disliked the outcome, but it was a way to prove that this design was thought out and considered. I really want to look into this studio more as the work that is produced is really strong and successful.
Tash Wilcocks (Hyper Island)
- Spoke about what she was doing and encouraging you to do more.
- Do things that scare you
- Hyper Island - Manchester based
- This American Life - The Gap (radio podcast)
- She started mundane a day (drawing type) - 1 hour a day - active - gained client
Tash delivered a really interactive and engaging talk which unfortunately was very short in comparison to some of the others. She was very confident, bouncy and chatty and helped to encourage us to be more creatively active.
Lawrence Kitson (CoopDigital)
- Service design - provide mutual benefit - team.
Lawrence Kitson spoke about what service design is and how it can help people. The only downfall of this talk, and the reason I lost interest it because it wasn't engaging enough. He spoke a lot about the history of Manchester and took a very long winded approach to what service design was. For this reason I didn't engage properly with what he was saying and therefore didn't take much away from his talk.
Alex McDowell (RDI)
- Narrative designer and creative director working at the intersection of emergent technologies and experiential media.
- Spoke about Disruptive Narratives - world building for change @worldbldg
- Came up with the world in Minority Report 2002 - script came second.
- Seeing trends and imaging - building on what is there
- Design visualisation to test ideas
- Thinking about economic, political, cultural influences etc.
- Man of Steel 2012 - why the 's' on his chest - created a language
- Augmented Reality: CES 2014 - whale flew over crowd
- Emotional and haptic interventions: Sundance New Frontier 2016
Alex's talk was really amazing showing all the projects that he's working on and how he's trying to work with new technologies such as VR to create more dynamic experiences. I really like how creative his job is, visual storytelling has so much depth to it and you can be creative with no limits.
Emily Forgot
- 12 years as an Illustrator
- Time off from commercial endeavours
- Time off from environment
- Architecture influences
- Time off from your own proffession
- Time off from the internet
- Look into your past for inspiration
- Allow for brief distractions
- Muse and maker blog
Emily showed us lots of her work which I really liked as we could sort of gauge the type of things she designs. She was a very down to earth person with a likeable personality which made her presentation seem more genuine. She also emphasised taking time out and sourcing inspiration from your other interests.
Ellen Van Loon (OMA)
- Talked about the projects she has worked on.
- Architect
- Worked with very high profile clients
- Fashion collabs
It was really interesting to see Ellen's work and have a bit of an insight into the world of Architecture, she has worked with some really big clients and I particularly liked her runway designs.
Overall I really enjoyed the conference as I felt like I got a lot out of it and it was interesting to see how different creatives worked in a professional environment. The overall theme seemed to be to push your boundaries and do something different to get inspired.
