Studio Visits Notes

Nick Wills - Post 98 Studio

- Studios are looking for people who are keen, passionate but not arrogant
- We look for ability of course but a willingness to learn and work well in a team
- Listen and understand a brief properly
- Produce suitable ideas that are right for the client
- Understanding of structuring and understanding presentations
- Be able to take clients through concepts etc in a logical order

- Would have had me in for a week but the studio was all booked up, get back in touch when I graduate next year.

______________________________________________________________________________

Give Up Art - Stuart

- Role of an Art director
- Approach to design
- Discussed music - £20 and some free vinyls
- Amendments / dealing with clients
- Balance between commercial / creative
- 2 weeks unpaid then two weeks paid - get in touch over easter / christmas
- Studio - Just off brick lane
- Set up with his wife doing accounting
- Returning to the first idea, simple bold Helvetica / tempa stuff
- Redesigning Applepips

Felt really comfortable in the studio, would enjoy working with Stuart

________

Give Up art has been a studio I have admired for a long time, initially because of its links with the music industry, but also because of its bold use of colour and minimal design it has been a large influence on my own practice.

The studio consists of him and his wife who covers the accounting, and he shares the studio with other designers and illustrators from different backgrounds and practices. Before he started up GiveUpArt he was working on a magazine and only did the odd project for music producers and labels.

The first area of discussion was the role of an art director, something I knew little about but have always been intrigued to know more about. He explained the role he plays as an art director and how he draws together the links between different creatives to create projects for different clients. Explaining the importance of making strong connections with photographers and other creatives and the positive effect this will have to the process of art direction.

Next we discussed creative freedom within briefs and finding a balance between earning a living and creative satisfaction. The design he created for the early Tempa recordings and Skream album he said he was only paid around £20 and given some free vinyls, but created a piece of work that was substantially beneficial for the studios portfolio. This lead onto an extended conversation on music in general, always a good sign!

Finally we spoke about internships and coming into the studio, he said he would be happy to have me in and that I should email him with a more up to date portfolio closer to graduation or maybe over a break in my final year. It would consist of two weeks unpaid and paid from then on depending how the two weeks go. He also said it would be better to wait for a brief I could get  a bit more involved in.

______________________________________________________________________________

Bread Collective - Owen & Victoria

- All work as a freelance collective and divide out jobs to the most appropriate people
- Different backgrounds - fashion, illustration, branding,
- Brighton graduates
- Growing interest in hand rendered typography
- Doing projects that they want to
- Be proactive, network, network, network!
- Might be in touch before the end of summer for day / week project
- When you finish uni make the most of that network
- Positives and negatives of working with big clients, all depends on the client and the brand - in relation to what they allow you too do and where they give direction
- Found freelancing quite hard to keep on top of finance etc
- Nice studio based in East London - Hackney

Was interesting speaking to them both at once, nice to speak as a group, feel that I could work in a similar fashion when discussing work / projects

- Easy to bounce ideas off
- Always see the design opportunity in what you do
Owen worked at a clothing shop and ended up doing graphics for the shop occasionally and ended up being a full time designer for the shop.

________

Bread collective is built up of four different creatives working in two different studios in London. They all work freelance and different jobs are distributed amongst them based on their specific skill sets. They also work on projects with their local communities.

My first visit was to see Victoria & Owen in Hackney, to speak to them about what they do and how the studio operates.

As they are both relatively young I felt it was appropriate to speak to them about what they have done since leaving university and what advice they have to offer. The main pieces of advice that they gave me was be proactive, work hard and enjoy it. They also taught me the importance of taking advantage of non design opportunities, Owen worked at a clothing shop during his degree and through speaking to the right people ended up producing t shirt designs and eventually becoming a full time designer for the brand.

The work the studio produces ranges from big and small clients and I feel it would definitely be somewhere I would be very happy working. I found it easy speaking to them both and they said they would be very happy for me to come and get involved in a few projects before the end of summer and when I finish my degree.

______________________________________________________________________________

Mind Design - Romilly

- Designing backwards; decide what physical object or piece of design needs to be made and then design backwards rather than getting lost down different routes of research and development.
- Holger is quick to generate ideas
- Bikes are crucial
- Interning student from France - spoke to her while I was waiting
- Huge studio for 3 people - lots of beautiful books
- Romilly 'there always needs to be at least a bit of print in there'
- Romilly - Finished his degree, very concept driven did different internships, did 2 weeks at mind and Holger asked him back a few weeks / a month later

Felt quite pretentious, don't know how comfortable I would feel bouncing ideas off each of them in the studio.

Mind design is another studio that I have blogged about and appreciated. It is a very conceptually driven studio delivering designs that don't follow trends or styles which is one of the main points that made me want to visit.

Unfortunately I didn't get to speak to Holgar as he was late from a doctors appointment but I did get to speak to the intern working at the studio and Romilly, the other half of the mind design team.

We spoke about how the studio produces concepts and ideas, and he explained that Holgar often approaches the process backwards, deciding what needs to be designed i.e. packaging / print etc and then designs and produces concepts accordingly. This could be a good approach for my own work as I often get lost in the research and development stages of the process.

He also explained that Holgar was often quick to generate concepts and ideas once the brief has been delivered and they then work together to produce the finished piece of design.


Other key points that I picked up on from my time at the studio were -

- You need to ride a bike to work here!
- Its HUGE for only two people
-  Lots and lots of lovely books

______________________________________________________________________________

Qubik

Doesn't compromise his own work, shows a lot of integrity
Self taught with typography
Does lots of personal projects
Creates masses of ideas, shows a select few to clients
Big list of typefaces
Works from home
Potential placement a few days to a week
Would like to be in Joes situation after working in a small studio for a while

______________________________________________________________________________

Rapier - Dave Towers (Head of design)

- Met through speaking with Johnny Watters (thanks John)
- Works for a creative advertising agency
- Said its hard to get involved in the ideas process took him a long time and hard work
- Often at advertising agencies designers will be sat at a computer creating designs through scamps
-
- Building was huge felt very corporate
- Designed everything for the Circle magazine (gave me a free copy)
- Interesting chat about different typefaces (underground typeface, said he would be happy to give me a few quotes for my dissertation, going to email soon)
- Also about remme typeface - told me to look at the glyphs

Advice
- Spend as much time in the library / reading as possible
- Go out and meet as many people as you can
- Work your arse off this year
- www.dave-towers.com

Rapier is a creative advertising and branding agency located a few miniutes away from Waterloo station. Dave Towers is their head designer at Rapier who I was introduced to through Johnny Watter's (thank you John for the initial introduction).

The main questions I asked Dave were based around the role of a head designer and how designers integrate in a creative advertising agency. He told me it was hard work getting involved in the ideas process at an advertising agency and often designers were there simply to visualise the advertisers ideas through scamps etc.

He also talked me through his 'Dave on the Dole' project he did when finishing his degree to network and hopefully get a job. A lovely idea and something to consider when expanding my connections to the industry. He said a bit of print should never go a miss, as emails and phone calls can often lead to dead ends and show a lack of creativity.

We also had a general discussion on type and what I wanted to do when I finish my degree, as well as discussing the London Underground typeface - a massive help for my dissertation research and he said he would be happy to give me a few quotes.

Other bits of advice were - spend as much time in the library/ reading as possible, meet as many people as you can, work your arse off and always enjoy what you do!