PDP Interview - Steve Little, Design Manager, PokerStars.

Where and what did you study? - Somerset College of Arts and Technology in Taunton, affiliated to Plymouth University. I did a two year HND in graphic design, with a one year BA topup in packaging design.

Why did you go freelance, and what are the pros and cons of freelance work?  - The main advantage was the higher rates of pay, including overtime payments. The general consensus in the design and marketing industry is that there's twenty other people ready to bite your hand off for your job, therefore you should be willing to work every hour God sends, but we're only going to pay you a basic salary. Unless you're a freelancer, where you'd get paid by the hour. You also get a broad spectrum of experience if you move from one place to another and you get different varieties of work for your portfolio. Whereas in my current job it's all for one client, it's all the same. That's what you call client - side. The main disadvantages are, if you take days off, or go on holiday, you don't get paid. If you don't have a family to support, though, it's probably going to be a lot better because of the amount of money you can make.

How did you get back into permanent employment? - I did three years contracting, or freelancing, I wasn't really looking for permanent work, but then this company I'd freelanced for (PokerStars) came up with a good offer. It meant that I'd be able to afford for Michelle (his wife) not to go back to work. And this company have a lot of perks, they have a pension scheme, and a bonus scheme, which is pretty rare. So I'd be able to go on holiday and still get paid, spend more time with the family. And be working in London. It's not glamourous work, necessarily, but they're a good employer, and the business seems to be recession proof.

 So when were you working for Honda? - That was in an agency called Collective London, in 2005 and 2010. In 2005 a bunch of guys who worked for AKQA, one of the biggest digital marketing agencies in London, decided to split off and set up their own company. They pitched for Honda UK's redesign and won so they had to expand very fast. It was very exciting, new company, a bit disorganised, no one knew quite what they were doing. Honda's a great client to work for.

So what is your role? - I'm a design manager. I've got a team of seven or eight designers, depending in if we've got any freelancers or not, and basically I'm in charge of online graphics, which is all the promotions they run on the websites. There's a digital animation guy who deals with the TV stings that you see before and after programmes. There's a print department as well, and there's live events, who deal with all the liveries and brandings at the live events, poker tours and the like. There's a web department as well. But the bit I'm in charge of is promotions, which is trying to get the players to deposit a certain amount of money.

How do you approach a brief? - We get a studio briefing and have to come up with the first concept and then run it by the main stakeholders, all the different internal departments within the company, then get it signed off by our creative director. We don't really get much time to do creative concepts, unfortunately, there's only a few briefs where we get time to think it through properly, rather than just get it done because it needs to be done. Time is a pretty key factor in what we do, which I think is pretty much the same through out a lot of marketing and communications agencies these days. They think that because everything's digital that everything's instant. The fact of the matter is that if you want a good idea you have to spend he time thinking about it. But yeah, it all comes down to time at the end of the day.

Any advice for aspiring designers? - I wouldn't specialise too much. It's good to have a good knowledge of print and how print works, how a website's put together, current technologies. software skills are always useful, but you don't have to know every bit of software inside out to be a good designer. Keep up your craft skills up, your drawing skills. Things like life drawing. Yeah, so, probably don't specialise too much is probably the best bit of advice.

How would you describe your style? - Less is more. People tend to think that the more stuff in there, the better. Certainly the clients think that, they think you have to have every single piece of information in there. For instance if you do an email marketing campaign it has to be a really simple message, not pages and pages of text, cos no - one's going to read it. I think less is more is the biggest thing.

If you were starting again, what would you do differently? - I've always enjoyed motion graphics, but I never really got into it because I trained as a traditional designer, before the internet. I'd try that route if I started again.

How important is typography to you? - It's 60 or 70 per cent of what I do, or what my department does. Because there's so much information we have to try and get in, but there's only a certain number of pixels on the screen to fit them into.

Lastly, how much of your work comes out of a snap decision, and you subsequently have to invent a scientific basis for it, and make it not magic? - Ah, post-rationalising. Probably not that often, not in the type of work I'm doing at the moment. But in the past, maybe 20 - 30 percent of the time. I've come up with a good idea, I've only spent half an hour, two hours thinking about it, why am I going to go round the houses for another day to come up with other ideas when I think this one's a good idea. After a while you'll have a set number of rationales you can use time and time again, you can use that one for that one and this one for this one.

Thanks very much, Steve.

PDP - The Field Guide to Typography

I hate typography.

Well maybe not hate. I don't feel deeply enough about it to hate it. But I don't really see it, like posh people don't see their servants. It's just there, doing its job.

However, I accept that I have to develop a working knowledge of typography. So I've read lots of books on the subject. Or tried to at least. Definately looked at them for long enough. And I've learned some stuff about the mechanics of it, mostly from this book, which was recommended by Peter Holden at his lecture.

But on actual fonts, I was totally in the dark. How on earth do I decide what is 'good', and what is 'bad'? How, even, do I tell them apart? If only I could recognise them in their natural environment rather than just on an indesign document, and build up a collection of mental images that correlate with the name on the font list. After all, you can't recognise birds just from pictures in a bird book, you have to equate those images to the real thing.

Then I read this.

It's deliberately styled like a bird identification book, even down to the binoculars on the cover.
Inside there are articles on 125 frequently encountered fonts, containing brief histories of the fonts and their creators, identifying features, and pictures of the fonts in the wild.

 In some cases there are comparison charts explaining the difference between similar or rival fonts, like this one for Arial vs. Helvetica.

It was news to me that Arial was, supposedly, adopted by Microsoft as an 'alternative to Helvetica' because they didn't want to pay the licence fee to Lynotype. This, apparently, really annoys typographers, who all seem to idolise Helvetica for reasons that are lost to me. I rather like Arial, even more now I know it's not the done thing to like it.

But I still can't explain, typographically, why I like it.

PDP - Hopes, Fears and Opportunities

I fear that I’ll be found out. And I hope I won’t be.

What am I? A graphic designer.

"And what’s that, then?"

Ermm….

"Hah! You’re nothing but a charlatan!"

‘Graphic design is the art of communication, stylizing, and problem-solving through the use of type, space and image’ according to Wikipedia. But is it a science, or an art?

I read somewhere, I can’t remember where, that ‘Magicians’, who come up with a product or solution out of their own imaginations, are paid less than ‘Scientists’, who use, or claim to use, a rational path towards their final decision. The reason being that people think of the magician, ‘Oh, anyone could do that’, whereas the scientist has a huge arsenal of confusing facts and figures to convince the public that what he does is far too hard for them to comprehend.

So, which one are we?

Paula Scher wrote – again, I can’t remember where – that she often comes up with THE idea for a brief in a flash of inspiration, then spends ages thinking up two or three less good options. Because if she gives the first, best solution to the client TOO soon, they’ll think “Huh! Didn’t take long. So it can’t be worth much”. The multiple options, and the time taken, prove that work, long, scientific, expensive work has gone into the product. So they think she’s a scientist, not a magician. But in these cases she IS a magician.

With me, it’s almost always an idea from the blue. I’m not even sure what the scientific approach is, apart from looking at what others have done first. So that makes me a magician. And as I’m not so hot on justifying my decisions – with secondary research, for example - one day someone might call my bluff.

Opportunities – well, after my conversation with Patrick Harvey at Love studios I’m slightly more inclined to believe that I might get a proper job in some shape or form. I’m certain it won’t be a conventional graphic designer’s career path – see reasons above, amongst others – but I reckon now there’s a niche somewhere. Perhaps in branding or marketing. And one of the studios we visited got quite agitated when I asked what was their policy on working for an evil client. Obviously touched a nerve there. Now I’m quite relaxed about going over to the dark side, and prepared to be up front about it. If you’re going to be a villain, at least be a full – on, moustache – twirling villain.

And then, as ever, there’s the craft option. I’ve made a pretty good portfolio at my first attempt. Can you buy such things from a British manufacturer? Not to my knowledge. You have to send off to foreign lands and pay a hefty premium for the privilege. So I’m giving serious consideration to taking portfolio construction forward, at least as a sideline. The £44 I spent at Ratchfords bought me enough material to make at least four similar items, so the profit margin is there – just a matter of streamlining the process. Will I need a bigger portfolio to present all my portfolios in?

PDP - Studio visits.

   We had an interesting day trawling around four of Manchester's graphic design studios. The plan is, one day we'll all be queuing up at their doors clutching our portfolios, earnestly seeking employment.
   Trouble is, I've never had any faith in the prospect of getting a 'proper' job. All other things being equal, the rampant  - and illegal - ageism in this country tell me that no-one is going to look past my advanced years - 55 by the time I graduate. But the experience of the day slightly altered my opinion.
   Patrick Harvey, a 'senior creative' at Love studios, talked at length about the portfolios, letters, emails etc. received from the likes of us. And the common denominator is? They are all EXACTLY THE SAME. Everyone says they 'make a great brew', in a hideously self-effacing way. It would appear that all graphic design students are stamped from the same mould.
   Except me, that is. I can do different. While my nuts-and-bolts skills aren't that hot, I can do the 'blue sky thinking' standing on my head. Hell, why only blue? Red sky thinking!
   Another eye opener was at Holden and Sons.They were the only ones who let us wander around the studio - though they didn't actually have much choice, it was so small - and I gravitated to Megan, their Social Media and Account manager.
   Megan was manipulating Twitter to boost the profile of one of their clients. Now I got a taste for social media campaigning with the Zines of Wonder exhibition. Plus, I've always wanted to be a cunning master of puppets, making the public dance as I pull the strings.
   So I can see myself getting work pushing a brand, raising it's profile - like Love did with Johnny Walker whisky - by manipulating public opinion.
   Someone else can do the actual graphic designing.
  

PDP - Bookbinding

We have to present a portfolio of our best work to date.
Portfolios are stupidly expensive. Sixty quid for a cardboard box? Ninety for four bits of wood, two bits of leather and a few screw posts? No way.
In my view, the portfolio case, or whatever you decide on, should be part of the portfolio itself. otherwise its just a demonstration of who's got the most money. So I decided to make my own.
The wood/aluminium variety looks the easiest to make, but I couldn't source suitably nice materials in the time I left available. The hinges are particularly elusive, though annoyingly easy to get in the States.
 
The next best option seemed to be a bookboard/bookcloth type. We're fortunate to have Ratchfords on our doorstep, so for forty quid I got enough fabric and board to make quite a few mistakes with.
 I got this book out of the library. It didn't have exactly what I was looking for, but some patterns came close, and it's full of techniques and ideas.

I looked online for something nearer to my vision, and I found this:



First of all, experiment. I built a small prototype, to practice gluing technique and to see if the hinge folded out flat.

No, it didn't. I think the lining paper is too tight, as it folded nicely before I covered it. Gluing is also trickier than I thought, at least on this type of fabric; one rogue drop would ruin the look of the whole thing. And there were a lot of rogue drops. I'd have to be much more careful next time. Maybe wipe - clean buckram would be a better choice of fabric.

These are the panels, inside and out. Note the reinforced hinge strip bottom left. Now to glue the lining papers.

And it works!

I've spent a huge amount of time this holiday researching, planning and building this. You could argue that my time would have been better spent elsewhere. But I reckon I'm playing to my strengths here. I'll never be more than adequate at the Adobe stuff. So I'll go with what I CAN do well.

PDP - Deborah Wrigglesworth

   Deborah Wrigglesworth has spent a lifetime dealing with paper. She's obviously very enthusiastic about her work, and came prepared to instil us with the same degree of enthusiasm. Mind you, the prospect of free samples did a lot to guarantee a good turnout.
   We all got a thick pack of samples, and Debo talked us through them, one at a time. It's much easier to get a feel for paper weight when you're holding, say, a 100 gsm sheet in one hand and a 175 gsm sheet in the other. And good paper is lovely to hold. It's obviously addictive.

   Interesting to hear about the papermaking process, too. Sounds dull if you read about it, but Deborah had the enthusiasm to make the subject come alive. I'm keen to visit a paper mill to check it out for myself. Maybe a college trip next year? Deborah works for D S Smith, and they sound like good people, but both their mills are down south, way too far away.
   This lecture was extremely useful to me, given my attraction to the printmaking field. I've been unhappy with the way my linocuts come out - but where lies the problem? Could be the roller - so I've bought a decent one. Or is it the paper? I've always taken it off the shelf in the print room, and have no idea whether it's suitable or not. So I looked up suitably types, and went looking - but no joy, not in Manchester. Eventually I had to make a special trip to Intaglio Printmakers - lovely shop - in Southwark, to load up on samples. If it still isn't right, then it's my printing technique, or the ink.

 

   

 I was bitten by the paper bug on Tuesday. When I'm making my portfolio over Easter, I'll also be making a giant version to keep my paper stock in, where the cat can't sit on it.

   Oh yeah, sorry for calling her Helen.

Bullshitter of the Year 2013 (runner-up)

  The Fairway, Higher Hillgate - formerly the Flying Dutchman - is, according to the sign outside, "Pub of the Year 2013". Pretty good, huh?

 

 And then you see what's written below, in much smaller letters:

 

First class bullshit!