The dust collective

/ Tuesday, 15 June, 2010 – 14:57

As part of the MA Design LAB course there is a unit called Professional Development Planning (PDP). The focus of the unit is for us to articulate a personal design identity and ‘locate it’ within the professional design world. One requirement of the PDP unit is that I had to make contact with, and spend time with a professional practitioner, finding out about their systems, processes, procedures and business interactions. One studio I was particularly keen to meet and learn more about is the dust collective.

The dust collective are a graphic arts and design studio based in Sheffield. In my opinion they are one of the best design practices / collectives in the land and beyond. Their studio set up is half software / computer based and half with a range of more traditional practice based equipment — including darkroom, screen print and letterpress. During my tenure on the MA Design LAB course, the use of traditional based disciplines have become important elements in my practice, in addition to the use of digital technology.

I do admire the thoughtful, intelligent and very well crafted work that dust produce. I was eager to find out how this ethos and methodology is implemented into a commercial design studio and a business. Areas of past work have included brand identity, online development, illustration, design for books, exhibition and print design. The practice of dust consists of 3 graphic designers / typographers — Patrick Walker, Alun Cocks and Pamela Bowman. After several email and telephone exchanges, Patrick, invited me over to their studio in Sheffield.

The interview I feel was a huge success in terms of me gaining an inside knowledge into the workings of a studio who I, as mentioned, greatly admire and produce work I aspire to. Patrick was very forthcoming with his answers. He too found my visit to be a useful exercise, in that the questions I asked and the answers he gave reaffirmed his own definitions of how he views his practice as a designer.

A huge thank you to Patrick and Alun for taking considerable time out of their busy schedules and making me feel very welcome.

www.du.st | http://tumblr.du.st

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design, Things I Like, Typography |

Things Happen (No. 1)

/ Friday, 21 May, 2010 – 16:19

As I’ve briefly mentioned in a previous post, Things Happen is a fanzine / magazine that we the Design LAB / Manchester Municipal Design Corporation have conceived and produced. Things Happen celebrates Manchester, focusing on what has happened in the city, what is happening in the city and what we think should be happening in the city. The original idea and concept was devised by my colleague Dan Russell. In addition to this, Dan sourced many writers to contribute to the content, obtained funding from award winning arts festival FutureEverything for its realisation, produced some of the layouts and designed a nice Situationists inspired accompanying poster, which was litho printed in house at MMU.

I focused on many aspects of the graphic design and art direction of Things Happen. My aim was to convey an experimental and ‘hand crafted D.I.Y.’ aesthetic to the magazine, which I think suits and augments the tone of the content. A condition I set myself was not to use any uniformity on design, for example — no grid systems, no style sheets and I did not limit the number of typefaces I could use. In fact, I ensured that every article was designed differently, some may object to these methods and label this as ‘anti design’, but I disagree. Elements of letterpress were used experimentally in the typography, keeping within the aforementioned ‘hand crafted D.I.Y.’ aesthetic.

The first issue of Things Happen is A5 in size, the accompanying poster is A3 in size and is folded so the magazine fits inside it. I created a limited ‘wrap around’ band for 100 copies (300 were printed in total), to keep both documents secure. The band also lists the contents of the magazine and could be also used as a bookmark (if you like).

Things Happen was printed with soya based inks, using the Risograph process (1 colour) by MARC. Additionally, it’s printed on 100% recycled paper (80gsm Petersgate / 200gsm Cyclus).

Here are the page spreads.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design, Typography |

MA Design LAB promotional leaflet

/ Saturday, 15 May, 2010 – 14:15

Earlier this year, myself and my colleague, Dom Latham, were asked by the powers that be at MMU Faculty of Art & Design if we would like to collaboratively design a promotional leaflet for the next MA Design LAB course.

Here is the fruit of our labour.

The design includes a map illustration of  Central Manchester that I created in the first semester (LAB 1).

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design |

Ampersand love

/ Tuesday, 11 May, 2010 – 22:47

Its been well documented that many a graphic designer and typographer loves the ampersand. I’m certainly no exception.

I found this nice blog called 300&65 Ampersands which posts a different one each day.

By Des | Posted in Graphic Design, Things I Like, Typography |

Design LAB presents MMDC exhibition

/ Friday, 7 May, 2010 – 23:58

Last night was the first public exhibition of work by Design LAB / Manchester Municipal Design Corporation at 52 Princess Street, Manchester (home of Creative Lynx). The night was a success despite a relatively small turnout, which I suspect was due to the general election. We individually and as a group received positive feedback from the visitors, which was very encouraging and should put us in good stead for future exhibitions, especially our main exhibition in September. It was also great to finally unwind (for one night only) after all our hard working endeavours during the second semester (LAB 2).

Here are a few images of some of the work I exhibited.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB |

Design LAB presents MMDC exhibition invite

/ Wednesday, 28 April, 2010 – 16:33

For our upcoming exhibition at 52 Princess Street, Manchester, I’ve designed the invite to be sent to all our contacts and acquaintances.

The invite is A5 in size and features a square flap / lapel section which when lifted reveals a map of the exhibition venue, with the surrounding roads and landmarks.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design |

Platt Fields — The Shakespeare Garden

/ Tuesday, 27 April, 2010 – 19:10

In my earlier posts, I wrote about Platt Hall and the affiliated projects and briefs. One of which was to create a response to the celebration of the Platt Fields centenary which takes place next month. Within Platt Fields there is a secluded and quite beautiful area called The Shakespeare Garden, the reason for the name is due to the fact the garden features various plants featured prominently in William Shakespeare’s works. As it’s ‘tucked away’ and not immediately obvious without exploration, this instinctively appealed to me.

I remember reading an article about The Shakespeare Garden called ‘A Bit of Old England’ from the press articles archive I’d created. It was taken from the Manchester Guardian and was published on 7th May 1935. The reason I remember it was because of the use of language — it’s very poetic, you could say like a eulogy for the garden. It’s a quite a contrast from the language used in today’s press and media.

The idea I came up with was to recreate the article using a stencil typeface on different coloured stock. The reason for using a stencil was so the text could be laser cut and then used to temporarily decorate the garden. The actual stencils would then be positioned in the various trees situated in the garden.

Here’s an example of the stencil.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design, Typography |

Letterpress — Investigations and Experiments

/ Sunday, 25 April, 2010 – 19:57

Throughout LAB 2, I spent time in the Letterpress Workshop gathering various carefully chosen typeface samples: serifs and san serifs, contrasting weights and classifications. All printed on to a variety of papers, to obtain interesting textures.

The purpose of this exercise was to initially investigate and experiment with letterpress printing, for the design and art direction of a fanzine (magazine) called Things Happen, that we the Manchester Municipal Design Corporation (MMDC) / MA Design LAB have conceived and produced. Things Happen celebrates Manchester, with a focus on what has happened in the city, what is happening in the city and what we, as designers, think should be happening
in the city.

In keeping with the traditional ‘hands on’ production of a fanzine. This is where I feel the letterpress medium would lend itself well to the design and art direction. Ultimately, I want
the fanzine to be well designed, at the same time retaining an experimental feel and crucially without sacrificing the legibility of the content.

Once I had a substantial total of printed letterpress samples, I then digitised them by scanning at a high resolution (600 dpi). Absolutely no ‘digital manipulations’ were made to the samples. The computer was used purely as a compositional tool. I have taken lengths to ensure the sensitivity of the letterpress is preserved. The ‘smudges and blemishes’, the distressed elements of certain individual characters and the ‘happy accidents’. All of which emphasise the tactile beauty of this often forgotten archaic and interesting craft.

From the experience I gained working in the Letterpress Workshop, it has informed my appreciation of the patience and laborious skill involved in setting type by hand. From a personal point of view, it has also added to my burgeoning interest in typography, especially as a craft and the attention to detail required to produce exquisite work. I do fear, and believe it is inevitable, that the medium of letterpress printing will eventually become completely obsolete from industry and education, due to the continual advancements in technology and from cost cutting exercises.

I shall keep on pursuing my investigations and experiments with letterpress printing. I feel there is scope for further exploration with the ideas I have for other projects, which I will be working on throughout the remainder of programme.

Overall I printed approximately 70 letterpress samples. From the scanned versions I’ve made a A1 poster, which folds into a A4 document, which contains the above text at the bottom.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design, Typography |

Public Spaces in Manchester — silk screened posters

/ Friday, 16 April, 2010 – 13:52

During the Easter break, a few of the Design LAB students came into MMU especially for a 1 day silk screen workshop. I have done this method of printing before, but it was years ago and have since forgot the processes.

We had to bring in an image that we each wanted to silk screen. I opted for a poster that I had designed towards the end of the last semester (LAB 1). The poster lists various public spaces / parks in Manchester and asks the question “Public Spaces in Manchester, are they being utilised to their full potential?” The reasoning for the poster was from my, and the collective group research that the Design LAB had undertaken about Manchester. I wanted to highlight our concerns about public spaces and how we feel they are latently under used and are not really promoted / marketed very well. I thought designing a poster would be the perfect medium, in terms of impact.

The poster is A3 in size and has 9 rows and 6 columns, it’s based on the golden ratio / rule of thirds. Prior to the silk screen workshop I had only produced inkjet prints of the poster, so I was really looking forward to seeing how it would look. I managed to carefully mix the correct shade of green, I was unable to obtain a colour I was happy with from inkjet printing.

Here are some images taken during the workshop.

Below is one of the final trimmed prints. I’m quite pleased with how they turned out, especially as the ‘imperfections’ and quirks of silk screening add to the design, giving a hand made feel.

By Des | Posted in Design LAB, Graphic Design |

Stumptown Printers

/ Friday, 9 April, 2010 – 17:21

I found a great video about Stumptown Printers on the Monocle website. Stumptown Printers are a small printing and packaging company based in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. They use letterpress and offset machines that recall a bygone era of craftsmanship, allowing maximum control over the printing process.

Stumptown Printers have strong roots within underground / D.I.Y. culture and have over the years steadily grown as a business. They have a healthy clientele, namely independent record labels and musicians, who still value the purpose and beauty of music packaging. Stumptown Printers specialise in creating their own bespoke CD sleeves and die–cut vinyl sleeves made from recycled stock, which are attentively printed using vegetable based inks.

I find it refreshing that a small ethical business like this one, with a strong emphasis on craftsmanship and attention to detail, can prosper in the ever increasing ‘digital world’ and the supposed death of music packaging.

The video can be watched here… well worth checking out.

www.stumptownprinters.com

By Des | Posted in Misc., Things I Like |