Studio Brief 01, Part 02 - Creative Strategy - Presentation & Reflection

Above is the presentation given in response to studio brief 01, Creative Strategy, part 02.

Below are notes in relation to each of the respective slides of the presentation.

1. Introduction
2. Self branding produced in module last year. 'Not Just For Show' concept still underpins practice. Represents high-end, luxury finishing with fundamental concepts. Not superficial.
3. Inspirations. Practice driven by attention to detail, finishing (foiling, embossing etc.) and paper stocks. Creative Print.
4. Love for interiors. See parallel in finishing of design to finishing/styling of interiors. Unsure of which industry I want to work in most. Is there potential to work in both?
5. Engagement
6.  Contacting professionals via wax-sealed hand written letters. More personal/intimate - more memorable. Use of self branding colours/visual language.
7. Andrew Cottam (Business Development Manager), Foilco. Ian Cavanagh (Head of Client Services and Business Development), Pressision. Ben Watkinson (Northern Sales Manager), G . F Smith. Chosen due to interest in creative print and finishing. Aligned with personal practice interests.
8. Glug. Creative talent & potential in the north. Considering staying in the north more so than before, however question whether specific nature of practice will make London/the south the only option.
9. Gallerie P98a - Erik Speakermann. Berlin Letterpress studio. Tactile quality of print. Involvement in process, making, by hand etc.
10. Responsive - Papyrus Line Drawing for adult colouring book. Self explanatory. Heavy use of juxtaposing pattern for complexity and variation. More challenging than designs for children.
11. Responsive - Penguin Random House Student Design Awards. Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Representation of things being 'within.' Racial conflict within town. Innocence within Tom. Gifts from Boo Radley within tree hollow.
12. Responsive - YCN: UK Greetings. Biscuit visual motifs that reinforce and establish notions of quintessential British custom. Social presence. Emotional and visual engagement. Post-Brexit uplift.
13. My Practice
14. Bond Street brand directory. Encapsulates practice & personal style. Tear out cards. G . F Smith stock. Foiling/Finishing. Binding. High-end consumption.
15. Style Library visualiser app. Brings two passions together - graphic design and interiors. First experience of formal design for screen. Indefinite preference for print.
16. Learning and Development
17. Only Studio. Helbers - designing luxury for screen. Alternative approach to luxury design.
18. Embossing and Foiling workshop. Development of skills concerned with practice ambitions.
19. Commercial considerations in regard to design for screen and print. 
20. Wire-framing and process of designing for screen. Coding. Unbeknownst to me previously.
21. The Future
22. Interior project over summer. Looking in to internship at Mark & Fold (Contemporary London Stationery Brand). Further establish communication of practice - website, bechance, social media etc.
23. Level 06 Practice focus: Luxury / editorial / branding / finishing / interiors.
24. Questions / Thank You

This year I have found much more confidence within my practice, and also within myself. Though I still found myself anxious and with nerves, I tried my best to present professionally and not let my nerves get the better of me. I believe I achieved this and, although I marginally went over the time limit, I think that I communicated the information clearly. Feedback received detailed that it was good that I had been able to identify a clear direction to my practice and that it was evident I had considered this when undertaking briefs. I was also encouraged to not see graphic and interior design practices as separate, but to find ways of bringing the two together.

Interview with Ian Cavanagh of Pressision - Reflection

This afternoon I met with Ian Cavanagh, Head of Client Services and Business Development for Pressision Creative Print and Finishing. I met Ian at Pressision.

Having been to Pressision before towards the end of the first year, and having already carried out one interview with Andrew Cottam of Foilco, I felt more at ease going in to this interview. I was excited to return to Pressision as since my first visit I have kept up to date with the printers on social media and find what that do very much inspirational to my practice. 

I was initially given the opportunity to have another look at their sample pieces before interviewing Ian on his journey in the print industry  his perspectives on the power of creative print in the industry - this detailing everything from the resurgence in the popularity of print, his hopes for the future of the print industry, how digital and print have to work together and the latest developments in technology - such as variable white ink and fluorescent printing.

Following this, I look forward to listening to the recording of the interview and putting the discussion in to written words for my second creative report. 

Below are a range of sample pieces I found most inspirational:

Pressision Interview with Ian Cavanagh - Preparation - The Questions

• What does a typical day of work entail for you as Head of Client Services & Business Development at Pressision?

• What sets Pressision apart from other print and finishing providers?

• How many projects do you typically work on at any given time?

• What is the size of the team at Pressision?

• Your clients range from the likes of Harvey Nichols to Nest - the LCA student magazine. Is there a difference in approach to different clients?

• What is your favourite part of your job?

• Describe an overview of the possibilities of print provided by Pressision.

• Have you always worked in print?

• What do you love about it?

• What is your first memory of realising you wanted to work within the print industry?

• Pressision, G. F. Smith and Foilco are a triad of names I often see together. Do you find establishing such collaborative relationships important within the design industry?

• How does it make you feel when you hear expressions such as ‘print is dead?’

• 2016 saw the sales of printed books rise for the first time in four years. Do you think preference for printed matter over digital is making a comeback?

• Do you believe finishing capabilities and potentials, such as foiling/embossing, are the reasoning behind the resurgence in the popularity of print?

• Creative print provides opportunity to create work that could never be achieved on screen. Do you think that print will ever cease to exist? Do you think design for screen will ever find a way to challenge the qualities of print?

• What do you believe the future of creative print and finishing looks like? Or should I say what do you hope it looks like? 

• At the end of last year I attended an event on creative potential and talent in the North. What are your thoughts on this?

• A project you have most enjoyed?

• Variable white and pink ink printing is something you now provide. What is the next innovation you wish to bring to print?

Level 6 Illustration 'Out of Order' Exhibition

Today I attended 'Out of Order,' the showcase and exhibition of Leeds College of Art's graduating 3rd year Illustration students.

The exhibition, on show at Munro House, features the individual works of those on the course, using print methods such as lino, screen print, digital, and also some alternative approaches such as embroidery. Though I personally haven't drawn in years or have the confidence to illustrate in any professional context, it was inspiring to see the work created by the students from LCA. It is always interesting to see so many different styles, approaches and methods of design in one environment as it forces the realisation of the importance of individuality and working in your own style. 

Many of the students had business cards accompanying their work, as it provides those graduating with the opportunity to get work post-graduation. Though there are always more creative ways of giving people your information, business cards will always be utilised and therefore I should consider designing some in advance of third year when finding time may be more difficult under the workload of level 03.

Berlin - Visiting Professional - Chloë Galea

Whilst in Berlin, we had the opportunity to meet Leeds College of Art alumni Chloë Galea, who studied Graphic Design before graduating in 2011. Now based in Berlin and working part time at Cee Cee Creative and part time as a freelance designer and art director, Chlöe has used her skillset across print and digital to complete projects for a wide range of fashion, luxury and lifestyle clients. These clients include Cath Kidson, Jack Wills, Anthropologie and The White Company.

After university, Chlöe interned at Pencil Studio, London, before working for them professionally for 2 and a half years. 


In 2013 she left London and moved to Berlin as a freelance designer. Before making the move, Chlöe 
had meetings with her then-current clients to inform them of her plans to move. Technology and the internet now mean that designers can work anywhere, and therefore Chlöe was able to keep some of her clients.

Chloë notably uses Behance to aid her freelance work as it allows for potential clients to find her by location. On working in Berlin, Chlöe details that at times language barrier issues can make working with suppliers difficult, however she is currently learning German.

Additionally, Chlöe left us with some key advice. She said once she left university, people used to ask that she would do work for free, but was quick to inform us to not design anything without a contract, agreement or upfront payment and that no work should be undertaken until you have reassurance that you will be paid by the end of the job.

The insights given by Chlöe in to her post-graduate life and professional design practice have been really eye-opening and inspiring. I think its really exciting to see and hear alumni of LCA doing so well and working with big clients not too long after graduating. It makes me hopeful and excited for the future of my own practice, and more and more eager to start working in the industry. That said, I'm not sure I personally would have the confidence to move from the UK - though I may consider doing so in the future or for the right job.

Berlin - Bauhaus Archiv

Staatliches Bauhaus, more commonly known simply as the Bauhaus, was a German art school in operation from 1919 to 1933. The school combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the 'form and function' approach to design that it publicised and taught - encouraging a community of artists working together to create design for everyday life. 

The Bauhaus was home to creatives in many different fields, including fine art, industrial design, graphic design, typography, interior design, and architecture. Students were able to practice weaving, pottery, typography design, metalworking, wall painting.

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933. It was in Berlin that the school was forced to close under pressure and repression from the Nazi regime who deemed the art school as 'the centre of communist intellectualism.'

Teachers at the Bauhaus included Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Josef Albers. 

The Bauhaus Archiv Museum of Design in Berlin collects art pieces, documents and literature which relate to the Bauhaus School and puts them on public display.

Having been to the archiv before on my last trip to Berlin on my art and design foundation course, I already knew what to expect from the visit. Having said that, I am very fond of the Bauhaus as a result of my a-level graphic design first year programme being based on Johannes Itten's preliminary course, as taught at the Bauhaus.

Berlin - Gallerie P98a: The Studio of Erik Speakermann

p98a, the studio of Erik Speakermann, is an experimental letterpress workshop in Berlin, Tiergarten, dedicated to letters, printing and paper. The workshop is run by a group of multi-disciplined designers who explore how letterpress can be redefined in the 21st century through printing, research, collecting, publishing and making.

Erik Spiekermann, Ferdinand Ulrich, Norman Posselt, Axel Nagel, Jan Gassel, Laureen Mahler, John Peck, and Susanna Dulkinys work with the workshop's hot metal (and wood) type, several proof presses, a Heidelberg Windmill platen and other traditonal analogue equipment, combining them with digital technologies. They expose polymer plates, cut large size type from digital data, mill punches to make matrices for casting new hot metal type and soon enough will be 3D-printing poster type as the materials become affordable.

The workshop is home to more than 500 cases of wood type from 8 to 60 Cicero (the German equivalent of a line, or 1 pica, but around 7% larger) and around 450 cases with foundry type from 6 to 96 point. The Linotype machine has 56 magazines from 6 to 18 point. Also a part of the workshops equipment is a digital Risograph, which is used to print small publications with spot colours, such as p98a Paper, the workshop's own small zine.

Using a direct-to-plate process to output digital plates for letterpress-printing, the designers also print books at their friends’ shop, Die Lettertypen, who have a Heidelberg Cylinder and a large 1924 Johannisberger stop-cylinder press, plus lots of other machines for typesetting, printing and finishing.

Occasionally the workshop takes commercial work and also sells prints to keep the studio open. 

On visiting the workshop, we were given a brief history of letterpress followed by a workshop tour and opportunity to print our own 'Design will save the world' print. Due to my practices concern with and my personal interest in hand-made design and print, I really enjoyed visiting the workshop. The insights given in to the history of letterpress and how it is used today were really interesting. It was also fascinating to see how the workshop is using 21st century to develop new processes and keep the process alive. I find I am often enthralled by contrast between the old and the new, and so these developments are great to hear about. I was excited to be at the studio, and thankful and appreciate of the opportunity to be shown the workshops collection. Throughout my time on the course so far I have almost become disinterested in typography, however the trip to p98a has revived this and inspired me to consider making typography a greater part of my practice in the future.

Photograph by Norman Posselt.