Display Book | Akira Mimasu

VISUAL SYSTEMS DISPLAY BOOK

Term 1 Compilation - Akira Mimasu 2nd Year Graphic Design BA (Hons.)

The Arts University Bournemouth

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VISUAL SYSTEMS FIRST TERM PROJECT

INDEX: I.

Visual Synthesis

II.

Wayfinding

III. Subvert / Extend IV. Visual Crypsis V.

Industry Visit

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ONE VISUAL SYNTHESIS

CONTENTS: i.

Map and Select

ii.

Analyse and Deconstruct

iii. Re-deploy and exhibit iv. Critical Evaluation

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Map and Select As a group our initial thought was that a unique perspective and approach to the data collection aspect of the project would set us on route for a clever idea. Having said that, we had difficulties looking for a different and interesting way of seeing our surroundings. Nonetheless we delved into recording anything interesting we could find about our campus. Our initial approach was through collecting sensory data which we narrowed down to: light levels, temperature, and ambient sound levels. Although these could have been promising fields of data and analysis, we felt that none lead us to a creative starting point. In hindsight, we could have been more productive and organised in the data collection phase, with a clearer idea of what we wanted to achieve.

This would have made for a much more coherent trail of thought.

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After a tutorial session, we came to the conclusion that we had to find a more interesting route, a more captivating way of analysing our surroundings, if we hoped to have a more meaningful outcome. This was a team decision that pushed us through a critical point in the idea generation process.

Map of AUB campus, divided into a loose grid. This allowed us to select particular areas in which to record various sensory data.

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Initial Research We were immediately impressed by Andreas Lauhoffs speech recognition letterforms. This was the first significant example of data analysis driven visual synthesis that we had come across.

“A ‘phoneme’ is an abstract linguistic unit and can be acticulated in an infinitely large number of ways. Even the same words spoken by the same person will be pronounced differently each time.” - Lauhoff The audio recordings are visualised through a spectrogram. The vertical axes correspongs with volume (db) at varied frequencies (MHz) against time on the horizontal axis (ms). The intensity of frequencies are represented by the tone of the plotted point. It is clear Lauhoff has carefully devised a system of visual synthesis with data-inputs creating a concrete physical outcome that explores the nature of speech and phonetics.

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i.

A groups of interdependent elements forming a complex whole.

ii.

A functionally related group of elements, notably: a. A body regarded as a functional physiological unit. b. An organism as a whole. c. The nervous system or the skeletal system. d. Interacting mechanical / electrical components.

iii.

An organized set of interrelated ideas or principles.

iv.

A social, economic, or political organization or form.

v.

A naturally occuring group of objects or phenomena.

vi. A condition of harmonious, orderly interaction. vii. An organized and coordinated method; a procedure. viii. The prevailing social order; the establishment, 11

Shadows / Tones Our next approach was through shadows. With every trip to and from campus, we build a mental picture of journey - in other words we store visual information in our memory. With the help of sunlight, the buildings, objects and people on campus cast their own portrait of AUB.

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1st Hand Research: Photographed images: shadows of different shapes and contrasts on AUB campus.

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Analyse and Deconstruct To collect data, we set out to find memorable and interesting shadows cast around campus. Next, we had to analyse and deconstruct this data to give us a solid and interesting visual system.

Our route for deconstruction was through distortion and pixelation.

With the fleeting and blurry nature of visual memory within our minds, we felt that a mosaic or pixelated low-res. rendition of the original images would act as a memory of the original.

The next keyword was memory. As much as we like to think that we recall our surroundings entirely, much or most of what we see on a daily basis is compiled from not so accurate pictures stored in our minds. The experience of visual memory is also referred to as the ‘mind’s eye’, through which we are able to retrieve a mental image of original objects, animals, people or places.

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Several low resultion renditions of original images.

E.g. resultion brought down to a grid of 12 x 12 pixels.

Low res. images are distorted versions of the original; A digital memory of the image.

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Hold (x sec.)

Hold FADE

(x sec.)

Hold FADE

(x sec.)

LOOP

Animation Experiment:

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Creating an original moving piece from still frames variating fade and frame durations. A starting point for our visual system.

I attempted to make use of the mosaics to create a piece of moving image.

One of the technological hurdles during this project was learning to use Adobe Photoshop’s ‘Timeline’ to create animations. The process wasn’t overly complex but this assignment helped me gain an understanding of the effort that goes into animating still images into moving image.

Screenshot of Adobe Photoshop’s Timeline in action.

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The Arts University Bournemouth.

Foco Black The Arts University Bournemouth.

Foco (OTF) Reg.

Typographic Experiment: Clip - mask of ‘mosaic’ patterned animation(s) within the letterface.

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Ceiling Suspension

Wall Projection Experiment: The idea was to project our animation over suspended Laser-Cut letterforms of our chosen word ‘Memory’. This one makes use of the positive space of the type.

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Projector

In this version the type will be cut out of MDF, so that when the animation is projected, it will also will through and onto the wall behind, retaining the type and our patterns.

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Redeploy and Exhibit It was clear to us that we wanted to use projection to create multiple layers of imagery in our installation. We had to consider the distance at which to position each of our elements; Projector, ‘Memory’ MDF and the distance from the wall behind it. We prepped our ‘Memory’ file in Adobe Illustrator and took it to the laser-cutter. It’s crucial that line-weights and colours are carefully considered to make use of the laser-cutting system - in this case a 0.01pt R.G.B RED line.

We used ‘Foco Black’ as a typeface, and also used a rounded rectangular form, both decisions based on mimicking the AUB identity.

After some sanding and painting our laser-cut board was ready for testing and to be deployed within a exhibition space.

I was personally very impressed by our work as a team, in that we started off with a lack of confidence in our concept - we weren’t certain where our ideas where leading us to, however we perceviered and believed in our concept. In doing so we managed to execute a sensitive outcome that met our standards.

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Exhibition Set-Up: We prepared our exhibition space with quite a modest set up. It wasn’t the ideal use of space, but considering our given timeframe, we had a decent quality outcome.

Our idea grew from a set of fleeting concepts to a deeper, more meaningful visual piece that was up for interpretation.

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Critical Evaluation How did I feel about group work?

Group work was a great way to start to the term. I felt motivated by my peers and bouncing off creative ideas between one an other felt quite realistic and pre-emptive of a career in Graphic Design. With a team of thinkers, it was much easier to get a good grasp of how systems are used within design. The dynamics of research as a group become much more exciting and the prospect of developing an idea as a team was great incentive to produce high quality work.

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What was most challenging throughout?

We struggled most in the ‘map and select’ aspect of the assignment.

Where we should have had a swift and effective session of data collection, we let this research period drag on, and lost crucial time later on in the ‘analyse and deconstruct’ phase. Having said that, these mistakes where a learning curve for us, reminding us of the importance of time organisation.

Did I push myself throughout the assignment?

Working in groups is outside of my comfort zone. Being encouraged to adapted your way of working and correspond consistently with peers is a real eye-opener. If I can learn to work with people of different capacities, it should prepare me for a professional career possibly within a studio. Cooperation throughout this unit has shown me the advantages of teamwork, in that you constantly have peers to trade mutually constructive feedback - something that is not given when working alone.

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T WO WAYFINDING

CONTENTS: i.

Initial Research

ii.

Site Specific Brief

iii. Initial Design & Testing vi. Final Design vii. Critical Evaluation

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3rd Hand Research: Here we have a contemporary piece of wayfinding Graphics.

There is system clearly set in place where by information interrelates and creates a more complex whole. It’s clear to me that this mapping of navigation is carefully devised and works in harmony with the location.

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Site Specific Brief As a group, we felt as though we wanted to stray away from conventional wayfinding - away from maps, arrows, simple signs and other commodities in wayfinding. We were impressed by modern examples of graphic designers creatively tackling wayfinding, such as Morag Myserscough and her eye-catching work in various venues, but there was a feeling of wanting to answer to a boarder problem than one that is bound to a single location. Our focus was then narrowed into a wayfinding solution that would aid the user in various situations and locations.

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Nature was our next keyword. It occurred to us that it isn’t a common skill to be comfortable with navigation and orientation without the help of technology. A problem was becoming clearer in our minds;

Isn’t it a shame that we are forgetting the ancient art of navigation and replacing it with our new world of technology?

We wanted to inform a certain target audience of methods of navigation using only nature, shining a light on the fact that anyone can still navigate without our iPhones. With the help of tutorial sessions, we narrowed this audience to those who are curious about ‘natural navigation’: e.g. scouts, hikers, explorers and others of the adventurous type who will often find themselves immersed in nature.

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Atrolabes have a wide array of uses; locating and predicting the location of the sun, moon, planets and stars and even giving local time. etc. Although not the first sign of complex navigation used by sailors, astronomers and astrologers, it is a very common discovery across many cultures and ages dating back to calssical antiquity. Navigation technology starts from here.

An Aboriginal Songman walks a songline across his country.

He uses songs passed down through the generations, which are ceued by natural wayfinding markers such as water, trees, rocks and many others. Some of these markers are so respected that hey are considered petrosomatoglyphs - or traces left behind by their version of a creator.

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Initial Research We researched into the many ways in which past civilisations navigated and found their way around our planet. From Aboriginal

PORT

STARBOARD

songlines to ancient astrolabes, there is ample evidence of people using complex navigation dating back to early civilisation.

However, none of these methods took place without the help of nature. Our ecosystem provides many wayfinding symbols and markers in our skies and surroundings. In hopes to find a unique route, we wanted to tap into the more natural and transcendant

STERN

methods of navigation.

Port, Starboard and Stern are nautical terminologies that refer to the left and right, respectively, of a sailor or passanger facing the front of the boat. These terms were used very often by navigators throughout time. Although it dates back for centuries, these terms are still used to this day, however navigation today is slowly replaced by GPS tracking and other facilitations of mapping.

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Initial Design With our design problem figured out, we sought to educate ourselves about navigating in nature. There are many tricks that one can learn to orient themselves. For those that immerse themselves in natural environments, regularly practising orientation, the skill of navigation can be learnt over time. But there are some tricks that don’t take years to understand or make use of. On the next page is our first listing of tips that can be given to anyone in need of finding their bearings. As we went along we narrowed down the number of tips in relation to how easily applicable they were.

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Moon - Crescent technique By imagining a line between the two tips of a cresent moon, and extending this line down to the horizon. The point where it crosses Step 1: the star horizonin should guide you north.

Locate the with first

the handlehttp://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/moon of the conste ll a tion known as Sun - Dial Technique the little dipper.

This is Mark shadows around a stick from 15 min beforee noon to 15 min the North Star. after noon - shortest shadow will point you north.

Step 2: Sun - Watch Face Technique Imagine a line thisPoint hour hand of watch and point to sun, bisect Betweenfrom 6am - 6pm star down angle to the horizon. between hand and 12 on watch dial, this gives north-south line.

The point at which it http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/true-north2.htm me ets will indicate the direction ofStars North.

- Big Dipper technique Opposing star from handle aligns with polaris.

Sample Diagram: Using semiotically simplistic symbols and shapes, I hoped to create easily understandable diagrams to accompany the text and information we would convey in our outcome.

Stars - Little Dipper technique (See left) Constellation ‘handle’ begins with Polaris http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/true-north3.htm

Moss - Indicator Find moss 1m off ground on a vertical tree, likely to point you north. http://www.naturalnavigator.com/the-library/the-truth-about-moss

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Card Concept: With the quick tips set-up, we felt that a set of cards could hold our informationg, making for an interactive, hand-held set of informative cards.

This card is a demo of the introductory card.

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Material Choice: We considered various materials, e.g. Acrylic.

However, we felt that Wood would convey a more natural finish. MDF was the most readily available wood.

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Back Design: The back cover of these cards is consitent throughout the set, with the otherside showing the diagrams and information.

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Step 1: Locate the first star in the handle of the conste ll a tion known as the little dipper. This is the North Star.

Step 2: Imagine a line from this star down to the horizon.

The point at which it me ets will indicate the direction of North.

Prep. for Lasercutting: Once our cards and diagrams were designed, we had to prepare them for the lasercutter, by defining strength and depth of engraving as well as cut lines.

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Testing We were generally pleased with the aesthetics of lasercutting onto MDF. However, there were some production flaws that are easily spotted. Firstly, there were burn marks on the edges of each card due to the overlapping of cutting paths - this an error I now know to avoid.

Secondly, the type size and legibility had to be revised and reconsidered. We needed a much clearer line, so we increased the laser cutting strength. Otherwise, the diagrams were relatively clear to see and visible in various lighting situations.

A lighter shade of MDF would make engravings standout.

Deeper engravings will make for more prominent type.

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Critical Evaluation How would I improve our outcome given the chance?

What was the most difficult phase of this assignment?

If we were to carry-on developing this project, I would have certainly improved the

The biggest challenge of the assignment was the execution and manufacturing of

project logic. Though we had a good idea, our cards didn’t feel entirely realistic.

our design. With our given facilities, we decided that Laser-cutting would makae for

Would people really seek after a product like this? Is it designed in a way that

a ssharp outcome. We really had to push our technical understanding of CAD/CAM

considers the target audience entirely? I believe it could have been much more

Laser-Cutting to organise and use our time wisely, considering the fact that some

portable and much better assembled, e.g. a Box to hold the set, or using paper for

of our lasercutting jobs were up to 50 minutes long. We faced a few issues along

the card, or binding them with a karabina to tie into the hiker/ adventurer market.

the way but this hurdle did help us develop our technical proficiency, and I am much

Was our group well co-ordinated and organised?

more informed for future projects.

How did this broaden my understand ing of systems on a broader spectrum?

We use wayfinding on a daily basis. I’ve only come to realise through this project, that systems based design is a crucial element to our modern life. How these systems function on various social and environmental contexts shapes the way in which we interact with them. It impressed me to see to what extent systems are seamlessly integrated in their environments to provide creative design solutions.

The process of creating a wayfinding system puts into perspective the various considerations needed to have a successful concept that resonates with its users.

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THREE SUBVERT

CONTENTS: i.

Initial Experiments

ii.

Monsanto

iii. Toblerone vi. Critical Evaluation

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Adbusters Campaigns: An on-going team of non-profit designers that specialise in subversion.

Their motto is to bring to light the sinister side of big coorporate brands, using clever wordplay and designs.

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Initial Experiments Subversion was an entertaining project because it forced us to look at brands and identities in a different way. It was interesting to attempt to denounce coorporate demons for the unethical things they do.

I experimented with simple changes in brand identities to make subtle subversions. On the left is a comment on popular music channel M.T.V., where I used a provocative image in combination with soem text to convey the channel as a brainwashing and as a bad influence on it’s audience. On the right I mocked Abercrombie & Fitch because of the their C.E.O claimed his brand was only for the ‘cool kids’ and not for anybody who is larger than a Large size. These subversions however happen only aesthetically and did not hold much contextual weight. I had to focus on a more meaningful message.

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Monsanto A coorporate demon with widespread power in the food industry, Monsanto are

In this experiment I wanted to show monsanto in a negative light. They use a

a brand that must not be handled lightly. There are many conspiracies, but it

green colour in their logo to link to nature and organic products, but it can be

is widely known that Monsanto make heavy use of G.M.O’s in agriculture, which

argued that they are un-natural. In my rendition. I have exagerrated and used

create invasive mutants of the original crop, altered purely for the economical

satanic symbolism to portray monsanto in a sinister way.

gain. They monopolise the agricultural business putting farmers out of jobs.

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Toblerone Toblerone and many other big chocolate brands often come under fire for having questionable ethics in their sourcing of cocoa. Toblerone have had child labour in the their line of cocoa farmers. I subverted their packaging identity and replaced the Toblerone bear with an image of a young cocoa farmer. The play on words here is Toddlerone - linking to the underage workers.

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Swiss Milk Chocolate with REAL Child Labour

Of Ivory Coast

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Critical Evaluation What changes in my creative process would I make given the chance?

I could have taken a much more systematic approach. Where I have taken visuals at face value, I may not have analysed and split apart the visual elements of brands. I could have looked back a few decades and followed the development of the brands I was analysing to get a broader perspective of the brand message.

I believe that a more thorough analysis period would have helped me to have a more wholesome subversion concept.

What did I learn about the use of visual systems within the industry?

This project help med see the link between aesthetic choices and visual systems.

It wasn’t clear to me that changes in a brands aesthetic were actually more likely to be informed by context than just for looks. The intricate impressions imposed by brands onto users is actually a carefully designed system that was very many variables and many considerations to be made. I now understand that ethics play a huge part in brand design, and in future projects I will be more able to take-apart and criticise a brands messages and what extents they go to to make these messages seen.

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FOUR VISUAL CRYPSIS

CONTENTS: i.

Initial Experiments

ii.

Re-Think

iii. Design Development vi. Critical Evaluation

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Initial Experiments Crypsis in Nature: Various animals in nature have control over their hysical appearance, going from changes in shape to impressive displays of coour changing and camouflage. We were gretly inspired by the naturally occuring forms of crypsis and felt that this was a starting point that could make for interesting visual outcomes. A flaw in our process was that we were thinking too quickly of visual outcomes and not of visual system generation interaction.

Reverse Camouflage Our first visual experiment was to take the extremes of camouflage and explore in what way we could take camouflage tho their logical or illogical conclusion.

Our first idea was to take camouflage and reverse it’s logic - making an animal more visible and stand out rather than be camouflaged into it’s environment.

The rainbow, technicoloured pattern we applied to the chameleon and octopus is meant to be an extreme form of reverse camouflage.

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Big Cat Butterflies: This series was one of our initial ideas, where we experimented with extremes of visual crypsis in nature - eyes on a butterflies wings are to decieve predators.

However, these outcomes play on an already existing form of crypsis / camouflage. We need to find a concept that makes a unique blend of systems.

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Re - Think What are we doing wrong?

Our concepts hold only visual depth - but don’t function in terms of systems generation and also in terms of conceptual weight. Yes we are playing with camouflage and crypsis but only through the use of two systems that already interact - survival and camouflage. In other words, we need to start a new with a different approach to the brief. We need to find a system to integrate crypsis into, this can be from data generated systems to systems that already exist.

How can we change our course?

Where could we find a system to make use of and eventually?

- Images, magazines and other print documents - Using exisiting books, dictionary, thesaurus or possibly a textbook - We like the idea of using an existing print element - Are there other scriptures with great significance?

- Could we work from religious texts?

Jonathan Safran Foer: This was an inspiring piece of visual crypsis. Foer uses the system of an exisiting book, and creates another system within it by excluding only specific lines on each page, to make a new story with an entirely different meaning.

This is making a system within a system - a message cryptically encoded within another system. It was works like this that persuaded us to change course in our idea generation. We want a more wholesome visual crypsis concept to work from.

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Biblical Concept We picked the Christian Bible as a printed system to analyse. The Bible is a document that hold content that is debatably controversial. There are a very high amount of ethically questionable passages in the Bible. What we want to bring to light is whether or not this document portrays and teaches ethics that are still applicable today. It cant be ignored that the Bible is a source for faith and we must remain ethical in that we are in no way attacking religion or the concept of Christianity, however we are approachign these quotes with heavy scrutiny.

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”

“You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”

Here are two examples, showing the mysoginistic and homophobic attitudes that ‘God’ condones. Should such fowl passages and unforgiving behaviour be taught to the youth of today? In our view, such teachings are out of date, and should have no place in our society - if we are to live in peace.

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Questionable Bible Quotes We attempted to find as many quotes from the bible that could be seen as offensive - we split these into categories.

This made a system of different passages that could be visitted to experience these controversial teachings.

(Exodus 22:18) “Do not allow a sorceress to live.” Violence (Lev 18:22-23) “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” Homophobic (Leviticus 26:27-30) If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.” Bigotry (Deuteronomy 22:5) “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God” Misogeny (Deuteronomy 22: 20-21) “But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” Misogeny (Deuteronomy 23:1) “He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” Bigorty

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(1 Samuel 15:3) ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ Violence (Luke 16:18) “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.” Indifference (Romans 1:27) “In the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.” Homophobic (Ephesians 5:22) “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” Misogeny (1 Timothy 2:12) “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.” Misogeny (Lev 20:13) “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.” Homophobic (Deuteronomy 22:28-29) “A raped, unengaged virgin must marry her rapist and they can never divorce.” Misogeny (Isaiah 13:16) “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.” Violence

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Designing a System Having divided the controversial bible quotes into categories, we could then get on with devising our system. We wanted to create a visual key, which would assist in the navigation of our hybrid bible. These icon refer directly to the categories - e.g. a dagger to represent violence. We created tags on each quote

Violence

page to lead the reader directly to them, each tag holding the corresponding icon.

This system is displayed clearly in the form of a key at the begining of the book.

The index leads you to the quotes, which decodes a crypsis in a sense, bringing

Misogeny

forth the offensive passages that are otherwise hidden.

Our second visual system integrated into our Bible, was the sourcing and placing of religious paintings. These paintings would encase the quote in question (see

Bigotry

image right) and were meant to provoke thought when seen in combination with the quote. For example we have a horrific homophobic passage paired with an image of an angel smiting men. We managed to pair 17 quotes and images,

Homophobia

but our slow production poor time management only allowed us to create a few samples to show during our critique. However, conceptually, we felt satisfied with our idea. It was one of the more thought provoking outcomes that I saw during our critique session. We received some great feed back, confirming that our idea was understood by our peers, even at first glance of our outcome.

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Indifference

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Critical Evaluation What was most difficult throughout this assignment?

One of the main issues with our design process in this Visual Crypsis project, was that we jumped straight to creating visuals, therefore missing out on the essential idea generation stage. It seems that this is a bad habit of ours, as it is not the first instance of this happening. We were too quickly drawn in by initial ideas, and did not consider a wide enough variety of conceptual approaches.

It was a case of idea tunnel-vision in a sence. However, once we overcame this hurdle and went back to the drawingboard, we managed to generate ideas that held much more conceptual and contextual weight. This bible outcome held controversy and in many ways was like no other experiment I have tried, because of it’s deep and thought provoking nature.

Were we organised enough?

We knew one week into this two week project that our time organisation was failing us. In the rush of having only a week left to create and finalise our outcome, we had to sacrifice some quality. Paper, print and cutting quality were not as fine tuned as we would hav e liked. The overall execution of production was difficult and did not meet a high enough standard in my eyes.

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FIVE INDUSTRY VISIT

CONTENTS: i.

Industry Research

ii.

Choosing a Studio

iii. Industry Visit vi. Critical Evaluation

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USTWO Studio

Whale Trail - App Design

“Since launching in 2004 we’ve grown to three studios around the world in New York, Malmö and London. Our studios are unique environments where we co-create, enjoy life and work hard to help realise our dreams - as well as those of our partners and clients.”

“... We’d never make anything exceptional if we weren’t willing to experiment through our own products.

We put a large percentage of our profits directly back into these initiatives, so we can continue to innovate, learn, create opportunities and share rewards for.”

- www.ustwo.com

Monument Valley - App Design

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IDEO Studio

IDEO method cards - Educational

“IDEO is a global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow...”

“We envision new companies and brands, and we design the products, services, spaces, and interactive experiences that bring them to life”

- www.ideo.com

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BIGFISH Studio

Yeo Valley - Branding & Packaging Re-Think

ALMA de Cuba Coffee - Branding Identity & Packaging

“Everything we do at big fish has to look fantastic. We believe that design is about evoking as well as telling a clear story exploiting every single one of the senses. Every creative brief we work on needs to allow us the freedom to explore any opportunity at the outset and not limit our imaginations. This is another reason why we never work on projects where design guidelines are already in place as we’re not good at adhering to rules.”

- www.bigfish.co.uk

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Graphic Thought Facility

Frieze Art Fair N.Y.C - 2013 Campaign

“We believe that a successful project is rooted in a deep understanding of its objectives and we take great care to listen to our clients, often forging long-term relationships. Although our approach has been cited as original and unconventional, our underlying principles are clarity and simplicity with a belief that functional need and emotional response demand equal consideration ... very much hands-on.�

- www.graphicthoughtfacility.com

Kvadrat - Divina 2014 Art Direction (Publication)

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Choosing a Studio We were spoilt for choice in some ways, there were so many to choose from and each were big opporunities for us. There were some studios that

graphic thought facility

we could not secure any time with, and others that replied prompty and

23–24 Easton Street London WC1X 0DS

positively. One of these companies was Graphic Thought Facility. Having

info@graphicthoughtfacility.com

researched their work, we were familiar with the fact that this was one of

Telephone +44 20 7837 2525

the leading graphic studios in London - coming 1st on a list of best studios in the U.K (Computer Arts Uk Studio Rankings 2014). We were thoroughly impressed by their wide range of clients, and with the sound and authentic approach they take to design.

Having seen some interviews with the head designers of their studio, it was clear to us that G.T.F has passion and a true drive to address design issues. What is also very impressive is that the original members started up their company after finishing their MA. We knew we’d be able to get good insight into how the transition is between university and the industry. It was essential that we get a good idea of how this studio started, such that we might envision starting a studio ourselves one day.

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Industry Visit

“It seems circumstances are very different now. When we were young we didn’t have to pay for an education, it was easier to start slowly, and I think today’s students feel a greater pressure to leave and get a job or get clients. Keep doing the work you like doing. Keep finding people to collaborate with, even though it’s not great paid work. Over time, I believe that network will build and bear fruit. You might have to work in a magazine laying out things to pay the bills. Still, keep an eye on the work you want to do.”

- Andy Stevens

We were extremely fortunate to speak directly with Andy Stevens, an original member and representative of Grapphic Thought Facility. He was very enthusiastic and welcoming in everyway. He started by describing the climate in-which G.T.F was born. All RCA graduates, the team of closely-knit designers of various disciplines set out to start a business. At the time The Royal College of Art was one of the only places that provided an M.A. course - this brought together many bright minds into one school. Andy advised us that sharing a creative space and pooling folios with other skilled designers is something all of us should try one day. Their journey was long and slow, he even stated that they never really made any profit during the first 4 years of being a group. He went on to give us very wise insight into the industry of Graphic Design. He outlined the fact that technical proficiency, while very helpful, is not as crucial as the capacity to network. Sociability and an openmind throughout various disciplines are key qualities in a designer. According to Stevens, connections to other disciplines are crucial - this networking is what opens jobs and broadens opportunities.

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Critical Evaluation What did we learn from this visit?

Though times were different when Graphic Thought Facility started out, Andy re-assured us that it was young designers that kept their industry fresh and alive. He encouraged us to continue to develop our own portfolio of work, all the while engaging in more work experience to support what should be a consistent and going passion to endulge in design.

It was inspiring to observe the creative enviornment where G.T.F live. It reinforced my aspirations to one day be part of a studio that leaves it’s mark in modern design, especially one that is so efficient and tightly knit as theirs.

How could we have taken more from this experience?

There would have been several better ways to record what Andy Stevens was saying to us, by video or audio - I think this would have been wise as we could have kept a transcript as reference and as a way to keep the information he shared with us. On top of this we should have enquired what sort of positions and different jobs small studios liek theirs provide - to get a better idea of the various branches of Graphic Design careers available.

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Original Designs by: Akira Mimasu (2nd Year) Graphic Design BA (Hons.)

Term 1 Compilation - Akira Mimasu 2nd Year Graphic Design BA (Hons.)

Printed and bound at: University Bournemouth The Arts The Arts University Bournemouth 1st Term - December 2014

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