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by Andy Foster
A booklet collecting together some of the things, studios and people that have inspired me throughout the last three years.
Contents
Illustration Animation Editorial Lord Whitney Interview Craft Web Matthew The Horse Interview Flat Graphics
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“ In an increasingly visual world, it is illustration that holds the key to giving a small measure of individualism to the marketplace� - Ian Dodds play
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Illustration
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Brosmind
‘Our main inspirations comes from the 80’s, not really in a aesthetic way but in that spirit of wonder’
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Illustration
‘Our dream project would be one that would be a project that lets us grow and explore new ideas and concepts.’
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Hey Studio
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Illustration
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Kate Moross
‘Being an illustrator is like being a supermodel. Sooner or later you’ll get fat and they won’t want you anymore’
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“By joining forces, graphic designers and illustrators produce work that’s more focused and visible.” - Vernique Vienne
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Animation
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Young Studio
‘We produce work that we enjoy and think is fun, engaging and interesting to watch; in other words, not boring.’
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Animation
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Sebas & Clim
‘The conceptually interesting work by Sebas & Clim is indicative of the different ways one idea can be communicated – with that number only limited by your imagination.’
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Animation
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Golden Wolf
‘There really isn’t any substitute for hard work. And having a good attitude goes a lot further than you might think’
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“the use of words and images on more or less everything, more or less everywhere� - Tibor Kalman
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Editorial
‘Anorak isn’t a throwaway publication. Just like much loved children’s magazines and annuals of the past, it is designed to be collected and kept.’
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Anorak/Cagoule Magazine
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Editorial
‘Being creative means a great deal to me as I’m not really good at anything else. I feel very fortunate to be able to create my own work and for it to be published.’
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Young Collosus
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Interview
Do people employ you because of your personalities as well as the work you produce? Whenever we have gone and met someone we have always got work from it. So I would say the power of meeting people in person is massive. If you email someone asking for work experience and just ask if you can go and say hello, they will always remember you. An email struggles to show your personality. When we do agency visits in London we get work from the people we have met. Our work is so varied so some people don’t get it but as
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Lord Whitney soon as they meet us they understand what we are trying to achieve. You should also try and be enthusiastic! No one wants to employ someone who is miserable and moaning all day so make sure you work hard and be polite and be a nice person and you’ll go far. What do you think you’ve missed out on from not living in London? Alot of the big clients are in London and we may have had more money jobs from living there. We love London for a few days but the intensity of working in the creative industries in London is insane. Wherever there is an influx of people there is a battle for work. In Leeds it’s different, we share the work. How would you like people to interpret your work? We like to convey a sense of playfulness. the humor and fun in our work is kind of what is really important to us. We want to encourage people to look twice and not take things to serious.
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Interview Do you think its important to brand yourself as something other than graphic design in todays creative industry ? I think people have preconceived ideas of what a graphic designer is, what an illustrator is etc. For us we cover all those areas but we don’t just do one specific thing. For a while we used to say we were 3D illustrators because we were making 3D pictures but everyone thought we made graphics on computers in 3D, people didn’t understand what our term meant. We think its all about tailoring what you brand yourself depending on who you are talking to at that time. Has graphic design influenced what you do now? Yes, everything influences you even if you don’t see it at the time. Even the stuff that you do and you hate is actually really good because it means you have worked out what you don’t want to do. After uni there is almost to many possibilities that it is abit daunting as you need to decide wether you want to be a graphic designer? Do you want to work for yourself? Do you want to travel somewhere else ? There
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Lord Whitney is just so many things to think about. Until you start narrowing it down you have this preconceived idea of what a graphic designer is but until you’ve worked in an agency or a studio you may not realise what its actually going to be like.
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“The word ‘graphic’ in graphic design derives from the ancient Greek word graphein, which meant ‘markmaking’ and which covers written and drawn marks” - Malcolm Barnard play
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Craft
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Zim & Zou
‘ When today you can read a book on a screen, we needed to create ‘real’ things. The aspect of craftsmanship is really important for us and paper gives us an infinite amount of possibilities.’
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Craft
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Katie Roberts ‘We decided to use paper in many of our projects because not only is it a basic material but because it’s a way to show the balance of power between digital and paper production.’
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Web
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Thomas Pom
‘The principle of the Cyclemon, “You are what you ride”, combines bicycle designs with categories of different kinds of people in a caricatured manner’
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Web
‘The internet opens up an entire world of information to everyone. It lets users perform complicated tasks at the click of a button, and, most importantly, enables people to connect with each other.’
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Marty Cook / Matt Innes
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Web
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Nous Vous
‘Projects with unexpected outcomes are always great, especially when collaborating with other people who contribute skills and a different way of thinking.’
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Interview In your curriculum do you teach anything that could be seen as or defined as graphic design ? I would say no. But it depends on your definition of both disciplines really. I would say that defining disciplines is really useful for Art Schools, because we have to disseminate learning into bite sized pieces. That way we can go really deep into what one discipline is. As a result, students get placed into specialised silos. The question is important for two reasons: 1- Context/ Audience. Without it an illustration is just a picture and a poster becomes some words. It is useful in knowing who to approach for work and what kind of work to ask for. Context helps shape your practice- where do you want your work to exist/ function? How is your work going to work/ function. Look at how Tumblr has informed certain trends in typography or risograph printing or student club night flyers.... 2- Discovery. Without understanding the established rhetoric of your discipline, how are you going to kick against it?
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Matthew The Horse
Why you think it is important to have an Illustration corse at the college ? Because university education is expensive and because there are lots of young people who want to study this discipline. There is a moral conflict at play here, in that there isn’t lots of work out there for illustration graduates. But there is work. I’d rather students were getting in rigorous and professionally focused education to best prepare them for what is to come. Its about getting value for money.
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“Most art directors think of it (illustration) as an extension of graphic design visuals as punctuation for the eye� - Vernique Vienne play
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Flat Graphics
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Faces - Lee Goater
‘It feels like folk are more up for trying something different or new and then deciding if they like it or not. Happy days.’
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Flat Graphics
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Mikey Burton ‘Making it is a risk because you have to see if it’s a good idea or a bad one. It’s putting yourself out there and making something. And if it takes off, great.’
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Flat Graphics
‘Personal work is far more free and relaxed and enables you to experiment with new ideas and techniques, therefore it’s a bit more fun.’
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Andrew Groves
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play by Andy Foster