Clare Bell Clare is co-founder of Typography Ireland with MaryAnn Bolger, a research, practice and seminar group, run in association with the Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media and the Dublin Institute of Technology, DIT. Clare represents Ireland at board level at ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) and was co-organiser, with MaryAnn, of ‘The Word 2010’, ATypI’s annual conference which was held in Dublin. In collaboration with Clare and MaryAnn we hosted the Verena Gerlach exhibition Paradox Algiers at The Factory Space to coincide with the conference.
Hans Bockting Hans Bockting, co-founder of Dutch design consultancy UNA (Amsterdam) Designers, came to Design Factory in March 2004 to run an Annual Report workshop with his colleague AndrĂŠ Cremer. The following Easter we spent a memorable afternoon with Hans at the UNA studio in Amsterdam, looking through their incredible body of work. In 2007 Hans left UNA to set up his own studio, Bockting Ontwerpers.
Ben Bos Ben’s monograph Design of a Lifetime (2000) is one of our all time favourite books on the life of a graphic designer. An iconic figure at Total Design for almost 30 years, he was a colleague of Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing, Friso Kramer and the Schwarz brothers. It was a privilege for Conor Clarke to interview his ‘unsung hero’ Ben Bos at Offset 2013. A transcript of the interview can be found online at http://iloveoffset.com/features/ benbosconorclarke/
Seymour Chwast One of the founding members of the iconic Push Pin Studios in 1954, along with Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel and Reynold Ruffins, Seymour’s unique graphic design blends social commentary with a distinctive style of illustration. Working with ICAD in 1994 we curated and promoted his exhibition at the Green on Red Gallery. It was great to catch up with “the left-handed designer” again at Offset 2012, for a quiet chat in the lobby.
Conor Clarke FACT 30, an homage to Peter Saville and Factory Records, acknowledges the source and inspiration for our name. The original FACT 30 was an audio cassette tape issued in 1980 called ‘The Heyday’ which featured interviews with The Sex Pistols.
Andrew Fallon We first met Andrew in 1987 on an ICOGRADA World Design Congress tour of design studios in The Hague. A Director of Tel Design at that time, he invited us in, gave us a beer, inspired us and became a friend, mentor and contributor to many of our publications over the last 27 years.
Kevin Finn Kevin is an internationally respected Irish designer based in Brisbane, Australia. He is founder, editor and designer of Open Manifesto, an independent journal of critical writing on design culture. Contributors to the journal have included international design luminaries such as Stefan Sagmeister, Peter Saville, Milton Glaser and Paula Scher. The Design Factory monograph On the Edge of Europe was reviewed in Open Manifesto {5} under the headline ‘Published Art’ in 2009.
Bill & Frank Bill Bolger and Frank Bissette were our tutors at NCAD. Through their teaching, encouragement and belief, Design Factory became possible. When Bill sadly passed away in April 2013, Frank found a way to include him in this book. His design, Frank by Bill—Bill by Frank includes a sketch of Frank, by Bill, and employs for the first time in print the new NCAD font Bill Stencil, which was designed by typographer Bobby Tannam, based on a concept by Conor Clarke, with research and development by Sean Sills and Jamie Murphy at Distillers Press, NCAD. ‘Never Compromised Always Definitive’ is how Frank described the Design Factory approach. We feel it describes Bill and Frank, perfectly.
D F T H I R T Y
NEVER COMPROMISED ALWAYS DEFINITIVE
Y E A R S
Verena Gerlach was born in Berlin and studied Visual Communication at Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee. Shortly after finishing art school in 1998, she founded her own studio (fraugerlach) for graphic design, type design and typography. We hosted her exhibition Paradox Algiers at The Factory Space in 2010.
DreiĂ&#x;ig
Verena Gerlach
Nikki Gonnissen Thonik was founded by Nikki Gonnissen and Thomas Widdershoven in 1993. They came to Dublin in 2004 for our first Dubbel Dutch event with UNA (Amsterdam) Designers, supported by ICAD and the IDI. Design Factory visited Thonik’s studio in Amsterdam in April 2005. They cooked dinner for us and then we went to the pub. The rest is history‌
Terry Greene Founding partner Terry Greene’s birthday greeting says it all. Clean, precise, direct, heartfelt—typical of his creative output over 15 years as Director at Design Factory. Terry is now Director at RED WHITE GREEN(E) design.
Paul Hughes We first met Paul in Amsterdam when he was Partner and Strategic Director at Lava Design. He introduced us to the renowned Iranian designer Reza Abedini and was instrumental in bringing his exhibition to The Factory Space. For his new enterprise Ten Meters of Thinking, Paul draws as he speaks along ten meters of paper. This unique visual-verbal experience is designed to create individual and organisational transformation by offering timeless stories, to be applied to timely contexts.
Stephen Kavanagh Stephen started the whole thing. “No way, I’m not working for anyone else!” he declared as he worked late into the night with Conor Clarke on their first commercial assignment, after a day as students at NCAD. This was before they had a name, before they had a studio. 30 years later, they are still working together. Stephen’s escape has always been the sea, whether on his boat or walking the beach with his dog ‘Missy’ who seems to be looking out of the photo across the spread at a slightly younger version of Stephen.
Damian Keenan Founding partner Damian Keenan perfectly captures the early pioneering spirit of Design Factory in this typically composed piece, reminiscent of the hand-made, collaged cassette tape covers that first brought his taste in music and design to our attention at NCAD. Many of us came to graphic design through music and the art of the album cover.
Max Kisman Max Kisman studied graphic design, illustration and animation at the Academy for Art and Industry in Enschede and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1977. At our invitation he came to Dublin in October 2013 to speak at one of our occasional Oranje & Green events at Smock Alley Theatre, which brings together leading creative talent from Holland and Ireland on stage. Max also took part in judging the annual Institute of Designers in Ireland awards at the National College of Art and Design.
1983
2013
Justin Knecht We first met Justin on the short-lived brand identity project we did for IT Sligo in 2008. He became a regular collaborator on Design Factory projects and socially encouraged us to seek out ‘The Perfect Pint’. He currently helps organisations and individuals learn and leverage the practices of Human-Centered Design at The Luma Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. You can interact with Justin’s ‘maze’ design by employing a red pencil…
Emilio Salvatore Leo We met Emilio on a trip to Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven in 2006. A textile designer who loves graphic design, he is owner, like his father before him, of Laneficio Leo, the oldest textile factory in Calabria Italy, established in 1873. It is also a museum and cultural centre, a unique management approach which was recognised by the Guggenheim Prize for Business and Culture in 2001 when Laneficio Leo was awarded the Management Culture Prize.
Jerrold C. Manock As a member of the original Apple Macintosh design team, working under the direction of Steve Jobs, Manock designed the upright casing for the Apple III computer. He is widely regarded as the “father” of the Apple Industrial Design Group. We worked with Jerry on a new hardware/software device that measures grass. That’s Jerry on the far right of the screen, back in the day, when grass was grass.
Carlos Méndez Carlos is one of our old friends from the world of advertising. He worked internationally for McCann Erickson in Europe and Canada on international brands like Coca-Cola, Nescafé, Opel, L’Oréal, Martini & Rossi, Yoplait and Irish Dairy Board. He co-founded and developed McCann Erickson’s Dublin office, the first international agency brand to open in Ireland. He won creative awards at Cannes, Epica, the London Film Festival and the New York International Festival on creative excellence. Carlos currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
“I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.” Marshall McLuhan
Russell Mills Russell’s cover design for the 1983 Brian Eno album Apollo: Atmospheres & Soundtracks, was a hugely influential work for us. The idea of an illustrator using supplied photography (from the Apollo 14 moon mission in 1971) and his own typography, opened up our minds to the possibilities of convergence in graphic design and illustration. On a visit to NCAD he signed the album cover for Conor Clarke with a quote often attributed to Paul Klee “Make the strange familiar and the familiar strange”. In 2009 he launched our book On the Edge of Europe at The Factory Space.
Milton & Martin Milton & Martin are a design research partnership working between Dublin, Edinburgh and London. In his role as Professor of Design and Head of the Faculty of Design at NCAD, Alex Milton worked with Conor Clarke to bring the IDI Annual Awards exhibition to the college in 2013. Alex is a designer, researcher and author. He collaborates with Suzanne Martin—designer, researcher and lecturer— who has worked across Europe in graphic design, branding, music video, fashion communication, photography, interiors, art direction and textile design innovation.
“To design is to light a fire; every idea that is created is a spark” Milton & Martin
Hamish Muir In his role as Head of Visual Communication at NCAD, Conor Clarke invited Hamish Muir, as visiting tutor, to mentor his students in typographic design. He also invited Hamish to speak at the Thinking + Typography event at Smock Alley Theatre in April 2014. His new venture with Paul McNeil, MuirMcNeil Design Systems, is a project-based collaborative. Its activities are focused on exploring parametric visual systems to generate appropriate solutions to visual communication problems. Hamish was co-founder of the London-based graphic design studio 8vo (1985–2001) and co-editor of Octavo, International Journal of Typography (1986–92). He is co-founder and art director of Outcast Editions, an independent publisher of high quality digital books on contemporary architecture and design.
Jamie Murphy We first met Jamie in 2006, when he came to Design Factory on the ICAD Upstarts Programme. Jamie holds an MA in Design from NCAD (2012) where he focused on letterpress printing and the book, studying under Sean Sills at Distillers Press. After a self initiated period of learning which included several months at Typoretum, he set up The Salvage Press, a nomadic press concept devoted to producing and educating in all aspects of typography and letterpress printing.
Brian Nolan Brian worked at Design Factory for three years in the early 1990s, contributing to many of our most memorable creative projects from that era. After a stint at Dynamo, he went on to become a founding partner and director at DETAIL. DESIGN STUDIO, who consistently produce some of the Ireland’s most striking, engaging and exciting contemporary design work. DETAIL presented at Offset 2014: Dublin’s creative festival for designers, animators and illustrators.
David Rooney Good friend, collaborator, singer and guitarist with The Whipperwills, David has reflected the national psyche editorially and engaged a wide variety of clients at home and abroad with his unique vision and honed scraperboard technique. Recent projects include producing 92 illustrations for the BBC TV documentary series The Story of Ireland, illustrating the winner of 2011 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, The Wavewatchers Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney and illustrations for the Druid Theatre/Tom Murphy Season which toured Ireland, the UK and the USA.
Guus Ros Resident of Amsterdam, and co-founder of the renowned BRS design group, this distinguished European designer and painter now devotes his time to the exploration of colour in the great Dutch tradition of De Stijl. Conor Clarke had the privilege of working with Guus at BRS in the early 1980s. They had a common link, as Guus had spent several years working in advertising in Dublin. Guus featured in Clarke’s book about the connections between Ireland and Holland in graphic design, Oranje & Green, published by BIS in 2002.
Sean Sills Master printer, educator and “Frustrated Thespian�, Sean heads up Distillers Press, the Letterpress Print Workshop at the National College of Art and Design. Sean joined NCAD in 1983, just catching the tail end of the Clarke, Kavanagh, Keenan and Greene art student experience. He is a member of the Print Historical Society and a curator and board member of the National Print Museum. He has conducted workshops for many different organisations including the Paul Getty Foundation U.S. and Trinity College Dublin.
David Smith David has contributed to a number of Design Factory publications since 2002. Through education, advocacy and the output of his studio, David has significantly influenced and contributed to the reputation of Irish graphic design. In 2007 he initiated the three x 3 internship programme for Irish graphic design graduates and in 2012 co-founded the 100Archive which records the history and practices of Irish Graphic Design. In 2010 he was the ďŹ rst Irish designer inducted into Alliance Graphique Internationale.
The Stone Twins We first met Declan and Garech Stone during the making of the book Oranje & Green. They have built a reputation for devising concept-driven, engaging and strategic design solutions that work across the full spectrum of the media landscape. Their work has been widely acclaimed, winning awards at ADCN, D&AD, Dutch Design Awards and the One Show, amongst others. They were appointed Head of the department ‘Man and Communication’ at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven, from 2008 until 2013.
Lorenzo Tonti Waterford is probably the last place you’d expect to meet a Swiss Italian graphic designer, educator, photographer, bread baker, food lover, espresso drinker and travel enthusiast. But that is exactly where it happened and now, several Exhibitions, Offsets and Distillers Presses later, here we are, again. Lorenzo’s passion is to design visual communication strategies perfectly matched to a business’ needs, using Swiss analytical abilities and organisational skills, Italian creativity and his ‘Irish’ love of words. Lorenzo also loves his cat—just check out his Facebook page…
Martin Wright Marty created this piece for us when he was out in the desert. He was Executive Creative Director at Havas Worldwide Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at the time. That was 2013—we know Marty a lot longer than that—McConnells (and ICAD) in the 1980s, Bell Advertising (and ICAD) in the 1990s, Ogilvy and Mather (and ICAD) in the noughties, Gospel (and ICAD) in the 2010s. In fact we know Marty for about thirty(ish) years—that’s most of our creative lives. Keep in touch Marty.