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Throughout this academic year Leeds College of Art Graphic Design have played host to a number of industry professional providing workshops and seminars. From Graphic designers to magazine editors all have been willing to share their expertise and experiences of the industry. We took the time out to sit down and get to know them a little better.

Alec Dudson

Andy Lodge

Ben Freeman

DRME

Hungry Sandwich Club

Numiko

Something More

Alec Dudson Alec Dudson is the innovative mind and editor behind Intern Magazine, a bi annual independent print publication concerned with internships in the creative field. He recently visited us to run a workshop based on the creation of independent magazine concepts. We took the time to question him on his own experience of interning as well as creating a independent magazine. www.intern-mag.com www.alecdudson.co.uk

When did you first become interested in art and design?

What advice would you give to young professional’s thinking of setting up there own studio?

Primary School

Talk to as many people in the business as possible, everybody’s journey is a different one but there’s something to learn from them all.

What inspires your creative practice? The constant need to make the next job better than the last. Do you think it’s become easier or more difficult for young designers to get noticed with in the industry? Technology has made it so much easier to discover, research, follow and get in touch with companies all over the world. Combine this with increasing numbers of graduates means it’s even harder to get that first job, they are out there but the companies recruiting can afford to take their pick of the best. And what is the best way to get noticed? Great work, presented well with understanding and passion. What advice would you give to young creatives about to enter industry? Make the most of Social Media (Linked in as well as Twitter). Research the companies you want to work for thoroughly. Work hard and be passionate about everything you do. What is your favourite exhibition you’ve been to this year? Haven’t been to any this year yet but my favourite from last year was Philip-Lorca diCorcia at The Hepworth Wakefield. What is your favourite piece of work you have designed? I’m pretty pleased with how the new ‘Saltaire XS’ range brand turned out for Saltaire Brewery. What are the benefits of being a self employed designer & art director? It’s definitely more rewarding but there’s more responsibility too. You might have complete autonomy, but dealing with every other aspect of the business threatens the time you want to spend being creative.

What is your favourite typeface? At the minute it’s GT Sectra and Neology Grotesque as we’ve just used them both on our new brand. What would be your dream brief? I really don’t have one. Often the briefs that initially seem to be the least interesting, bring the most rewarding outcomes.

Andy Lodge

When did you first become interested in art and design?

What advice would you give to young professional’s thinking of setting up there own studio?

Primary School

Talk to as many people in the business as possible, everybody’s journey is a different one but there’s something to learn from them all.

Andy Lodge is a creative director and designer, he visited the level 6 students to run portfolio critiques and provide information on networking with in the graphic design industry. His keen eye for layout and vast array of contacts was extremely beneficial in helping the students build strong portfolios, so it was only natural to ask him what he looks for in graduate design portfolios.

Technology has made it so much easier to discover, research, follow and get in touch with companies all over the world. Combine this with increasing numbers of graduates means it’s even harder to get that first job, they are out there but the companies recruiting can afford to take their pick of the best.

www.andylodge.com

And what is the best way to get noticed? Great work, presented well with understanding and passion. What advice would you give to young creatives about to enter industry? Make the most of Social Media (Linked in as well as Twitter). Research the companies you want to work for thoroughly. Work hard and be passionate about everything you do. What is your favourite exhibition you’ve been to this year? Haven’t been to any this year yet but my favourite from last year was Philip-Lorca diCorcia at The Hepworth Wakefield. What is your favourite piece of work you have designed? I’m pretty pleased with how the new ‘Saltaire XS’ range brand turned out for Saltaire Brewery. What are the benefits of being a self employed designer & art director? It’s definitely more rewarding but there’s more responsibility too. You might have complete autonomy, but dealing with every other aspect of the business threatens the time you want to spend being creative.

Ben Freeman

When was ditto founded? Ditto was founded 5 and a half years ago What does ditto do? We are a publishing company we do everything to do with publishing design produce and publish books, as well as help other people to publish their material as well. We also do training workshops and consultancy. How do you go about setting up your own print studio?

Ben Freeman is the cofounder and owner of Ditto press, a primarily risograph printing press and publisher. With his vast array of knowledge and wisdom in the creative field he helped the graphic design students discover and explore their methodologies whilst visiting the college. We took the opportunity to ask Ben about the ins and outs of start up businesses and how to turn your passion in to a career.

We did a very thorough business plan and took out a loan that we used to buy equipment. We did it how you’re supposed to set up a business really, which is quite boring, but it pays off in the long term. What type of printing do you specialise in?

Dittopress.co.uk

We specialise in riso printing and have just purchased an off set press. So off set printing, riso printing, but also we will use any print process if it is appropriate for the project. So sometimes there will be a bit of screen printing and a bit of foil blocking. What first attracted you to risograph printing? It’s cheap and colourful. That’s it. We were the first people to come up with this business model using this machine to print for other people and publish our own stuff and turn it in to a thing. Are you passionate about any other printing techniques? I’m not really passionate about any printing techniques, they are just tools. It’s just a vehicle for an idea and for artwork. So I love Offset printing, I love riso printing, I love screen-printing. The thing that I really enjoy is problem solving. With in printing there are so many problems everyday. Like how to get this thing and that thing to work and look how you want it. How have you turned your passion in to a career? Just being really, really pig headed about stuff. And also we went through a long period of being really, really skint, and I think there has often been times when I have thought I could just go and get a job in an ad agency and get paid ten times what I am getting paid and not have to stress and leave work at six. But actually the truth is I really enjoy running a business and not having a boss and being able to decide what we do.

The answer of turning your passion in to a career is being really clear in what your passion actually is. Because as I was saying earlier there are things that I would like to do that I don’t have time to do. What are you hoping the students will get from your workshops? What I hope they will learn is how to think about the way that they work in a more individual way and not just do what they think people expect to see. Because that’s just boring. What has been your favourite project to work on? I’ve had lots of projects that seem like a dream project when they started and they turn in to a nightmare, or projects starting off that seem really boring and turning in to dream projects. My longest term client produces high end furniture and lamps, and although I think their work is really beautiful its not something that I ever thought that one day I want to do all the branding for a company that makes high end door knobs for hotels. But it’s turned in to the most rewarding working relationship over the past 7 or 8 years. It’s not something I ever expected to love, but I love it. What advice would you give to students using external printers such as your own? Go to printing presses and watch how it’s down. Learn how printing works. Don’t just send things to printers and expect them to come back they way you want them to look, that’s just silly.

DR ME

Who and what is DR.ME? DR - DR.ME is a creative studio based in Salford Manchester and we work on various types of projects ranging from graphic design, illustration, moving image… ME - Advertising? DR – No. Art direction. Where did the name DR.ME come form?

DRME are a design duo based in Salford made up of Ryan Doyle and Mark Edwards. Established in 2010 they have created a unique aesthetic using collage. During a workshop they challenged the students to switch off the computers and create designs using the resources around them. The briefs they delivered where briefs that they too had worked on. This refreshing and engaging workshop really challenged the students, but paid off with great results. We sat down with them to find out more about their working relationship.

ME – It’s a miss ordered anagram of both our names, Ryan Doyle and Mark Edwards… We were drunk when we thought of it. DR – All the best ideas come when you’re drunk What led you both to become designers, what is your background and where do you come from?

Dr-me.com

DR – Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be a cartoonist, so the way I thought I could become that was to go to university. I did a foundation course, still wanting to become a cartoonist, but that turned in to my tutor telling me I was better at graphic design, and that’s how it came about for me. ME – I used to play in bands when I was a kid and I was always a lot more interested in designing the cd covers and band posters than I ever was actually. Playing in the band. So I did an art foundation and found out it was graphic design that I wanted to do.

ME – Rather than just going straight to a design blog, your favourite magazine or book or something like that. Having people around you to talk about your work and bounce ideas with that maybe aren’t from your background to get a different perspective. DR – I tend to stay away from any kind of design blogs as well sometimes you can be subconsciously influenced by them. What is the importance of finding you’re individuality with in the design industry? ME – Huge. It kind of sounds like a joke but it is a massive thing, and I still think we will try and work in different ways going forward. I’d be very sceptical for someone to come and say in 5 years time you will still be working in the same way as you are working today. We tend to think if we finish a project we’ll just be like ‘that is the best shit we’ve ever done, it’s fucking amazing’ and then a year later we think actually its not very good. Who are some of your biggest clients? ME – Manchester international festival, young Turks DR – Sony ME – yeah Sony, Red bull, the XX. Did you meet the XX when you designed for them?

What were the first jobs you ever had? ME – I worked as a waiter in the Quaker Tea Rooms in Kendal DR – I worked in Matalan in Perth. What about design jobs? DR – Our first design job was for Umbro, they got us to design a tee shirt for the European cup that was held in Poland and Ukraine. So we did a tee shirt and a football design and that was our first job as a studio. ME – Yes I suppose that was our first proper big paid job. DR - But before that we were doing self-initiated jobs, stuff like valentines cards. Who or what would you say inspires your creative practices? DR- Musicians, artists, illustrators, it may sound cheesy but it helps to be surrounded by other creatives…

ME – We met Jamie once, he was really nice. DR – Its was cool because we’ve seen a picture of them and they had a cap on that we designed… ME – The Mexico poster design that we made, Young Turks had hats made. It’s funny working for them because initially when me and Ryan became friends we went to an XX gig at the death institute and it was their second show or something like that. What is your favourite piece of work that you have created? DR – We made a music video for a band called Dutch Uncles which was all stop motion, it took us 2 months. The process was very long. We tried to keep it quite traditional, it was cutting paper out and moving it and stuff, but the final product at the end when it became a music video was so satisfying, because you know how much work you put in to it.

So that was probably my favourite piece. ME - I’d agree with that, most intensive, but most rewarding. What advice would you give in regards to setting up your own studio? DR – Have a website, definitely. ME – Make a list and continue to make a list every year. DR – Every year we make a list of goals that seem out of reach to us, we’ve done that every year, but by the end of the year we’ve normally ticked most of them off. Over the years they’ve got more and more ambitious which they should do if you want to develop as a studio. This year is the hardest one so far; we haven’t got many of them yet… ME – We’re going to Miami. What advice would you give in regards to setting up your own studio? DR – Have a website, definitely. ME – Make a list and continue to make a list every year. DR – Every year we make a list of goals that seem out of reach to us, we’ve done that every year, but by the end of the year we’ve normally ticked most of them off. Over the years they’ve got more and more ambitious which they should do if you want to develop as a studio. This year is the hardest one so far; we haven’t got many of them yet… ME – We’re going to Miami. What was the definitive moment you decided to start up your own studio and why? DR – I remember walking home from a night out ME – I think that’s when we came up with the name as well. So I don’t know if it was the name that came first or the idea of working together. No, I think it was the idea of working together first. DR – During our course as well we were very likeminded and everyone else had their own thing, they weren’t really interested in starting up their own studio they were more interested in going in to big studios in London, which is fair enough but we both had a common interest in starting our own studio because we both liked the same designers. ME – And then we got the internship with Mike Perry in New York together, so that was a big thing.

What is your favourite country you’ve visited? ME – I love New York. It’s a great place to live. I like Barcelona but haven’t visited there for years. DR – I like Sweden I went to Stockholm once, which was really good. ME – Dublin is also really nice, we went to Box set which is a design festival there. It’s really good I went about 3 or 4 years ago. It’s a beautiful city, I kind of wish as good to cycle around Manchester as it was in Dublin.

“ It may sound cheesy but it helps to be surrounded by other creatives .”

Hungry Sandwhich Club Martin and Andy are familiar faces to many of the graphic design students. This design duo graduated from the graphic design degree in 2014, with their bright and fun illustrations the pair have gone from strength to strength since collaborating through out their time at Leeds College of Art. We visited them at their studio space provided by the university at Duke studios.

hungrysandwich.club

Numiko

Who and what is Numiko? We are a digital agency with an abundance of passion, expertise and energy, which we use to help our clients achieve wonderful things through user research, design and technology. Our clients include Design Council, Channel 4, Nesta, WaterAid and Goldsmiths, University of London. What does the name Numiko mean?

Numiko are a digital design agency based in Leeds. Having worked for major clients over a long time span, we couldn’t miss the opportunity to quiz them over the digital design industry.

After graduating from Uni in 2006, six of us got together to form New Media Collective. It was an exciting time and by pooling our talent and skills across But a few years’ later, six became five, then four and we weren’t really much of a collective anymore. The company was beginning to change with us employing some exceptionally talented people and we had created a portfolio of really high-profile clients. It was time for a rebrand and from playing with newme-co, ‘Numiko’ was born! We’re pleased to say nearly 15 years on, three of the original six still work at Numiko (along with 20 other people!). Describe your design aesthetic in three words? Crafted, Inspired, Engaging What is the importance of digital agencies? When we started out in 2000, we were part of an exciting new world of ‘new media’ but now we’re joined by loads of other digital innovators all vying for audience share. We try to be different - our team is made up of researchers, strategists and designers. We solve problems and go on to realise them. We’re interested in what makes audiences tick and the most exciting ways to engage with them, time and time again. The online environment is so fast-paced – it’s our job to keep ahead of trends and audience behaivour, and to then use this insight to create experiences that make a positive difference to real peoples’ lives.

The discovery stage of the project took six months alone, as we engaged with stakeholders and users to find out what was wrong with the current platform and what could be better. From this research we identified 48 different user groups! To be able to design for all these different users, we grouped them into seven categories, which enabled us to define functionality and content requirements across the site. From here we created a definitive set of design principles to ensure a consistent and coherent experience throughout the site. These included focusing on the important content, using bold imagery and typography, and championing functionality to create a simple and elegant design. We settled on a series of design patterns that could be deployed across dynamically generated pages – these patterns became our building blocks; like lego, every pattern fits together in browser. In terms of design what is your favourite website and why? Without saying it would have to be designcouncil. org.uk! We developed this site over a 12 month period and it engaged everyone in the studio at one time or another – and it still does. We wereexcited about this project before we even won the tender, so to be given the brief was such an exciting moment.The main aim for this project was to create and organic and intuitive user journey through a beautifully crafted site; mirroring the Design Council’s own objectives of creating functional and innovative designs that better people’s lives. When the site launched in February 2014, it received critical acclaim from the design community, in the UK and abroad. It was named Awwwards Site of the Day – an accolade voted for by industry professionals with an interest in design, usability and creativity. It also featured in Design Week and was listed in .net magazine as “an inspirational site”.

What has been your most rewarding brief?

What is the importance of ethical design in your studio?

The brief we were given by the Design Council was ginormous, and we were allowed to really get our teeth into it and completely redo the website from the bottom up. The main objective was to create a site which re-established the public face of the Design Council and cement it as the common denominator across everything design, in all areas of society and industry.

We don’t work with clients that sell cars, or Lynx. We come to work and solve problems on things that we really care about, for people we enjoy working with. We always focus on the users and creating organic and intuitive user journeys. Users are always at the heart of our designs - not how much profit we might be making from a job.

How do you create a friendly studio culture with a large number of employees? We have an open plan studio with break-out spaces for people to sketch, share ideas and play games if they want! Everyone is treated equally and we value and respect the uniqueness that each person brings with them when they walk through the door. We encourage people to walk or ride a bike to work – we like to keep fit. We get a massive box of fruit delivered each week from Leeds Market that everyone can tuck into - healthy body, healthy mind and all that!More seriously, we share our experiences, successes and failures so we can grow together as a team and provide a better service to our staff and our clients. What is the relationship between a designer and a developer? Instead of passing projects through the studio like a production line, we work on projects in cross disciplinary teams. This enables designers and developers to work collaboratively from start to finish on projects. We live in a device-agnostic world where websites need to look and function brilliantly no matter the device, and this is only possible when you have designers and developers working together to solve each and every part of a website together. What advice would you give to a young creative wanting to join a digital design agency? Our advice would be to gain as much experience and feedback about your work while studying. Build up your portfolio and make it available online – potential employers will want to see examples of your work. Enter competitions and try and gain valuable experience as an intern. You don’t need to be able to code to be a digital designer but having an understanding of the basic structure of websites and even a little knowledge of HTML can go a long way. If you could redesign any website which one would it be and why? Wikipedia would be quite the challenge! Simply because of how important it has become to everyone online - it’s used by all for information about every kind of subject. Redesigning a site like that would be a huge undertaking - it’d be great! What is your favourite UK city? Leeds, of course.

“ It may sound cheesy but it helps to be surrounded by other creatives .”

Somthing More Something more are a multidiscipline design studio based in Leeds. They believe that every brand should be a wonderful experience. The trio ran a work shop challenging the graphic design students to follow their motto and create a wonderful brand experience from mundane subjects such as water suppliers and train services. Their enthusiasm and positive out look on the importance of good design was both inspiring and motivating.

Who and what is Something More? We’re a design studio based in Leeds, but working anywhere and everywhere. At the moment we are made up of three partners, Jon, Si and Stephen. How did you three decide on setting up Something More? We’d worked for a long time together at Elmwood. We’d all learned so much over the years, and it had given us the confidence to go out and do our own thing. The time felt right for a new challenge and to build something new from scratch. On your website it says every brand should be a wonderful experience how do you go about achieving this? Our belief is that if you make things wonderful to use, people will take notice and gravitate to them. It seems obvious in some ways – why would you make a brand that wasn’t a wonderful experience? Why wouldn’t you design things to put people first? Yet, it’s amazing how many companies don’t put these things first.Design and creative thinking should be a central part of how a brand works. The best brands are the ones that have strong ideas and principles that run through everything they do. They have purposes that extend beyond just ‘selling stuff’. Design isn’t a nice visual trick that just wraps around at the end.I think we hold a strong sense of optimism about design and the amazing things it can do. As a designer you are in an incredibly lucky position where you have the opportunity to make powerful changes in the way people see and interact with the world. Design can make a difference in an infinite number of ways, big or small. How do we make sure it’s a wonderful experience? I’m not sure that there’s one specific thing we do, but putting people first in whatever we create is always front of mind. It’s important to be objective about what you are making and think about it from the users’ point of view. Designs don’t exist in a bubble on your mac – you need to think about how they are going to live in the outside world and how people will interact with them. Do you think your work has an overall tone of voice? Something we are very aware of is to not create a house style. A tone of voice that develops in a project should always be true to that specific challenge and client. It needs to be considered and relevant to whatever you are doing.

Left unchecked, house styles can naturally start to develop around what you know, what you are good at and what feels comfortable. Over time you can get jaded by what’s worked and hasn’t worked in the past. Experience is important, but it can also be a hinderance. It’s important to approach things from a neutral start point every time and embrace the unknown. A new project is an opportunity to learn new things – if it feels a bit uncomfortable that’s always a good sign. Getting different perspectives is also invaluable. We have a strong culture of collaboration with people outside of the studio – different writers, illustrators, photographers, typographers, animators (etc) who all bring in new ideas and talents to projects. They challenge us and help make things better. What has been your most rewarding collaborative brief? One thing we’re really excited about is designing our new studio. We have taken residency at Duke Studios’s new building on Sheaf St. The downstairs space is a big open-plan floor, so we are taking the end-section to build an independent, stand-alone structure within it. Whilst we’d had a lot of thoughts about how we wanted to use the space, we quickly realised we would get a much more interesting (and usable) concept if we collaborated with someone on it. We’re now working with an architect who are helping us to develop plans for it. Giving up a degree of creative control is a little frightening, but also exciting as we’ll get something different and much better than what we could have ever done ourselves. What did you hope the Graphic design students would get from your workshop? Hopefully people came away with the idea that design can be a really powerful force to change the world around us and the way people see it. It’s easy to be drawn to briefs which already sit in nicely designed worlds; museum identities, book covers and gin packaging, etc. We wanted students to be thrown into a brief that was intentionally a bit unglamorous – but then see how they could interpret it to be really exciting. The most rewarding challenges often deal with things you don’t like or didn’t know about in the first place. If it’s something you wouldn’t normally have chosen it allows you to approach it with a more open mind, with fewer preconceived ideas about what it ‘should’ be. The problems we gave were open-ended to encourage students to establish a big idea and direction before they got into drawing things up.

What is the biggest piece of advice you could give to a start up studio? Having a clear idea about what you stand for and what you believe in is a good starting point. As for everything else, there’s a large amount of figuring it out as you go along – which is exciting. Is there a specific country that inspires your practice? There’s so much great work appearing from all over the world that it’s almost overwhelming – it’s difficult to narrow it down. What are the benefits of working in duke studios surrounded by other creative’s? It’s really nice to be surrounded by lots of people doing lots of interesting things. It’s inspiring to meet new people and see how they work. Where do you find inspiration outside of design? Go on holiday, watch films, read the news, go outside, go for a run, see friends, eat. I’m not sure designers ever have a fully off switch, but it’s important to just be interested in as much other stuff as you can be. Inspiration can come from the least likely places. What has been your favourite event or exhibition? We’re really looking forward to going to Here 2015 in June. Designs of the Year also continues to be a really inspiring selection of work. Closer to home, the Leeds Print Festival is a fantastic event for the city – such a wide variety of amazing talks and workshops in one place. What are the perks of being a creative in Leeds? It feels like there’s a real creative community building in Leeds at the moment – lots of people collaborating together to create great things. There’s a nice desire and restlessness to just make things better.

“ It may sound cheesy but it helps to be surrounded by other creatives .”