Personal Professional Practice
CREATIVE
Industry Creative 01:
Laura Liggins
Industry Creative 02: Tom Joyes
William Edward Hibbert
Date:
Personal Professional Practice
Contents
Chapter
Page
I Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................. 3 II Laura Liggins.......................................................................................................................................................... 6 III Tom Joyes.............................................................................................................................................................. 9 IV Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................12
Creative Conversation
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Introduction I
Introduction
f.1. f.2. Initial email structure.
W
illiam Edward Hibbert’s creative ‘report’ was produced whilst undertaking a research-based trip in London over a 5-day period within Easter break. Through previous networking the ‘report’ bases itself on two current industry creatives who currently work and live within London, Laura Liggins and Tom Joyes.
‘Report’ within inverted commas is in relation to how the project was approached. Believing in contacting both professionals to have a conversation over a coffee/drink after work/during lunch would be more beneficial for future networking than approaching as a report. Contacting professionals just for the sake of one report seemed a bit short-sighted. Contacting professionals you really admire, showing a real interest into meeting them, talking through their experiences and work was the concept of these conversations with the aim of continuing to network further. The same level of research and process before meeting both Laura and Tom was exactly the same as if I’d wrote a report, although, the tone of voice and structure changed. Before having both conversations I wrote down two sets of six questions for Laura and Tom which I remembered and referred back to but, intended to let the conversation flow. Both written pieces try to give an overview of the conversation, with some parts going into more detail than others.
Creative Conversation
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Laura Liggins
Industry Creative 01 Laura Liggins
Creative Conversation
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Laura Liggins II
Laura Liggins
Origin: Rotherham Education: Glasgow School of Art Work Experience: Creative Review i-D Magazine Freelance ODD London f.1. Stormzy for i-D magazine. f.2. This Is Grime spread.
Creative Conversation
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ithin late 2016 I attended the book launch of This Is Grime in Leeds at ITV Studios. This Is Grime is a book on the music genre of grime, from start to present, including interviews and photographs with the main members of the culture covering experiences and various other topics within the genre. As an avid Grime fan, I feel the book is something that should be archived/put within libraries to referred back to, it captured one of the UK’s most influential music scenes superbly. It was curated by the duo of Hattie Collins (Writer) and Olivia Rose (Photographer) who are two pivotal figures within documenting the culture and who I talked to at the launch. From discussing the book, I managed to get the email of Laura, who I thought did a great job of working on the editorial. At the time of receiving her email address, Laura worked at i-D magazine as a senior designer and worked heavily on one of my favourite i-D editorials, Game-Changing Fall 2016, which featured the first grime artist on the front, Stormzy. From orginating from Rotherham, graduating from Glasgow School of Art, interning at Creative Review, senior designer at i-D for three years, Laura is now working at ODD London in Shoreditch as an art director.
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Laura Liggins II
Laura Liggins
Origin: Rotherham Education: Glasgow School of Art Work Experience: Creative Review i-D Magazine Freelance ODD London Monday April 9th 2018 The Eagle 2 Shepherdess Walk, Hoxton, London, N1 7LB 51.5290° N, 0.0917° W
L
aura and I agreed to meet at The Eagle, a pub just around the corner from ODD London where she has just started working at after leaving her 3-year period as a senior designer at i-D. After graduating from Glasgow School of Art from the Visual Communication and Design course she moved to London, living on her friend’s sofa for 2 months sending portfolios to different studios and agencies. It was a real struggle; however Creative Review offered her an internship and by the end of that they offered her a full-time job. However, understanding that this wasn’t what she wanted to pursue, Laura knew she had got what it took to push herself and from persevering and being confident she found herself working at i-D. Although Laura explained how ‘at first you think it’s this massive amazing thing, but in relation you realise it’s not’. There is a lot of politics that goes into the magazine that you don’t realise from the outside. Money is pumped into each issue by brands to sponsor the clothing within the magazine. These brands ask for x amount of pages of advertising or ask for the cover page celebrity to be in their clothes. Not to mention working
favourite people she has worked with and she said Dexter Navy, who is also one of my favourite film makers as he is a super talented, shooting videos for ASAP Rocky and Skepta. We carried on talking through his catalogue and that I should email her the ASAP Rocky, ASAP Nast and Skepta Money Man/ Put That On My Set music video which Laura had not seen. Laura was really interested on how I got chatting to Hattie Collins and Olivia Rose and explained to her about This Is Grime event and how it was great having something like it in Leeds, as the city is usually overlooked by Manchester. Hearing the stories of how the book was curated was really insightful, from Olivia Rose visiting Crazy Titch in prison, Hattie not replying to either Laura or Olivia weeks before publishing it sounded hectic, bearing in mind this was a side project to their daily lives. I talked about how much I loved the book personally, from the design to content. We both agreed that the book should be something that was treat with more admiration, the book should be put within libraries as an important part of British culture. Arguably they probably looked at the target market and realised it should
with big stylists and photographers who also ask for a certain number of pages before considering taking the job on. As well as they will have little consideration for a specific theme of the issue proposed. Before Laura had left, VICE had bought i-D and started to pump money into it and by this point, after working there for three years Laura then decided to leave for a mixture of reasons. Proceeding to go over what I’m interested in, how I’m finding university, we talked through editorial design, art direction and as Laura has experience in both, it was interesting to hear her thoughts regarding both areas of design. I asked her on her
be good quality but nothing major as the potential target market wouldn’t be able to afford it. Although after this the trio of Hattie, Olivia and Laura are still wanting to push it to have more covers and potentially different publisher. Before finishing the last of our drinks, we talked through what I’ve learnt meeting up again in Summer.
f.1. Dexter Navy x ASAP Mob.
Creative Conversation
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Tom Joyes
Industry Creative 02 Tom Joyes
Creative Conversation
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Tom Joyes III
Tom Joyes
Origin: Glasgow Education: Glasgow School of Art Work Experience: Graphical House Kellenberger-White f.1. f.2. Checkpoints and Chokepoints & FUZZY LOGiC Vol.83.
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om originates from Glasgow where he studied visual communication and design at the School of Art where he graduated 2 years ago. Tom’s research-driven practice is critically engaged with politics, aesthetics and technology, creating astute cultural distillations through data, design and film. Politically-minded, his work is a clever distillation of the contemporary political and media-saturated climate, making inventive use of his skills in design and film-making. Currently working at Kellenberger-White, a research driven studio which works on conceptual approaches to commercial projects. In 2016, Tom was nominated for The Glasgow School of Art’s prestigious Newberry Medal and was selected by design magazine It’s Nice That as part of their shortlist of the most influential young design graduates in the UK. Tom has
spoken and exhibited in Glasgow, London and the Netherlands, notably writing a text about space junk and image archaeology for London-based publisher Books From the Future. In 2017, Tom was offered the opportunity to participate in a pilot MA programme Checkpoints and Chokepoints at ArtEZ Arnhem, Netherlands, exploring the topic of migration in Europe under the tuition of Vinca Kruk (Metahaven). For this, he produced the comic book FUZZY LOGiC Vol.83, described as a ‘technodrama’ about bodies, borders and surveillance set between the layers of global infrastructure. Within early January this year Tom came to Leeds Arts University to carry out a workshop which consisted of thinking conceptually and looking at the politics of science fiction thinking. Producing a prototype of an artefact that exists in their speculative scenario aiming to convince, seduce and confuse. This was the first time I was introduced to thinking so conceptually at the time really helped to generate ideas within one of my practical modules. After the workshop I got chatting to Tom for a good half an hour on design, designers, studios and his research lead practice which I thought was thoroughly engaging and refreshing. From making a good connection with Tom I thought this was a great opportunity to network with him further.
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Tom Joyes III
Tom Joyes
Origin: Glasgow Education: Glasgow School of Art Work Experience: Graphical House Kellenberger-White Tuesday April 10th 2018 The Fox 28 Paul St, Shoreditch, London EC2A 4LB 51.5238° N, 0.0840° W
f.1. FUZZY LOGiC Vol.83.
Creative Conversation
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om and I agreed to meet after he’d finished work at The Fox in Shoreditch, just down the street from Kellenberger-White on Scrutton St. Over a pint we discussed university, internships, his design practice, design in general, experiences and music. We began talking about what it was like to study and live Glasgow and Tom originally chose the design school, where communication design was known for being extremely open and research-based, and I was interested how these approaches could cross disciplines, bridging art and design, thinking laterally and questioning conventional ways of doing things. He told me the course allowed him to be really experimental as well as to consider a specific area of design. In terms of living in Glasgow he felt although it was a big city it felt much smaller and compared it to Leeds in the sense of social life and lack of pretension. Tom is enjoying work at Kellenberger-White, although the projects are corporate, how they approach it with conceptual ideas really appeals to him. He has big respect for both creative directors and they get along really well. They do a lot of activities together as studio which he really likes as you get to be more connected together as a team, allowing you to get to know one another very quickly. For example, going out to music events or going out for lunch every day of the week allows them to conversate over current affairs, personal lives etc. Tom enjoys being a part of this tight-knit studio. I wondered how Tom continued to work on his own practice whilst being so busy on other projects and it say’s he finds it very hard to. He has to do it for free as well in order to enjoy it as he understands there’s not much money in his conceptual lead work like his. We talked through internships and how he believes you should be getting paid in order to live. As well as when you’re getting paid the studio/
agency then feel they need to get the best out of you, it’s not just about learning their skills. Being positive and confident in yourself is also crucial for you to finding potential internships, talked about how a girl interned at Kellenberger-White and she wasn’t confident enough. Although she was really nice she was really hard work in the sense she approached her work like she was still at university, and although technically she was good enough, it relates back to not being confident enough in her own ability to the point where she asked a large amount of questions. It’s great to ask questions buts its knowing what questions to ask and getting to a certain point when you know you’ve asked too many already. Talked about the workshop he did with us and how we all really enjoyed it. He understood who got the brief and who didn’t in the sense being conceptual, it was like half and half which is totally fine as it’s good to have balance of classic graphic design and being a bit out of the box. He always refers to my group when talking about his workshop went to other people as we produced quite interesting conceptual outcome. I mentioned on how it helped me within my main practical projects of approaching the political, cultural and social module from a different perspective. This is where me and Tom first began talking to each other on the topic of conceptual design on studios like Metahaven. After researching before we met, I realised Tom was taught by Vinca Kruk, one of the founders and partners of the Metahaven. When studying his MA in Holland on the programme Checkpoints and Chokepoints at ArtEZ Arnhem, he didn’t realise how challenging an MA was going to be whilst out there, the criticality of the feedback was extreme, and he found very tough at first and a lot of the other students left. However, he found it a massive learning curve and was thankful enough he had the chance to be on the programme with only him and another designer left by the end. Finally, we talked over David Rudnick, his most recent interview on studio culture, nouns as narratives and thoughts on recreation of design work generated by some designers. As well as how I’m currently finding university, what pathways to I want to go into from editorial to art direction, ways of approaching briefs, and that I should look to apply for an internship at Kellenberger-White. As their always looking and they like to intern people they already know. Before I left Tom to cycle home and for me to catch my train up North, we said we would send each other some playlists of music and that we should definitely meet up when I’m back down in London in the summer.
William Edward Hibbert
Personal Professional Practice
Conclusion IV
Conclusion
f.1. f.2. Final email responses f.3. Mine and Tom’s playlists which we sent to one-another.
Creative Conversation
F
rom meeting and talking to both Laura and Tom I’m so glad I have taken the time to find two professionals I admire and have been fortunate enough to talk to from undertaking this project. I understand we would not have been set this brief if it wasn’t to help push us forward for future-thinking and networking, but I have thoroughly learnt a great deal from this initial experience. From learning how to structure email conversations, preparing myself and to be confident to talk to both professionals was a big learning curve. It has made me realise, that, yes, your work has to be at a certain standard initially, but if you can network through email and in person then it can get you a long way. I aim to now continue to talk to designers, whether it be email, Instagram or over a pint. I will only learn from experience and this will benefit me for the future.
William Edward Hibbert