Hasta La Ideas

Leeds College of Art graduates Luke O’Brien, Max Gregory and Joe Warburton founded graphic design studio Formula while studying and have been working on the business full-time since completing their degree. We spoke to O’Brien about launching the company and finding work in a competitive environment.

Most of today’s graduates spend the first few weeks after leaving university contacting anyone and everyone who might have work to offer and using up the last few pounds of their interest-free overdraft.

But Luke O’Brien, Max Gregory and Joe Warburton took a different approach. Immediately after their final year exams, the graphic design graduates started working full-time on their own studio, Formula, which they set up after studying a business enterprise module in the second year of their degree.

“We had to create a company and pitch it to our tutors as if they were potential investors. The module taught us a lot of really useful things about running a business, such as how to budget and work out expenses. Max and Joe and I worked together and pitched a branding agency and I think that’s where it all began,” explains O’Brien.

In their third year, the students hired a studio they found on Gumtree and started designing promotional material for friends and family and their end of year degree show, This is Not the End (top). They also won a pitch to design the Leeds College of Art prospectus, but the project was dropped when the university opted for a major rebrand.

“We started putting things in place at the beginning of our third year, because we wanted to be able to walk out of uni and into the studio. We spent most of it building a portfolio that we could use to move forward with as a group after leaving,” adds O’Brien.

Since graduating this summer, O’Brien, Warburton and Gregory have moved to a new office in central Leeds, set up their own website and designed identities, signage and typefaces for a band, a street food vendor and photography and fashion graduates, making use of their art school contacts. They’ve also set up a type foundry with fellow Leeds graduate Yafet Bisrat, an online store selling screen printed and typographic posters and are in the process of brewing, bottling and branding their own beer.

“It’s taken a few months to really get things going, but we’ve been getting quite a few bits of work and each of our clients is completely different,” says O’Brien. “It was tricky to begin with – we didn’t have a break after university and it was hard to stay focussed and motivated – but getting office space and having somewhere to work that wasn’t home or uni was the best thing we did. Even while we were still studying, we treated it as a day job and would work from nine until six whenever we could,” he adds.

Formula’s dream project would be designing graphics for an exhibition or a major sporting event but for now, O’Brien says the group is happy building up a steady stream of clients. “We’ve already ticked some boxes, like designing a record sleeve and at the moment, our aim is to make exciting work that’s affordable, because we feel like good design should be attainable for everyone,” he says.

Running their own business has given the graduates invaluable experience and a chance to earn an income instead of interning for free. While they still feel like they have a lot to learn and wouldn’t rule out work experience, O’Brien says the group are focussing on building the studio’s profile and attracting new clients from Leeds and beyond.

“Some of our friends have been doing internships and having to claim Jobseeker’s Allowance and it’s really tough, because while they learn a lot, they also feel pretty undervalued. We started the studio not only because we thought it would be fun to give it a go, but because we thought it if we couldn’t find a job, we may as well create one.”

It was a brave decision but one that has so far paid off for O’Brien, Warburton and Gregory, and the graduates’ success at managing their business shows just how valuable enterprise modules can be for creative graduates looking to set up their own practice.

To see more of Formula’s work, visit formulastudio.co.uk.

Images (from top): Formula’s branding for this year’s Leeds College of Art end of year show, identity and brand collateral for a fictional film festival, type specimen publications for font foundry Form and Writing, a promotional Formula poster sold at the studio’s online store, external signage made from laser cut and painted wood for Crowder Barbecue, a street food vendor in Leeds, and a logo and identity for fashion graduate Rebekah Hill.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: the next stop on our Dezeen and MINI World Tour is our home town of London. In our first report, Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs takes a trip through the east of the city and explains why the area has become such a hotbed for design and technology.

Starting off in Stoke Newington, a former village in the north-east of the city where Dezeen is based, Fairs follows the route of an old Roman road called Ermine Street to the city centre, passing through Dalston, Shoreditch and the City of London before ending up at the River Thames.

“These areas have come to symbolise the new creative economy of London,” says Fairs as he passes through Shoreditch, a former industrial district bordering the City of London where a proliferation of architects, designers and, increasingly, technology companies are based.

“They’re stuffed full of digital companies, technology companies, design companies; [there’s] a real focus of new types of creativity.”

Last year, Dezeen celebrated the rich diversity of design talent in the area as part of our Designed in Hackney initiative, which culminated in a day of talks and workshops with many of the borough’s upcoming creative companies.

“We plotted on a map all of the design studios in the area,” Fairs explains. “We found that the pins on the map were so dense you couldn’t see the map behind. It really felt that we’d discovered a critical mass of design talent that is unrivalled anywhere else in the world.”

There are a number of reasons why so many designers set up in London, says Fairs, despite the city being “really expensive, really competitive, really unfriendly to newcomers.”

“London is full of really amazing design schools, I think that’s a really important point,” he explains. “People from all around the world come to London to get their design qualifications; they make friends, they enjoy the culture and they stay and set up studios.”

Another major factor is money, Fairs claims: “There’s lots of money in London. That’s created problems – the property market has been going up non-stop – but it also creates wealth and wealth is the thing that turns the gears of creativity in many ways.”

The wealth of the city is most visible in the new skyscrapers being built to the south of Shoreditch in the City of London, where projects like Richard Rogers’ Leadenhall Building and Raphael Viñoly’s 20 Fenchurch Street, dubbed “The Cheesegrater” and “The Walkie-Talkie” respectively, are transforming London’s skyline.

“London used to be a place where world-class architects didn’t really feel like they could get any decent work” Fairs says. “But now London is really coming into its own.”

Of course, one of the main attractions of Shoreditch for the creative industries was that rents were comparatively cheap. Fairs says it is inevitable that young designers are now being priced out of the area, but is optimistic for the future of designers in the city.

“London is a big city,” he says. “People are already moving further to the east, to the south, crossing the river. London, I think, will always be able to regenerate itself.”

We travelled through east London in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. The music featured in the movie is a track called Temple by London band Dead Red Sun.

See all our Dezeen and MINI World Tour movies »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »
See Dezeen’s map and guide to London Design Festival 2013 »

The post “Shoreditch has come to symbolise the
new creative economy of London” appeared first on Dezeen.

London Design Festival 2013: experimental surfaces covered in patterns created by magnetism are on show at Dutch designer Tord Boontje‘s studio this week (+ slideshow).

Boontje mixed metallised pigments into liquid resin and painted a thin layer of the coating onto aluminium composite panels.

He then used magnetic fields generated by permanent magnets or by passing an electric current through a wire to align the pigments. The resulting patterns were captured as the resin set.

Sharp lines of pigment trace the position of the magnetic fields and gradually blur in the gaps between, creating swirling shapes and holographic visual effects.

“When you bring together two magnets they either attract or push each other away – if you have more magnets then something more complex starts to happen,” Boontje told Dezeen.

The collection is part of an ongoing process of investigation that Boontje told Dezeen first began when he was a student at Design Academy Eindhoven. “I was interested in exploring something that’s invisible, that’s part of nature,” he said.

Some of the surfaces have been combined with steel frames to create tables and chairs. Boontje chose steel “because it attracts magnets,” and because he admires the steel sculptures created by minimalist artist Richard Serra.

New pieces will be added to the collection for a future gallery show, and Boontje believes the process could be industrialised and applied to products as diverse as clothing and architectural cladding. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “The surfaces can be used in many different ways.”

Magnetic Fields is being exhibited at Boontje’s studio and shop in Shoreditch as part of the London Design Festival, and will remain on show until 8 December 2012.

Other projects by Studio Tord Boontje include a series of lamps that are counterbalanced by filling their bases with objects like stones, books or apples, and a doorbell made from bent metal rods that support a random assortment of noisy everyday objects.

Boontje is due to leave his post as head of the Royal College of Art Design Products course at the end of this month after four years in charge, in order to focus on his own design studio.

See more design by Tord Bootje »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »
See Dezeen’s map and guide to London Design Festival 2013 »

Here’s a brief description of the project from Studio Tord Boontje:

Magnetic Fields: Studio Tord Boontje

In his latest collection of work, Tord Boontje has created patterns through magnetism. This is an ongoing investigation into magnetism, pigments and holographic effects. These studio experiments have taken place over the last three years.

This collection of resin coated surfaces has an eerie depth in their embedded 3-dimensional patterns of electro magnetic movement, which allude to a dark sci-fi atmosphere.

The principle can potentially be applied to create bags, shoes, to interior and exterior architectural cladding, to spaceships…

“I use complex magnetic fields to orientate pigment particles in a very thin layer of resin. The magnetic fields are sometimes created through magnets and sometimes they use the magnetic field created by running an electric current through a wire” – Tord Boontje.

The post Magnetic Fields by
Studio Tord Boontje appeared first on Dezeen.

Reclaiming its rightful position as the hub of the London Design Festival once again, the Victoria and Albert Museum is springing to life this week as a number of design curiosities fill the gaps between the permanent collections.

Amongst the most impressive thing you’re likely to see on the circuit this year, Lebanese designer Najla El Zein has erected an enormous installation in a usually unassuming doorway. Constructed of 5,000 paper windmills, the ‘Wind Portal’ creates a gateway between the antique corridors of the Victorian galleries and the modern extension on the other side. As light streams from above through the latter’s skylight, the mills spin playfully on and off, the whole sculpture powered by small hidden motors.

(more…)

London Design Festival 2013: British designer Sebastian Wrong has collaborated with Danish design brand Hay to create a furniture collection, presented at a Georgian townhouse in London this week.

Sebastian Wrong worked with Hay to compile a collection of 34 new products, ranging from lighting to ceramics, textiles, glassware and furniture.

“The concept was born out of developing a new lighting collection for Hay because they don’t have any lighting,” Wrong told Dezeen. “That concept grew larger and larger into actually doing a comprehensive collection, which is what we’re representing.”

Pieces include a ceramics range by Ian McIntyre and an interlocking wooden shelving sysytem by Lucien Gumy. Patterned textile designs are by Memphis group founding member Nathalie Du Pasquier and fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm.

“It’s a mix and match aesthetic from working with a number of international designers on individual products, as well as designing a lot within our in-house team,” said Wrong. “It’s quite an eclectic range but there’s a character that runs through the whole body of work, which pulls it together.”

Wrong also told us that one of their main aims was to keep the designs affordable.

“[The collection is] extremely well priced as well, which has been a big motivation,” he said. “A huge part of the brief was to hit a certain price point, which is very important for us, and I think we’ve succeeded in doing that.”

The Wrong for Hay collection is currently on display inside a Georgian townhouse near St. James’s Park, in London’s west end, for the London Design Festival.

Last year Sebastian Wrong resigned as design director of Established & Sons, the design company he co-founded in 2005.

Hay also produces a range of glassware by Scholten & Baijings, which have been used in a dining room installation at the V&A Museum for the design festival.

See more stories about Sebastian Wrong »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2013 »
See Dezeen’s map and guide to London Design Festival 2013 »

Read on for more information from the designers:

Wrong for Hay

A new design venture debuts at the 2013 London Design Festival in a Georgian townhouse in St. James’s Park.

Wrong for Hay is a new design venture. A collaboration between Danish design brand Hay and London-based designer Sebastian Wrong, Wrong for Hay makes its debut at the 2013 London Design Festival with a collection of items, ranging from lighting to ceramics, textiles, glassware and furniture.

Since its first collection debuted in Cologne in 2003, Hay has built up a global manufacturing and distribution network, including dedicated Hay stores in Denmark, Norway and Germany. A strong relationship between designer, manufacturer, distributor and consumer allows for flexibility and innovation at affordable prices.

Wrong for Hay builds upon these foundations. Both satellite collection and standalone venture, Wrong for Hay is based in London under the creative direction of Sebastian Wrong, Wrong for Hay draws upon the city’s creative energy, eclecticism and talent to explore new working relationships, new products and new markets.

Hay’s principle of good design at accessible prices will be central to Wrong for Hay, while the strength of the supply chain and established manufacturing partnerships will allow for innovation, offering an opportunity for young design talent. The debut collection exemplifies London’s global sphere of influence, offering an eclectic selection of new products from both established and emerging designers.

“Wrong for Hay is an opportunity to push the boundaries in terms of curation,” says Sebastian Wrong, “We can be experimental and sophisticated but also pragmatic. It’s a platform for new work that celebrates London’s design culture.”

The products include a ceramics range by Ian McIntyre, textile designs by Natalie Du Pasquier (founding member of the Memphis group) and fashion designer Bernhard Wilhelm, as well as the production debut of the award- winning The Wooden Shelf interlocking shelving by Lucien Gumy. Other designers include Stefan Diez, Anderssen & Voll, Line Depping, Jakob Jørgensen, Silo Studio, Simon Donald, SNÆFRÍÐ & HILDIGUNNUR, Shane Schneck, Leon Ransmeier, AKKA Studio, Bertjan Pot, Daniel and Emma, Faudet and Harrison, Thomas Jenkins and SmithMatthias. The collection extends to lighting, glassware, and furniture and includes new pieces produced by the in-house Wrong for Hay design team.

The Wrong for Hay collection will be debuted at the 2013 London Design Festival in two venues in St. James’s Park. The first, a restored Georgian townhouse, will act as a showcase for the entire collection. The initial Wrong for Hay pieces will also furnish a pop-up restaurant, catered by the Peckham Refreshment Rooms, and located in the former St. Stephen’s Club overlooking St. James’s Park.

The Wrong for Hay collection will be available through existing and new retail partnerships as well as the Hay stores.

The post Wrong for Hay
collection appeared first on Dezeen.