Hasta La Ideas

D&AD and London design studio Alphabetical have produced a free book of advice for creative students around the world.

The Creative Notebook includes words of wisdom and inspiration from creatives including Eric Kessels, Bob Gill, Ab Rogers, Jason Bruges and Greg Quinton.

It will be included in a free welcome pack for students at colleges in D&AD’s creative network as part of a free student membership initiative, which chairman Dick Powell announced at this year’s New Designers exhibition.

The notebook is designed to look like one that has been ‘found’ and passed between multiple owners: the cover features  signatures of contributing creatives and inside, tips and ideas are accompanied by hand-drawn, felt-tip illustrations.

“The illustrations were all done in-house and were sketched directly into a notebook the same size as the finished product,” says Alphabetical creative director Bob Young. “We wanted to include a range of different styles, so it would look like each contributor had put time and love and care into illustrating their ideas,” he adds.

The book is the second Alphabetical has designed for D&AD: last year, it produced an A-Z of graphic design agencies based in London – the D&AD Yellow Pages (below) – which won an award at this year’s Antalis print design review.

“The brief for the book was quite open but followed on from the Yellow Pages. This time, we wanted to encompass the whole creative sector and not be so London-centric, so we spoke about what would work best and that’s where the idea of this found book of shared knowledge came from. We wanted to create something that will be useful for students anywhere in the world.”

Want to learn a new skill? Hone your craft? Or just switch off that Mac and do something a little less boring instead for a while? Then our August issue is for you with details on workshops, short courses and a host of ideas to reinvigorate the creative mind. You can buy the August issue of Creative Review direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money too. Details here.