Hasta La Ideas

Earlier this year, in a twist on the traditional student placement, studio Thoughtful upped sticks and relocated to Stockport College for six months. There, they formed The Thoughtful Six with six second year graphic design students. We caught up with them, the students and the tutor behind this unique initiative…

You can read the full story, which originally appeared in our Graduate Guide, here.

For the rest of this year’s Graduate Guide content, see our previous blog post, here. 

These were up for grabs last Thursday night – Matt Dent got one of each colour for his UK coin designs. Photo from D&AD’s Flickr set by Noah da Costa

After last year’s dismal results for graphic design at D&AD (no pencils, only two nominated pieces of work from 39 in the annual), the 2009 awards boasts 120 graphic design projects In Book, four silvers and one gold. So, has the organisation successfully re-engaged with the design community? What about the advertising work this year? Is it a true picture of what is exciting in the industry right now? We ask our panel…

To reflect on D&AD 2009, we asked Ben Terrett, designer at the Really Interesting Group (and blogger at Noisy Decent Graphics); Craig Oldham of Manchester-based studio Music; and Daniel Bonner of agency AKQA about what they thought of this year’s winning work.

Creative Review: What did you think of the standard of work this year?
Ben Terrett: It’s good. I think that, generally, D&AD doesn’t let bad work get through. I’d rather it was hard to get in. I love Matt Dent‘s coins for the Royal Mint. As a disclaimer, I do know him a little bit, but I think that to do something that is witty, funny and attractive with a set of coins is great. You can see your granddad playing with them at the bar, kids grabbing them from your wallet, matching them up – it’s good to cross those age groups. It’s beyond just being about a ‘design’ and ticks D&AD’s boxes of not having been done before.
Craig Oldham: The best thing I heard about them was that the coins were causing the recession because everyone was keeping them to try and get the whole set!

Black Pencil in Graphic Design (Applied Print Graphics): UK coins by Matt Dent, for Royal Mail

CR: And Dent isn’t such a well know name – so it’s good that they haven’t just awarded the usual suspects here?
Daniel Bonner: It’s the story they wanted – while, of course, it’s recognising creativity, it also shows that D&AD dug deep to find it. It’s an iconic, almost a dream project but one of those that can go very wrong. I guess it was a bit of a sell, as it has an element of irreverence, a sense of fun which you wouldn’t ordinarily think as being part of such a formal design challenge. It’s just a great story and one that recognises creativity no matter where it comes from. 

CR: Last year the judges stated that the quality of graphic design work entered was low, therefore there were hardly any awards in that section. Do you think D&AD has addressed the problem in getting designers to enter? There will be about 120 graphic design projects in the new annual after all….
BT: I think they made it a lot cheaper to enter graphic design work – down from £120 to £95. And they contacted lots of designers to encourage more of them to enter their work.
DB: The judges are of course exposed to stuff all the time. A high proportion of work will fast track through the judging – because people know it’s good. Rather than thinking that maybe the judges got it wrong last time, maybe things just weren’t up to standard. There was talk last year about the digital work not being as good – has the UK lost its ‘digital edge’?! We lost it overnight! Maybe we actually haven’t – maybe some better pieces got in and won. Sometimes you don’t win – its easy to be negative, especially in our industry. If they maintain their attitude of it’s tough to win a D&AD award, people will always want to win one.

Yellow Pencil in Press Advertising: Bristol Store Opening (one of series) by DDB London, for Harvey Nichols (UK)

CR: In the advertising sections, there are only a few UK winners. Why do you think that’s the case?
DB: Yes, their big focus has been on ‘global’ and they’ve maybe done a better job of attracting non-UK entrants. I know they’ve had road shows, spreading the net wide, and that’s worked. Look at the countries: out of 54 winners, 12 or 13 are from the UK – but there’s Croatia, Germany, Portugal, which is great. If you’re in the UK you know that winning a pencil is the big thing.

Yellow Pencil in Art Direction (Press Advertising): Paparazzi (one of series) by CLM BBDO, for Alka Seltzer (France)

CR: Last year there were some big winning projects – Cadbury’s Gorilla, the iPhone, the National Gallery campaign. Were there some surprises in 2009? Does D&AD still manage to flag up projects that might otherwise go under the radar?
DB: Yes, looking through these winners there’s so much stuff that I haven’t seen, which is a great thing. D&AD should be scratching right beneath the surface, unearthing people, companies, great work, like Matt Dent’s project. There’s an integrated campaign here from South Africa and that’s the kind of thing I want to see. Part of this is to inspire future creativity. But only two integrated campaigns won – OK so it’s a new category but given that people consume so much these days in an ‘integrated’ fashion, I’m surprised there aren’t more. Maybe they weren’t up to standard. That’s fine – it’s still bringing fresh work in. D&AD is about championing creativity, so if you haven’t heard of half these projects then that’s great.

Black Pencil in Environmental Design (Installations): Kinetic sculpture by Art+Com, for BMW (Germany)

CR: What did you think of the Art+Com BMW Kinetic sculpture that won a Black Pencil in the Environ mental Design category?
CO: I’d not seen it before and thought it was amazing. It’s beautiful.
BT: We’ve seen stuff like it done before, but I think it was just better than all the others. I’d love to see it in the flesh, it would be pretty stunning.

Black Pencil in Integrated (Integrated): Million campaign by Droga5, for the New York City Department of Education (US). Check out the film about the project by clicking on “case studies” at the Droga5 site, here

CR: The Million campaign, where kids from New York schools were given phones and airtime as a reward for completing homework, won a Black Pencil in Integrated for Droga5. What did you think of that?
DB: There’s two things I’d say about it – one, I hope that the award ends up on the client Verizon’s desk. The idea is to give away a million pieces of product? Those ideas happen, but rarely come to fruition. It’s a ballsy move by the client. Like the Royal Mint project – the stuff that gets people excited is when something influences culture. The Million idea is not necessarily about results, but more the influence on kids, on how they can learn more. So it has more of an emotional connection and is clearly not just about marketing a product but about something that is part of your life. Culturally influential work is, once again, what D&AD should be talking about. 
BT: Yes, and that project looks bang on the money for the audience: free minutes for the kids, they get Puff Daddy to give them a ring tone, if they do their homework. It’s spot on and looks great as well.

Black Pencil in Viral (Writing): The Great Schlep campaign film by Droga5, for the Jewish Council of Education & Resarch (US)

CR: The other advertising project that won a Black Pencil was The Great Schlep spot for the Obama election campaign, also by Droga5. What did you think? Again it’s a social awareness campaign, this time for voting in the US election.
DB: If we’re supposed to be talking about the most excellent work, the Black Pencil, the untouchable work, then I’ve seen funnier stuff in a political campaign. I can see how it would have resonated much more in the US, maybe there was a US-heavy jury? In terms of originality I don’t think there’s much there that I haven’t seen before. Is it about its creativity or whether it’s effective?
BT: It seems like something you’d see on the Daily Show, pretty standard American comedy. Funny – but is it untouchable? The whole Great Schlep campaign was quite interesting; there was a website getting people to get their grandparents to vote. But it’s won for writing though, not the integrated nature of the campaign, and that’s where it feels a bit odd.

CR: What about the other projects that received a Pencil. Any stand out?
BT: I was really pleased to see Troika‘s kinetic Cloud sculpture for the BA lounge [in Heathrow’s Terminal 5] get an award.
CO: It’s simple but such a good project.
BT: I think it’s very cool but, actually, it makes you realise why the BMW one is better. There’s a lot of physical/ digital stuff around at the moment.

Yellow Pencil in Digital Installations (Digital Installation): Cloud sculpture by Troika, for British Airways (UK)

DB: Yes, it’s part of the trend where art is crossing into design and technology to make something you haven’t seen before, in conjunction with a brand. But I do think the Cloud could have been anywhere, despite being really mesmerising. The BMW piece has something about the kinetics of the car, the dynamics of being the ultimate driving machine, it feels a little tighter. But, nonetheless, it’s interesting to see how art is working with brands in this way. I wonder if it will become more of a trend? You see it and think ‘how did they do that’? You can’t see the arms beyond the stage working the machine, if you like.
CO: That’s why Gorilla was so successful last year – it wasn’t this gorilla representing chocolate, it was ‘this gorilla is brought to you by Cadbury’s’. In the same way, this is something beautiful to look at that you associate with the brand. 
DB: I think it should create debate – there’s no right or wrong answer. As with Gorilla, people either liked it or hated it; there’s no muddy area where it’s kind of OK. You want people to get angry about whether things should win or not. It forces people to ask ‘why?’ In the creative world, it’s a good thing to force these opinions.

Yellow Pencil in Graphic Design (Integrated Graphics): Coca-Cola identity by Turner Duckworth London & San Francisco, for Coca-Cola (UK)

BT: I was also really drawn to the Coke work by Turner Duckworth actually. It’s great because its just a good sensible project, not that flashy, no frills. The Coke cans were such a mess – you know, ‘win a Barbie Hoover’ written on the side. They’ve just simplified them back down to how they were – a classic identity made good again. When you do something like that people say it’s boring but it harks back to the heritage in a good way. That’s a big unwieldy brand.
CO: I agree, it’s an amazing project – but in terms of the D&AD’s standards, is it a new thing, would you say? It’s integrated, so it’s good because the one simple idea goes through everything.
BT: I think it’s new because it’s a massive brand with loads of common sense. Which you don’t often see.
CO: The approach is new?
BT: To pull it off is new. To get something like that out of a project is really hard.
DB: I wonder if D&AD should consider awarding a brand, for ‘creative bravery’ or something? The reason why a lot of this stuff sings, is that someone somewhere, be it a marketing director or whoever, has been brave enough to say, ‘let’s do it’. Verizon, Coca-Cola – should D&AD not celebrate the brands who have been involved in the creativity? It’s good if brands are recognised for this, not just for being clients. And if you could involve clients in some way it might inspire others to be a bit more creative, if they get recognised for it.

CR: What do you think of awards shows generally? Are they still relevant? Does D&AD still have the same stature it once commanded?
BT: Yes, I think so and especially in the UK. I was talking to some art director friends recently and they felt that Cannes was better for them, but only just. I think for graphic designers D&AD is still the one to win. That’s the good thing about it being really hard, that you know it’s worth something. If you have friends that work for banks or something and you mention that your industry awards has whole categories where they don’t even give any awards out, they think you’re insane. So yes, they’re still really important.
DB: Without a doubt everyone still wants to win at D&AD, as hard as it is. The pencil’s the thing to have. There was the debate recently as to why UK agencies weren’t winning as many international awards. But you have to pick the fights you can win as well. And awards shows need to keep on revisiting their categorisation, to give people the best opportunity to win, but understand that it’s difficult to win. It should be about unearthing ‘unobvious’ creativity that’s spread far and wide and they seem to have done a decent job of doing that this year from what we’ve seen.

CR: How about the ways in which D&AD work with students? From your experience of working them, do they feel student awards are important?
CO: The student awards are still so popular. It’s almost like a stepping stones process where the drive to win at the student awards moves them on, then there’s a shift in scale to the professional ones.
DB: Our hit rate of taking graduates who’ve gone through the D&AD system is high: they’re generally better, of a higher standard. If they’ve been in the education programmes, won an award – that’s how we often pick them up. Most of them are still with us. The student awards have a lot of brand equity and set a creative standard.
CO: Professionally it keeps you on your toes as well! It’s healthy for both sides.

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/8nTFjVm9sTQ&hl=en&fs=1&”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/8nTFjVm9sTQ&hl=en&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
<em>Yellow Pencil in Music Video: House of Cards video by James Frost, Zoo Productions, for Radiohead (US)</em> 

CR: Any further observations you can make from this year’s crop?
DB: I think there’s something interesting going on in terms of how technology has changed the face of creativity – you see it in work from music videos, to projects using social media. Implicitly it’s being recognised but should we expect more? It’s disappointing that the film that won the Black Pencil [The Great Schlep] doesn’t change my opinion of the medium, or make me wonder how they did it as I did with the Radiohead House of Cards video [which picked up a Yellow Pencil for director, James Frost], or the BMW work, or the sheer scale of the Million project using technology to influence kids’ lives. There’s some innovative work that isn’t here but you can’t argue with the Radiohead film. I haven’t seen it before, it surprises me, delights me, makes me think ‘what’s going on there?’ Which, after all, is a good thing to be thinking when you see some creative work.

An edited version of this article will appear in the forthcoming July issue of CR.

For the full list of winning work from this year’s D&AD awards, and a chance to view each project, visit the website at awards.dandad.org/2009/. Interviews with a selection of the winners will be viewable at the D&AD blog, at dandad.typepad.com/.

The D&AD Annual 2009 will be published in September, designed by Peter Saville.

In 1979, fresh from art college, David Storey joined the team that, under the creative direction of The Specials’ Jerry Dammers, created the graphic identity for the band and their label, Two Tone. While the fashion ‘look’ for Two Tone was already well established – shiny suits, thin ties, pork pie hats and penny loafers all topped-off with a pair of Rayban Wayfarers – Storey and his partner John ‘Teflon’ Sims, helped create the visuals to go with it. Now devoting his time to painting, David Storey talked to CR about his work.

CR: How did you first get into designing for the music industry?
While still at art college I was commissioned by Rocket Records to produce artwork for two Elton John tracks: ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ and ‘Island Girl’, this work proved to be a stepping stone to a full-time job at Chrysalis Records once I’d graduated.

CR: The Two Tone work was done with John Sims – how did that partnership work?
John ‘Teflon’ Sims and I met at Chrysalis and subsequently worked together as a team for over ten years! We were responsible for a huge amount of Two Tone graphics.  As well as the sleeves, we produced hundreds of promotional items: posters, adverts, T-shirts, badges etc. John is a superb ‘Swiss School’ typographer while my strength tended to be on the pictorial/collage side, so we made a good team. After working in the music industry together we spent several years designing graphics for the Danish fashion company Inwear/Matinique.

CR: Two Tone had a very specific look in terms of the fashions worn by the musicians – how was that translated into a visual language for the sleeves and posters?

When the Two Tone label was launched, with the release of ‘Gangsters’ by The Specials, the fashion ‘look’ was already well established. It originated in Jamaica and was known as the Rude Boy look: shiny zoot suits, thin ties, pork pie hats, penny loafers… topped-off with a pair of Rayban Wayfarers… the most obvious reference to this in the label’s identity is the Two Tone man, known as Walt Jabsco.

CR: How involved was Jerry Dammers? What influence did he have?
Jerry Dammers, the Specials keyboard player, was the brains and creative driving force behind the Two Tone label. He had an obsessive approach to the visuals and worked very closely with John and I on everything right down to the most minute detailing. The entire visual approach came from Jerry, he wanted everything to have a fresh, simple, direct, home-spun, feel. He was great to work with but extremely demanding.

CR: Can you explain who (or rather what) Walt Jabsco was and how he came into being?
As I remember it Jerry had an old vintage bowling shirt which had the name Walt Jabsco embroidered on the front and this name just seemed to get transfered to the Two Tone man. The drawing of the man was based on a photo Jerry had of Peter Tosh.

CR: Why the checkerboard graphic?
As well as being literally made up of two tones the checkerboard pattern was meant to symbolise racial harmony, which is a brilliant idea as Two Tone was a fusion of black and white youth culture. It was first used in 1979 on the paper bag that ‘Gangsters’ was sold in.

CR: You have described your Two Tone work as having an anti-design aesthetic – can you explain what you mean?
Our whole approach was what you might call ‘none design’ meaning that Jerry would root out any attempts by John and I to introduce gratuitous design embellishments. This ruthless weeding process resulted in bold, simple, direct  graphics and is probably the main reason that the Two Tone style has such an enduring impact.

CR: What do you feel about the Two Tone work now looking back on it?
I am very proud of it. Partly because of its timeless appeal, partly because of it was integral to the success of the Two Tone label – but mainly because it packaged and promoted a unique style of music… dance music that conveyed important social and political messages to a huge audience. Probably the best examples of this are ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Nelson Mandela’, both by The Specials.

CR: Does graphic design play such a central role in music and youth culture today? If not why not?
Personally I think graphic art is alive and well in today’s youth culture… it’s different, diverse and it’s everywhere of course. I see remarkable things happening in the gaming industry and animation in particular. Most people download their music now so you don’t see many record sleeves around. Although I did see one the other day that made me smile… my 11 year old daughter showed me a Lily Allen release, ‘Blank Expression’ , which is packaged in a perfect replica of the original Two Tone paper sleeve!

Storey and Sims have recently released a set of some of their finest Two Tone posters in limited editions of 100 Giclée prints, printed on fine art paper, available to buy from Storey’s website. CR readers can win a copy of the We Are 2 Tone print in a competition in our July issue, out June 25.

Also available from Stoorey’s site are prints of his work for The Housemartins

Regular readers of this blog may recall we posted about Farrow’s design work for Pet Shop Boy’s album Yes, earlier in the year. In that original post we showed the standard release but mentioned a forthcoming limited edition vinyl version of the album – which we can now show you photos of…

A collaboration between Farrow and the Pet Shop Boys, and produced by The Vinyl Factory, this version of the album sees its eleven tracks split over eleven separate super-heavyweight 200-gram vinyl records with exclusive b-side instrumentals, each in a coloured sleeve, all housed in a smoked, handmade Perspex case. These sleeves can be arranged like this:

Or, if you’ve got the space, like this:

Also included in the box set is a twelfth, white sleeve, which contains a fine art giclee print, hand signed and numbered by the Pet Shop Boys themselves, plus a credit sheet. There are only 300 copies of the box set worldwide and one will cost you £300.

Visit thevinylfactory.com for full details and to order a copy.

QBN.com‘s book project, A Better Tomorrow, is set to feature a host of new work from the site’s community and raise money for the Patrick O’Brien Foundation, the organisation set up to offer support to one of the site’s original editors (above, photographed by Timothy Saccenti) who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig‘s disease four years ago. But QBN now need a publisher…

The book hopes to paint a picture of the unique community that QBN has engendered since its inception in 2001 as Newstoday.com. The main aim of the project was to inspire donations – at $50 per book – to the Patrick O’Brien Foundation. O’Brien was one of the first editors of the site (as Transfatty) and was diagnosed with Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) in May of 2005 at the age of 30. 

“We feel that the tie-in to Patrick – a long time QBN member – and his need for support is an opportune time to display the importance and power of the QBN community,” says Alistair Dance, a QBN contributor and founder of A Dance Studio.

By Andrew Townsend of Un.titled

By Michael C Place of Build

The book features the work of established designers such as Andrew Townsend (Un.Titled), Michael C. Place (Build), Darren Firth (keepsmesane and wearitwithpride), Chuck Anderson (nopattern), Hellohikimori and many other up-and-coming designers.

Until recently, QBN had been working with a publisher (all artwork has been laid out and the book is more or less ready to go) but this partnership has now ended. Interested parties should contact QBN on publishing@abettertomorrowbook.com.

(The book also includes some of the best comments left by its users, such as wendell’s inspired advice on maintaining the love in a relationship).