The goals of Studio Moross are clearly human-centric and keen on supporting every member of the team and the community writ large.

GDE730 W2 | Lecture Review

July 4, 2020

The Business of Design

This week’s lecture included a conversation with four different approaches to design business models: independent creative, work co-op, agency.

STUDIO MOROSS & USTWO … THE AGENCY APPROACH

The creative powerhouse behind Studio Moross is Kate Moross. A talented designer, illustrator, creative thinker, Moross has build a multidisciplinary agency in London built upon the approach of direct connections with clients and providing exceptional, memorable creative by surrounding themselves and working with as many like-minded people as possible. Collaborating with some of the creative world’s best young illustrators and designers to give brands a fresh, unexpected and totally unique lease of life. Moross also demands work-life balance and equity for her employees and partnerships. They are selective in how they work with clients — choosing to work with clients whose values align with those of Moross and her agency.

UStwo is a global agency that designs and builds digital products and services that make a tangible difference to people’s lives. Founded by two best friends, “Mills” & “Sinx” in London in 2004, they set out to create a “Fampany”, marrying the best of family and company.

They believe that by caring deeply for their people, clients, and partners, they can unleash our “collective genius”. By mastering the art of collaboration, crafting the optimal conditions for a team to perform at its absolute best, in an environment of diverse backgrounds, thoughts, views, opinions and life experiences they are able to realize their mission and find the work that aligns with that mission.

LOVERS … THE CO-OP APPROACH

London-based creative agency, Lovers only takes on clients it’s head over heels about. Creative Director Alex Ostrowski says when assessing potential work, his policy is, “no bread and butter, only pudding. It’s not always possible in life, but at Lovers, it’s the law.”

The creative supergroup is actually a collective of designers that fluctuates from three to ten core studio members, to upwards of 90 collaborators. It’s only been operating for a few years, but in a short amount of time has produced rebrands and campaigns for the British Film Institute, Greenpeace, and the Royal Court Theatre to name a few. “We’re independent practitioners from different fields,” says Ostrowski of Lovers’ diverse portfolio and flexible studio team. “This shows our multidisciplinary hands, often bringing together animation, code, writing, design, illustration, film, and other practices.”

THEO INGLIS … THE INDEPENDENT FREELANCER

Theo Inglis is a design writer and graphic designer who specializes in post-war design. Aside from writing for many magazines and websites, including Grafik, Eye and Creative Review. Inglis has found his niche and builds his business around that niche. He spent many years working in publishing designing book covers and layouts only to find that he doesn’t necessarily like working for other companies. He found a steady and reliable client base out of is dark days working in publishing and now they are some of his biggest, most “bread and butter” clients. This funds his passion for writing about and designing books that focus on mid-century design. Sometimes great opportunity is born out of the challenging of experiences.

REFERENCE:

Falmouth University (2018). The Business of Design | Lecture. Studio and Entrepreneurship GDE730 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Andersen, M. (2017, May 28). Falling Hard for Lovers, London's Romantic Creative Agency. Retrieved July 04, 2020, from https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/falling-hard-for-lovers-londons-romantic-creative-agency/

Crawford, T. (ed) (2008) AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design, New York: Allworth Press.

Mallalieu, A. (2019, May 07). Theo Inglis takes us on a visual journey of Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design. Retrieved July 04, 2020, from https://www.creativeboom.com/features/theo-inglis-takes-us-on-a-visual-journey-of-mid-century-modern-graphic-design/

DBA Design Business Association – https://www.dba.org.uk/

CSD Chartered Society of Designers – https://www.csd.org.uk/

Institute for Experiments with Business – https://fo.am/activities/ibex/

GDE730 W2 | Workshop Challenge

July 4, 2020

WORKSHOP CHALLENGE

Map a resourcing model for budget and staff allocation to deliver a project or creative initiative of your choice.

If you are thinking about a generic project budgeting exercise, the example below gives an indication of the parameters for consideration. As the last week of this project brief requires you to write a more substantive strategic plan, please ensure you choose a topic or client that is most suited to your own practice interests.

Example:

You have been asked to pitch by National Theatre for a campaign to promote a new play, to include:

Promotional poster;
Programme;
Digital banner;
Print;
Design production.

Your client has not given an indication of the budget but would like to pay you fairly. There are no existing images. Please outline the time and costs required to deliver initial stage one body of work across three concepts. Also provide an indication of production costs based on your design proposals.

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ROCKET DOG RESCUE

I chose to focus my challenge this week on a dog rescue here in San Francisco, Rocket Dog Rescue. Each year they have a big concert headlined by Emmy Lou Harris to raise money for Rocket Dogs Rescue. I chose this as my love of dogs as well as my desire to help organizations doing good in the world.

I chose to lean on my love of dogs as part of the proposal so as to tailor it to the prospective client. My hope is that they would see AttaGirl Design as a committed partner in promoting their signature fundraising event.

You can download the PDF of the proposal here.

GDE720 W2 | Workshop Challenge

February 9, 2020

SAN FRANCISCO

Using the DNA of my five previously selected typographic specimens shown in the carousel below, I developed a display typeface to spell out the name of my city, “SAN FRANCISCO.”

London Market 2 Sacramento and Divisadero.jpg

I began with leaning on the first face that I identified as unique to San Francisco, the sans serif type that is stamped into each sidewalk intersection to identify the street names. I set the type along a banner wave baseline to create dynamism and movement, aspects that are very San Francisco.

I then added flourished serifs to the letterforms. This is not only a nod to the pioneer-era letterforms of the Gold Rush in San Francisco, but also the psychedelic type of 1960s San Francisco.

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Next I layered the serif type overtop the outlined bubble letterforms and added a think san serif typeface to connect back to the sidewalk stamps.

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I then worked on and texture color reminiscent of both the 1930s, 1960s, and present-day San Francisco.

The final piece is the amalgamation of the DNA of the five selected type specimens identified in Week One.

Below is a video of how the final letterforms were built.

REFERENCE:

Falmouth University (2018). Story Told |Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

GDE720 W2 | Lecture Review

February 9, 2020

STORIES TOLD

IT’S A LOCAL THING.

Colophon Foundry

For Ed Harrington and Antony Shera, working internationally has expanded their understanding of design type for global consumption and has informed each of their projects. They utilize and collaborate with consultants for all of their regional, national and cultural work.

Their work for the Welsh government to create a bespoke type needed to be intrinsically Welsh. Leaning on extensive research and collaborating with Smörgåsbord Design Studio out of Amsterdam and a Welsh text professor from Cardiff, they incorporated unique characteristics of Welsh typographic heritage into the new forms.

Harped letterforms were included to honor the legacy of the Welsh language and type

Diagraphs like the "double d” were treated like ligatures.

CASE STUDIES

British Airways: one brand, three designs.

Negus & Negus recruited by British Airways — newly formed from a merger between BEA (British European Airways) and BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) 1974. Elements of both of their identities were incorporated to create a new streamlined evolution of the BOAC and BEA insignia by way of a quartered Union Flag with a red tip on the tailfin and the Speedbird symbol on the nose. This new airline’s brand was to embody overall: its Britishness, speed, luxury and travel. The serif forms were both upper and lower case, leaning in with Airways with a lower case “a” created a sense of familiarity and welcome for the brand.

In 1980, Landor introduces streamlines the graphic elements of the logo and introduces all-capped serif letterforms for British Airways. Over time, the British Airways serif wordmark left the brand looking stiff, stuffy, and too conservative.

Newell & Sorrell changed the game for British Airways introducing the notorious world image tailfin designs which was considered very daring for the time. Sadly, it was to be phased out two years later.

The most current iteration may have dropped the world images tailfins, but retained the bespoke wordmark developed by Monotype using Mylius typeface.

An Identity for and by the Ages
Lance Wyman travels on a one-way ticket to secure the business of the 1968 Olympics Games in Mexico brand assignment. It’s a good thing he got the gig. Wyman did significant research to best understand the native art forms of Mexico. Looking back to go forward, Wyman used ancient Greek Olympic silhouettes to inform new creations including tickets, wayfinding. Creating a sense of place using he used Mayan glyphs to adapt to symbol iconography as well as Mexican tulas to inform environmental and dimensional designs. The use of the Olympic rings and Op Art’s use of geometry and energy a radiating, culturally, and politically relevant identity system that is one of the most reference identity systems ever created.

REFERENCE:

Blackwell, Lewis (2000) Edward Fella: Letters on America, Princeton Architectural Press

99% Invisible (2017) Mexico 68 [podcast] 27 June, (Accessed: 7th December 2018)

Grey London (2014) Dan Rhatigan on Ryman Eco 20 August, (Accessed: 7th December 2018)

Creative Review (2018) The CR podcast episode 14: Making, changing and documenting places, 1 November, (Accessed: 7th December 2018)

Falmouth University (2018). Stories Told | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Typo Labs (2017) Dan Rhatigan | Variable Fonts: Progress Report (Links to an external site.), 6 April, (Accessed: 7th December 2018)

GDE740 W2 | Workshop Challenge

October 6, 2019

Visual Responses

ANIMATED TYPOGRAPHY

I thought that animated typography could be an interesting way to engage with my target audience for this project. Its interactivity and motion could be leveraged across digital spaces including social media.

COLLAGE

Looking to the Guerilla Girls for inspiration, I thought collage would be a compelling execution to respond to my creative brief.

ENAMEL PIN

Given their popularity, my project’s target audience, and the current global approach to giving voice, enamel pins is a viable art form that can gain quick interest and buy-in.