Heroes: Meeting Neville & Erik
October 8th, 2009Before I start, just want to say that I do sincerely want to share with you the unforgettable experiences I had.
I think I am considerately lucky. I meet a lot of my design heroes in my first four years working professionally as a graphic designer. It was a thrill to meet and hear these heroes speak and observing them live in person. I do believe that what we hear and read from blogs and other media might not reflect the personality or energy these individuals carry. Even by observing their works closely, its still hard to accurately identify with the characteristics the person has as an individual to the people he/she is around.
My first encounter of an absolutely famous designer would be Neville Brody of Research Studios. It was back in 2006 when Mr. Brody first visited India to speak in a design conference. He seemed really happy and excited to be there. All I could do to get an excuse to start a conversation is to ask for his autograph. Upon approaching him, he declined and mentioned that he needed to rush off to get something from his room. Probably his computer for his presentation which was coming up pretty soon.
It won’t be until the conference was over, and while I was having lunch with a colleague when he approached us and I asked for his autograph again. He gave me this:
Well, I must say I was happy to even get this from him. He looked pretty bored while signing it; probably because he had signed a thousand autographs before that.
Yearly, we would be in the same design conference but well, he being speaker and me delegate, I never could find a good reason to go approach him for a talk. Until last year when I had to pick him up from the airport for him to speak in a design conference the company was organizing. I was late. He was waiting. I had one of his framed up posters as a hoarding for him to know who to follow to bring him to the designated hotel. We got a cab, hopped in. In not more than 5 mins in the cab, he pointed out to me a Maggi Noodles Truck, with FF Blur on it. It was indeed ironic to be greeted in such a way. ‘Hey, that looks like one of my typeface…’.
We talked about the long stretch of empty apartments and houses we spotted along the way to the hotel; why were they empty and non-vacant. Conversation then moved on to him asking whether there was a sort of ancient writing for the Malaysian language and also I gave him a brief history of Malaysia. He seems to be interested in that point: On how the Indians from India immigrated over, the Chinese from China, Malays for Indonesia, etc. And of course, we talked a little about what his studio does and what Figtree does.
Few days later we would go watch football, thanks to Andy Altmann of Why Not Associates love for Manchester United (dragged along the guys from DixonBaxi as well). But before that, we had some Penang food, of which he taught the jelly in the Ais Kacang tasted medical. It was here that we had our goodbyes. I thought he would be around of this years Designyatra conference in India but was not present.
I only had 5 golden minutes with Erik Spiekermann. I brought along with me to India this time, a fontshop tribute issue to him containing wishes from various designers and students to him. It would be ashame not to enhance the booklet with his signature on it of course! He seemed suprised to see that book and asked how did I get it; it was a very personal thing to him he mentioned. He also seemed suprised when I mentioned to him that I do have some other fontshop publications and the really old druk publications, maked even more suprised. He was the one who told me that that particular issue was designed by some of his students for him and printed at the Hague in a very limited run. He was really chatty, took him quite a lot of words with me to get the date and location correct on this one:
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Both Neville Brody and Erik Spiekermann are design legends and very influential typographers.
Heroes/Work: Kyoorius Designyatra 2009
September 23rd, 2009
I remember rushing through a whole lot of things for Designyatra this year during end of August. Now, its all over for almost two weeks plus and suddenly life moves on at its usual phase.
Was quite an experience really to be there this time around. Simply because I needed to be on duty to make sure certain things go as according to plan. Compared to past year where I was just a delegate. Starting off with me finding out my flight was only 4 hours away. In the midst of packing and rushing through to make sure I brought the correct pair of socks to keep me comfy, I realized that this is not going to be an easy trip.
I spend the last three days prior to Designyatra working on event graphics and other related matters to the event. Yes, it was pretty chaotic as there were a lot of things to pay attention to. From working with the visual and audio guys, to the guys producing the event graphics, and to the guy who approves them all, and oh, the guy producing the event too.
Besides occasionally standing at the AV area, worrying about which speakers laptop works and which doesn’t, trying to ensure speakers credits appear accordingly and also videos and presentations go on well, getting a feel of being out of the comfort of working without colleagues is a scary thing really. No doubt the availability of the internet saved my life a few times, working under the thrill of making rushed last minute decisions remains haunting.
Of course its stressful to battle against time and at the same time, trying to ‘conceptualize’ Erik Spiekermann looking at it and what if he says ‘boooo’. I really think it will be a career breakdown really. Its confirmed in my experience, that designing for the creative people can be a tough thing at times because of the levels of extremes that exist in our taste for design. Letting the work you do being exposed to the whole creative industry, where almost 1,200 pair of trained eyes looking at your little booklet, its scary.
Let me side-track a little bit: Was with a very famous designer sometime ago and he told me that designing for the creative community is actually an easier thing compared to designing for corporate clients and those from other industries. I asked him why. He told me that chances of them liking it because you like it is higher. To a degree, ironically, I do believe its true regardless of my fear of being in this position.
Back to the conference; on a lighter note, I did enjoyed the conference a lot. No doubt I felt uncomfortable traveling through the streets of Mumbai to the venue due to the heavy rain and uncertainty whether I will get caught in a flood or not, it thought me of how life is on the other side of the world.
Listening to the Dutch designers going through their pile of work and the ADDIKT guys was a good break indeed. I felt day 1, where the focus was on architecture and interior design a little bit solemn. Serious. Probably extracting them out entirely as an independent event might be of consideration for next year. Ben Terret’s talk about his ever changing perspectives as a designer was highly entertaining but very real. It reminds me of how much I dislike certain things which I use to think was fascinating. I was in 100% attentive mode while listening to Wally Olins and Michael Wolff walking down memory lane. And it opened up my eyes to see the importance of finding the right people to liaise with at work.
Another one of the awe moments of the conference was when Erik, the last speaker asked the audience to point out the name of the typeface used on the stage backdrop (or as the primary typeface for this years Designyatra identity). ‘Akkurat’ he prompted. Followed by a good piece of advice ‘Never read anything without knowing what typeface is used.’
All that been spoken, I was at a very peaceful state of mind sitting around the pre-function area observing the event crew setting up the graphics before day 1. It was satisfying.
Random posts about Designyatra 2009:
_http://www.afaqs.com
_http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com
_http://www.creativereview.co.uk
Thought: Does it matter to be an original designer, for now?
July 15th, 2009It’s all a matter of perception maybe. Would you consider an original brand to be as good as a counterfeit? Or maybe worth buying? Probably, BATA stores brought in NIKE & ADIDAS to increase what people in the marketing industry call “Image” or “Perception” to it’s omni-present shops? Or perhaps simple a revenue to generate more cash-flow and volume?
Is original design good design?
Are imitated works useful or helpful? Do counterfeits sell?
In a country like ours, DVD’s are some living proof that counterfeits are in fact in existance. We have DVD-9, Dual layer, High Density DVD’s & whatever technology that we can find in Low Yat. Matter the quality. Seems that movies that are of a few months old are of almost excellent in quality & in fact, contain bonus features in it! Not to mention stills. I bet DVD sellers earn more that what I can possibly earn in a day. Sales flow of pirated DVD’s, according to sources, can easily overflow what Speedy videos are trying so hard to aim at.
Back to design, spawning the whole college that both you and I (if you’re a designer) came from is the very-often-copied vector graphic styles that once so often hurts visually when flipping any design reference book. Everybody wants to be a little of what Non-Format is nowadays. Everybody is into handwritten lettering on graphic design; be it to show personality, give it a more human touch, or whatever.
Later on, we realized that there were too many devoted followers and then, we came with the word, improvise. Mix match a little bit of handwriting with maybe a Grotesk touch to it. Or perhaps a Humanist writing with Bauhaus sensabilities? Coated with minimalist grey colors and Trade Gothic (yawn).
Look at the amount of “Best of….” books sold. Bet that a 250 page book with the title “The Best of Annual Reports” sold much more that Bill Cahan’s I am almost always hungry. Or perhaps, “The best of logo design” oversold Bob Gill & Paul Rands sacred archieves. Secrets of Graphic Design. Inside Paul Rands Brain. Untold stories of Alan Fletcher. On the desk of Erik Spiekermann. The unseen and unrealeased typefaces of Jean François Porchez(!)
Fusion, another way to scream about. Hotel buffets nowadays offer what they call that. Oriental Chinese cruisine with mayonise and french fries? Authentic Nasi Lemak served with Lamb Chop. Even Nasi Lemak comes with tomato soup nowadays (These dishes came about when I wrote this because I was hungry). Consider the fact that mamaks sell “Roti John” & even Chicken Chop Curry”.
Okay, musically, we can see hundreds of Alexi Laiho’s and Greg Howe wannabe walking in the streets. Hundreds! Millions maybe. Intermediate musicians seem to be proud when I question them that they play instrumental rock, simply associating with Mr.JEM and MR.Space Age guitar hero. It’s an ear-ache to hear somebody playing “For the Love of God” cover to cover. It is hard work but what about originality to question this?
What has improvisation has to do with creativity? Probably taking what’s present to another phase never before. Bob Dylan admitted in his Coes book, Jimmy Read did a superb version of his song ” Highway 24″ and that he would listen to it over and over again.
Being a fan of Why Not Associates, I often always try to come to a little border line of trying to have fun like them but then maintain a certain dicpline when doing certain work. Ah, till today, I haven’t officially produce an “inspired by Why Not?” peice of work at work(except for my college years junkie days). Always its a bitter struggle of being original and true to my work and my pratices versus trying to impress and making a design shout loud. Thats just one of many issues to deal with when working.
I realize, through this short course that I had in the design world, observing counterfeits busting big time on original work that are trying so hard to beg a place in society, or perhaps, visual utopia. I can testify that some people do in fact try really hard to be as original as possible visually but don’t seem to sustain through the whole design process. Problem is also the fact that people don’t seem to be generous when it comes to finished graphics. Opportunities for a certain design to give its rightful time to grow and blossom naturally has always been a long narrow winding road.
But there are trendsetters who shape our thinking, working and community. The Iphone, the invention of the Nintendo Wii. Wallpaper* magazine. Neville Brody. Wally Olins. Les Paul and Jimi Hendrix.
I hope I get the inspiration and motivation I need in due time to produce something of value instead of being driven by originality all the time. An original designer, in terms of progress & process, regardless of quality & output are rare I agree. But probably in my working community, unnecessary for now. I find myself better at getting the work done and be happy about it. After all, it’s about problem solving isn’t it? Or is not nowadays?
Whatever your design beliefs are, do give me your comments.
Seen: A few things to experience for July.
June 30th, 2009First of all, it would be Underware’s new Liza. Its awesome.
Just have a look at the awesome alternate figures below.
PDF downloads, tryouts available here.
Frankly, if I get it, I’m not sure what I will use if for but I’ve always look forward to a quirky typeface build with serious sensibilities and expansions. No doubt the Underware type-treatment is pretty obvious though. But yes, I love the typefaces Underware create. They rock.
Secondly, I want to watch this movie:
Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delights
I found an interesting post-screening Q&A session on youtube.
Thirdly, Seymour Chwast’s new book. Like most designers who read Design Observer, I was delighted by the comments made on this post on Seymour. Notice Paula Scher’s comments insisting that the book is a good read. Well, I would believe so because he has been working non-stop since the 50’s I believe. Now, that’s really something to be attentive to really. First few pages of the book can be seen on Amazon.
Yes, Milton and Seymour may be old school but the likes of them keeps me wonder and prepared to embrace the future. Like I always say, I do not plan to be a graphic designer forever, I do not plan to retire as well. And I certainly always find these folks refreshingly dedicated to their work regardless of time and changes.
I guess that’s all for now. Am busy working with Kyoorius Designyatra stuff starting today.
Work: Attempts on the wall
May 25th, 2009It’s really hard to get this up. This is attempt number two. I will attempt a new version every single month.
