The amount of time and effort that goes into it doesn’t matter.
– Rick Rubin
Reflections on
Contemporary Practice
Why am I here? To reinvent and explore my current practice to establish a framework to educate future practitioners at MA and Ph.D. level.
Quadriptych – Channeling my creative design practice, the quadriptych starting point is in words and what they mean and represent to me and how they define who I am. I see words as ‘free spaces to explore the potential of the ‘total project’ ultimately helping to shape and inform a final visual outcome. The visual outcome presented is representative of the ‘graphic design’ side of my practice, rooted in colour and contemporary graphic language with a nod to Dutch and Swiss design elements and systems used to root each piece as a story in itself while the combination creates a strong visual and graphic narrative that I hope communicates a playful yet thoughtful and process-driven element to my work.
Who
I’m a person undefined by career, thought, or culture. Born in Dublin, Ireland, a product of an island mentality, a duality that one should stay to be part of the land and escape to expand said land. I’ve explored this route with the idea that by understanding both sides a clear route will emerge, and that that route is the identification and acceptance of the self which can then be applied through professional practice(s) and education of future generations.
My influences, expansive – landscape, concrete, music, cinema, literature, the terrace, art, design, colour, words all influence my creative output.
Image 1 – the smiley face. We constantly try to present ourselves in specific ways, through language, aesthetics, consumption, image, etc. But what we forget to do is smile when we represent ourselves, a smile is the closest image of the self and a way of connecting the self, mind, and body. Try it, stand in front of a mirror, breath in deep, and smile as wide as you can, do this 3 – 5 times. Then engage. Life is serious, design is serious, but that doesn’t mean that we as individuals have to be.
Where
My practice is global, yet due to C-19, I’m currently based in Ireland working from both a home and practice studio. Global graphic design and a rebellion against where I’m from, Ireland (Bronski Beat – Small-town Boy) has influenced my work
Acutely aware of The Irish Design Reform Movement of the 1960s and the subsequent publication of the Kilkenny Design Workshops (KDW) reports, and its ensuing damage due to the failure of successive governments to focus on the Art sector without including the Graphic Design industry in Ireland, I have continually strived to recognise the incredible legacy of the literary, cinematic, artistic and musical output of the island that has started to influence my thinking on how graphic and creative design as a culture can be brought to the forefront of contemporary Ireland.
Image 3 relies on a chromatic image using ECALS automated colour system, here with a strong graphic representation of our planet, relying on a colour punch to draw attention to the key visual. Overlaid are the grid coordinates of my hometown, Dublin, set in Diatype, a typeface from Dinamo Typefaces. Together, these elements combined create a visually arresting and contemporary image that graphically represents my place within the design and real-world(s).
What
A senior creative director and consultant for cultural and lifestyle brands, my method is steered by cultural relevancy, conceptual design strategy, and above all, creative integrity intended to think long term in a short term world. A proponent of DIY aesthetic, meaning that I’m never afraid to tackle any medium that is presented in front of me, embracing a cross-disciplinary approach to my work. I execute across print, video, photography, architecture, graphics, digital interaction, and experience design.
Currently undertaking a number of projects including the building of a whiskey distillery (image below), the reinvention of a 75-year-old outerwear brand, and the launch of a new global booking platform.
I adhere to the schools of form follows function, which was never really a Bauhaus idea but the conclusion of Reynar Banham’s Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960)] I embrace the spirit of making things and remain aware of current design trends especially the democratisation of design beyond the traditional practitioners while inertly aware of the class (sic) and gender divide that has polluted and continues to pollute our industry.
Image 2 outlines an approach to practice, utilising kinetic typography to create a sense of spatial awareness and movement. Type is reversed as a representation of a recent personal discovery that I was originally left-handed which has had a significant impact on how I view and implement my creative process and output
Why
Two words – Cathedral thinking.
How to think long term in a short term world. Design is imagined in months, days, hours, minutes and now with the dominance of social platforms, seconds. But what if we embrace longer-term thinking, thinking beyond years and decades and towards centuries. An idea route din the the incredible vision of Antoni Gaudí and his Basílica de la Sagrada Família. I embrace this ideology, actively looking for projects that allow me to expand on this way of critical thought, be it building a distillery that will last generations or reinventing a 75-year-old brand for the next 75 years. This is what drives me to create. Not my future but the future of generations who haven’t seen the future yet.
A simple thought: Process is rooted in mediative ideas, flood the mind with these ideas, them simply empty, what flows from the left behind is the root of a concrete idea. The first idea, a creative path through the woods.
A simple icon representation of a cathedral window, Cathedral windows have stood for centuries, from the early works of armorial windows created by Thomas Willement to the 20thh century practice of Harry Clarke, these designers have thought not in the present but toward the future tilings the power of glass and colour to create vivid stories that still resonate centuries later.
Cathedral thinking – In practice
Whiskey Distillery Commissioning Q 4 – 2021. Further reading here…
2. A/W 21 Campaign, the reinvention of a 75-year-old outerwear brand…
3. Archival process – creating an archival vessel for a political campaigner’s legacy.
Research documentation + process
Research and process play an important role in my work, though I refuse to fetishise the undertaking and believe in presenting the research as a nearly completed design or what Experimental Jetset calls 'aesthetic translation’. That’s not to say that documentation isn’t important, though my documentation process tends
to be explored through the intersection of language, journey, and idea rather than ‘pencil’, perhaps a failure of the digital age.
Change is constant and we are absolutely in the business of change.
– Simon Manchipp, SomeOne
The embracing of new technologies, new ways of storytelling and branding, strategists, marketing, advertising, the scaling up or down of studios to market conditions (Erik Spiekermann 7), the specialist vs the multi-disciplinary, location (local vs global), meaning, all of this feeds into change but does change create complexity? Experimental Jetset argues that the reason design has become complicated is because there now exists a whole layer of marketing – and communication, basically people who are more or less creating work to keep themselves busy. Is this the real problem that studios, freelance, independent, large face? How do you define the subculture of a studio when external influences are at play? Is the solution that the ‘design studio’ should no longer have to feel the need to grow beyond its ideas, output, and process and that the whole marketing (Simon Manchipps notes – ‘the client constantly asking for it’) sphere needs to shrink or adapt a long term thinking and education of clients, create change conversation, and bring design and it outputs back to the idea of the process, a process that delivers a result and provides a sense of curiosity to both designers, studio and viewer.
Reflection
I was interested to observe the different processes and insightful commentary that my fellow designers utilised to arrive at their project solutions and how these routes were something I’ve always admired in other designers – the ability to clearly express thoughts through the use of pencil and paper, form and process. In showing their preliminary designs leading up to the final product, we were allowed admittance into the insights of these designers, and the craft and forethought that informed final decisions. Wes Trumble and Tove Martens's approach and dedication to their craft stood out as a route that I should look to explore more as I progress through the course.
What I have observed through my own exercise is that by committing words to paper, I can arrive at a final design solution that still communicates the same design and process, thought, and consideration but perhaps a part of the journey remains missing? The craft? Though I do feel the craft is communicated in other elements of my ‘total’ design approach, one that believes in the marrying of all disciplines and materialities to arrive at a complete design solution.
My biggest observation is that I need to create a feedback loop both for my own process and others, something I’ve looked to rectify in week two’s task.