We attended a really interesting presentation a couple of weeks ago by Paul Austin of multi-disciplinary design consultancy Madethought. It may have been a while back, but is worth mentioning nonetheless since there was some really inspiring work shown here which went hand in hand with some (naturally) amazing typography. The eclectic mix included some really lovely packaging design for the likes of Stella McCartney and Yauatcha, branding and interior design for fashion brand Reiss, and even branding for Neoco’s favourite haunt: private karaoke bar, Lucky Voice! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I urge you to check out their website. You may even be converted – I was!
But in addition to looking at the aforementioned eye-candy, it was really fascinating and refreshing to hear about the design process as well as the final product – the former of which is the best part of the job, according to Paul.
He had some frank admissions too; ‘we hire freelancers who spend two hours just fiddling around getting the baseline grid right…I don’t even know what that is!’ claims Paul. He goes on to describe how likes to just get stuck in with a blank page, creating layouts text out by eye and instinct rather than by grid: queue visible cringes from the typo circle members in the front row. But the results speak for themselves. Despite their unusual approach, these are no David Carson wanabes. There is no free flowing text plastered across the page, their work is clean, well structured, and sometimes truly beautiful.
To take their Design Miami work as an example, its great to see how they turn something as simple as a backlash into such a diverse branding identity. With some clever thinking and paper engineering it works across everything, from brochures to architecture. It’s a case of taking one good idea, but then really pushing it to the limit.
Another one of my favourites was the exhibition space design for high-end furniture company Established and Sons. This was built entirely from printed cardboard boxes, which may sound slightly cheap but really helped to create a unique environment with the company’s signature stamp (see below). It also involved putting hundreds of boxes together from individual nets, then piecing the pattern together jigsaw style. Talk about suffering for your art!
All in all it was a really informative and enjoyable event put on by the typographic circle, and we’ll definitely be checking out the next one in May. For more info visit www.typographiccircle.com, and be sure to check back soon for the launch of their brand spanking new site!