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Today we are both global citizens and increasingly urban. Cities bring diverse ethnic backgrounds, identities and traditions together; and with increased migration, traditional cultural roots blur as we become part of hybrid cultures. This hybridism rebels against narrow identities and embodies a new definition of what constitutes authentic roots. Designers from diverse backgrounds are mixing references from their own heritage with the traditions and practices of the cities they call home. In an effort to represent their diverse audiences, brands are seeking meaningful collaboration with designers and artists, with the aim of mixing their identities into that of the brand. Scandinavian footwear brand Eytys was excited by the possibilities of a South African visual influence, and worked with artist Esther Mahlangu, who creates bold and colourful geometric shapes in the…

ERIKA RAINS DEBLASI Marketing partner www.advisorexpressions.com “I had a client who expected me to be available at odd hours and was kind of demanding. The tipping point was when I saw him at Whole Foods as I was on my way to be induced. We stopped to get a few snacks to have at the hospital after the baby arrived. I had notified all my clients and put someone else in charge of the accounts. When we ran into him at the store, he starting immediately taking to me about work, even after I reminded him that I was on my way to the hospital. I knew then I had to fire someone who couldn’t show me any respect or consideration. It wasn’t worth it.” BEN TALLON Illustrator and writer…

Q: How do I deal with my client’s controlling boyfriend? My client’s boyfriend insists on attending all of our meetings, business or otherwise. For context, I’m a male, and my client is female. We know each other from school, but we recently reconnected when she found out I started freelancing, and she wanted me to build her budding business’ website. My client has insisted that this isn’t a big deal – the boyfriend should be treated as another source of feedback – but the dynamic makes me uncomfortable. I told her that she doesn’t have to worry about me trying anything, but she says that’s not the issue. She insists that the boyfriend has “her best interests” in mind and just not to worry about it because she “really wants…

Most conferences happen in the day. Why do it at night? It was a consequence of the space we have, which is an old train factory, an immense space – half a football field big. The cost of installing blinds would have been half our budget, so I was like: ‘Why don’t we do it at night?’ I could see the community enjoying keynotes in the evening. How will you help attendees relax and have fun? What’s always been on my mind was creating some nightlife – people at events like OFFF hang out drinking beers; that’s half the event. I was particularly inspired by the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, a factory space transformed into a flea market and farmers market by night, with games and activities. How can people get…

PART 2 In the second part of our series on the art of typography we’ll be exploring type size, weight, style and hierarchy, an essential set of skills for any typographer to master. The better you understand typography, the better you can utilise type to enhance your design work, and your guide through this labyrinth of lettering knows it very well: he’s a design lecturer, studio founder and former Chair of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD). Peter Dawson FISTD Peter has over 20 years’ design industry experience, and co-founded his own studio, Grade, in 2000. He is a Fellow, former Chair and board member of the ISTD, and a visiting typography and design lecturer at various universities in the UK and overseas. He is also the author of The…

1 Remember: ideas are everything “The most important thing for all of us is that interviewees demonstrate really good ideas,” reveals Tudball. “We need a certain level of craft and design skills, but our number-one priority is good ideas.” 2 Make your portfolio work hard Before inviting candidates to interview, Tudball and her fellow hiring design directors will always review a website or PDF portfolio in order to identify the strength of their ideas. “Obviously some ideas are more complex than others and benefit from further explanation, but we’re in communication – it has to communicate,” she continues. “If it doesn’t do it on that basic level, we will not go further. There’s a lot of pressure on that PDF to get your attention in a few seconds.” 3 Show…

Fruitful collaboration based on complementary skills and mutual understanding, pulling together to solve a common problem. This is what successful designer-client relationships are all about, and here at CA we believe in helping designers forge and maintain these. But it isn’t always a rose-tinted utopia. Some clients are unreasonable, over-demanding, self-indulgent or worse. This month, we delve into the dark side of designer-client relations, with a thoroughly entertaining (and insightful) voyage through the seven layers of client hell, courtesy of Clients From Hell editor Bryce Bladon. It starts on page 44. Successful client collaboration has become something of an artform for The Partners, the star of our in-depth video profile on page 76. Working across a huge range of sectors and types of business, the agency’s relentless pursuit of perfection…

As advertising loses its impact, brands are looking for new ways to win people over. The latest effort has been to publish stories that look and feel journalistic. The key strategy being to hide the commercial imperative, and even the brand altogether, so that readers think they’re consuming a familiar newspaper or magazine. This isn’t a long game. Hiding your true colours is never wise, and it’s also misleading to use a totally different set of qualities – good stories – to sell a product that has nothing to do with these qualities. Hiring a top filmmaker won’t improve the quality of your energy drink. Branded content complicates an already complex world driven by hidden agendas. And what about the stories no one wants to hear, stories incapable of selling…

Ambiguous expectations: A client is employing you because they lack the skill set or resources to complete a project themselves. However, they should still have a goal in mind and a relatively clear idea of what they’re after. If not, expect the project to balloon and for your blind attempts to miss the mark. Unappreciative: A terrible client may expect behaviour, time or discounts for no other reason than they think they deserve it. Giving them what they want only reinforces their belief that the freelancer lives to work for them. Disrespectful: The best relationships are when you work with a client, not for them. Clients who don’t see you as an equal won’t see their disrespect as a disservice; rather, they’ll act like common practices are a privilege. Devaluing…

So you’re setting up a studio space – living the creative dream with a place of your own. What items do you need to invest in and what big-ticket buys should you splash out on first? The answer depends entirely on your creative output, but there are unifying elements that span the creative gamut. Hardware and software is a necessity; but so are the things that make a creative space a home-from-home. Here, our experts select the best, plus the absolute essential studio items every creative outfit should factor into its budget… HARDWARE The engine room of the modern design studio is its hardware set-up. No matter how creative your ideas might be, you won’t be able to produce the work and deliver it to your clients without the necessary…

Founded back in 1984 by Aziz Cami, Keren House, David Stuart, Malcolm Swatridge and Nick Wurr, The Partners is one of a handful of veteran creative agencies with a design heritage spanning decades, and a towering reputation with no sign of waning. Executive creative director Greg Quinton joined The Partners fresh out of college as a junior designer, before rising through the ranks to become creative partner in 2005. For Quinton, the agency’s ongoing success – it has won every major design award multiple times – comes down to a relentless pursuit of perfection. Despite having that reputation to live up to, Quinton argues that the drive to achieve excellence comes from inside: “It’s not about the rest of the industry,” he insists. “We care about our own pressure. If…

1 Do something memorable Brattested was lucky to have his placement period coincide with the agency Christmas party, and he made the most of it: “Everyone was doing these elaborate costumes – the theme was 1920s speakeasy,” he recalls. “I wore a spinning newspaper, like in a gangster movie. People noticed. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the reasons I’m here now.” 2 Go above and beyond Meanwhile, Toledano found herself in a position to throw herself into a project, assisting marketing/account executive Meghan Hagerty on a public installation for London Design Festival, highlighting the mundane design that’s all around us. “We set up instructions for things, such as a bollard, or a dartboard, and stuck them all around the city,” she says. Toledano proved indispensable, and the rest was…

TALK TO USERS In a spin class there are two audiences – the cyclists and the instructor. Both had different requirements so recognising that early on and making sure there were lots of opportunities for us to speak with both was key. EXPERIENCE FIRST Traditionally, you’d do the strategy, produce a design, then implement, but we believe in experiences first and that the identity must help deliver the experience. Here we had to define the experiences and test them as early as possible. BRAND ENERGY We could have easily come up with a Tour de France imitation. Instead, everything from the name of the challenges – Speed Freaks, Sumo, Big Burn Out, Hold the Line – to the on-screen messaging reflects the energy of the Virgin Active brand.…

This month, Jan Wilker – co-founder of karlssonwilker – discusses why the agency doesn’t go in for traditional archiving, and how he is rediscovering his love for a vinyl cutting machine Here in the karlssonwilker studio on 6th Avenue, New York, you will not find a collection of stickers, toys, posters, or other knick-knacks. Neither will you find anything that resembles a properly cared-for archive. The actual products, samples and our dummies slowly disintegrate, and become unusable, unpresentable – they’re absolutely full of blemishes, dust and cracks. Neither Hjalti, Sandra, Kenny or I use sketchbooks or diaries. Everything around us is very loose and fleeting. As soon as something is out in the world, we are fine with it starting to fade. What we do hunt for, though, are processes and…

NICK CARSON EDITOR As well as paying a visit to The Partners, Nick spent a weekend chilling with middle-class hippie types and eating far too much street food at WOMAD, and also passed his first British Sign Language exam. JO GULLIVER ART EDITOR Jo had a great time at 2000trees festival, where she woke up one morning still wearing the silent disco headphones. She also started boxing lessons, and won the life-changing sum of £8.50 on the lottery. ROSIE HILDER OPERATIONS EDITOR As well as learning the ropes in her new role at Computer Arts, Rosie sang in her choir’s first concert, created a cross-stitched hot air balloon and admired the street art at Bristol’s Upfest. CONTRIBUTORS PETER GRAY VIDEO PRODUCER At the time of writing, Peter remains undefeated at…

INSIGHT Strong opinion and analysis from across global design industry LEAH BRAVO RECENT GRADUATE, LOUGHBOROUGH UNI behance.net/leahbravo Named one to watch at D&AD New Blood by the CA team – who spotted her stunning photography journal Fläk – BA Graphic Communication and Illustration graduate Leah was awarded a wild card place in D&AD’s New Blood Academy. JASMINE DE BRUYCKER CREATIVE STRATEGIST www.basedesign.com Jasmine De Bruycker is a creative strategist, researcher and content provider at Base Design. She has a background in bio-engineering, environmental sciences, documentary making, video journalism and philosophy. DESIGN MATTERS: Designers share their experiences with nightmare clients – page 22 PLUS: Pentagram’s rebrand of Mastercard comes under the spotlight – page 26 Illustrations: Louise Pomeroy www.louisezpomeroy.com D&AD New Blood Academy, in partnership with WPP, gathers 50 of the…

A QUALITY CONTRACT SHOULD ADDRESS: 1 The terms of your estimate Describe your service or product as exactly as possible. Down payment information and an invoicing schedule should accompany your estimate. You need to clarify if elements like fonts or images are part of that cost, or if they need to be approved for purchase by the client first. Rush fee terms, taxes, and any other additional costs should be clarified too – as should the expiration date for the estimate. 2 Timelines Spell out deadlines and communicate how long your turnaround times will be to align expectations and clarify who’s responsible for what, when. 3 Revisions How many revisions does your estimate accommodate? Three is a solid number, but some designers charge extra for each revision. 4 Feedback and…

CRAIG & KARL _ Craig Redman and Karl Maier live in New York and London respectively, but collaborate daily to create bold illustration and design work that’s filled with simple messages, and executed in a thoughtful and often humorous way. www.craigandkarl.com Creative collaboration is one of the hottest topics in design at the moment, and when you hit that perfect sweet spot of complementary skills and ideas the results can be awe-inspiring. Ever since Craig Redman and Karl Maier discovered that two heads are better than one, they haven’t looked back. From their twin bases in New York (Redman) and London (Maier), Craig & Karl have exhibited their work in Paris, Athens, Mexico and New York, while commercial clients such as Google, Nike, Apple, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post…

HOT STUFF A kettle, coffee- and tea-making facilities. Hot drinks are essential for taking screen breaks and warming you up, and a caffeine boost is bound to be needed at some point. QUIET CORNER Meeting rooms aren’t often available in smaller studio spaces, so think about using room dividers or bookcases to create a quieter and more private area. SIT ON IT Chairs come in all shapes and forms, but given that you’ll be spending days on end on one, invest in the best you can and spend time setting it up correctly. CONNECTIONS ARE MADE Shared creative spaces offer phone lines and internet access as part of the package. If you’re setting up on your own, check out business rate offers on bandwidth and calls. BANK ON IT If…

1 Work to shared goals Large enough to have a dedicated strategy department, The Partners ensures that its works closely with creative from the outset of a project. “In another organisation, as a designer you might be handed over the strategy and told to get on and bring that to life,” points out Radford. While Radford and Neal concede that their agendas can conflict, the end goal is always the same: making a brilliant piece of work. “What I’m doing in terms of the creative process doesn’t always fit neatly into the blocks of time or budget that we have,” admits Radford. “It’s a balancing act, and we both work together to build the really strong relationships we have with the clients,” continues Neal. 2 Review work regularly In order…