Table of contents for March 2017 in Computer Arts

This issue’s stylish cover is the work of Dazzle Ship, a London-based studio that has experimented with VR itself. “The design was based around the limitless possibilities that virtual realities offer us,” explains Dazzle Ship founder Alex Donne-Johnson. “An initial geometric shape was created, and then repeated in a fractal fashion until it formed new patterns within the structure.” Dazzle Ship’s concept was based on the idea that VR can create illusions and worlds that are impossible within the constraints of our current reality. “One of the biggest challenges was trying to work with the theme of optical illusions and abstraction, but at the same time still achieve legible typography,” Donne-Johnson admits. “These are not things that go handin- hand easily, so compromises had to be made. The cover was…

NICK CARSON EDITOR This month, Nick has been busy planning ahead. He booked a wedding venue by the side of a loch in Scotland, and started assembling the judging panel for this year’s Brand Impact Awards. JO GULLIVER ART EDITOR Aiming to celebrate her birthday for a whole month, Jo’s latest treat took her to Snowdon. To balance all the fun, she’s gone vegan for January, and has been trying (but failing) to tackle her fear of deep water. ROSIE HILDER OPERATIONS EDITOR To celebrate turning 30, Rosie went to Paris with her boyfriend. She had a lovely time eating too much and admiring the sights, and has also reaffirmed that she definitely cannot speak French. KEY CONTRIBUTORS GARETH JONES VIDEOGRAPHER This month, Gareth has been shooting corporate videos in…

R osalind Freeborn spent her post-graduate art diploma painting in oils, but a fascination with paper soon took over, and she found a niche creating portraits of people in her unusual paper collage style. Recently, she’s started an art-based lampshade company called Papershades, which specialises in floral designs, and operates out of her studio in London’s Muswell Hill. Here, she reveals how it came about... What gave you the idea for Papershades? For years I looked at lampshades – my own and in other people’s houses – and thought how boring they were. I wanted to find a way to make them into art, whether the light was on or off. I spent a lot of time looking at the way lampshades were constructed and decided I had to do…

Photomontage illustrator Eleanor Shakespeare works for a range of clients and contexts and mostly uses Instagram to post pictures of her work – either in progress, in her sketchbook or in print. “The last one is especially important because so much illustration is seen online and sometimes it’s helpful to see it in its print context,” she notes. Believing that people want to see behind the scenes of a designer’s life as well as their work, Shakespeare also posts snippets of her South London home or her travels; anything she finds beautiful. “If I admire the work of a certain illustrator, the chances are I want to know more about what inspires them, where they live and what they get up to,” she says. Shakespeare also uses the platform as…

NIKLAS LINDSTROM Head of interactive production Droga5 www.droga5.co.uk “I am truly excited about the potential of this medium. We have a long way to go, but that’s exciting. We tend to apply old truths to something new, and that’s why the focus has mostly been around VR as a new way to tell stories. For me, the real potential of VR is to make people feel truly immersed in experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have, so the focus should more be about influencing and enhancing people’s emotions and interactions in the experience than delivering a certain story. The user creates their own story, and so becomes the storyteller.” DUAN EVANS Executive creative director AKQA www.akqa.com “We’re already seeing virtual reality used by doctors, sports coaches and educators because of the real…

THE FEMALE FORM www.ambervittoria.com A continuous personal project, The Female Form addresses ideas of femininity and aims to break the notion of an ‘ideal physical female.’ Illustrator Amber Vittoria was inspired to create the series after watching her teenage cousin send selfies on Snapchat as she simultaneously stated how ugly she felt she looked. “She wanted thinner eyebrows, straighter hair, shaved legs and more makeup,” says Vittoria, adding that the project aims to “accentuate the beauty in variety and individuality to combat this negative self reflection.” Although Vittoria says the most challenging aspect of the work has been to focus on just one aspect of womanhood in each piece, she is amazed at how her work has been received, saying: “It has resonated with and impacted people I may never…

JONATHAN OPENSHAW EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, THE FUTURE LABORATORY “What really excites us about AR and VR is their impact on human behaviour and empathy online. We’ve learnt from 2016 that rather than bringing us closer, digital culture has created a radically divided and dislocated world. Social media has become anti-social, creating an echo chamber of opinions and outrage that has little basis in the real world, but holds the power to radically disrupt our culture, society and politics. VR can jolt you out of this superficial engagement and create a much deeper connection with human stories. If we look at the way The New York Times used VR to cover the refugee crisis in 2016, or how the Guardian used the medium to delivering hard-hitting editorial about solitary confinement in prisons,…

01 DECIDE WHO’S RUNNING THE SHOW Will you host your own, or approach an existing show? If it’s the latter, ensure it’s right for your work. Budget for printing, frames and delivery. Also, consider how experienced the organisers are. Will they take care of your work, protect it against theft and display it professionally? 02 UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS Some organisers prefer samples by email; others request a physical portfolio; some are happy with a web link. Do they need a CV or price list? The organiser should also request information for captions and the event catalogue. If they’re not asking these questions, proceed with caution. 03 PREPARE THOROUGHLY Visit the venue, and think about how best to display your work in the space, considering its size, scale and format. As…

PART 1 Fear and confidence often go hand in hand, and that’s not always a bad thing. Part one revealed why the fear of doing something bold is an essential ingredient in a great creative. PART 2 In the second part, we examined the art of fulfilling a design brief, why it’s about understanding your audience, and how it resembles meeting a new person at a party. PART 3 Last issue, we explored the importance of discovering your career goals and purpose, and why these don’t necessarily have to conflict with making money. For back issues, turn to page 63. PART 4 This special 10-part series, in partnership with D&AD, is curated by this year’s New Blood trustee Tom Manning. Each advice-packed article reveals the skills it takes to survive…

PROJECT FACTFILE BRIEF: To produce a logo, type treatment and brand guidelines for RGB Schemes, a small video game company focused on virtual reality. The logo had to balance the fun of gaming with the dynamic capabilities of the company, and capture its defining characteristic: virtual reality. CLIENT: RGB Schemes, www.rgbschemes.com CREATIVE: Metafizzy, metafizzy.co PROJECT DURATION: Two months LIVE DATE: December 2016 GERALD MCALISTER Founder, RGB Schemes Gerald McAlister is a software development engineer. He’s had a passion for video games since he was a child, and set up RGB Schemes – which he originally worked on in his spare time – to focus on creating unique experiences in virtual reality. THE DESIGN BRIEF Gerald McAllister RGB Schemes is a video game company developing virtual reality games, and we’re working…

Co-creative director of GBH London and 2015’s D&AD President, Mark Bonner, reveals how his love for motor racing sparked a new hobby I read somewhere that when asked what he likes to do most, David Hockney replied: ‘I’d like to paint a door, with a big brush. One flat, shiny colour. Red, that’s my favourite.’ Having been a designer for 30 years now, I still find that what gets me fired up is making things. In my day job, we make stuff all day long, but I’m more of a conductor than a soloist these days. I love nothing more than rolling up my sleeves and getting my hands dirty, and I’m on a quest to get this simple, tactile pleasure back through my passion for motor racing. In 2002,…

Virtual reality is going mainstream. And as the hardware proliferates and becomes even more powerful and affordable, agencies are waking up to the potential for creating truly immersive brand worlds. Following a slew of updates and new devices in 2016 – our inbox was overflowing with press releases – 2017 looks like the year we’ll see it come to fruition. Our special report this month reveals how to make use of VR in branding and advertising campaigns, and takes the temperature of the industry to predict what comes next in this brave new virtual world. Elsewhere, our D&AD New Blood series continues as we ask how to make your digital work engage where it counts, so you can compete for attention spans and even become more interesting than Netflix –…

 Both visually and through sensorial distortion, new devices are able to temporarily modify our perception of the world, inhibiting our senses and simulating unfamiliar experiences. Virtual reality (VR) technologies have often been associated with the gaming world and used primarily for entertainment. The idea of spending more time immersed in the digital world originally seemed as though it might lead us to become self-obsessed zombies with no ability to communicate with each other. We are, however, beginning to see a shift away from recreational usage towards something that could potentially connect individuals from different walks of life in a more profound and intimate way than any other form of media. Chris Milk, immersive storyteller and co-founder of VR company Within, is at the forefront of this notion of augmented empathy.…

D uring my time as a graphic designer, I’ve experienced nearly everything – short of physical violence – that working life can throw at you: recessions, legal disputes, defaulting clients, and of course, the thrill that comes with completing a successful project. But two events – both of which turned the practice of graphic design on its head – stand out as life changing. The first was the arrival of the Macintosh computer. For all practising designers at the time, computerisation necessitated an extensive rethink of the craft: no more mechanical artwork, no more paste-up, no more typesetters, no more expensive retouchers, and many of the tasks previously done by repro houses were taken over by designers sitting in front of computer screens. It was the beginning of a new…

WIKTOR SKOOG Strategic design director, Grey London www.grey.com/london “WWF’s logo is the most iconic in conservation. When it was designed in 1961, giant pandas were one of the world’s most endangered species, and climate change wasn’t yet a going concern. However, fast forward 55 years and the giant panda is no longer endangered, while climate change is the single biggest threat to all wildlife. We wanted to highlight (and get people talking about) this by designing a logo that symbolised not just one species, but all of them. And what better symbol than the polar bear – an animal whose habitat is literally melting away from beneath its feet, and one that has become the unwitting poster boy for the phenomenon that could one day wipe out the entire species.…

DOCTORS ORDERS www.saxoncampbell.com When Saxon Campbell went to the doctor complaining about a cough, he was given the choice of taking a prescription syrup or trying some natural alternatives. As the doctor stated that the two options often have the same result, the art director and founder of his eponymous studio Saxon Campbell started researching natural remedies, and decided to design his own products. “I wanted the name to be easy and fun,” says Campbell, who then turned his attention to fonts and colour schemes. “Some of the typography inspiration came from scientific journals I researched,” he explains, “and for the colours, I wanted to create unity from the ingredients in the medicine.” Campbell also drew upon the product’s ingredients in the photoshoot: “It’s my favourite part of the finished…

DE LA MER IDENTITY www.gladstonemedia.ca With a focus on organic, sustainably caught and farmed fresh fish and seafood, boutique seafood shop De La Mer needed its brand to feel authentic and timeless, as if it had long been part of the neighbouring community of local, family-owned businesses. “We researched the sustainable fishing industry and the overall aesthetics of aspirational shops around the world,” says Jeremy Gladstone, creative director at Gladstone Media. “As a result, we chose to make custom typography a large part of the installations for the purposes of brand messaging and aesthetic appeal.” The use of custom vintage-style typography, hand-lettered cursive, etched wood, and an eclectic mix of found objects with a nautical feel gives the brand an organic, homegrown aesthetic that sets it apart from its competitors,…

1 Write a story Strong storytelling is vital for meaningful VR. Even if your project is essentially a product demo, try to craft a narrative for the user journey. Tease viewers towards the action with visual or audio cues. If the piece is interactive, build a discovery phase into the story so that VR newbies can learn how to navigate. 2 Integrate to accumulate Don’t think of a VR project as an isolated piece – develop a narrative so it echoes or expands on existing marketing campaigns or brand stories. The best VR gives the user access to something they would never normally see or feel, so think about aspects of the brand that are truly inspiring. 3 Make the viewer forget A gripping story or lots of interaction can…

P rint: it’s the catnip of the graphic design world. Of course, digital witchcraft like the immersive VR experiences featured in this issue’s special report will get the pulse racing, but when a beautiful publication or crisp new set of business cards drops, there’s nothing quite like running your fingers over the stock and giving it a good sniff. In a change to our usual glimpse behind the scenes at leading studios, this month our video team interviewed three freelance graphic designers who specialise in print-based work: Croatian-born Filip Pomykalo; French-born Clementine Carriere; and Catarina Bianchini, who despite her Italian name and heritage, hails from Scotland. All three are now based in London, and between them work across editorial, branding, packaging and more. Here, they reveal what it takes to…

1 Making shapes First, I designed the letterforms so that each fitted into a square, as squares can be aligned in a variety of ways. The letters are composed of basic geometric shapes: circles and rectangles, aligned to a grid. 2 Colouring in I coloured the letters red, green and blue, then set Screen blend mode. This way, the red, green and blue screen colours blended to produce cyan, yellow, magenta and white intersections once overlapped. 3 Finding angles Next, I rotated the letters in 3D space using an isometric alignment. Here, each letter is angled so that it forms one face of a cube. 4 In formation Moving the letters so that they intersect one another on their individual planes created an interesting form. The notch of the G…

PROJECT FACTFILE BRIEF: Inspired by nature, Lucille wanted to create a set of screenprints featuring her drawings of Kodama. These Japanese spirits inhabit the world’s greenery and in Lucille’s sets of images, they embody different types of flora including woods, succulents, algae, rainforests, mangroves and flowers in bloom. ILLUSTRATOR: Lucille Clerc, www.lucilleclerc.com PROJECT DURATION: On-going LUCILLE CLERC Freelance illustrator Based in London and a graduate of Central Saint Martins, Lucille is a French artist who lives in the city but loves nature. Her clients include the V&A, Fortnum & Mason, Marks & Spencer, Laurence King Publishing and DC Comics. DISCOVERING KODAMA Kodama is a personal project rooted in my love of nature. I was researching legends and traditions relating to nature and that’s when I fell in love with Kodama:…

ADRIAN SHAUGHNESSY Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer and writer who runs ShaughnessyWorks and is founding partner of Unit Editions. On page 20, he discusses how robots could end up replacing designers. www.unitededitions.com CATERINA BIANCHINI Caterina has been a freelance graphic designer for about four years, and often works with music companies. She discusses her love of print in our freelancer’s guide to print on page 76. www.caterinabianchini.com FLORENCE BLANCHARD Florence Blanchard is a muralist, whose work is directly inspired by her background in science and graffiti. She reveals her creative processes and inspiration on page 56. www.florenceblanchard.com MARK BONNER Mark is co-creative director of GBH London and was 2015’s D&AD President. His clients include BMW, Royal Mail and Virgin Galactic. On page 98, he talks about his love for…

Glug Dubai 6 February 2017 Dubai, UAE www.glugevents.com/ attend/2016/glug-dubai This February sees the launch of the first-ever Glug Dubai. Featuring Richard Hol, executive creative director of Nomads, and Fischer Meyerhans Architects’ André Meyerhans, it’s free to attend. Reasons: London 17 February 2017 London, UK www.reasons.to Reasons: London will see a range of top speakers working across the fields of design and code – including Elliot Jay Stocks, Brendan Dawes and Anna Ginsburg – take to the stage in the UK capital for a day of insight and information. OFFSET Dublin 17–19 February 2017 Dublin, Ireland www.iloveoffset.com Mirko Borsche, Kelli Anderson and Bruno Maag are among the stunning lineup of speakers at Dublin’s fantastic three-day design and creative conference, OFFSET. A highlight of the annual creative events calendar, if you’re after…

ADRIAN SHAUGHNESSY GRAPHIC DESIGNER AND WRITER www.unitededitions.com Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer and writer. In 1989, he co-founded design company Intro. Today, he runs ShaughnessyWorks and is also founding partner of Unit Editions, producing books on design and visual culture. ZENA BRUGES FOUNDER, THE BUSINESS SIDE www.thebusinessside.co After many years managing creative businesses, Zena founded The Business Side, “a company to help with the things that keep you awake at night.” DESIGN MATTERS: Is VR the future? Or is it just a passing fad? – page 23 PLUS: Three perspectives on Grey London’s speculative rebrand of WWF – page 24 Illustrations: Louise Pomeroy www.louisezpomeroy.com…

F or any creative business, interns are a great way to inject new ideas and talent into the business. And for the young and aspiring, being an intern is the perfect way to get some real-life work experience. Plus, let’s face it, it’s where many of us started out. But there are some pitfalls to hiring interns, and as a small or large employer, the last thing you want to do is earn bad press by hiring someone and failing to treat them properly, either financially or operationally. Getting a reputation for taking advantage of interns could reflect badly on your image as an employer and as a business, meaning candidates may be less attracted to the company, and clients may in turn be deterred from buying from you in…

FLORENCE BLANCHARD _ Florence Blanchard began writing graffiti in the early 1990s under the name Ema, and spent 10 years based in New York, where she graduated with a PhD from New York University in 2008. Her work is directly inspired by her training as a scientist, and depicts abstract molecular landscapes questioning our idea of visual perception. www.florenceblanchard.com Spraying graffiti on the city streets and studying for a PhD in molecular biology may, on the face of it, seem worlds apart. And for Florence Blanchard, those two stages of her life – in France and New York respectively – were also separared by thousands of miles of sea. But they are also jointly responsible for inspiring and influencing her artistic career. The leap between graffiti and mural painting may…