Table of contents for January 2019 in Computer Arts

So the age-old question: how does a magazine covering graphic design present itself to the design community? Is pure, unfussy minimalism the best way to showcase the work? Or is a design magazine obligated to get involved and present itself with the spirit of the times? It’s a question we wrestle with frequently, and in truth, we’re no closer to answering it. Certainly, this issue’s focus on design trends (itself, a wonderfully controversial and nebulous subject matter) left us pondering how best to communicate the rich content on offer. If we wanted to be absolutely cutting edge, we’d have probably taken all the images off, created a custom font and typed the full catalogue of current trends black-on-black, and upside down. Minimal, obtuse and daring certainly makes for eye-catching design.…

BEREN NEALE EDITOR As ‘The Little Prince’ types this, he prepares for a trip to Antwerp for the Us By Night design festival. Talks start late in the evening, and he already has his free drinks tokens, so ‘The Lord’ fears he will see little of Belgium. MARK WYNNE ART EDITOR With Beren jetting off to an undisclosed location after Us By Night, safe passage back to the UK for our geographically challenged art ed is an impossible dream. He’d like to say it’s been fun while it lasted… AARON POTTER PRODUCTION EDITOR Aaron spent a lot of the month making the most of the surrounding Xmas madness. So far he’s consumed two bratwurst hotdogs and one Yorkshire pudding wrap, all while not having bought nearly enough presents.…

www.bathdigitalfestival.co.uk To examine how designers can create work that stands out in the digital sphere, Creative Bloq hosted a series of talks at Bath Digital Festival. “Blogs are bollocks on the whole, and we have to accept that,” said Nick Ellis of Halo, kicking things off with an entertaining talk covering “when Coke forgot who owned its brand”, and the importance of brand purpose. “Find the heart of the brand”, added Ed Robin of Mytton Williams. “Boil your idea down and make it as simple as possible.” Simplicity isn’t everything, though. Having the right team around you is vital. "I employ people who are better at something than me,” said Jamie Ellul of Supple Studio. “I let them do their thing, and that’s where the magic happens." For Ben Steers…

SIMON ELLIOTT Creative partner, Rose Design www.rosedesign.co.uk “We learned early on that big clients like the reassurance of knowing they’re in good company. So establishing relationships with the likes of Royal Mail, BBC and The Old Vic, in the early stages, put us on the right radars. That said, it isn’t just the famous names that attract new clients. They come because they like what we do. Not just the quality of our work, but the service, experience and advice they receive. We used to get asked how big we were, when we were less established. But given that most of our work comes through referral, potential clients have generally already seen evidence of what we do, the scale of the projects and who we do them for. These days,…

Could a magazine (other than Computer Arts) feel more desirable than Design Giving? Perfectly bound, using FSC and recycled papers produced with wind energy by GF Smith, its cover has been hot stamped with gold foil. Only 500 copies of this beauty have been printed and they’re all personally numbered and hand finished with a gift-wrap ribbon and handwritten note by its principal creator, Laura Jane Boast of LJB Studio in Manchester. If Boast’s love of special print techniques and a clean design ethos come through in the physical and aesthetic qualities of the debut edition, her interest in design that does good is reflected in the content. Inside, you can read about Davy J, whose swimwear is made from 100 per cent regenerated nylon sourced from discarded fishnets. Ren…

It is a little difficult to accurately sum up Kate Dawkins’ job. Along with the rest of her team at her self-titled studio, Dawkins works with LEDs and projection to create large-scale visuals. But that really doesn’t capture the magic of her work: Epic visuals bringing vehicle stunts to life for Fast & Furious Live; mesmerising projections commemorating a bloody WWI battle (which snagged a BAFTA, no less); an innovative, interactive experience showcasing Adidas’ performance technologies. Oh, and remember the jaw-droppingly good London 2012 opening and closing ceremonies? She had a hand in that, too. We caught up with Dawkins after her talk at Design Manchester to find out how she does it. What was it about experience design that initially attracted you? I never intentionally sought to work in…

When it comes to colour palettes, there are areas where the same trend toward simplification and standardisation can be identified. For example, David Shalam, founder and creative director at Studio 2br, explains what he calls the ‘rise of the Millennial Filter’. “Fintech and financial services start-ups are favouring restricted colours, typically in pastel hues,” he says. “Flat, soft-edged, vector illustrations are also popular. Monzo was one of the first to do this, followed by the likes of Habito, Kinsu, Tink and Trussle. These brands, which all target millennials, are attempting to create a friendly, human feel. But this trend is starting to border on cliché.” Jason Mayo, managing director of POSTAL, reports another simplified colour trend in 2018. “We’ve noticed the ubiquity of pastel still-life photography, especially on the New…

There has been a shift towards more straightforward concepts and a more simple and playful approach to illustration,” says Andrea Chronopoulos, illustrator and D&AD judge. “Clear, bold shapes and lines with bright colour palettes and sometimes an ironic retro feel are certainly a must. Many illustrators over the past year started using more tools such as the iPad Pro, which gives a more direct feeling to digital image-making. They’ve been sharing lots of work-in-progress of their illustrations, with sketches and speedpaint videos.” And there’s been one other standout trend in 2018: the varied ways in which women are being represented through illustration. “From gender issues to body politics, what it’s like to be a woman today is being explored in a more unapologetic way than ever before,” says Alex Thursby-Pelham,…

1. A 2D comeback “In motion, I think 2D will have a renaissance,” says Nils Kloth, creative director at Territory. “For the past few years, there was a huge drive for 3D design to be at the forefront, but there seems to be a shift happening.” 2. Integration of the physical with digital “We’re seeing an exciting move towards the seamless integration of the physical and digital within retail, exhibitions and brand experiences,” says Tino Schaedler, chief design officer at Optimist Inc. Los Angeles. “But as an industry, we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these immersive or ‘connected’ spaces.” 3. Colour ownership The aspiration of brands ‘owning’ a single colour seems to be making a comeback, notes Luke Woodhouse, creative director at Ragged Edge.…

Since I’ve worked on creative magazines – whether they’re about fantasy art, fine art, photography or design – one topic always comes up: creative authorship and the importance of having a unique voice or style in your chosen creative medium. It comes from the romantic notion of the artist as auteur. The 19th century romantic artists had a part to play with their dramatic self-portraits – like Gustave Courbet’s The Desperate Man – putting the (ideally tortured, ideally French) genius artist front and centre. After millennia of being brushes for hire by the church or rich patrons, what mattered was depicting the artist’s vision, a shade of their soul: utterly unique, totally personal. It’s still how people like to view artists. But that becomes a bit tricky when you apply…

GARRICK WEBSTER FREELANCE WRITER Aside from assessing how designers self-publish, Garrick has been researching supply chain logistics in the petroleum industry, looking into the benefits of LED lighting in film. Plus staring at dragon paintings. ROSIE HILDER OPERATIONS EDITOR, CREATIVE BLOQ Rosie has finally escaped her freezing flat and moved into a house. Apart from double glazing, the new place has a kitsch fake fire, bright red hallway and a loft she’s too scared to venture in to.…

Guy McKinley is a varied artist, specialising in illustration, concept art and painting, with a strong background in character art. His work has featured in editorials, pre-production animation, and advertising campaigns. Thanks to winning a competition to get his design on a Sprite can just a couple of weeks out of college in 2003, McKinley won a trip to Japan, “which became a heavy influence on my work from that point on,” he says. Since then, he’s delighted in simple line and form, considering every compositional choice, every shape that’s used. “The most recent work I’ve completed was designing characters for a new children’s museum,” he tells us. “I’ve also designed some new work for an art collaborative collective called We Are Willow, namely designer and illustrator Daren Newman plus…

Lapin is the master of self-publishing. Since 2008, he’s printed and released more than 25 sketchbooks of his work. The first was Expediciones de Lapin, in which he laid down his formula. Nearly all of his books replicate his actual sketchbooks — vintage accounting ledgers that he has drawn all over. They’re A5, horizontal in orientation, and he always tries to give them a classy cover using block foil lettering, an emboss and cut-outs of one or two of the signature drawings inside as a little taster of what’s in store. His books are often visual travelogues. He sketches all around his adopted home city of Barcelona, and has been to France, Germany, Spain, China and Japan just to draw. Each sells at about €20 and he’s deliberately created them…

Trends are easy to identify a few years after they’ve happened. But they’re notoriously difficult to spot at the time. Take economics. Looking back at the early 2000s, the trend towards asset and property bubbles is clear. But most economists at the time didn’t have a clue, and the worldwide slump came as a huge shock to experts and governments alike. Or what about politics? Few predicted Brexit or the rise of Trump, but looking back, the global trend towards voter dissatisfaction and populist outrage was hiding in plain sight. So as we analyse the design trends of the past 12 months, we’re well aware that this is merely what The Washington Post’s Philip L Graham called “the first draft of history”. Much like surveying the landscape by sticking your…

This year has seen more and more corporates adopting the ‘lower-case sans serif’ model, with a reductionist, one-colour symbol floating nearby,” says Michael Johnson, founder of Johnson Banks. “So now we see virtually the same typography used by everyone – from BT to the Premier League, to Airbnb, to Spotify, to Uber, to you-name-it.” He’s not sure whether we’ve seen this trend peak, though. “At first this approach seemed more interesting, more stripped down, more ‘less’ if you like,” says Johnson. “But I’m really starting to wonder quite how long this kind of corporate me-too-ism can continue.” Adam Rix, creative director at Music, feels similarly. He notes sardonically that: “The debate continues to rumble on as to whether every digital brand has signed a pact to evolve their logos to…

Motion graphics is another arena in which the trend for reduction and simplification is having an influence. “In both 2D and 3D animation, there’s a definite trend of taking on a naïve and fun tone of voice which harks back to our sense of childhood wonder and imagination, with fun, quirky characters,” says Jordan Painter, motion designer at FLOW Creative. Perhaps more significant, though, is what motion designers are being asked to produce, with a seismic shift in 2018 towards social content. DMS, for one, has seen a 60 per cent increase in this area, reveals head of motion graphics Nico Varga. “In today’s world, our clients need to engage with their audiences faster,” he says. “So we’re using bumpers – a five-second teaser before a promotion trailer – that…

VERITY KENT Over on page 25, FINE art director Verity Kent explains how recent graduates could get a head start in the design industry by making the most of mentorships. www.wearefine.com ADRIAN SHAUGHNESSY Adrian Shaughnessy of independent publishing venture Unit Editions is just one of the creatives talking the pros and cons of self-publishing, on page 42. www.uniteditions.com KATE DAWKINS Live experience designer Kate Dawkins speaks to us on page 52, discussing how she wows global audiences using pixels and projections. www.katedawkinsstudio.com VERÒNICA FUERTE Veronica Fuerte, of Barcelona-based design studio Hey, reveals how her and the colleagues compete at a global level, despite being a small team, on page 76. www.heystudio.es VALENTINA D’EFILIPPO On page 88, award-winning designer Valentina D’Efilippo guides us through her research, covering how different cultures see…

This October, The Future Laboratory’s third annual Global Futures Forum convened in London to prompt, provoke and inspire future innovation. Bringing together a range of experts – from AI ethicists and smart city planners to mental health practitioners – it was an ideas symposium where TFL’s original thinking and research combined with external experts. The day was broken down into four distinct ‘tracks’: the future of brand purpose; future of gender; future of wellbeing; and future of youth. These became the base of the newly launched Choose Your Futures microsite. “The premise of the site was to open the conversation to the public,” explains TFL’s art director Aleksandra Szymanska, “with a diversity of visual elements – photography, video and illustration, and a series of typographic animations commissioned by Nikita Iziev,…

ESSAY Action on late payments is well overdue! Daljit Singh on why timely payments are crucial for small businesses to succeed Chief design officer, ANNA Money www.anna.money Anyone who has worked as a freelancer or tried running a small creative business will know that financial admin is often boring and at worst stressful, particularly when it comes to invoicing and then that anxious wait for the money to come in. Getting paid on time by our clients at my old agency, Digit, was always a happy moment. On almost every occasion I called the clients to thank them. This sounds odd doesn’t it? However, I bet there are many people out there who feel the same sense of relief and gratitude when a client has actually read the payment terms…

Typographer Rick Banks of Face 37 designs fonts so that other designers can make their projects look beautiful. He has also brought the meticulous attention to detail that typographers are known for to bear when designing and publishing his own books. His latest and grandest is Clubbed, a stunning 400-page retrospective exploring nightclub branding, typography, campaigns and art direction. While a traditional publisher could produce something similar, it’s doubtful any of them would focus quite as closely on the creative. When he found an old Haçienda nightclub ticket on a flyer archive website, he felt he had to include its unique typography in the book. The original was created by the late Tony Panas of Johnson/Panas and didn’t exist as a digital font, so Banks decided to redraw it. “It…

“ANY NEW PROJECT SHOULD CONSIDER ALL THE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE THE PUBLISHING POSSIBLE, AND NOT JUST LOOK AT LAYOUTS, PHOTOGRAPHY AND PAPER STOCK.” PETER BIL’AK TYPOTHEQUE “DON’T BE AFRAID TO HOLD BACK ON RELEASE, UNTIL IT’S ALL READY. THERE ARE GOOD TIMES OF THE YEAR FOR RELEASE. AIM FOR ONE, BUT IF YOU MISS IT, WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE.” ROHAN EASON ILLUSTRATOR “DON’T USE CRAPPY PAPER, START SMALL AND JUST DO IT… I COULDN’T THINK OF THE THIRD TIP, SO I JUST GOT THAT ONE FROM NIKE.” RUMI HARA ILLUSTRATOR “KICKSTARTER PROVED TO BE AN AMAZING PLATFORM TO PUBLICISE DESIGN GIVING WORLDWIDE, FURTHER AFIELD THAN I THINK WOULD’VE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE THROUGH MY OWN NETWORK OF CONTACTS.” LAURA JANE BOAST LJB STUDIO “PROMOTION IS YOUR FRIEND. INVEST IN…

When you need your users to complete a goal or navigate complex information, simplicity is key, and the modern, bold aesthetics in design have been born out of this,” explains Karl Randay, head of design at 383. “Growing frustrations with the mystery-meat navigation and information overload of the past have been key drivers for simplicity.” Alastair Holmes, associate creative director at This Place, agrees. “Consumers are now used to seeing a flatter, cleaner, uncluttered design aesthetic in the apps and sites they use,” he says. “So it makes sense that companies should want to reflect this in their overall branding.” Endless examples abound. “Burberry recently turned heads with a bold step in typographic simplicity, cutting ties with the elegant graphic ornament of the past and adopting a timeless, grotesque approach…

We’re experiencing a noticeable trend towards more sophisticated typography in web design,” says Alex Blattmann, senior designer at Dalton Maag. “Serif styles are, once again, taking centre stage, after years of avoidance in the pursuit of simpler, sans serif forms.” Rick Banks, director of Face37, takes a similar view. “Last year I predicted in Computer Arts we’d see a reaction to the geometric sans-serifs that dominated 2016, and I think I’ve been right,” he says. “Wolff Olins’ Chobani rebrand is a prime example. Pentagram’s Vroom and Mother’s Debenhams re-brands are other highlights. I see this trend continuing over the next few years, with brands and designers wanting more personality in their type and logos.” In terms of ‘more personality’, there’s been somewhat of a mini trend for what Riccardo De…

So where is design heading in 2019? Our guess is that the broad societal trend towards a web and app-based lifestyle mean that strong currents will continue to encourage a standardisation and simplification of design, both online and off. And that’s partly a good thing, because design is primarily about solving a problem, and the fewer obstacles we can put it people’s way – visual, cognitive or otherwise – the better our work will be. But at the same time, no one wants to end up in a cookie-cutter world where every single piece of design looks and feels the same. So it’s the job of creatives everywhere to manage that pressure thoughtfully, harness our imaginations and passions, and find new and inventive ways to use design to solve problems…

1. BELIEVE IN YOUR PROJECTS You should give just as much importance to the personal projects as the paying projects, says Paula Sánchez, Hey’s project manager, “but obviously only when the paying part isn’t a pressing concern!” Don’t just start a side project for the sake of it though, she adds: “do it with passion and believe in what you’re doing.” Personal projects can also help with client work in the end, says designer Adrià Molins. “Create personal projects that enrich your style and work as a creative exercise that transfers over to the studio.” 2. DON’T PANIC ABOUT WASTING TIME “With self-initiated projects, we have time to explore and innovate, and if we come up with something that we like, we can inject it into our commercial projects,” says…

The Association of Illustrators (AOI) is a not-for-profit trade organisation promoting contemporary illustration and maintaining industry standards. Established in 1973, the AOI works to increase the standing of illustration as a profession and improve commercial and ethical conditions, and support illustrators at every stage of their career. THE BOOK Monika Vaicenavičienė What Is a River? is an upcoming picture book about rivers and the plentiful connections we humans have with them. The narrative follows a child and her grandma on their imaginary expedition to find an answer to the eponymous question. Each spread of the book attempts to suggest a possible answer: Journey, Home, Name, Smell, Riddle, Memory… The book balances factual information and poetic storytelling, touching upon various meanings and associations rivers have in different contexts, including folklore, myths, cultural…

To start a bigger conversation, we had to create curiosity for the campaign. We began with interesting social media posts, and launched a teaser film before the product went live. Our core message is ‘Don’t Hide It. Period.’ We thought, “Why not show exactly that. Why not make things bleed?” Created on a budget of £100, the concept for the film was to showcase a visual journey of the period cycle through objects dressed in bright red paint: a wall of eggs breaking (the onset of periods), hot water bottle (period pain), chocolate and pizza (cravings that come with PMS) and so on. With periods also come certain taboos. The latter part of the film is a visual satire on such taboos represented in the same way, such as ‘women…

ISSUE 286 LOGO DESIGN ▪ The secrets to good logo craft revealed ▪ Why we need to talk about mental health ▪ Yuko Shimizu on her journey to becoming a celebrated illustrator ISSUE 285 BEST UK STUDIOS We rank the top 30 design studios based in the UK, and discover why big brands need to be ethical. Also, Jamie Ellul discusses the value of a good work-love balance in design. ISSUE 284 BIA AWARDS 2018’s Brand Impact Awards winners revealed, and find out how to best make a mark in illustration. Also, Chris Moody offers insight on bravery tackling mediocre design. ISSUE 283 TYPE TRENDS Advance your design skills through experimental typography. Plus, Studio Sutherl& discusses keeping design simple yet brilliant, and freelancers reveal how to cope. ISSUE 282 GRAD…

Valentina D’Efilippo is a London-based creative director, illustrator and designer who has won multiple awards for her design work centred around data and information visualisation. We use maps to guide us daily. We see them everywhere – on our phones, in our cars, embedded in articles we read. But when was the last time you considered how well you were able to represent the geographies you navigate so easily? When did you last endeavour to sketch a map of the world from memory? Perhaps you’ll want to try it out after reading this. Immediate and surrounding geographies will appear disproportionately larger than the rest of the world. And, relatedly, the impulse to check the internet for a visual reference will be strong! As a designer tasked with presenting our world through…