Design Good Design

At the end of 2016, as I draw closer to my final week with CTTC Design, I had been handing over as much information as I could to my then design team, to which I extend you all on this list now. I know that many have often laughed at me being such a design groupie… I promise that it comes from my love of what I do! To this end, before I left, I had decided to note down a few of the things that have helped to bring great joy, learning and passion to my design life over the years, and now wondered if you would also be interested to see what I had written.  Its really a “for what it’s worth” list of designers, books, websites and blogs. I do hope that it is of some interest to you, and also that it maybe even helps to bring some creative passion and inspiration to your lives… I also don’t mind if it’s banished to the 'read later' part of your blog readers - you know the one I mean... AKA the bin ;-). Below is what I had sent to the team at  CTTC Design, a  couple of day...

I am sure that many of you already know that today is my last day with CTTC Design, before beginning an exciting new role in 2017, (more on this soon). When I left the UK for South Africa back in 2009, my brief was to help grow a fully operational design studio. It has taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears and I have loved every single second of it! I am so proud that today, not only have we achieved our objective, but I strongly believe that we have a world class design team with some of Cape Towns best packaging experts and many incredible business partners! After eight years of playing a role in the company’s incredible growth and six unforgettable years prior to that, at our UK partner 'Somerset Creative’, I am so honoured to have been part of this incredible journey and wanted to thank each and everyone of you, who has touched my life throughout this time! Thank you! Love and design... Do what you love and love what you do… Stay hungry and stay foolish... ------------------- B...

For the past five years I have had the great pleasure of being selected as a mentor for the ico-D and Adobe design Achievement Awards . This year however, I had the added bonus of also being chosen as a pre selection judge! I really enjoy what the awards stand for and it always feels so good to be able to support young design talent! Below are some of the fantastic young/student designers that I discovered, whilst judging the awards. There's some amazing talent here! If your hiring new creatives I would certainly urge you to view some of these talented young design stars of tomorrow and please support the ADAA! https://www.behance.net/ gallery/35944337/COP-25- United-Nations-Climate-Change- conference https://www.behance.net/ gallery/27135599/environment https://www.behance.net/ gallery/36153385/Sanfonzon- Street-pop-up-book https://www.behance.net/ gallery/33968594/Letter-for- Truth-Logo https://www.behance.net/ gallery/30570553/ Beruehrungsangst-fear-of- touching https://www.beh...

David Carson is arguably one of the worlds most recognised graphic designers. his experimental, deconstructed typographic style is a fusion of the commercial and the expressive, graphic design and art. From 1982 to 1987, Carson worked as a teacher and also at that time was also a professional surfer, reaching 9th in the world ranking. Carson himself often attributes his recognisable style to discovering graphic design and never being taught it. Without knowing any of the rules has allowed him the freedom to not be confined by convention. To read more on Carson click link to visit his website: David Carson Design . I also love his humour filed, motivating TED presentation. Click here to view. Quotes by David Carson: “Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.” “I’ve never had a problem with a dumb client. There is no such thing as a bad client. Part of our job is to do good work and get the client to accept it.” —————————————————————————— All For a Few Good Wave...

Ever wondered how to improve your creativity and stay inspired? Why some designers have been a lot more successful than others? Well read on... I recently wrote a post for the design life , which also featured here, titled, " The Most Important Word You Use Is Why !" The post was inspired by an incredibly motivating Design Indaba presentation by Sir John Hegarty, that I was lucky enough to attend back in 2013. Just the other day, I was reading through the design press and I stumbled upon a fantastic article at The Drum by Ishbel Macleod . The feature was based on Sir John Hegarty's 2014 book, 'Hegarty on Creativity' and lists his top 10 ways to be more creative. Check out number 8... 'Ask Why? A lot!' I have re blogged the list below as it makes for super reading: 1 Be fearless - be single minded in the face of opposition 2 Keep it simple - don't try to say or do too many things at once 3 Stop thinking, start feeling -creativity is driven by the heart...

"The most important word you use is why!"  That’s was what Sir John Hegarty told the crowd at an inspiring presentation that I was lucky enough to attend back in 2013. In my role as creative director, I get to brief in the design team. It's important to ensure that everything that goes through the studio is the best it can be. I have to mentor and up skill young designers and I always love to watch how they respond to briefs. Many designers sketch out ideas, others go straight to their computers. Without a doubt, Google is one of the most incredible inventions of our time, yet still, one of my pet hates are designers going straight to Google without an idea. I've been known to not let designers on a computer until I first see an idea. I want designers to have that moment of discovery and to have the ability to ask why. Recently one of my team was struggling with a project. I could see it in her face... The fear... And on her computer... Google!!! After a brief discu...

In a recent interview for a design magazine I was asked, " who and what inspires me ". It's a question that I am often asked and my initial reply is usually "everything", from my family (my wife and son are without a doubt my biggest inspiration) to the great icons of our industry such as Paul Rand and Soul Bass to the the work of Henryk Thomaszewski, Jan Lenica and Henri Matisse (the list could go on and on and on…) I wake up inspired almost every morning and by the time I am in my studio, or out with my family on the weekend, I have often seen something to trigger creativity. It really does come from everywhere, from a texture, a colour, a conversation, a story to something quirky! In Iconoclasts Season 6, Episode 5, Paul Smith tells how he was once walking down a street with an advertising exec. The marketing person says that he sees about three things whilst Smith sees around Fifty! I am a huge fan of designer Michael Wollf and his thoughts on what he descri...

I have a belief that love and hard work go hand in hand! I strongly believe that if you don't love what you do then you'll be unable to dedicate yourself fully to it and it's unlikely you'll be able to produce great work! It may be hard work to get out of bed and drive to the office each morning. It may be hard work to get through each day, but that doesn't mean that your actually working hard at what you do! if you don't love what you do then how can you invest yourself to the fullest and do what it takes to be the very best you can be. As with any relationship, if there is no love, how do you get through the tough times? There will always be days that test you, but it's how you deal with these situations that really count. You will always fight for what you love. So if you love what you do, giving up is never an option and you will stick with it through thick and thin to find a solution. The simple truth is, if you love what you do then no one can take it ...

As the creative director of a branding and packaging design studio, I have to travel quite regularly. From meetings with clients, to colour passing and QC with print partners and manufacturers. I also live and work overseas in Cape Town, so I'm often flying back to the UK with my wife and my little boy to visit our family's. Were only into April and I can count at least fifteen flights this year already. Yesterday morning I was on the red eye from Cape Town to Durban to work with one of our print partners, colour passing and QC on a new range of labels my studio have just designed. Ive taken the flight many times before, but yesterday something different happenned. For 40 minutes we sat, boarded on the plane as maintenance was carried out. This meant, when the plane finally took off, the sun was just begining to rise. As we rose higher, the view over Cape Town and Table Mountian was just breathtaking. I marvelled in awe at its absolute beauty. Street lights were still illuminat...

For the past three years Ive had the great honour of being selected as a mentor for the Adobe Design Achievement Awards. The mentorship program is oganised in collaboration with Adobe and ico-D (the world body for professional design, an international council that promotes the designer’s vital role in society and commerce that unify the voices of designers worldwide. www.ico-d.org ). Throughout my involvement, I have had the pleasure of mentoring some fantastic students that have gone onto successful design positions. More on the Awards and the Mentorship program below. _ The Adobe ico-D Mentorship program is offered to any student who participates in the Adobe Design Achievement Awards competition (ADAA). The program is composed of the 5 I 5 I 5 Mentorship and the Portfolio Review. In this dual program, each mentor will select ten students from the ADAA participants who applied for the opportunity. • One student is selected for the 5 I 5 I 5 Mentorship, which consists of 5 one-on-one ...

In a new series, I am going to be writing about success, specifically success within the field of design. In this first installment I want to discuss what success really means? Then over the forthcoming series we will strive to break down what it takes to achieve and maintain success. I did an exercise a while ago to try and visualise what it takes to be a success within my chosen creative field. I thought it would be fun to feature it in the opening illustration to this post and it will be what I use as the basis to each section of this series. I broke my image down into four distinct areas. 1.Talent/Passion/love 2.Hard work 3. Experience 4. Integrity. Over the years it's changed a little but it was certainly a good place to start. I later came across a TED presentation from informational speaker, Richard St.John and his diagram for success, being the outcome of over 7 years of research and 500 face-to-face interviews. It definitely holds a lot more weight over my little sketch. Y...