Graphic Design 2.1: Professional Practice, Project 4: ‘Getting to Know You’ Research points
Research Task 1: Professional Perceptions
Design practice is continually shifting and morphing alongside advances in technology, cultural changes, and the evolving needs of the clients and businesses that rely on designers. Today’s professionals are yesterday’s students. The designers you admire and recognise were once just starting out.
First, identify two or three influential designers. These should be people influential to you – not necessarily famous. It could be designers you know personally or people you have only heard about online or even someone you follow on social media.
Next, in a paragraph or two write what assumptions you have about them purely based on their work. Include some examples of their work for reference. Some questions to guide your writing:
How did they achieve what they have professionally?
What trajectory did their career follow?
What kind of project will they work on next?
What are their industry connections?
How do they negotiate new projects?
How do you expect their process to unfold?
What unique contributions do they make?
Another way to look at this would be through the lens of a client or employer. Imagine what someone who is looking to hire a designer might see when they look at this person’s work.
Finally,reach out to them.If you follow them on Instagram, send a DM. If they are an acquaintance or colleague give them a call, and if you are unable to reach them in person try to find articles about them online or look for their work on a portfolio platform like Dribble or Behance. Compare your assumptions about them against what they can actually tell you about their place in contemporary design practice and how they found that place.
Mike McQuade:
I came across Mike McQuade when I was initially considering whether graphic design was a path I wanted to follow. I hadn’t seen graphic design before that had been as impactful as art in eliciting feelings and thoughts until I saw Mike McQuade’s work for the New York Times. I can’t remember the exact piece it was by McQuade but I do remember feeling almost confused as to how I hadn’t came across his work before. McQuade’s style is unique and I had enjoyed coming across similar styles by other designers previously but they all seemed to lack deeper concepts and meaning.
When researching McQuade with the guided questions in mind, I came across 2 long form videos which were very helpful in answering them and a great insight into his career history and work processes.
My initial assumptions about McQuade’s work and still until now were that he was just immensely talented and that his ideas just came to him as a single vision of which he implemented. This view is obviously naive, but I hadn’t considered his conceptual process before, only his physical design processes. I knew that McQuade’s designs probably began physically, but was unsure as to what extent they really were physical elements, for example does he cut imagery physically, scan and arrange digitally? Or does he gather collage material physically, scan then manipulate solely in Photoshop? I also assumed that his work for large companies etc was a result of many connections with Art Directors etc for these companies, magazines and newspapers. Regarding his career path, I hadn’t really considered previous jobs other than the fact that he is currently freelance and able to have more than enough work in order to produce work that he is truly interested in.
Mike McQuade’s graphic design career began when he went to The Art Institute of Philadelphia initially for Animation. He continued doing animation for a few months until he decided to switch courses to graphic design. During this time McQuade learnt all of the technical skills needed to become a designer such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. McQuade said that at one point a teacher had told him that graphic design was not for him and to quit.
After graduating he worked for some small agencies but did not enjoy the more monotonous and less conceptual work he was creating. During his spare time he worked on personal projects and growing his portfolio. He eventually moved to Chicago to work for a larger agency with more creative freedom. It was only 9 years ago that he began solely as a freelance designer after having enquiries for his illustrations from art directors and magazines who had found his work online. Finding out that McQuade had worked for a long time within the industry and had created his own portfolio outside of his main work was interesting to me as I naturally sometimes assume that people who operate as their own business had sort of always worked this way.
At one point McQuade being told that graphic design is not for him is almost comical now he has this amazing and extensive portfolio of work for global companies and publishers. Considering this again highlights to me his interesting career progression being from a more monotonous job to more creative and eventually being able to work for himself, as a result of developing his own portfolio outside of work.
The most interesting information I heard from McQuade was when he discussed his work process. Throughout figure 5 detailed insights into his work process and non linear ways of thinking were explained by him when discussing a selection of his works. As I had thought, McQuade does work physically as well as digitally but the amount of physical work he creates was a lot more than I had expected. He broke down his process into different sections stating an exaggeration on researching, this is where he comes up with a concept and breaks down the overall idea of the brief into the simplest message possible. Then he experiments in a sketch book physically, making maximal and minimal versions of an idea. McQuade then mentions how the ideas reveal themselves over time to him and this is when he debates how much or how little needs to be created digitally and does the physical aspect of the design work with the concept. Some of his designer and artist inspirations mentioned were Matt Dorfmann from the NY Times, artist Robert Rauschenberg and David Carson. I was interested to look into Matt Dorfmann’s work but already find massive inspiration from Rauschenberg’s abstract and conceptual art and of course David Carson’s typography so this it no surprise that I like McQuade’s work. “Anything I do is not based on talent, but hard work. If I had a portfolio based on talent alone, it would all be based work”- Mike Mcquade.
McQuade is now approached by various businesses for his graphic design, illustration or even for art direction skills. Over time he has worked with many companies and therefore art directors, some of whom he says he has close rapport with, and finds that when working with certain directors he can be more vulnerable with showing work to them when it’s in early design phases.
He mentions that it is important to remember that design is ‘of the moment’ especially when producing work describing a current political situation or something of popular culture, he gave the example of when Donald Trump was president, a lot of work for publishers naturally included a lot of Trump imagery. Following this he said it’s also important to view the work and execute the concept properly to avoid being an inadvertent mouthpiece for propaganda. I found this statement interesting, as all corporations and large companies have different agendas or motives good or bad irrespective of their political leanings, and I had not considered this problem is something designers could have.
Overall McQuade’s work is fresh and unique, the use of physical elements is now something done less with design which helps for his work to be distinctive and effective. The most desirable factor about McQuade’s designs are his concepts which convey messages shown through a mixture of simple and complex imagery and is something any business is looking for.
Roy Cranston:
I came across Roy Cranston when he was doing a 365 day poster challenge on Instagram a few years ago. I was immediately drawn in by his varied collage style posters and the fact that he committed to creating one a day for a year. I caught the tail end of the challenge and was able to look back at his progression throughout the year.
Roy Cranston has a very wide range of design work from poster to typography design. Through looking at his work I assumed that he was a seasoned designer and has had many years of experience in different fields. His design style is diverse but feels complete and mature despite the varied styles. It looked as if Cranston specialised in typography and was hired for designing various typefaces for different companies/advertisements. Their process is what interested me the most, I am always interested as to how much is planned and how much is serendipitous combined with years of design skill. They seem like they use found collage materials mixed with a digital method, similar to McQuade.
I moved onto messaging Roy via Instagram and also sent him an email via his website attached with a couple of short questions. In the mean time I continued to research him online. There is not much about his professional career online but I did come across a great process video he had created on The Futur YouTube channel (Figure 14).
This video was a massive insight into Cranston’s creative process. He began by looking through his previous works for inspiration, moving onto researching Wolfgang Weingart (which when comparing some of his posters to Weingart’s work he is a clear inspiration of Cranston’s) aiming to base the design off of the phrase ‘stranded in time’.
He gathered various imagery related to ‘stranded in time’ focusing on Einstein and his theories. Using typeface ‘Akzidenz-Grotesk Next’ Cranston manipulated the typeface, moving it around the canvas and breaking parts from it to create a more dynamic visual that emulated the ‘stranded in time’ concept. Although this work was digital, he mentions using found collage material a lot and that he essentially has a digital bank of collage material he can pull up and use which is very interesting to know, over time I have also collated a lot of scanned material I can use.
Roy Cranston is a lead designer for Works Studio a role he landed due to his social media presence at the time, which I assume may be partly due to his 365 day poster challenge which made his social media following grow. Since working at Works Studio he has designed for many global companies including Converse who he designed a typeface for (figure 13) and Nike who he also designed typography for (figure 12).
If I was an employer looking at Cranston’s portfolio of work via his website I would see an expert designer with a very broad skill set. Clearly Cranston is conscientious and driven by a love of design. An area of his work that really stands out is his typography design and if I was looking at this portfolio as an employer this would be a key skill that would separate him from other designers.
Allan Peters:
Allan Peters is a designer who specialises in branding and logos. I have recently came across Allan Peters when researching branding and logo design in more depth.
My initial thoughts when looking at Peters’ work is that he must be professionally trained and have years of experience. All of Peters’ designs work perfectly with the least amount of elements as possible. All of Peters’ designs have a flow to them which again is a skill I feel could only of been developed over time. Peters has worked for many large companies, including creating logos/badges for states in America, this makes me feel that he may have some industry connections or again have worked for a long time within the graphic design space. Regarding Peters’ process it appears to be very digital, as his work is very clean, and appears to little physical elements to it. I think he may sketch the logos initially and then work solely digitally afterwards.
I began to research further into Allan Peters’ career and design process. I came across a great 2 part interview with him which was very in depth and discussed everything from his first jobs to his design process. I made notes on this and other articles found about him.
Figure 22 is an excerpt from a transcript of a podcast Peters had spoken on. In this interview Peters speaks in depth about his design process and back and forth between the client and himself. Figure 23 shows an interesting PDF file of Peters’ initial stage presentation to a client. This information was very valuable to find!
Allan Peter’s began working in a studio with a friend during university, he mentioned how he worked long hours after the university day. It was here that he discovered and read through logo design books, gaining more knowledge on branding and logo design. Peters’ first job after graduating was at a design studio called Initio, he then moved to UNO a small design studio at his local town then to Industria which was where he really felt like he had learnt to brand. ‘Having a unique look is not good if you work for an agency, the client wants what the agency does’- Alan Peters. The next stage of his career was at an ad agency BBDO where he felt that he learnt how businesses operate and how to market his work.
This job lead him to the opportunity to become a creative director at the American shop chain Target. When looking at Peters’ work initially I thought that he had a professional career previously to working freelance but I did not expect that his career trajectory was from advertising agencies to creative directing for Target.
The most valuable information I gathered from my research was an insight into Peters’ design process now he works as an independent design studio with his wife and his process for conversing with clients. Peters mentioned how he initially spoke to the clients asking for as much information on their company as possible and also requested if they had done any other research or had any references for designs that they liked to send that information to him. He then looks for competitors and researches their companies. The next stage he mentioned was making a ‘noun list’ where he jots down all nouns related to the company such as people, places etc. He exaggerated to not be picky at this stage, which I found interesting. Peters also asks the client to write a noun list, they then liaise about which words represent the company etc and he begins to sketch these ideas. Peters creates 15 logo types to present to the client initially, showing them in black and white, here he talks through his ideas and process to the client and the client decides which styles they prefer. This process is very interesting to me and it shows the massive amount of effort and understanding Peters takes to develop a brand for a client.
Resources:
Figure 1: All work — McQuade inc (no date) Themcquades.com. Available at: https://themcquades.com/All-Work (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 2: All work — McQuade inc (no date) Themcquades.com. Available at: https://themcquades.com/All-Work (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 3: All work — McQuade inc (no date) Themcquades.com. Available at: https://themcquades.com/All-Work (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 4: All work — McQuade inc (no date) Themcquades.com. Available at: https://themcquades.com/All-Work (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 5: Baltimore, S. (2021) Data mixed with Dada | with mike McQuade. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cE2f9UHCbw (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 6: CreativeMornings, H. Q. (2012) Mike McQuade: Do the work you love. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDhhLjdAtfE (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 7: A year of daily projects - wørks (no date) WØRKS. Available at: https://works.studio/studies/roy-cranston-a-year-of-daily-projects (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 8: A year of daily projects - wørks (no date) WØRKS. Available at: https://works.studio/studies/roy-cranston-a-year-of-daily-projects (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 9: A year of daily projects - wørks (no date) WØRKS. Available at: https://works.studio/studies/roy-cranston-a-year-of-daily-projects (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 10: A year of daily projects - wørks (no date) WØRKS. Available at: https://works.studio/studies/roy-cranston-a-year-of-daily-projects (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 11: Roy Cranston (no date) Roycranston.com. Available at: https://roycranston.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 12: Roy Cranston (no date) Roycranston.com. Available at: https://roycranston.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 13: Roy Cranston (no date) Roycranston.com. Available at: https://roycranston.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 14: The Futur Academy (2020) Designing A Poster Everyday #362 design process. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DWpxR1DNQE (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 15: Peters Design Company (no date) Peters Design Co. Available at: https://www.petersdesigncompany.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 16: Peters Design Company (no date) Peters Design Co. Available at: https://www.petersdesigncompany.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 17: Peters Design Company (no date) Peters Design Co. Available at: https://www.petersdesigncompany.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 18: Peters Design Company (no date) Peters Design Co. Available at: https://www.petersdesigncompany.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 19: Peters Design Company (no date) Peters Design Co. Available at: https://www.petersdesigncompany.com/ (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 20: The Angry Designer (2023) A conversation with Allan peters graphic designer. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylxtfrlt8N8 (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 21: The Angry Designer (2023) Allan peters logo process, graphic design, bad customers & A gunshot wound. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq6zouB60c0 (Accessed: 5 April 2024).
Figure 22: On Target to design badge logos (no date) Logogeek.uk. Available at: https://logogeek.uk/podcast/badge-logos-allan-peters (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Figure 23: Logogeek.uk. Available at: https://logogeek.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PDCO_LogoProcess_Shoreview_2.pdf (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Research Task 2: Knowledge Gaps
As important as it is to know your strengths, it is critically important to understand your own weaknesses. Keep in mind that both your strengths and weaknesses will change and evolve over time because these are not static attributes.
A weakness might be a skill you need to develop or a gap in knowledge and understanding. Once you identify a weakness you need to make a choice. Is this a weakness you can live with or is it something you want to work on? Depending on what you identify you might decide to fill the gap in knowledge through research, sign up for training, or put in more time to develop a specific skill.
To start this research task you need to identify a weakness in yourself. Identifying a weakness can be challenging because you don’t know what you don’t know. A mind map can be a helpful tool to think of ideas at this stage. Review your own learning log – have you been including the challenges you faced throughout the projects and assignments? Think of things that you would like to do, but that feel impossible at the moment. Maybe you would like to design a complete typeface but you don’t know the software? Perhaps you need to make more professional connections in the design industry but you don’t know who to turn to or how to ask? Perhaps you really struggle to find the time for all the things you want to do?
Once you have identified one weakness you want to focus on right now it is time to put together an action plan to overcome it. Research the kind of resources that are available to deal with the topic. Depending on the weakness, you might find books, articles, podcasts, YouTube channels, or people in your network that have previously faced the same thing.
Review all the available resources and decide what is most likely to work for you. Deciding factors could be anything from the time commitment required to complete additional training or budget restrictions, you might find certain approaches just resonate with you, or you might have even tried something before and it didn’t work so now you need an alternative.
Once you decide on an action plan write it down. Include specific and reasonable timelines by which you want to reach certain goals and set reminders in your calendar to check in how you are progressing against the action plan.
I began this task by noting my key weaknesses and identifying parts that I want to improve on.
The main element I need to improve on which would allow me to work on improving all of my other weaknesses is my time management. The amount of time left over after work and all other commitments as for everybody is slim and I need to aim to allocate more time to specifically work on the areas I want to improve on. ‘Making’ more time isn’t possible so I need to just shift my focus from one thing to another, which is easier said than done!
The specific areas of design that I lack knowledge in and want to improve on are:
Branding and logo design: Since beginning this next section of the course, I have became progressively more interested in logo design, which has showed the huge gaps in my technical knowledge. I really enjoy and am better at the conceptual and planning elements to branding and logo design but need to work massively on my technical ability and execution of ideas. My knowledge of Illustrator is very little and basic, I feel as if I am unaware of 90% of Illustrator, un-like Photoshop a programme I have been using for 10+ years. I would like to become for familiar with the programme in general, learn quick keys and become more confident at translating design ideas from physical sketches into vector form.
Animation: I have 0 knowledge of animation and have never tried to animate anything. Ever since I began to create collage illustrations and begin to manipulate typefaces I have been interested in creating ‘simple’ animations of them, adding another dimension to presenting them and creating other uses for them. This has been another section of design that has been sidelined, but something I would really like to improve on. Another style of animation I would like to try is the more abstract for example work to go with music, shown at concerts etc. Below (figures 1-4) are some still images of animations designed by Graphic Artist Jimmy Turrell. This style would allow me to combine my love for abstract art and print making, with illustration, design and even branding.
3. Illustration: I really enjoy the illustrative side to graphic design and aim to commit more time towards practising and experimenting. I aim to take time to explore personal projects and to also create more physical work including collages/screen prints. I used to screen print regularly but over time other parts of life have taken a priority, leaving less and less time. These physical works could help bring a more unique style to my work and influence all of my design work, including branding and logo design.
4. Mock ups: Ever since I had the need to search for a suitable mock up for any design, whether it be a business card, shop front, website or billboard I have wanted to develop my own mock ups to use. I am aware that creating re-usable mock ups is relatively simple, but I have still not created any myself. I have knowledge in Photography so can create my own photographs and then use Photoshop to create a canvas space/smart object within the photo to implement any design needed. I aim to get to grips with creating my own mock ups and finally try it!
These videos mainly focused on Illustrator shortcuts, skills and areas of Illustrator I am unfamiliar with.
I aim to use this research to help me practise my skills in Illustrator. Now for the next step, allocating time to actually implement my research and explore Illustrator.
I began to consider how I could practically improve my technical skilsl in Illustrator. I came across some great video series’ and creators on Youtube that I can work through, watch and try.
Figure 6 looks particularly helpful and has tutorials on a wide range of areas within Illustrator.
My days already are well allocated with work, this course, other daily commitments and extra things like reading for a short period at the end of the day, but with little time for anything else. Instead of allocating large amounts of time to doing this I think that a small amount of time every day for a certain time period could work.
I will choose one Illustrator task suggested from my researched videos to complete every day or week (depending on how complicated it is) to test my skills in Illustrator and to develop my memory of shortcuts etc. I will choose these tasks at the beginning of the week and put aside 15 minutes a day to begin with. Starting with a short amount of time will allow it to be slotted in whenever I can either at the start or end of the day. I will do this for 30 days and then review my skills and see how I have improved.
Resources:
Figure 1: Jimmy Turrell (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyturrell/?hl=en (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Figure 2: Jimmy Turrell (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyturrell/?hl=en (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Figure 3: Jimmy Turrell (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyturrell/?hl=en (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Figure 4: Jimmy Turrell (no date) Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyturrell/?hl=en (Accessed: 6 April 2024).
Figure 5: Gareth David Studio (2021) Pro Logo Design Course | Gareth David Studio. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkrp-ca8Gc&list=PLYfCBK8IplO6eQSxf_9rhEXQhAHwOujcY (Accessed: 7 April 2024).
Figure 6: Bring Your Own Laptop (2018) Introduction to advanced adobe illustrator CC - illustrator advanced training [1/53]. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFf9MbIyHhM&list=PLttcEXjN1UcEGDBMwnFzZ0JqxrQZwmeck (Accessed: 7 April 2024).
Figure 7: Things, A. T. (2023) Illustrator shortcuts you must know. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YIW0HzM-PA (Accessed: 7 April 2024).
Figure 8: Dansky (2024) Master Adobe illustrator: 17 pro tips for graphic designers. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4cjD-DKOnY (Accessed: 7 April 2024).
