Week 5

The Collaborative Mix

Lecture Material

Design to change the world

Morag Myerscough – Sheffield Children’s Hospital:

Swatches and materials – laminate to look like wood for medical purposes

Artfelt – Artfelt is a children’s hospital charity that transforms the hospital walls and spaces with bright art, helping children recover in an environment tailored to them. Morag was commissioned by them to create Sheffield hospital’s bedrooms (see above).
The whole concept of a charity based on improving the surroundings of children in need is truly something (personally) I feel we need more of in the world. Colour has such a powerful impact on our emotions as human beings (even animals) and the way an environment is designed or composed can change an experience entirely.

Christoph Miller – Migrant Journal:

Articles that would interest me:

First issue: ‘Across Country’
Global warming affecting Austria/Switzerland glacier borders
– Exploring how

Third issue: ‘Flowing Grounds‘
The journey of a coconut
Whale migration; whales being affected by pollution

The design of the book has an ‘homemade’ style appearance, and uses details such as metallic ink for images and diagram. These look really effective against the coloured kraft paper. I also really like the use of white space around the map images; thus letting the text breathe. There’s a very playful contrast between each page which works well.

Graphics that engage

Ken Kirton – Hato:

“The press, what’s really wonderful about the printing press itself is that it’s very environmentally friendly. All the inks that we used are soy-based inks and all the papers are uncoated and FSC or recycled stocks. We know all these stocks, we actually upcycle those into stationary, or right now we’re looking at a process where we can compress the unused paper and make it back into a sort of like a ply wood and then give it to product designers to design with.”

KK: I guess on my end it’s integral in different capacities. You can think of co-creation as working with the public, but then there’s also the co-creation of listening at a meeting and just having conversations at a meeting and listening to your client, or listening to who you are designing for. That is also a form of co-creation. As designers, it’s a service-based industry and we’re designing for someone, whatever medium we’re producing.

D&AD:

Engaging with users, people were able to draw what they wanted with an unique 3D drawing tool and Hato then transformed the drawings into a vendor with plastic gloss and text wrapping.

This project reminds me of when I tried to have a go at writing three dimensional text on Adobe freehand with my mouse… I need a tablet to do it properly. But it’s inspired me to have another go:

My freehand typography doodles using photoshop rendering a while ago. Using colours to highlight/shadow areas of the lines brings dimension.

Sebastian White/Eva Kellenberger – Kellenberger White:

Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art – inspiration takes from the tees middlesbrough transporter bridge.

Havana Club 3:

“To bring the raw creativity of Cuban people, as well as the brand principles of collaboration and unpretentious craftsmanship to life, each element of the brand world was cut, stuck, drawn, hand-painted or screen-printed in collaboration with Cuban artists.”

“The backdrop to the brand world – tiles in varying textures and tones of yellow – were inspired by the eclectic tiles found throughout Havana, while 17 screen-printed graphics depicting icons of Cuban culture – from coco taxis and dancing couples to mint leaves and mojitos – make up the visual language from which brand environments and product packaging stem.”
I love the nature of the colours in this branding for the 3 year old rum, Havana Club. The composition of the editorial and the logo’s themselves seem hand-crafted which is a great comparison behind the craft of the alcoholic beverage. The colours are joyful and uplifting, (linking the atmosphere would be when drinking the rum?) and you instantly get a sense of the Havana culture.

Vaughan Oliver:

“DB: what rules of thumb make for a good collaboration in your experience?“

VO: “freedom. I think you have to give each other respect and plenty of breathing space. as an art director the majority of the job is done in choosing the collaborator you will work with. there’s no need to micro manage. I would always choose my collaborators based on their recent personal work, that way I knew that if I liked what I saw they’d enjoy working on the project I had in mind for them. I would challenge people to go a bit further as I said, but it’s pointless asking someone to change what they do completely, that just becomes exhausting for everyone involved.”

The key to collaboration is a mutual understanding and frequent contact with your collaborator. It’s important to enjoy the work you do as well, and if you are looking for someone to work with – make sure they will enjoy the work you give them. More comes out of the project this way and the collaboration will be successful.

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