Our course had a lecture from Phil Baines last friday. I had got myself all hyped up for how amazing he was going to be and was prepared to have my jaw drop in awe. Unfortunately it didn't go quite like that: Baines was unexpectedly one of the most dull and pesimistic designers I have ever come across. The way he spoke seemed to include a moan about almost everything and everyone. He seemed so angry at the world that not everything went his way the whole time. He only showed us work from the last couple of years and to be honest I thought (and I'm sure my fellow students would agree) it was pretty poor. on more than one occasion his type on posters was illegiable due to poor colour choice and even if it had been legiable the posters would still have been unattrative. He also designed a book on the life and work of Alan Aldridge. I know if I was ever given that opertunity I would fully emerge myself in the piece and make it as true to the artist as possible. I would let his mannerisms and mentality affect the way the book looked and the way I produced it. Baines, however, on telling us the development of this piece of work repeated how frustrating it was to work with such a charater and that he was selfish and didn't pay and respect to those who helped him throughout his career!
So overall I was pretty dissapointed in getting the oppertunity to meet a person I had previously looked up to as one of the great names in design. It was mentioned to me by a member of staff at NUCA that prehaps when working in such a hard industry for so long one may become bitter. I am just glad that when I saw Adrian Shaughnessy he seemed to have managed to keep his soul fully intact, but that's a story for another time.
http://www.philbaines.co.uk/
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