Turner Duckworth

An ex NSAD (now NUCA (where I go)) Graphics student who now works as a creative for Turner Duckworth came in to talk to us on friday. I'm 90% sure his name is Gavin Horrell but I can't seem to find him on the internet! Anyhow it was very very encouraging to see someone come from our school and recieve 4 job offers including one from Turner Duckworth just from his grad show! He was quite inspirational and talked in a fun, witty, english and slightly nervous manner that held my attention even on a friday morning. He spoke of the company and how they operate using their base in San Fransisco and their base in London to run projects simulatiously so they are almost being worked on 24 hours a day just on seperate sides of the world! Genious in it's self without metioning how stunning the work actually is.

Their company values and beliefs are:
To initially approach every job in the same way.
To have a clear vision. 'We create clarity.'
Emotion makes the first connection.
A brands true personality resides in the detail.
Nothing should be included that doesnt serve a specific or useful purpose.
And to evolve at a rate that doesnt alientate current users.

and that is how they can produce stuff like this, consistantly:

Check out 'The Quote Wall' for more beautiful things that were said.

Getting Back in the Studio

So I did a photography A-level but that seems like forever ago. Despite being one of the best courses of my life I don’t really remember a huge amount about studio stuff, lighting etc. Plus on my A-level we pretty much only used black and white film. Which was not a bad thing b&w film will always be one of those things that makes me go oooh! And I liked it because it was real and it was very easy to fuck up at many different stages be it loading, taking, processing or developing. But that’s part of its charm. The fact you have to trust yourself to know what your doing and hope a bit that fate is on your side. Otherwise your screwed, simple as.

Medium format image I took with Hasselblad during A-level.
Possibly my best photo to date.

So when I got my DSLR I was not so interested and I'm still not. Digital photography will probably never be a passion to me and I'm not sure whether it's because I don’t like the buttons and the pretending or whether it’s because I find colour very difficult. Black and white is so easy to make sexy, white balance is not so important, but colour is a pain in the arse. Despite this I obviously understand why it exists and why it has become an industry standard that no one uses film anymore. We live so much faster lives nowadays.
So anyway we had the opportunity to get back into the studio last week and in groups of 4 were set a word to represent, ours was Anticipation. Unfortunately I've had a pretty bad cold and as stubborn as I am the lighting didn’t end up quite the way I wanted but I think we did a good job considering the somewhat tricky subject matter, my advice: never take a picture of a translucent shiney object in a studio. I did learn a fair bit but mainly about where equipment was kept and so on, some of which I knew already as I've already used the NUCA studio twice, but none the less the more time spent down there the more the technicians will like me, or that’s what I hope.

Anticipation: taken last week at NUCA with a converted medium format camera, shot to screen as a RAW.

If You Could:...

I was having a bit of a browse and I came across this lovely project:
where basically once a month an up and coming and a well estabilshed designer have their submissions picked to become limited screenprints.
i had a quick browse through the chosen images and was a bit shocked to find that I only knew the names of 4 of the illustrators/designers! however all the work it top quality. Below are the 4 I already knew and 2 that I really liked.

Dan Mumford + Kate Moross

The Designers Republic + Rob Ryan

Alex Trochut

Anthony Burrill

Typography Served

Oh dear lord! I just found this website and nearly wet myself! It's actually bloody gorgeous and i will probably end up spending far too much of my life looking at it. so I thought I'd better stick it on the pinboard before I get too carried away.

David Carvalho

The Portuguese designers are looking a bit hot this week. Just discovered David Carvalho, Illustrator/Graphic Artist. He has some lovely work I especially like this piece entitled 'Blind Peony'. It's massive!


He also does some very nice type work, logo types and has designed 2 of his own faces!


one to check out me thinks: http://www.behance.net/Karpa/Frame

Stop Frame Illustration

Also whilst we're on the subject check this one out too. I think these two have to be my all time favourite stop frame illustrations.

L Filipe dos Santos

Just discovered this Portuguese illustrator, his work is pretty stunning and fresh. for this project (see saw) I wonder whether he knew what he wanted to draw before he made the ink shapes. hmm...?