Sunday 24 June 2007

Specialists and support staff - hurrah!

A few thoughts on specialists and specialisation in general. In education there seems to be a growing buzz around multi-disciplinary practice and a breadth of study, I myself have chosen this route and if the growing talks of introducing the baccalaureate as a more general system in our secondary schools it seems that a lot of the country will be moving away from the more specialised systems we've used previously. Great. Some people enjoy this method, and indeed getting a broad base from which to grow is almost certainly an excellent thing. But I think it's fantastic to specialise too. I've been fortunate to meet with a great many talented people who are highly specialised, from an expert in all things balloon related (the rubber rather than hot air type) last week on a job, to an adhesives engineer I had an interview with last year. These are the people we go to make our ideas work, and though there's a lot to be said for the theory that one can become an expert in anything in 6 months (as Dyson said I believe) there's nothing wrong with making use of someone whose passion is that field of expertise. Not that I've heard anything to the contrary recently, but it seems seldom is this focus applauded as a valid route. I love touching on many different areas of my work, but nearly none of it could come into fruition without the input of individuals and groups who spend their lives dedicated to the pursuit of perfection in a distinct discipline.

On a vaguely related point, I'm coming more and more to appreciate the value of support staff the more I move towards leaving my period in education. From the fabulous IT technician on my course, to the patient and friendly team at the school where I'm working these people have the power to make work flow smoothly. On my course, the technician's input has often been that which has proven pivotal to the development of a project. When I was on placements at the BBC Visual effects department the people working in workshops taught me lots, but it was the security guards at the gate and their thoughtfulness every morning that got each day off to a positive start. Just as in family life, having the best support is the surest route to success.

Friday 22 June 2007

Guy's comment

Thanks for your feedback Guy, I agree with you thoroughly on most points, I'll have a proper read through alter and get back to some of them more specifically I'm sure!

I'm glad I've had responses to this post, particularly from Geoffrey who gave me a better idea of the full scope of his professional background, something which I hadn't picked up elsewhere in the course. It's often difficult for students to get an idea of where tutors are coming from as we often get a somewhat condensed picture, and though we all would hope that staff would come with a full compliment of skills relevant to what we need to learn it's always reassuring when this is justified and reaffirmed. We had a series of lectures last year where it looked like this was going to start to happen but they seemed to tail off after a few speeches by practitioners including Geoff and others. I'd love to get a broader idea of what both our regular and visiting tutors do.

Feel free to make reference to any and all of my specific work, I welcome all constructive criticism!

Does anyone have any experience in converting double decker buses? I'm converting one into my office space and a breakout learning/discussion space at the school I'm running my Unit 10/Minor/Major projects at. Also went to visit container city to investigate that building method for desiging a unit for autistic children on the site - highly recommend a visit although I'm sure a lot of you will have already been or read about it.

Thursday 14 June 2007

Good leadership makes the difference....obviously

Working at a school in North London where a former neighbour is now headmaster has made be realise just how important good leadership is to creatives. Though something I've always pushed in the work for my degree it's nice to see it works in application and not theory.

It's not just about delegation, and in my case having a boss who constantly challenges me directly to push what we can do in what's an incredibly limited budget and space is fantastic. But it only comes together when you add another important ingredient - he can really take positive criticism. He'll come down like a ton of bricks on anyone who moans without offering a solution, but point out a problem or a mistake he's made and offer a suggestion of the way you think it could be improved and he'll encourage you to push it all the way. If only more of our country worked that way.

Throughout our academic systems we're near enough punished if we step outside the regimented tick boxes, and even in Art & Design education our process of evaluation seems to be down to how well we can complete a series of processes, not on the quality of our design. In industry those of us who go above and beyond, and who push for change in an inefficient system will succeed, none more so than our colleagues in the creative sector. Meanwhile in our schools and colleges, even some with the best reputation, the highest marks are to be gained by sticking exactly to answering the learning outcomes, no more, no less.

Personally I'm growingly frustrated by my own degree experience due to the inability of my course to provide for the practitioner they have encouraged me to develop into. From a fairly certain fresh faced sixth formed at the beginning of my foundation year wanting to be a product designer, I moved to jewellery, then Artefact design, and now design management and leadership. We are constantly shown collaborative and multidisciplinary practice from Heatherwick, FAT, Future systems etc. but when it comes down how a creative can change over the course of three years there is no capacity for this to be dealt with. It has been pointed out that my numerous changes in focus indicate a problem with my own identity as a design practitioner but in an age where multidisciplinary is seemingly included in so many texts on good design practice where is the line between these two states?

Monday 11 June 2007

I'm not just a tag on to production

Recently it's come to anger me how often we as designers, particularly as freelancers, clients seem to think of us as add ons to the actual production process. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard "we only have two weeks" or something similair before a brief composing something which should have been in development for several months previously.

It seems all the businesses at least I deal with are under the severely wrong impression that design is only the final step in the production of their output, something to be approached narrowly before going to print or manufacture, and with little or no consideration as to whether they might need creative input into their brief or even their research before putting their baby out to tender. It all comes down to an inability to effectively integrate creative management into brand strategies. Before a company goes out to find a designer to knock out a few thousand leaflets how many bother to employ anyone to think about whether it's really leaflets they need or whether an alternative approach is needed - and in these cases where companies do think about this, how often is the brainstorming job given to a non-creative. I'm not saying our colleagues in PR, research and many other fields aren't capable of deciding what direction their productivity should take, but when the end result is a brief to be foisted on some poor freelancer with a ridiculous deadline surely there should be someone a little earlier in the timeline with a handle on creative thinking and working!

Case point, a brief I recently pitched for, where all I was asked to submit was a quote for total production cost with my time included for 10,000 packs of promotional playing cards, to be delivered in less than a month. Never mind that most of the companies printing cards needed at least 4-5 weeks to deliver that quantity, the brief was highly directed without any clear thought to how this might actually effect the input. Needless to say a chap they'd worked with before got the job, (though I'm not sure how, I got a real steal of a printing quote) and frankly good luck to him, because if he does a proper job he'll have to do it at a loss to keep within the original non-designed brief's budget, and if he does it on budget, because it'll clearly be a bit of a ballsup.

The conclusion ladies and gents? Designers, or more specifically design managers, have to be a regular fixture in every office that produces any kind of physical output. It's a no brainer that if you're producing anything, whether it's a kettle or a Westminster report, that has to have a creative involved to make it happen, it makes sense to have a creative work on producing your brief. That's our training, and our passion. Companies might always decide the "what", but until creative management is integrated into every business, we'll continue to fall short on the "how" and "why" every time.

First big bookmarking bonanza

OK here goes, I'd like to share my bookmarks with the world, here's each one with a little comment to guide you...

Handy page for adding a green roof to your shed.

Interesting Italian surface technology

Diamonds are a girl's best friend? Think again

Rather lovely graphics at: http://vhm-design.com/

Wonderful bit of musical nostalgia with a physics twist at: http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements

Free resource on solar energy projects, fun for all the family at: http://www.builditsolar.com/

Another nice industrial designer: http://www.stephenreed.net/

Free paper model templates: http://www.papertoys.com/

Cellotape sculpture: http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/

Functional jewellery that looks glam too: http://www.individualicons.com/

Opensource free software to pimp your mac with: http://www.opensourcemac.org/

The answer to that age old question, WHY can't I own a canadian? : http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2002/WhyCantIOwnACanadian_10-02.html

Amazing LED taps: http://mocoloco.com/archives/001233.php

Think your sculpture is way out? Think again: http://saoma.com/central/

Very versatile mouldable material at: http://www.movisi.com/pages/material

No longer must you survive in the realms of the analogue scribble thanks to : http://www.zefrank.com/scribbler/gallery/

Sculptural furniture at: http://www.sculpturedfurnitureartandceramics.com/david1.htm

Mechanically expanding tables, what will they think of next... http://www.dbfletcher.com/capstan/

The flexibility of paper and plastic sheets truly challenged at http://www.richardsweeney.co.uk/leaflet.htm

Interactive wall architecture at http://www.hyposurface.org/

Fantastic design projects with the public in mind at http://www.claystation.org/

Recycled goods made good at http://www.eco-artware.com/

Font search engine, highly useful for typography work at http://www.fontseek.com/

Comprehensive eco-materials database at http://www.kingston.ac.uk/~kx19789/rematerialise/html_and_flash/index-type-metal.htm

Japanese rope bondage beautifull executed by a lovely chap we had to dinner once at http://www.nawashi.com/main.html

Who wouldn't want a self-balancing electrically propelled skateboard? http://www.kysotech.com/projects/skatanova.html

...

More to come soon, accompanied by ranting aplenty.

Welcome to design & such

Welcome to design & such, the blog of designer Kit Friend.

After many years of enjoying good, and bemoaning bad design I've finally hopped on the band wagon and started a blog, so come and enjoy. I hope to provide a sample of the nice things I find whilst web trawling and generally doing creative stuff, and possibly some examples of not so nice things... There'll probably a fair bit of my more subjective ponderings as well, most of which revolve around how lovely some engineering is, and how little people appreciate creatives.

So keep tuned, and watch this space. And check out my website whilst your at it: www.kitfriend.com

Incidentally I'm always on the look out for work and experience, particularly in design management. Fancy employing me? You really should - Contact me via my website.

K