Talk: Collaborate: Design to the Power of Two Visual Arts

As designers, the fruit of our labour is rarely the work of one person.

Collaboration is at the heart of what most of us do (whether we realise it or not); be it with fellow colleagues, studio mates, illustrators, copywriters, printers, authors and beyond… the power of two is often greater than working solo. During this evening’s lecture, we will hear about the work of three pairs of collaborators (Paul Barnes + David Pearson, Kelvyn Smith + Jim Sutherland and Sinem Erkas who will be talking about her work with author Marawa Ibrahim) who will share often surprising and unusual insights into their processes with us.

Paul Barnes is type designer and graphic designer. With American type designer, Christian Schwartz, he runs Commercial Type, a type foundry with offices in London and New York. He has designed typefaces for a wide range of clients, from the typefaces in the Guardian (with Schwartz) to those used on football shirts (Umbro & Puma) to those used by the National Trust. www.commercialtype.com

Type as Image – the design studio of David Pearson – specialises in print design where typography is the principle form of expression. David studied at Central St Martins in London before working for Penguin Books as text designer and later, cover designer. He left to establish his own studio in 2007. His clients include Wes Anderson, Sir Ridley Scott, Christie’s and the V&A. David has been listed as one of Britain’s Top 50 Designers by the Guardian and named by Debrett’s as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people. He is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) and was appointed Royal Designer for Industry in 2015, the highest honour bestowed upon designers in the UK.
www.typeasimage.com

Sinem Erkas is a multi-disciplinary graphic artist and art director with an imaginative and stylish approach to creating images. Mainly working in publishing, her practice ranges from digital artworks to photo-illustrations and 3D graphics. Inspired by Pop Art, Minimalism and optical illusions, Sinem likes to create playful bold artworks that make you look twice. Based in South London, she graduated from CSM in 2008. Her work has been included in London exhibitions, and the Venice Biennale (2009); her graduate work won the ‘best in show’ D&AD New Blood award and has since acquired numerous ABCD awards for her book cover designs and illustrations. Her first illustrated book The Girl Guide was written by Marawa Ibrahim who also stars in the imagery throughout and is the worlds best hula-hooper (with 9 world records)! The book is for young girls becoming women and includes over 200 illustrations and photo-illustrations about puberty.
www.sinemerkas.com/www.marawa.online

Kelvyn Laurence Smith (Mr Smith) is a craftsman, designer, typographer, printmaker, wordsmith and maker. He is of strong temperament and is chiefly concerned with good design, attention to detail, thorough practice and quality workmanship. He creates exquisitely crafted contemporary typographic printed matter using wood and metal type in his Letterpress workshop. ‘Smith’s Rules’ is the philosophy applied to the work undertaken – less of a dogma – more of a guide: a series of starting points & restrictions implemented by the workshop materials themselves. It is also the Imprint under which he publishes work. Smith’s Rules takes numerous forms and set out to explore visual ideas in response graphic language, problem solving, story telling, typographic prescription and the letterpress process and material restrictions. They are always ‘designed, set & printed’ by Mr Smith in his Kennington workshop.
www.smithsrules.com

Jim Sutherland is founder of Studio Sutherl&. Prior to that, in 2001, Jim co-founded Hat-trick Design, consistently one of the most awarded design agencies in the UK. He has rebranded the Natural History Museum, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis, Williams F1, Prostate Cancer UK, National Museums Scotland, Welsh National Opera, and TypoCircle. He has designed over 50 stamps to date for Royal Mail - including the Agatha Christie set last year. He has won over 150 professional awards. These include 82 projects in D&AD, with 11 nominations and four yellow pencils. In 2017 Studio Sutherl& was recognised as most awarded studio at D&AD. He is a visiting Professor in Design at Norwich University of the Arts and runs regular work(play)shops for D&AD. He is currently working on a book about Joy in Design.
www.studio-sutherland.co.uk

Over the last few years Mr Sutherland & Mr Smith have been collaborating on typographic ideas. These projects are all 'designed, set & printed' in Mr Smith's letterpress workshop in London and are self-initiated pieces conceived to explore the process of letterpress – express graphic ideas and articulate the visual observations conceived by the two gentlemen.
www.sutherlandsmith.xyz

More details