Grant Gilbert, twenty years ago, completed a two year National Diploma in Graphic Design. He then completed a print-based degree in Birmingham. After leaving university, Grant got a job at Planet 24 in the graphics department. After three years, Grant moved to Channel 4, doing promos and title sequences. This was different to working at Planet 24 because there were bigger budgets and there was a bigger audience. After three years at Channel 4, in 2000, he moved to Attic in New York. A year later he moved back to London and began working freelance as a designer. A couple of years ago he decided to start Double G studios, as he found it important to promote himself as a business. This enables him to commission other designers for bigger jobs, but all looks more professional to potential clients. He doesn’t like the term graphic designer, as he believes it can pigeonhole you.
CHANNEL 4 MUSIC PROMO
After bring commissioned, the first thing Grant does, as a rule, is sketch ideas. The idea for this brief was to wrap people in neon cable and fibre optics. After he had sold his idea to Channel 4, he sat with the producer to finalise the idea. The final idea was to stream neon cables out of glowing tents, influenced by LED displays. He created mood boards depicting what he thought the final product would look like in Photoshop. When creating a live action piece, it is important to have a detailed storyboard or shot list. The final filmed action is then edited and then it went through post-production by Smoke and Mirrors, a company in London.
MORE 4
For this brief, Grant worked with Spin, a print-design company in London, for four months. The creative director of the job wanted a Saul Bass inspired piece. They wanted to create a navigational system using the More 4 logo, and also a font. After trying many different colour schemes, the final colour scheme became green with green and blue hues. They had to create a visual language. It had to be modern and masculine but not too young. The on-screen presentation, OSP, is the colour scheme, font, background, etc. In the end, the background colour became black, as it was simple. When creating the animation developments, Grant used basic after-effects animation, and tried to integrate shapes and type. The Mill in London worked on the final animation in 3D. When the channel was being launched, it was promoted as an adult channel to gain interest, though instead it gained a lot of complaints.
BBC ONE
Grant worked with a company called Red Bee, who was pitching a rebrand idea to BBC one. As it was such a big project, a lot of people were involved. One part of the brief stood out to Grant, “BBC one is all about sharing and coming together”. So Grant began looking at the BBC one logo, and how it has changed, since it began, such as the 1953 Abram Games logo. He then saw a film about the Korean games in which hundreds of children hold up books of different coloured pages, to create giant images, but the BBC disliked this idea, but they liked the theme of community so they were given the job. Grant made a connection with the logos that BBC one had over the years, a circle. A circle can also represent unity. The BBC liked the idea of using a circle as a theme. To create a font to go with this new look, Fontsmith, a company who designs fonts, were hired. The circle was then put into the real world, these were called idents. A company called Framestore, who worked on Harry Potter, helped to create some for the 3D animation used. There were eight idents; hippos, roses, fire, kites and motorbikes. The brief took 10 months to complete and cost £1.2 million. As this was funded by public money, there was a backlash about the amount of money spent.
QUESTIONS
Q: Would you recommend working with others or alone?
A: you get fresher work when you work with other people but there can be conflict and a difference of opinion.
Q: How much work is pitched?
A: 70% of the time, but when you work with a company, they often use you again.
Q: As a judge of the D&AD commercial awards, what advise would you give when entering into such a competition?
A: Don’t overload the judges. Submit simple and striking work.
As I have never heard of Grant Gilbert, I had no expectations but I found the lecture extremely interesting. I thought the range of work that he completed was interesting as well as it proves that, as a designer, you are able to cross boundaries and explore other areas. I also think it is reassuring to know that somebody from Stockport College can become a success!!!
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