Practitioners Essay

Compare and contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners, to what extents are they defined by the external rigours of the market place/industry they operate in? Upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice?

The two practitioners that I have chosen to compare in response to the question above are the illustrator Gillian Blease and graphic designer Darren Scott, from Truth design consultancy. I feel that choosing these two very different people who practice within different areas of design is very relevant to me personally as, though I do have an interest in illustration and will have soon have completed a degree in the subject, I feel that my future interests lie within graphic design.

Gillian Blease is a freelance illustrator who most notably creates work for the Guardian. Within the three years she has worked with the newspaper, she has created approximately 150 illustrations for recipe, health and relationship columns. Gillian began her career when she completed a foundation year at Manchester Metropolitan University and progressed onto a four-year Fine Art degree at Newcastle University. At the beginning of her career, due to a 6-week trip to Japan, she was influenced by Japanese culture, such as the use of colour, design and symbolism. She doesn’t have any formal illustration training but instead completed a crash course in Illustration through the Association of Illustrators and began to build up her portfolio by setting herself briefs. Her design influences include Paul Rand, Claus Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Julian Opie and due to her interest in producing patterns, her pattern influences include Paul Rand’s “Abacus”, Joseph Frank and Norman McLaren. Within her own work she likes empty space as imagery “sits better if it has some space”.

I like the work of Gillian Blease, due to its simplistic nature and ability to send a clear message but I think sometimes her work can verge on being too simple, which I think can look boring. I think that it is fantastic that she enjoys success as an illustrator, especially as she is self-taught and I find it fascinating that a lot of her current work, that can be found in newspapers, gains her new clients so that she doesn’t really have to promote herself.

Darren Scott of Truth design consultancy began his career by studying a Design Practice degree at Salford University. He had an interest in typography and when he left university he set up Darren Scott Typographics, a type foundry. At this time he created such fonts as Circuit, Sodium, Bad Angel and Rub-On. His influences at this time were David Carson and Eric Speakerman. Darren eventually began working for McCann Erickson, the biggest ad agency in the world, and he began to create corporate design for big international brands. He helped to create the famous All:Sports logo and the photographic styling. He also helped to create the Christie’s “Embrace” logo, his last brief for McCann Erickson.

Darren set up his own design studio, Truth, with the former account director at McCann Erickson, who runs the business, whereas Darren is the designer. The first brief at Truth design studio was for The Authentic Food Company. The final design reflected world food and travel, and as it was a global brand, he created pictograms that could easily represent the company.Through Truth, Darren redesigned the brand “Fat Hog”, which sells painting supplies. As this brand could possibly expand in the future, Darren created a very simple logo that could be used on clothing, as well as packaging. He created something that was very striking, as he wanted it to stand out amongst the other brands out there.I went to this lecture as I have an interest in type but I found it fascinating, as I have never had the opportunity to meet someone prominent in the advertising industry. It was interesting to see how his passion for typography has bled into commercial work, to the point where he might create a full typeface for a campaign. I also felt that Darren was very wise in the advice that he was giving, and though he fell into the industry quite quickly, he knows what it’s like to struggle to find yourself after leaving university. One important piece of advice he gave was that when you meet someone in the industry; always ask for six more names that could be helpful. If those six names each gave six more names, you could quite easily get yourself known to the people who matter in design, and this would hopefully result in work. I really enjoyed this lecture, as Darren not only spoke about design work, but about how him and his work fit into the industry, and gave advice and how to promote yourself.

Gillian Blease and Darren Scott are truly individual people and successful within their area of design but due to my ever-expanding interest in graphic design and my confusion as to whether I wish to have a career within illustration a few questions are raised. I wonder if graphic design, as a career option, is the best decision. When you create a brand, you create an image, a feeling, a memory. It can stay with people for years and can bring about a feeling of nostalgia. Advertisements are there to be remembered. They are motivational tools to embed a message into the mind of the audience. And then I compare this to illustration, or at least to editorial illustration, which would be the career path I would choose if I wanted to be an illustrator. They are small images to break up the text and possibly make it clearer. A newspaper isn’t a precious item. It is thrown away almost immediately. It is disposable. Do readers even notice these illustrations? Darren Scott, within his lecture, said that he doesn’t think it is good to have one particular style, as if you learn all your crafts, such as type, illustration and photography, it gives you more room to experiment and the ability the learn to understand it. It is clear to see this expanse of techniques within his work, whereas the work of Gillian Blease contains no variety. It all looks the same. The main thing that I have learnt from the lectures was from the Darren Scott lecture: “Have passion, enthusiasm and confidence about your work.” It doesn’t matter if you make mistakes, but the most important thing is that you are passionate about what you do.

Word Count: 1083 words