Truth is a graphic design agency made up from a partnership (Darren and Jane) who
previously worked together for a different design agency. They both came into college to speak to us about their work and experiences within the industry and to tell us some helpful tips for when we try and break into the industry. Darren does most of the design work and concepts and Jane does all the organizing and difficult boring bits! Therefore Darren was the one mostly talking about the work. They showed some really interesting work and Darren showed a lot of type faces that he had made and explained how he got to the finished type face, which was interesting. They told us that its important to not have a particular style, its good to experiment and learn all the crafts and understand their place. He also told us that we should always rationalise - explain why we have what we have done, to create something with a purpose. I thought these were really good points of advise. They showed us work for big clients such as Versus cancer 08, Reebok and Coca- Cola, and explained their reasoning behind the design concepts and really made me believe in the idea behind the design.
Gavin from a design agency called Fudge came into college to talk us through the process of designing the England squash identity. He showed us all the rough sketches they did where they found their ideas right through to the final thing. Gavin told us they have 6 stages to designing: Project scope, Research, naming, design concept, design development, design application. They spend two days researching and analysing England squash. He said how important it is to fully research the history of the company and the previous identity's for that company, it's important to fully understand the company and how it works and what it does. He also said it's important to research other logos within that field i.e if you were re-branding Nike, research all the other sports company logos e.g Reebok etc. He put into perspective the amount of time you have to complete the briefs from clients. He also said that it is key to have a full understanding of the client and to look at other brand within that area. Gavin had to present his idea three times to the client before he accepted it, and also had to bring the client back down to earth. The client didn't like the rose Gavin had incorporated into the design, but as Gavin says the rose isn't for you its for your customers. I found Gavin's presentation really useful. It showed how hard it can be some times to make someone else see what you see and like your idea as much you do.
Over all i enjoyed both presentations and learnt a lot from the designers that came in. Having the designers come into college and tell us about their work and getting to meet them, makes me realise how down to earth they actually are. When i think of graphic designers for some reason i associate them with a kind of celeb status, so them being in front of us, messing up their presentations and telling us the hard times they had getting into a graphic design agencies reassures me that they are just human-beings no different to me. I think that Darren from truth had a lot of work to show us which was really interesting and he presented really well and kept us all interested. Truth is a fairly new company so it was good to see how quick they got on their feet and the names they had already worked for. However Gavin who didn't present as well, Presented something that we had never seen before (this being the process). I felt i learnt a lot off Darren and Gavin but Gavin put the time he had into perspective and let us know how difficult it is to please other people and agree on what is the most effective. Also Gavin's presentation was different it's the only one of that kind that I've seen all the others have been like Darren's which is still interesting and will still find out some good tips. Gavin just took us through the process of getting to the final stage, which is no too dissimilar to what we do now at college, it was so re assuring knowing that how we work at the moment is not too different to the way everyone works out there in the industry. I think that both presentations were good in their own way Gavin's was different but i feel that i got just as much out of Darren's as i did out of Gavin's. They both showed high standards of work and both told us a lot of useful tips.
