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Written by…

Some of you may recall a blog post from earlier in the year called ‘Disrupted by…’. Recently OCA’s Graphic Designer, Leanne, and I attended another of these events, this time entitled ‘Written by…’.

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This years conference centred around the use of writing in it’s various forms, and how important it is to design, and indeed all art practices. The speakers invited to the conference came to share their insight into the use of writing in their own varied experiences in design. But before the speakers gave their talks, the tutors of Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) shared some thoughts and research of their own, as well as some recordings of other design practitioners they have questioned about the importance of writing. The message was very clear throughout their presentation, that writing is of huge importance to what we do as designers.

Designers spend huge amounts of time writing. They have to write project proposals, presentations to new and existing clients, treatments for the work they’ve produced, legal documents to protect their work, blog about their work and practice, feedback and responses to critics or fellow colleagues, deal with suppliers, and just to order their own personal thoughts!

There were five different speakers that followed the introduction, each working in various areas of design. The first of these was Patrick Burgoyne, editor of Creative Review. He talked of the changes that the Creative Review’s faced over time, how the magazine has been taken from ‘print and ink’ to ‘web, social media, film and mobile device apps’, and now has to deal with ‘an explosion of #epicfail’ and how the readers have gone from ‘Anti-Social to Social’. Paul Beech followed, a maker and designer who works with code, and spoke of the origins of code (4000 years ago would you believe) and it’s various uses, and how without written language code would be impossible.

After a midday break we skyped with Michael Rock, a founder and partner of the global design consultancy 2×4. He shared his idea of design being an elaborate form of writing, and how good writing didn’t have to be long winded, but could easily be a quick critique in a paragraph. The designer David Pearson then shared his experience of working as a designer in response to writing. He worked for Penguin Books as a text designer before working as a cover designer, and showed us several examples of his work on various book covers, alongside some designs he had found from working in the Penguin Book archive. His talk highlighted the importance of relating design work to the subject, which was in his case the writing of authors and publishers.

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The final talk was given by Ken Garland, who was full of endearing stories and experiences from his long life in the world of design, photography and critique. Amongst his many insights and thoughts, he shared that he wasn’t happy with how some designers write, that they ‘tend to blather and hesitate’. He went on to say that ‘although we’re not all into writing, I expect you to be text aware and proficient’. Some of his closing remarks were so simple, but incredibly insightful. He explained that ‘there are lot’s of great writers, but we should feel able to write as designers’ and that when writing about a fellow designer Harry Beck, he ‘as a designer could write about his work best’ because he knew what Beck was doing.

Overall, the day itself was so reaffirming of the importance of writing to designers, we underestimate its use as students all too quickly, and here were designers in the field reiterating the iterations of our tutors, it’s important to write! What do you think to writing? Is it as important as these speakers say it is?

Eddie Smith, OCA Course Support Adviser

These one day conferences are held each year with varying themes extending from the original ‘Curated by…’ lecture programme at SHU. The conferences are open to both students of SHU and other institutions, and also to other design practitioners, sometimes for a fee.

Feature Image Credit: Courtesy of Sheffield Hallam University

Image Credits: Eddie Smith and Leanne Putt


Posted by author: Edward

2 thoughts on “Written by…

  • That’s interesting. I’m sad to have missed it. I think for Vis cm students being confident around words generally is important and writing can of course be part of this.Increasingly I hear of practitioners who are generating their own copy as part of a commission.

    • It was very interesting Jo, my note pad was overflowing with my own writing when the day was over… The talks really did hammer the message home that good writing skills are essential to all areas of art practice. I was really surprised to find that even though I knew this fact already from my own experiences, I hadn’t fully appreciated it before!

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