OUGD502 - Studio Brief 02 - Professionals Response

Of the professionals I reached out to, three came back to me and two of them actually let me interview them (I am still awaiting the third's response). I contacted Emanuele Capponi through Instagram which is where we first established communication. I asked him my interview questions and he was the first to get back to me. Our conversation is as bellow:

I love your beer packaging you created, did you design it? was it for a local brewery of yours?

"Yes, I do! Thank you. I’ve made this beer in my house.”

Do you do a lot of design work over in Italy? I study graphic design in the UK and I’m really keen to move abroad.

“I want to be honest with you: Italy is a wonderful place to live, life is great, but our work in your country is more developed and rewarding! A lot of graphic designers go outside from Italy to search opportunity.”

Where else do you find yourself working?

"In Italy maybe Milan. Other place, outside my country, I think London, Berlin or New York... there are the best places for our work.”

Do you mostly work freelance?

“Actually I work for an advertising agency, The Brand Shop. Freelance work is really challenging here.”

How did you get into graphic design? Did you study an art subject at school?

“Since when I was a boy, I love drawing and creating. So, I graduated in graphic design’s school, and after I work for a publishing house for 2 years. Then I working for an Advertising Agency until today.”

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

“I really don’t know, because after the fifty years, the graphic designer profession become indefinite.”

Was there a different career path that you considered taking in the past?

“I don’t know, maybe film director career.”

What is your favourite colour?

“There are many colour I do love: green, black, white. My own colour palette is black, gold, white.”

What is your favourite typeface?

“Futura. Gotham.”

Do you use a specific type foundry or typeface supplier? Who?

“Mmm, specific no. I take font Who I need everywhere.”

Who is your favourite stock supplier?

“Shutterstock. Simple, clean and inexpensive.”

How do you find working in Italy?

“First time I was selected by Art Director of publishing house. Then I send my portfolio to advertising agency.”

How does the work in Italy differ from design in the UK? Would you have any advice for designers who want to work abroad? What is your favourite country to work in? Why?

“I know people who work in The UK, and there our work is really appreciated and satisfying. I think before you search job in other country you should try in yours. Favourite country? As I said maybe NY, because it’s the centre of the world!”

It was interesting to hear about Emanuele's journey into design and that he as a young boy enjoyed creating. What I find most interesting is that another career path he could of chosen was a director, something I am keen to become.

Josiah was the next person to get back to me, we kept in contact by email. His response to the interview was:

How did you get into graphic design? Did you study an art subject at school?

"I count myself very lucky for knowing what I wanted to be from a very young age. I’d always been interested in Art, always being ‘that guy’ who had his work on the walls of both Primary & Secondary school. Continuing this interest, I downloaded a knock-off copy of Photoshop from some dodgy torrent site when around 14/15 years old. Getting good at the software, when I was 16, we had to pursue 2 weeks compulsory ‘work experience’ and I asked a family friend who ran a local Graphic Design studio if he would take me on. 2 weeks went on by and he took me on a ‘(Very) Junior Designer’, working at the studio after school for a year or so. This opportunity re-affirmed my love of practicing a creative subject and helped me understand what a ‘Graphic Designer’ actually is – something to this day my Mum doesn’t understand (!) I studied a GCSE in Graphic Design which was a good insight and opened my eyes to the subject. At the end of the academic year when the choice of A-Level’s approached I then chose to go to Leeds College of Art to study a National Extended Diploma in Graphic Design, based at Vernon Street in the CC in Leeds, for 2 years – instead of A-Levels. There was a rumble around my school at the time that I was leaving as it was relatively unheard of at my school to not go into the Sixth Form as it ranked highly as one of the best in the country. My tutors even tried to convince me otherwise but my Careers Advisor at the time actually used to work at LCA and so kept me on track to go. As it turned out, only 3 of us in my year didn’t carry onto do A-Levels.. the other 2 got kicked. I never looked back after my decision and my college-years became my favourite, hands-down topping University. In the end I didn’t fully end up leaving school as I was brought back, at the age of 16, to teach the tutors at school some Adobe software skills – a pretty surreal experience at the time."

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

"I hope to be running a successful Graphic Design studio based (somewhere) in the world. Leeds is great, so I hope to be here.. but I’m currently very nomadic around the world so nothing is stopping me from setting up elsewhere, or everywhere? I’m currently setting up with the mentality of being based in Leeds, but facing globally, and it’s going well so far."

Is there a different career path that you considered taking in the past?

"If I wasn’t a Graphic Designer, I would want to be a DJ based out of some wacky techno club in a back-alley of Berlin. Aspirations!"

What is your favourite typeface? Do you use a specific type foundry or typeface supplier? Who?

"This is a question that I see many Graphic Designers get asked but I don’t think I have any, as my favourite is always the most obscure typeface I can get my hands on at the time. My favourites are usually the ones I know one-one else will be able to get hold of and so I talk directly to a lot of amazing type designers who are a very illusive bunch. This doesn’t help you if you’re planning on using a chosen typeface throughout the document, so my default is usually Helvetica Neue, or using the extended version because why not."

Who is your favourite stock supplier?

"I’m a big fan of G.F Smith, with the bonus that they’re relatively local. Usually my go-to."

What is your favourite colour?

"It depends if you count Black & White as colours?"

What’s it like to work in Mexico? How does graphic design style differ in Mexico to the UK?

"Mexico was amazing, and I was privileged to be contacted to do some work for a Restaurant & Bar out there in Tulum and even more privileged to be flown out there for a couple of week to visit them. In the grand scale of Mexico, a truly huge country, I didn’t really venture out of a tiny pocket in the country and so it’s hard to comment on the style, or Graphic Design work, in the country but the overall feeling was very free & expressive (through street-art, installations etc.) That saying, Tulum differs from the rest of Mexico in it’s very bohemian attitude (that has to be bought at a cost) – the Restaurant/Bar I was doing work hosted an after-party by Dubfire – a superstar DJ – for a pop-up by ‘Noma’, a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant and the hotel on the beach opposite that charged $1000 a night. It was a very surreal experience, but I loved every minute. Tulum doesn’t really equate to the whole of Mexico, but it is a beautiful country!"

How did you find it working abroad?

"Even more amazing when you don’t have to pay for flights! In Mexico it helped as I was working with the owner who’d lived in London for most of her life and so there wasn’t any language barriers, but I also worked alongside their Marketing Director who was local and showed me all the best things to do around the area – the stuff off the beaten track. It’s the days off that make working abroad fun, or just when your studio is the beach. I’ve been lucky enough to already been flown out to both Croatia and Mexico and in being asked to do so there’s already an established level of trust, as they know you can get the job done, that’s why you’re there – and it’s a great experience, although stressful as you know it has to be perfect, and on time as the deadline is your flight back."

What advice would you have for designers wanting to work abroad?

"Don’t ever think that where you’re based dictates where you source your work from. I’m based out of Leeds but it’s only recently when I’ve started to get work local to the area. All my exciting international work came from referrals from some pretty standard commercial work, so you never know who-knows-who. It’s the idea of Six Degrees Of Separation where anyone in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other. As a crazy example of this, the business I’m doing work for in Croatia, has previously traded directly with Trump Corp. which now makes me 1 step away from the President of the United States of America!"

What was the most important thing you learnt while studying at LCA?

"Graphic Design doesn’t exist if no-one sees it."

Both responses from these creatives are incredibly useful. Their journey into graphic design is not too dissimilar to my own, and they both reminded me the importance of connecting with my own country before I explore possibilities and not to let where I am from have an effect on my work and where I do my work as it is my own identity that will influence it most.

I did try to get in touch with Henrik Olsson of Olsson Barbieri, however he has not got back to me yet. I plan to continue trying to get the attention of the other creatives from the studios I have already mentioned and hope to successfully make contact with them in the future.