I went to the new velodrome at the weekend. It was magnificent.
A wonderful building inside and out. It looks stunning as you approach it and there are some nice details inside.
But as is usual with these things it was let down by the graphics design.
The wayfinding stuff was OKish.
An opportunity missed there, but it's not offensive.
What bothers me is, yet again, the faliure of anyone to design something to counter, or accomodate this:
We know people are going to put A4 signs on things. That's part of a human nature now, ingrained from birth. So PLEASE can we find an elegant way to incorporate this into buildings?
And I don't just mean clip frames.
This one for example:
They must have known beforehand that they would need that sign, so either
a) make the ledge so you can't but drinks on it, make it slope or something, then we don't need a sign
or
b) get a proper sign made, maybe something out of that nice wood.
Right then, there are lots of jobs floating around at the moment. All of them with a large digital element. Good jobs working for good people.
First up, we at Newspaper Club are looking for a shit hot Interaction Designer (front end dev, whatevs). You get to work for a company that's won numerous prestigious design awards blah blah blah you know the rest. We need someone amazing. Read more and apply here.
Graeme Douglas at Wieden + Kennedy wants to hear from creative coders. Drop him a line, he's a good man. He doesn't give shitty jobs.
And as well as all that, the way things are moving here I imagine we'll need designers or interaction designers here at GDS. No specific ads just yet, so drop me a line (ben.terrett at gmail etc) and we can meet for a coffee. I'd like to start meeting designers. It's as exciting as I described the other day.
Someone (can't remember who or where, soz) once said that nowadays the first test for a new applicant is working out who to contact. IT'S NOT THAT HARD, twitter, blogs, email etc. Find the right person. Get in touch. Delight them with your work and attitude. Or if that fails email me and I'll point you in the right place :)
Lots of good exciting opportunities up there. Don't hang around.
On December 23rd I left Wieden & Kennedy and on December 28th I joined the Government Digital Service in the Cabinet Office as Head of Design. But more about the new job later, this post is about the old job, Design Director at Wieden & Kennedy.
I was incredibly sad to leave Wieden & Kennedy.
There's a good, strong culture that feeds directly into the work. They have a few mottos. Sayings that everyone takes seriously because they aren't just words, they're statements people believe in.
There's one motto, the work comes first. And it really does, the downside of this is that it inherently means everything else comes second, but you can't fault the quality of the work. I've never worked (or indeed visited) anywhere with such energy and passion to just make brilliant work. To raise the bar and then keep raising it. To push on longer and harder than anyone else until the work is amazing. And I'm not just talking about creatives, I mean account people, producers and all the other guys who don't get the glory creatives do. One Saturday last November a friend said to me, 'what are you doing tomorrow?' when I replied going into the office he said, 'I guess that's what makes you guys so good, you just work harder than anyone else."
But it's not just putting in the hours.
It's having a standard and trying to go beyond that. Never settling for good enough.
There's another motto - you're here to do the best work of your life. That focuses the mind, is this the best work of my life? If not, why not? You'll notice there are no duff clients at w+k. No big cash cows where the work is shit but the money is good. No clients they keep off the reel. Every client gets the same creative energy and every client gets the same good work. No other ad agency in town can say that.
Last year was a tough year for the agency. They (we) took the difficult decision to part with Nokia and that meant significant job cuts. It wasn't a great year creatively. And yet they deservedly won ITV's ad of the year - and that's a bad year!
This year will be great. The new Lurpak stuff is fantastic and completely different from any other low fat spreads ad out there. There's a big campaign in the summer which will be pretty special and the new Schweppes win is a perfect fit for the agency. Good work will come from that. And that's just a taster of stuff you can expect this year.
Design usually has a hard time in ad agencies, but Tony and Kim have always been lovers of graphic design and are very design aware. Design is important to the agency and together with Guy (my predecessor) they have built a stunning body of well designed work. That's rare in an ad agency.
Like most ad agencies it's an aggressive shouty culture. Yes Tony and Kim will scream at you, yes there's loads of Shoreditch twattery on a regular basis, yes they are an ad agency with all the baggage that brings. Yes you'll lose your evenings and weekends. As Shay used to say, the best work of your life - the most work of your life. But you'll learn a lot, you make lasting friends and you will do the best work of your life. If you ever get the chance to work there - take it.
4 years ago, a leap year, I did a Flickr 366. Where you take a picture every single day. It was an interesting year. I left The Design Conspiracy, the Credit Crunch started, I went to Portland for the first time.
This year promises to be just as interesting, I've got a new job, I'll be going to SXSW and to the Olympics. Some good pictures to be had there.
So I'm going to do the same again this year. All results uploaded to my Flickr.
Last year we had great fun broadcasting to Tech City on Radio Roundabout.
We're doing it again this year. Today at 3pm. We'll have lots of Christmas music, guests including Matt Webb from BERG, the Makies and the UK Prime Minister's Ambassador to Tech City, friendly chit chat and a massive competition!
Often on the way home from places we pass this building and I'm always intrigued by the hexagon stairwell design. It's hard to make out in this picture but have a look anyway.
The other day I finally stopped and went in to have a closer look.
It's cool, isn't it? The photographs don't do it justice but it looks particularly good lit up at night. (It's obviously pretty drafty too, which is a major oversight.)
You often see this kind of interesting but slightly odd detail in public architecture built just after the war. Stuff funded by the Government and (I assume) designed, built and approved fairly rapidly. I have no basis for this statement that's just how it appears to me.
There's something interesting about the post war momentum and public funding and the strength of British design talent around at the time. Something.
The hexagons continue onto the floor tiles.
The internet turns up a little bit more information and revealed that Wates, the famous construction company responsible for lots of post war London stuff, commissioned Reginald Brill to make this mural when the block was built in the mid 60s.
Is it just me, or does a part of that look like the Mac Windows icon?
Anyway.
Wates also commissioned some sculpture for outside the flats, which sits on land owned by the Dulwich Estate. At the unveiling ceremony Mr Charles Pearce, Chairman of the Governors, described Wates as "not only builders but benefactors'. Hard to see any developers building flats being described as benefactors these days. (Stadiums and stuff - maybe, flats in cities - no.)
Reginald Brill was the principal of the Kingston School of Art and seemingly quite well known.
He worked on some stamp designs in 1965 with, among others, David Gentleman who then went on to design some innovative stamps commissioned by Postmaster General Tony Benn. British design talent, public funded projects, strong leaders. Again, something.
And there you go. Interesting. I would never found out any of that if I hadn't bothered to stop the car and get out.
I've just watched a video of a talk on a computer for the first time in about 100 years. It's lunchtime, you should watch it.
It's James talking about the New Aesthetic. It's very good. Very interesting. Full of good stuff. Don't forget James and I (and others) will be talking about this stuff in Texas in March next year. Can't wait.
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