Studio practice
Task_1 Design Practice
Which creative studios contribute to the identity of your city’s design industry and how?
Case-Study 1: Voodoo Chilli design-Web design studio
Website link: http://www.voodoochilli.com
Company statement:
We are specialist strategy focused website designers based in Hereford, Herefordshire. We don’t just make pretty websites, we craft solutions that help our clients to bring in more customers, enquiries and sales. What makes us stand out is our ability to combine excellent technical know-how, superb design with a friendly professional customer oriented service that will support and endeavour to solve all your online promotion and marketing needs from logo design, branding and graphic design to photography and video. We have clients across the UK, including in the UK’s second largest city, Birmingham as well as the capital itself, London.
Summary: Voodoo Chilli
Voodoo Chilli is a small, regional company that places a focus on specialist web-based strategy and website design. They were founded in 2008 by Managing Director Harry, whose background in Visual Communication led him into the emerging industry of digital design.
The company consists of six members of staff, with each member possessing a specialist skillset that allows them to play a specific role within the company, and serves to accommodate their portfolio of clients, both local and national.
The company model is one that is built on an affable temperament and a client-focused approach to project-management, seeking to tailor their practices to the scale of the project and the requirements of client.
The studio-Culture at Voodoo Chilli is built on inclusiveness, employee-wellbeing, engagement with the local identity, and a progressive perspective on the future of the wider-industry and the role of the Graphic Design agency.
In response to the studio culture at Voodoo Chilli, I would relate the relaxed, inclusive decorum to that of such international companies such as Apple and Google, where the seemingly, regimented corporate hierarchies of the past are replaced by a more open relationship between the employees and the company executives. As we have observed, this group-orientated approach can serve to create a thriving creative space, that ultimately will contribute to the company’s success, however, I would also pose the question, does the blurring of ones’ role in the context of a contemporary design practice risk creating ambiguity and confusion as to the agencies own identity, can such practices operate in the corporate stratosphere or are they merely an indulgence that is dictated by trends, rather than responsible conduct?
Case-Study 2: Orphans
Website link: http://www.orphans.co.uk
Company statement:
Orphans is a dynamic design, web and print agency in the glorious Herefordshire countryside. The company was founded in 1873 as a printing press and we’re very proud to still be a family-run company one hundred and forty-four years later. The presses are still whirring – crafting beautiful printed materials – but we’ve evolved into a renowned web and design agency – creating innovative websites and apps. Our clients include Pol Roger Champagne, Chase Vodka and Edward Bulmer Natural Paint.
The Orphans Press was established by Quaker philanthropist Henry Stanley Newman – a man way ahead of his Victorian counterparts. Originally a greengrocer, he made it his mission to found a home for orphaned children. Henry quickly realised he required a long-term way to fund the home, but also that the children needed to learn a trade if they were to go on and live successful lives after they left their care. And so the idea of starting a printing press was born. The Orphans Press became a pillar of the local community and the rest, as they say, is history.
Husband-and-wife team Helen and Andy Bowden, both from marketing backgrounds, took the helm twenty years ago. They grew the long-established business into an agency ready to meet the changing needs of their clients – many of whom have been working with Orphans for generations – whilst attracting exciting new start-ups and clients from London, Edinburgh and Bristol.
The company has continually evolved but the principles of innovation, passion, fairness and trustworthiness embodied by Henry Stanley Newman still lie at the heart of our business.
Summary: Orphans
Orphans is a rare example of a local, full-service design agency that has managed to navigate and endure through an extensive history. The company was founded in 1873 by philanthropist Henry Stanley Newman, as a home for orphaned children, with the later addition of a printing press to serve as a source of revenue for the home and possible employment for the older residents of the orphanage.
Today, the company comprises of thirty members of staff and incorporates an eclectic range of practices into the daily operations of the company, these include: web-development, strategy, creative, pre-press, print-finishing, copy-writing and marketing. Consequently, the company is able to offer an end-to-end service that can accommodate a wide selection of the client’s requirements, and therefore present a much broader service to prospective clients. This meticulous approach has allowed the company to work with an array of clients both locally and internationally.
This multi-role practice is typical of where many companies find themselves today-having to offer more for less, as elaborated upon by Adrian Talbot from IntroDesign, in task 1 of this module. So, how does this reflect on the traditional view of the graphic designer, in today’s industry? Is the practitioner now required to possess a multitude of skill-sets in order to serve the needs of the markets? Possibly, and from first observations one would be inclined to go further and argue that the contemporary Graphic Designer is now obliged to play multiple roles in contemporary practice-is this the reason for many of my contemporaries choosing to focus more on craft and web-technologies, rather than continue to operate in the traditional role of a Graphic Designer? And how, will this shift in responsibilities effect the education of future creatives, going forward?
Case-Study 3: P and R design
Website link: http://www.pandrdesign.com
Company statement:
Herefordshire graphic design and web design company P and R Design offer you high quality and cost effective design solutions for both printed material and websites. In understanding the importance of your needs, we take extra care in producing the appropriate design so that we can deliver long lasting, eye-catching solutions for your marketing and corporate literature, brand identity, exhibitions, art direction, packaging and web design.
Summary: P and R design
P and R design are a good example of how a smaller agency can build a clientele in their immediate locale and utilise the culture of that area to generate a visual-vocabulary for their own identity and messaging-in this instance, that of a local business entrenched in the elegance and traditions of rural life and the history of Herefordshire. Unlike Voodoo Chilli, they do not adopt a progressive approach to studio culture or place an emphasis on lifestyle, choosing to operate within their niche and abide by a more traditional form of practice. Similar to the conduct of the practitioners explored in Alice Neve’s findings, P and R design serve the micro-economies of their respective region.
Task 2_Design production
Select 3 places for design production in your city (letterpress, screen printing, web development, litho printers, 3D manufacturers, commercial printers, Risograph printers, bookbinders, sign-writing, laser cutting, video production, audio production etc)
Case-Study 1: Room in Hay
Website link: http://www.roominhay.com
Company statement:
At Room we offer a friendly and professional interior decoration service.You can have an informal chat in the showroom or we can offer you home visits – we can help you simply select the paint scheme for your walls through to whole house and commercial projects.You can commission book cases, bedside tables, wardrobes or a piece of furniture to fit an awkward space, these are made locally then delivered and installed.
Case-Study 2: Berrington Press
Website link: http://www.berrington-press.co.uk
Company Statement:
We are an established family run printing firm specialising in traditional letterpress printing, foil blocking and engraved stationery. Based in the Welsh Marches on the very edge of rural Herefordshire, we combine traditional craft skill with expertise, and our lovingly restored vintage presses with an extensive range of speciality papers and boards to create beautiful quality printed products.
Case-Study 3: The Whitley printing Co
Website link: http://www.whitleystationery.co.uk
Company Statement:
The Whitley Printing Co. established over 35 years ago, produces high quality stationery for weddings and business, hand-crafted in the heart of Herefordshire UK
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