ARD504 Creative Futures 2 Opening address and keynote speaker

Creative Futures week has come around so quickly! It's an event that lasts for one week and provides an opportunity to listen to professionals and academics from the university who provide valuable advice and information about the creative industries. It also allows opportunities to network and obtain valuable contacts. For those with portfolios there are sessions to obtain feedback and further advice.

The introduction to Creative Futures week was provided by Dr Stuart Cunningham. He told us that 67% of employees in the creative sectors are graduates, and this number is rising. He said it’s core skills such as a good sense for business, management skills, experience and industry knowledge that will help students land their dream job once they’ve graduated. It was comforting to know that 94% of Glyndwr's graduates obtain employment within 6 months, although it was unclear as to whether this was in an industry related to their degree. In summing up Dr Cunningham said we should grab all the opportunities that come our way. Good advice in my opinion!

The next speaker was Vice Chancellor Michael Scott who was stepping in for the original speaker as they were unable to attend. His talk was about Shakespeare. He began by telling us that Shakespeare was little more than a thief and a very good business man!

The Vice Chancellor provided detailed information about the life of Shakespeare, how from a young age he witnessed his father, a glove maker go bankrupt and decided that the theatre was an opportunity to make money to support his family back home. The Puritans would not allow theatres to be built within the city of London so he built one on the outskirts. He began by re-writing plays he had obtained by suspicious means, and putting them on stage in his own theatre. Shakespeare was a shrewd businessman; he saw the uprising of the theatre and recognised an opportunity to make his fortune. The moral of the Vice Chancellor’s story was that a crisis can potentially be your greatest moment of all!

Keynote Speaker

The keynote speaker Angus Montgomery, is the Editor of Design Week. Design Week is the UK's leading Design website specialising in design news and jobs.

Angus has spoken to a number of people in the industry about graduates:

• According to Simon Manchipp (SomeOne design company) lateral thinking, enthusiasm, and progressive working are all very attractive traits in designers. They should also pay particular attention to how they brand themselves.
•  Rhiannon James (DandAD) talked about the company’s graduate academy and how it nurtures the best talent. DandAD’s graduates find employment within 3 months. 
•  Lizzie Mary Cullen an award winning creative also emphasises the importance of marketing yourself professionally. 
• Greg Quinton (The Partners), says it's important to encourage students to find their own influences, not to follow what everyone else is following. Collaboration with other fields is important, working with people and finding a space to work in groups. Always love what you do, push yourself and your passion will drive you to better yourself.

Angus then told us how student fees have been a topic for discussion within Design Week. He said he’d asked lots of professionals in the industry what they would do if they were faced with paying up to £9000 a year in tuition fees. He said that every one of them said they would without a doubt. He believes that if you have to pay for your education you will make the most of it and value it.

Work

Angus then began to tell us about some of his work.

Bodyshop

A particularly poignant story he reported on was a campaign to stop the sex trafficking of children and young children. This was created for the Body Shop. Enter Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young Children, is a three-year global campaign in partnership with NGO ECPAT, the international network of children’s rights organisations. The campaign aims to put an end to the trafficking of children and young people, guarantee their rights to be protected from exploitation and inspire long-term change to strengthen the protection offered to these children and young people. 

The Body Shop stores tell the campaign story, its people donate their time for on-the-ground campaigning, and a ‘Soft Hands Kind Heart’ hand cream was specially developed to fund the campaign – with profits on sales donated to ECPAT. From a commercial perspective the campaign needed to be substantial enough to get franchisees on board and make it worth giving up a window, since shops sell volume of product on a daily basis, based on what’s in the window.

The campaign has been extremely successful:

• 17 countries have had law changes regarding sex trafficking.
• Donations to ECPAT to fund the campaign exceed objective by 200%: after 24 months, profits of Soft Hands Kind Heart hand cream generated just over £3 million in donations to ECPAT – 200% more than £1 million objective.6.6 million signatures on petitions worldwide, surpassing the 6 million target by 10% and firmly enshrining this as The Body Shop’s biggest campaign ever.
• The largest ever human rights petition was presented to the EU commission in June 2011. Plus fifteen countries handed their petitions to national governments by July 2011, securing commitments beyond The Body Shop’s greatest hopes and expectations.
• 65 markets launched this campaign – more than any other campaign in The Body Shop’s history and further asserting this as The Body Shop’s biggest campaign ever.*

*(Information obtained from 300million.com)

One laptop per child

The next campaign was called ‘One laptop per child’. The aim of this is to provide children in developing countries with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future. The laptops are generally sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. As of 2011, over 2 million laptops have been distributed under this model.

Plumen

The next case study was the Plumen energy saving light bulb. The designers (Hulger) believe that if you make a bulb attractive people will spend a bit more and enjoy a better quality of light and a design they appreciate every day. The Plumen 001 was awarded the Brit Insurance Design of the Year in 2011, one of the world’s highest profile international design awards. It was also awarded the prestigious Black Pencil at the D&AD awards in the same year. I actually like the design of these bulbs, it could be argued that they are an expensive and unnecessary luxury but in my opinion design is not just about making objects that are practical but about producing things that are aesthetically pleasing. 

Pearson Lloyd

In May 2011, the Department of Health and the Design Council commissioned a multi-disciplinary team led by PearsonLloyd, to look at how design could reduce levels of violence and aggression in A&E. 

They looked at how design can make improvements to A&E environments, systems and services so that the likelihood of violence and aggression occurring is reduced. The principle was to redesign a person's experience within A&E. They produced a chart that maps the patient’s route through the different departments and a screen that communicates essential information.
The scheme is currently being piloted in eight hospitals and there are plans to increase this in the future. Early reports positive from the hospitals are good, people appear to be calmer and much less violent. This is a great example of how design can make significant improvements to peoples lives.

St George's Crypt

Next was a piece of work commissioned by the homeless charity St George’s Crypt. When it came to producing its annual report the charity tasked the design agency B&W Studios with designing a brochure that would communicate strongly and vibrantly to the corporate sector and encourage it to donate. They wanted the realities of Crypt life to be communicated in a compelling yet engaging way. B&W felt that the brochure needed to be both educational and thought provoking and decided that almost life-size reproduction of the powerful stories of six of the refuge’s clients would have the most impact. They therefore reproduced pictures, stories and statistics on the effects of alcoholism, (including the Crypt’s accounts) in an A2–sized 12-page, document that was roughly the size of a small blanket a rough sleeper might use. Sadly, during the making of the report one of the six men featured, Dougie died due to the long-term effects of alcohol addiction. He was aged just 35.

I think this is a fantastic use of design to change what would normally be a fairly dull accounts document into an opportunity to raise awareness and raise funds.

Someone Design Agency

Someone's new identity for PR agency Resonate was made using £1000 worth of flowers, liquid nitrogen and explosives. Working with photography group Sorted and effects specialist Pirate, Someone froze bouquets of flowers using liquid nitrogen then detonated them with explosive charges. This type of thing has been done before for example by Electronic companies exploding televisions but I've never seen it done with flowers. I think it's an interesting take on super slow motion camera work.  

The Milton Agency

The Milton Agency manages the unsung heroes of the TV and film industry, including some of the best hair and make-up artists and costume designers in the business. It commissioned Magpie Studios to create a new brand logo.

They created a simple star logo with the letter 'M' in the negative space. At first glance the 'M' isn't immediately visible but if you look closely you can see it in the spaces between the stars. This is a clever design but in my opinion isn't strong enough for a brand logo. The 'M' doesn't stand out enough for me.

Harrison & Co

The final company Angus presented was a design consultancy called Harrison & Co. They were commissioned to produce an advertising campaign for the Orchestra of Age and Enlightenment.

The shapes and arrows are ’an interpretation of sound’, the design is an attempt to recreate the look and feel of ’doodling on a picture’. I like these designs as I think they really help bring out the personalities of the musicians.

Finally Angus showed us some of his favourite work by students.

The first is a piece by Sam Grey (Plymouth University) entitled ‘Vertigo’. The aim of this work was to depict the effect of vertigoin that a person feels as if the world is spinning. I think this image is great and really speaks for itself.

I really like the final piece of work which were created by Alan Clarke (Falmouth University). They were designed for the London 2012 Olympics and represent various sports. They are very graphic and do a great job of representing movement.

That was the end of the first day which was interesting and informative. It was great to hear from industry professionals about their views on design and to see some good examples of work. I learnt that it's important to grab every opportunity that is presented to you and always remember to market yourself, be passionate and push yourself!