What or whom inspired you to become a graphic designer?
In one word: play. I used to really enjoy playing around with Geocities site builder in 1999, creating arrangements of text and image. Design was never something that I consciously wanted to do (I wanted to be a writer), so I didn’t feel any weight of expectation. Inexplicably I found that I had some talent and that some people actually wanted to pay me to design things. So I carried on accumulating experience, learning where I could, until I finally found that I could legitimately call myself a designer.
What training (if any) did you have before becoming a professional designer?
None. I think this is a blessing and a curse. It’s only recently that I’ve gone systematically through books on Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Flash and discovered basic really principles. Otherwise, my training consisted almost solely of copying other people and adapting their work to my own ends, not that you could tell where it had came from by the time I was finished.
What inspired your logo and title of your design agency?
The logo was inspired by the Bauhaus aesthetic. Perhaps Herbert Bayer’s Bauhaus Extras fonts . . . http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/p22/bauhaus-extras/ ???
The name, Noble Savage, comes from my initials and my academic background as someone interested in the Enlightenment and the historical idea of being free from the bad bits of civiliization — being naturally good.
How do you as design agency promote yourself?
Really, word of mouth is by far the best way of getting clients. This doesn’t mean networking furiously, but just getting to know people who are what Malcolm Gladwell called Connectors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectors) . Around ninety percent of my recent commissions can be traced back to knowing two very key individuals. Otherwise, having a great portfolio - especially online - will always get you noticed. Have a look at Digitalthread.com for examples.
What would you say are the advantages and disadvantages of working solo?
The advantage of working solo is that you have virtually no overheads. You can thus charge far less than an agency. The disadvantages are many — for me at least — the main one being that it is very easy to procrastinate when you haven’t got a project manager or a boss or a partner to keep you in line. Deadlines flit by and client relations suffer unless you are supremely organized. Actually, in the long run that is an advantage, since I have managed to become productive as a reaction to being disorganized.
As a designer you tackle all parts of design from typography to illustrations. What area of design are you personally interested in?
The most satisfying part of any design is seeing it finished and working — especially when it is design that fulfils its function better than the user could hope. So, yes, usability aspects of design are most interesting to me — of course, that includes typography, arrangement and aesthetics.
Do you manage to mix your personal interests in design together with your business designs?
Not so much anymore. As your interests become increasingly focused it becomes difficult to shoehorn them into your work. For instance, I recently tried to apply Modernist typographical rules to a website for Children, completely forgetting that children have no taste. Have you seen children’s sites? Endless vulgarity.
Which designers and design movements still inspire you today?
I am obsessed with modernist aesthetics. El Lissitzsky, Jan Tschichold. There is something compelling about having a well-established set of rules that you can then go and tear up in your work. They were the first designers who really thought about design, who introduced the notion of design as problem solving; both of which are very attractive to me.
What advice would you give to me or to any graphic design student who wants to set up their own design agency?
Adrian Shaughnessy wrote a really good book called How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, which deals with all the ins and outs of setting one up. Personally, I would advise the notional student to experiment as much as possible, learn every trick of the trade, to take risks and, most of all, have fun.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Leave a Reply