Truth Design & Fudge Studios
I have attended many of this years design lectures, to name a few, Grant Gilbert, Tal Rosner, Mike Orchard Recruitment, I also went to Liverpool Design Symposium and saw a range of designer lecturers. But the two I am going to analyze and compare, are the two lectures made by Fudge Studios and Truth Design. The reasons for picking these two are because even though they are both very successful agencies, they were very different, in terms of presentation, work, and processes. Fudge Studios was very interesting to listen to in terms of the way they presented their work, instead of just showing a handful of work they had designed, they decided to talk through the process of designing a new brand. “The Re-branding of England Squash” The lecture was started right from the beginning of the branding process, Fudge talked through 6 stages:
1. Project scope and evaluation.
2. Research and analysis.
3. Naming solution.
4. Design concept.
5. Design development.
6. Design application and artwork.
While fudge was talking through their processes I was surprised at the fact that their processes are incredibly similar to how we work in college, starting with research and then analysing your research, looking at other similar organisations as extra research to compare current brands and logos, and then going to through the process of ideas development. One thing which was said in this lecture was, “Ideas aren’t pulled out of a hat” which helped me a little bit as I sometimes find it difficult to come up with good ideas and this statement was reassuring because it made me realise that everyone can struggle with ideas at certain stages and get mental blocks, from time to time. It was very useful to see all the initial ideas and sketches and how different ideas took off and others were cast aside. I have always been taught that you ideas must work in black and white before colour is ever brought into a design, because if it works in black and white, then it will work in colour, yet again this was a process Fudge also went through, to get the their final solution. The final logo (image.1) they produced had a great idea and incorporated the English rose, which initially the client didn’t want, which I thought was interesting because it showed me sometimes you have to try things the client may not want because you never know how a design may influence the client. Seeing this process taught me to have a lot of concepts, which then lead to many different routes giving a wide range of ideas, which then can expand onto other applications.
Truth on the other hand gave a completely different lecture. Truth is only a small company, a woman called Jane Kaye who mainly runs the business and deals with clients, and Darren Scott who is the creative and creates the design work. This lecture was mainly about Darren and how he got where he is today, from his early work to recent projects created at Truth. Darren Scott’s primary interest is Typography, he showed a wide range of typefaces he had design in his early years of graphic design, and he still uses them today incorporated into his own designs along with newly designed fonts. Darren talked about how he got a job after university, and how his enthusiasm got him where he is today, by just knocking on agency’s doors and asking for placements he ended up working at McCann Erickson ad agency. After 12 years in the industry Darren decided to set up his own agency, and Truth was born, the company is now nearly 3 years old and has been very successful, one of my favourite pieces Truth has produced is a promotion for one of Darren’s typefaces Aggregate. (image.2) Simply arranging characters to create expressions on a face, I think I found this piece so interesting because I have an interest in typography, and an image has been created with type, it works so simply and you instantly get what it is. But I think the main reason for this lecture being so useful was because instead of just going on about themselves and their own work, Darren talked a lot about how he got a job and gave quite a few tips on how to survive in the industry. As I mentioned earlier Darren got jobs and placements by knocking on doors and showing agencies his work and also asking creatives for other agencies he could contact, there are always links between design agencies. One of the most useful tip was when you see an agency whatever the reason, be it a portfolio viewing or placement etc. ask them for 6 other names for you to contact, this way your always expanding your range of contacts and improving your knowledge of design agencies.
Both of these lectures were presented very differently and both have been very useful in there own ways, Fudge taught me that the processes you go through in a college project are very similar to the processes you go through in industry, from your research and thumbnails, to refinements and final outcomes, the only differences are selling your ideas to your client and persuading them to make the right choices, but other than that I was very surprised to see how similar I work to an agency. I would say truth gave a better lecture, just because it was more informative and can be applied in my future contacts with the creative industry, also useful to know how Darren got where he is today, it just gives a faint idea of how hard you have to work to get to where you want to be. In a way listening to both of these lectures has made me realise how hard its going to be to get a job and how competitive the industry is, and I have also learnt you just need that I’ll give it a go” attitude, to be successful.
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