Week 5: The Collaborative Mix – Reflecting on Classic Models for Graphic Design Working
Weekly Learning Objectives
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Research and analyse the different ways in which graphic designers produce work collaboratively;
- Research and analyse the essential components of collaborative practice;
- Design, write and deliver an editorial piece illustrating a collaborative project that has led to an exemplary and historically significant piece of work (300 words plus imagery);
- Manage your independent learning effectively.
Brief 2: Collaboration
This brief considers the different ways designers today can work together, and potential methodologies they could use for future practice. We explore case studies to provide insights into how collaboration can inspire new ways of thinking, while also underpinning this with insight into the classic relationships between media partners in the delivery of a project. The core outcome requires you to design a digital tool or process to aid collaboration for future working.
Week 5: Lecture – Collaboration Case Studies
Lecture Introduction
The case studies presented in the lectures below explore a mix of collaborative approaches to design, with illustration, photography, motion and more.
Part 1 is a live recording of ‘Design to Change the World’ at the global design Forum, London Design Festival 2018. Chaired by Susanna Edwards.
Part 2 is a live recording of ‘Graphics That Engage’ at the global design Forum, London Design Festival 2018. Chaired by Susanna Edwards.
Part 3 is a presentation of Havana Club 3 and Jamieson Ltd Edition: collaborative projects by Pearl Fisher London
Watch the lectures video below and take some time to explore the given materials. Make notes in your research journal, reflect upon these ideas, and use them as a springboard into your own investigations. Use the Ideas Wall freely to discuss, ask questions and share ideas.
Enjoy the lecture.
Lecture 1 – Relationships
Eg’s –
Newspaper: Design / Photojournalist
Children’s book / style of illustration
Website: Specific functions relevant to user’s profile and interest
Peter Saville/Trevor Key
Derick Birdsall / photographer Harry Petsinotti (?) – Pirelli Calendar/Nova
Roal Dahl/Quentin Blake
Give & take required when developing
Speakers
Morag Myerscough, Director, Myerscough Studio (Links to an external site.)
Isabel Seiffart and Christoph Miller, Directors, Offshore Studio
Lecture 1, Part 1 is a live recording of ‘Design to Change the World’ at the global design Forum, London Design Festival 2018. Chaired by Susanna Edwards.
1. Morag Myerscough, Director, Myerscough Studio
Design to Change the World
‘Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come’
With Guy Nobel UCLH, art to reduce stress.
Anne Mannings (Mallings?) Vital arts and Sarah (no surname) commissioned the work. Art into the dining rooms of the hospital. Worked with poet Lemn Sissay (?) who worked with the patients. Working with hospital patients is very different to schools where everyone’s healthy and vibrant and wanting to join in. In hospitals the children are so tired from treatments and might not want to join in. You might have to approach it more sensitively.
Children worked on poems with Lemn then Morag set up workshops to draw the words and made their own environments from their favourite words.
Sheffield Hospital
Artfelt – Sheffield, work with children in the hospital. A new part of the hospital was being built and Artfelt approached Morag to do the same things there as London. This time the walls of the bedrooms were to be worked on. They need to feel friendly, more human. The architects were able to hide all the equipment out of site of the patients, so no wires, etc. but they still needed to feel relaxing to the patients.
Nurses were worried that the designs were too extreme for the patients so different materials were introduced to soften things.
Made models to show clinical staff to show a better idea of how things would end up, after that 92% of those asked agreed that the designs would suit the environments.
Tasked to the nurses again, because the patients liked it they had a rethink. Asked for one room to be blue as a calmer option for some patients.
Blue room became the soft room.
With everyone collaborating; artist, commissioner, architect, staff working there, clinical staff, etc. they have to work in the environment so they need to be happy with the results.
Sensitivity towards the people going to use the places.
Trust takes a roll in the process, trust that you’ll deliver something right.
Participation – is it ongoing?
Sheffield was about responses rather than participating. Artfelt go back to the users to check on the responses, then return and try to improve things off the back of the responses.
Everything is different for everybody…
How do people feel comfortable in different places. Bring in the collaborators who will play to your strengths. Something less prescriptive, more organic processes.
To avoid negative responses (Morag) given the choice to take people to existing places, would have taken people from Sheffield to look at the London hospital. Show examples like-for-like, it also gets them involved in the process.
Feedback and ‘outreach’ takes a project further. Get information and responses on results to see how they do or don’t work. Get people to understand the value of the work.
Be considered as a necessary project, not just as one for community or as a ‘novelty’.
Lecture 1, Part 2 is a live recording of ‘Design to Change the World’ at the global design Forum, London Design Festival 2018. Chaired by Susanna Edwards.
2. Isabel Seiffart and Christoph Miller, Directors, Offshore Studio
Mainly cultural fields
Migrant Journal (Not just people)
Six issues, each issue details a single subject connected to the issue of migration.
Four people involved, mostly across Europe.
Wanted to do away with the hierarchy of editorial. No Editor/Manager/Designer/…
Multi faceted content. Photojournalism, editorial, essays, photo-essays, photography, illustrators.
Bring it all together into a clear and connected format.
Heavy research, sometimes collaborative between owners and writers or just the owners
Own typeface, develops as the project goes along – ‘Migrates’
Beyond the magazine – go to events/talks/public meetings to reach different audiences.
How is it funded? Subscribers.
A lot of attention to production, oversee the printing.
Notes
Magazine: how does it reach people?
Started as a crowdfunded campaign for 800 off, all sold within a few weeks and it went from there. 3600 copies requested by Stack magazine to send out the their readers as a ‘surprise’ to their subscribers. Promote the sales at events.
Very mixed contributors so brings a wider readership.
Be eager to learn more and try more. Stay curious and gain knowledge for new approaches to working.
Lecture 2, part 1
Ken Kirton, Director, Hato Studio
Co-creation means we can engage more of society and formed communities.
HATO Press: ‘Community engaged project space’
Work for other designers and artists as well as local community. All profits are put back in to improve the facility.
RISO print.
Created a different platform for artists and designers to distribute work (what’s different?). Working with adults brings the ‘I can’t draw attitude’, staring at the page and thinking what to draw or write, unlike children who would quickly fill a page and ask for another.
Children want to make their own thing, not showing them what they’re going to make.
Creating a visual language that wasn’t script-base and could be read by a different community. Children work in pairs, groups or one-to-one and learned how to collaborate. The children were the designers, artists, editors, etc.
Less creatively led clients – ‘learn through play’. ‘Playtotyping’ (!)
D&AD
Online digital tool made lots of different marks. Basic interaction for people to make these marks. In building the tool it needed to be fun and playful. Included augmented reality to show the 3d illustrations. Process led to learning how different people were doing their drawing, each was recorded and could be replayed and/or edited – line weights, etc., not the actual shape. Users could create gifs or a movie file to download and share to their networks. A co-creative and modular responsive system. Marks used were credited to the person who submitted it.
For the awards ceremony: a moving image and collaborative identity.
Developed to enable use on devices so that visitors could interact with their surroundings, making and submitting marks whilst at the event.
Lecture 2, part 2
Sebastian White and Eva Kellenberger, Directors, Kellenberger White
MIMA (Middlesborough Art Museum)
ID from by a public program
Connect the art institution with a social function.
Worked with public, curatorial team and director the course of a year. Workshops to create manual and digital outcomes where the public help create the designs.
‘How do we represent ourselves as an organisation’ to all 40+ who work at the museum. Ans a way to keep thinking and creating from being separated. Everyone was given a Lino-mat to document all conversations and at the end of the day all designs were printed and used to teach the group about printmaking.
A linocut typeface was created using the results.
Transporter Bridge: Built early 1900’s and painted every seven years, traces of the different colours used over the years could be found as random ‘splatters’ all around. Those colours were created and used as a pallet for the identity, getting the bridge involved in the process!
The splatters of paint were also used as part of the identity. The same metal as the bridge was used by a local metalwork company to make tables for the exhibition, which were then repurposed as information boards at the entrance of the museum.
Then opened up to the wider public, develop into something which would run without the need for KW to be there. Their local printer had a vinyl-cutter/plotter which held a pen which would draw from a program. This was repurposed for the exhibition so the second exhibition ‘Print Room’ was made using answers from the public when asked ‘what is a museum’, ‘what does art mean?’. The answer goes to print from the machine which writes out the message as posters. The posters slowly filled the exhibition room with different opinions, jokes or provocations.
‘Graphics that engage’
Project 2: Alphabet
A typeface, a design for furniture and an installation.
London Exchange House in Broadgate.
Seeing how something is made is important.
Not wanting to make a stain ‘thing’ how can we put a typeface in there?
‘Seeking comfort in an uncomfortable chair’
Someone interacting with an object becomes part of the design.
Ulm/stocker stool.
De-materialised line for the font, based on the design of the stool to come. Gravity acts on the typeface hence some are leaning or lying down. Angela Moor photographer, photos or raw aluminium shapes before painting.
Installed in Broadgate. Project will be allowed to develop as people decide to use it.
Notes
KK-HATO
Play is similar to making, a way for wellbeing. Show clients different ways of working, ways of facilitating a design process.
Is co-creation becoming part of all major design briefs or will it stay a niche thing?
Answer brought a wide sweep for what co-creation could mean – everyone co-creates…
As a designer you sieve out important parts of feedback – can’t incorporate the views of all 40+.
There should be more of a conversation about co-creating or participatory work.
Test on a smaller scale.
Every level of management and ‘front-line staff’ need to ‘read from the same page’.
KW – Idea and form?
All projects start with conversations. Memories, places visited and reactions. Go and explore a place which you’re working for to see what it can give to the brief.
Need the freedom from the client to explore so the design process can be more fluid, restrictions might come from technology and not the people involved. Trust is needed.
Reflection
I love the idea of the public joining in on a project like the D&AD or the Bridge project, they bring the unexpected results. The other projects are great, but the collaboration element seems less so. More ‘hired hands’ or suppliers, aren’t they commissions for the artists rather than working with?
Does an opinion from the people who will be using the finished item/areas make it a collaboration?
Lecture 3
Case Studies: Pearl Fisher: Havana Club 3 and Jameson Ltd Edition
This interview explores two collaborative projects by Pearl Fisher London.
Read the lecture below and take some time to explore the given materials. Make notes in your research journal, reflect upon these ideas, and use them as a springboard into your own investigations. Use the Ideas Wall freely to discuss, ask questions and share ideas.
Lecture 3, part 1
Havana Club 3 Años
Pearlfisher London has created the vibrant and energetic visual identity system for iconic rum brand, Havana Club 3 Años.
An ongoing partnership with Havana Club
better align it with the brand’s vision, strategy and uniquely Cuban heritage – What’s the vision & strategy?
traditions of casual outdoor socialising and the buzz of city life.
moving away from a distressed brand aesthetic which, in the context of Cuba, had become clichéd
“The Human Touch,”
Pearlfisher team travelled to Havana to work with local artists and illustrators
unpretentious craftsmanship to life, each element of the brand world was cut, stuck, drawn, hand-painted or screen-printed in collaboration with Cuban artists.”
The visual identity system is a vibrantly clashing collection of graphic assets that convey the expressive culture of Cuba, always with a uniquely human touch. Designed to exist in harmony with one another, the assets are joyful, visually arresting, and will enrich brand communication with a distinctive style that marries crafted graphics and Cuban street life photography to create a cohesive and compelling whole.
“The Human Touch,”
Pearlfisher team travelled to Havana to work with local artists and illustrators
unpretentious craftsmanship to life, each element of the brand world was cut, stuck, drawn, hand-painted or screen-printed in collaboration with Cuban artists.”
The visual identity system is a vibrantly clashing collection of graphic assets that convey the expressive culture of Cuba, always with a uniquely human touch. Designed to exist in harmony with one another, the assets are joyful, visually arresting, and will enrich brand communication with a distinctive style that marries crafted graphics and Cuban street life photography to create a cohesive and compelling whole.
inspired by the eclectic tiles found throughout Havana,
“We did not want a brand world of strict guidelines and the new design system crafted by Pearlfisher and our Cuban artists for Havana Club 3 Años has perfectly delivered on our objective to create a platform for creativity for our market teams, empowering them to bring the brand to life around the world within a common framework.”
Lecture 3, part 2
Jamieson Ltd Edition
collaborated with 3 well-respected artists – Claudine O’Sullivan, Alex Mellon and Leonn Ward -to create the much-anticipated, annual Jameson limited edition St Patrick’s Day bottle
Jameson is known for collaborating with a different artist each year
Jameson’s value of coming together, in a way that would resonate and forge a sense of connection with people on a more global level.
They initially appointed London-based, Irish illustrator, Claudine O’Sullivan, who, in turn, selected two of her creative friends– graphic artist Alex Mellon, known for his distinctive character designs, and popular director and photographer, Leonn Ward – to complete the collaboration. The design is inspired by the Irish folk story, Heroes Unite. In the story, three friends set out on an incredible journey, as they head off to war the appearance of an eagle provides them with the shields and swords they need to stand united and face whatever comes their way.
Working with three different artists has given a whole new dimension to this year’s bottle. The beautifully hand-drawn eagle by Claudine, Alex’s distinctive icons and stunning photography by Leon, perfectly showcase the individual talent of each of the 3 artists, while boldly and figuratively opening out the interpretation of the story, its message and meaning through the seamless coming together of three very different styles.”
Collaboration has been the essence of how we have creatively crafted this story of togetherness.”
Week 5: Resources
Read | Watch | Listen
Below is this week’s list of materials. For the full module resource list, please refer to the Course Hub. We encourage you to also go beyond and carry out your own independent research into themes delivered. Do not forget to use the Ideas Wall to share new ideas and thoughts.
1. Carter, M., Mandani, S. (2016) ‘Tune out, dive deep, read on’, [online] Eye Magazine, Summer. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/tune-out-dive-deep-read-on (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 29 March 2019]
2. It’s Nice That, Danielle Pender (2019) Nicer Tuesdays: Riposte magazine, [online video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWyVOy7JwMM (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 4 June 2019]
3. Penny Stamps Lecture Series, MoragMyerscough(2018) Belonging, [online video]. Available at: Morag Myerscough: Belonging (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
4. It’s Nice That, AnnaLomax and Jess Bonham (2016). Nicer Tuesdays,[online video]. Available at: Nicer Tuesdays: Anna Lomax and Jess Bonham (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
5. It’s Nice That, Liv Siddall(2016) Nicer Tuesdays: Rough Trade magazine, [online video]. Available at: Nicer Tuesdays: Liv Siddall (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
6. BBC News (2019), ‘Photographer Trevor Keys album sleeves go on show’[online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-41331715 (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
7. Hari Peccinotti, https://showstudio.com/contributors/harri_peccinotti (Links to an external site.)
8. O’Brien, K. (2019) ‘Director Tony Kaye happy to be working and out of “Hollywood jail”’, [online] The Drum, 17 April.Available at: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/04/17/director-tony-kaye-happy-be-working-and-out-hollywood-jail (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 4 June 2019]
9. DesignBoom (2019) Interview with graphic designer Vaughan Oliver,[online]. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-with-graphic-designer-vaughan-oliver-12-19-2014/ (Links to an external site.).[Accessed 4 June 2019]
1. Carter, M., Mandani, S. (2016) ‘Tune out, dive deep, read on’, [online] Eye Magazine, Summer. Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/tune-out-dive-deep-read-on (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 29 March 2019]
5. It’s Nice That, Liv Siddall(2016) Nicer Tuesdays: Rough Trade magazine, [online video]. Available at: Nicer Tuesdays: Liv Siddall (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
6. BBC News (2019), ‘Photographer Trevor Keys album sleeves go on show’[online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-41331715 (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 11 June 2019]
8. O’Brien, K. (2019) ‘Director Tony Kaye happy to be working and out of “Hollywood jail”’, [online] The Drum, 17 April.Available at: https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/04/17/director-tony-kaye-happy-be-working-and-out-hollywood-jail (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 4 June 2019]
9. DesignBoom (2019) Interview with graphic designer Vaughan Oliver,[online]. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-with-graphic-designer-vaughan-oliver-12-19-2014/ (Links to an external site.).[Accessed 4 June 2019]
Week 5: Workshop Challenge – Collaboration
The Challenge
What are the essential components of the collaborative mix?
Find one example of collaboration past or present that has led to an exemplary and historically significant piece of work.
- Analyse the relationship of the collaborators and the roles they played;
- Research any documented history of the challenges they faced and the outcome they produced;
- Explore and analyse any specific approaches they took to their creative process or recording of their ideas that facilitated a successful outcome.
- Design as an editorial piece (300 words), along with accompanying imagery.
To work with, not for…
Possibles…
The Muppets – Star Wars films
The most important connection between the Muppets and Star Wars is puppeteer/actor/director Frank Oz. Back in 1978 when The Empire Strikes Back was in the works, Frank Oz was best known for performing Muppet characters like Grover, Bert, Miss Piggy, and Fozzie. Then he gave life and voice to the wise old Jedi Master Yoda for that film (then Episode VI and later I, II, and III) and he became a key part of Star Wars history.
Ref: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-thet-muppet-connection
Growing up with both The Muppet Show and the original Star Wars Trilogy when it dawned on me that that’s where the likes of Yoda came from I couldn’t believe how obvious it should have been.
Now try listening to Yoda without hearing Fozzie
Oliver Postgate & Peter Firmin – Smallfilms
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer and writer.[1] He was the creator and writer of some of Britain’s most popular children’s television programmes. Bagpuss, Pingwings, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Clangers and Pogles’ Wood, were all made by Smallfilms, the company he set up with collaborator, artist and puppet maker Peter Firmin. The programmes were originally broadcast from the 1950s to the 1980s. In a 1999 BBC poll Bagpuss was voted the most popular children’s television programme of all time.[2]
Ref: Wikipedia
The voice of Oliver Postgate takes me right back to my childhood, to such a carefree place to be. Ivor the Engine was in the slot between Blue Peter and the 6 o’clock news, it was the best time for TV because it meant Mum and Dad were watching with us.
Actuals…
Radiohead / Stanley Donwood / United Visual Artists
I lived just outside of Oxford when Radiohead where starting to get the top slot at the Zodiac, the others at work would go there a lot but I couldn’t afford it – gutted.
I got to listen to the albums at work and remember poring over the artwork on the sleeves (except for Pablo Honey, that was a bit crap), it was always captivating but I’d no idea who was doing it, there wasn’t much of an internet to look things up.
Music-wise, friends went off them a bit after OK Computer but that’s when I got really into them. The tracks got stranger and more unpredictable, they were different to everything else at the time.
Radiohead
Meeting People Is Easy is a 1998 British documentary film by Grant Gee chronicling British alternative rock band Radiohead on their exhaustive world tour following the success of their 1997 album OK Computer.[1] The film was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Film at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000.
Meeting People Is Easy covers the promotion and tour for Radiohead’s third album, OK Computer. The tour began on 22 May 1997 in Barcelona, Spain, and ended 104 performances later in New York’s Radio City Music Hall.[1] Most of the film comprises footage of the band working on music and performing (including a performance of “Karma Police” on Late Show with David Letterman) filming promotional material, and giving interviews. It includes footage of the filming of the “No Surprises” music video, the failed studio session for the song “Man of War“,[2] and performances of unreleased songs including “Follow Me Around”.[3] Journalist Alex Ross described the film as “a kind of counterstrike against the music press, recording scores of pointless interviews with dead-tired members of the band”.[4]
The members of Radiohead met while attending Abingdon School, an independent school for boys in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.[4] Guitarist and singer Thom Yorke and bassist Colin Greenwood were in the same year, guitarist Ed O’Brien and drummer Philip Selway the year above, and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood, brother of Colin, two years below. In 1985, they formed On a Friday, the name referring to their usual rehearsal day in the school’s music room.[5] Jonny was the last to join, first on harmonica and then keyboards, but soon became lead guitarist;[5] he had previously been in another band, Illiterate Hands, with musician Nigel Powell and Yorke’s brother Andy Yorke.[6] According to Colin, the band members picked their instruments because they wanted to play together, rather than through an interest in the particular instrument: “It was more of a collective angle, and if you could contribute by having someone else play your instrument, then that was really cool.”[7] At one point, On a Friday featured a saxophone section.[8]
The band disliked the school’s strict atmosphere—the headmaster once charged them for using a rehearsal room on a Sunday—and found solace in the school’s music department. They credited their music teacher for introducing them to jazz, film scores, postwar avant-garde music, and 20th-century classical music.[9] Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley had an active independent music scene in the late 1980s, but it centred on shoegazing bands such as Ride and Slowdive.[10] On the strength of an early demo, On a Friday were offered a record deal by Island Records, but the members decided they were not ready and wanted to go to university first.[11]
Advertisement placed in Oxford music magazine Curfew announcing On a Friday’s change of name[12]
Although all but Jonny had left Abingdon by 1987 to attend university, On a Friday continued to rehearse on weekends and holidays.[13] At the University of Exeter, Yorke played with the band Headless Chickens, performing songs including future Radiohead material.[14] He also met artist Stanley Donwood, who later created artwork for Radiohead.[15] In 1991, On a Friday regrouped, sharing a house on the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road, Oxford.[16]
As On a Friday continued to perform in Oxford, record labels and producers became interested. Chris Hufford, Slowdive’s producer and co-owner of Oxford’s Courtyard Studios, attended an early On a Friday concert at the Jericho Tavern. Impressed, he and his partner Bryce Edge produced a demo tape and became On a Friday’s managers;[13] they remain Radiohead’s managers today.[17] In late 1991, after a chance meeting between Colin and A&R representative Keith Wozencroft at Our Price, the record shop where Colin worked,[12] On a Friday signed a six-album recording contract with EMI.[13] At EMI’s request, the band changed their name; “Radiohead” was taken from the song “Radio Head” on the Talking Heads album True Stories (1986).[13]
In 1997 Radiohead became one of the first bands in the world to have a website, and developed a devoted online following; within a few years, there were dozens of fansites devoted to them.
Collaborators
“Modified bear” logo for Kid A by artists Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke
Nigel Godrich first worked with Radiohead as an audio engineer on their second album, The Bends. He has produced all their studio albums since their third album, OK Computer.[256] He has been dubbed the band’s “sixth member”, an allusion to George Martin being called the “Fifth Beatle”.[256] In 2016, Godrich said: “I can only ever have one band like Radiohead who I’ve worked with for this many years. That’s a very deep and profound relationship. The Beatles could only have ever had one George Martin; they couldn’t have switched producers halfway through their career. All that work, trust, and knowledge of each other would have been thrown out of the window and they’d have to start again.”[257]
Graphic artist Stanley Donwood met Yorke when they were art students. Together, they have produced all of Radiohead’s album covers and visual artwork since 1994.[15] Donwood works in the studio with the band as they record, allowing the music to influence the artwork.[258] He and Yorke won a Grammy in 2002 for the special edition of Amnesiac packaged as a library book.[15]
Dilly Gent has commissioned all Radiohead music videos since OK Computer, working with the band to find directors.[259] Since Radiohead’s formation, Andi Watson has been their lighting and stage director, designing the visuals of live concerts, such as the carbon-neutral “LED forest” of the In Rainbows tour.[260] Technician Peter “Plank” Clements has worked with Radiohead since before The Bends, overseeing the setup of their instruments for studio recordings and live performances.[5] Jim Warren has been Radiohead’s live sound engineer since their first tour in 1992, and recorded early demos and studio tracks including “High and Dry” and “Pop Is Dead”.[261] Drummer Clive Deamer was enlisted in 2011 to help perform the complex rhythms of The King of Limbs, and has performed and recorded with Radiohead since.[151][152][191] Paul Thomas Anderson has directed several music videos for Yorke and Radiohead, and has collaborated with Jonny Greenwood on several film scores and the 2015 documentary Junun.[262]
—————–
Ref: Wikipedia
http://www.radiohead.com
https://www.wasteheadquarters.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meeting_People_Is_Easy
Top: radiohead.com home page. Their site has been turned into a library of everything Radiohead; live shows, merchandise (links through to W.A.S.T.E HQ), music streams, artwork, etc.
Above: Upload a photo to make your own Library card.
Stanley Donwood
has worked with Radiohead since 1994. His evocative and haunting imagery has created their distinctive visual identity.
Donwood has designed the cover art on everything from the band’s 1994 EP ‘My Iron Lung’ up to ‘In Rainbows’ in 2007.
Stanley Donwood met Thom Yorke while they were both at studying art at Exeter University. The artist jokes about his first impressions of Yorke, stating that he seemed “mouthy, pissed off, someone I could work with”.
The artwork to ‘OK Computer’ features a combination of computer-generated images by Thom Yorke and hand-drawn artwork by Donwood. Yorke explains it thus: “Someone’s being sold something they don’t really want, and someone’s being friendly because they’re trying to sell something. That’s what it means to me. All the artwork… it was all the things that I hadn’t said in the songs.”
Unusually for a sleeve designer, Donwood is present during the recording of each Radiohead album. “I hang around throughout the recording,” he told The Independent in 2009. “I just try to absorb what’s going on. I usually get it hugely wrong to start with and then adjust what I’m doing.”
Donwood continued: “I hear what they’re doing and they see what I’m doing and the two collide in some sort of incident. It’s great working with other artists. I don’t understand music, but I love the way that it can suggest things to you.”
Donwood, however, is wary of people being over-analytical. “I kind of dislike it when people over-analyse art or writing,” he says. “It’s OK when they do it at college or whatever, but it gets a bit annoying when you overhear people talking shite in galleries.”
So reclusive is Donwood that some have speculated that he is in fact Yorke working under another pseudonym. More likely, though, is the theory that Donwood is the moniker of Dan Rickwood, a fellow Exeter alumnus and old friend of Yorke’s who began working with the band when he was on the dole after graduating.
For ‘In Rainbows’, Donwood experimented with a photographic etching technique, putting prints into acid baths with various results, explaining: “It’s a sensual record and I wanted to do something more organic. It’s very colourful – I’ve finally embraced colour! It’s a rainbow, but it is very toxic; it’s more like the sort of one you’d see in a puddle.”
Stanley Donwood is a British artist and writer best known for his work created for the band Radiohead, for whom he has designed all of their album covers and promotional materials. Among his most famous works is the cover art for the album Hail to the Thief (2003), a cartographical text-based image inspired by the work of graphic designer Paula Scher. Donwood is the pseudonym of Dan Rickwood, who was born on October 29, 1968 in Essex, England and studied at the University of Exeter where he met Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Yorke asked Donwood to contribute art for Radiohead’s original My Iron Lung EP (1994), initiating a lifelong collaboration between the band and the artist. Donwood’s illustrations cheekily address socio-political issues, drawing comparisons to street artists Insa and Banksy. In 2002, he was awarded a Grammy for the packaging of Radiohead’s Amnesia album. In addition to art, Donwood has written several books of short stories, including Humor (2014). He lives in Bath, England.
1994–now
Artwork for Radiohead, includes all record sleeves, website merchandise, etc.
(Bends) I vaguely remember me and Thom arguing about how big “Radiohead” should be on the cover. I was like, “Fucking massive mate.” And I wanted “The Bends” to be central. And he was like, “I want it over there,” so I conceded and he won. We have many arguments, but they’re very genteel arguments about fonts and composition, we don’t fight, fight.
After doing OK Computer I got fed up because you’re just sort of doing this (mimes looking at something and drawing) and I had this idea that your body holds loads of memories all over, so I wanted to do big gestural stuff. So Thom rented a place in an old warehouse in Bath afterwards, and we got a load of massive canvases and a load of paint brought in. And I hadn’t painted since I was doing A-level art or something. I didn’t paint when I was at college, because I was doing printmaking. I used to quite like painting, but I thought I’d get printing out the way first and then ended up staying there three years.
Me and Thom were up all night making loads of covers for Kid A. But it wasn’t called Kid A. They all said “Radiohead” on them, but they all had different titles. I don’t know, 20, 30, 40 different covers with titles. And we sellotaped them all up on the wall in the kitchen and the studio, so in the morning when the band came in we just said, “Can you just go to the kitchen because, fuck, we’ve had enough.” And that’s how we ended up with Kid A. Typeface, artwork, title, everything. Like I say, it was a last minute thing.
(I might be wrong 2001) Oh, it’s got an inside sleeve; I like this one. It’s fireworks. But we joined them up. I think that Thom took the photos of the fireworks and we joined them up.
He admits that his artistic proficiency at school held certain benefits – his teacher let him bunk off games to paint, and ‘it was an extremely good way of avoiding being beaten up. If you can draw stuff, the hard kids were really impressed’ – but he nevertheless was torn between ‘pictures or writing’, like many, he says, of his university mates.
Among them was Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s frontman, with whom he would later conjure up his pen-name. Donwood’s real name is Dan Rickwood, and he has other guises besides. ‘I like having different pseudonyms,’ he says, which recently caused a bother when he attempted to pick up a box of Bad Islands from the post office which were addressed to the artist, rather than the man (they refused to accept his Wikipedia page as identification; there was a polite skirmish).
Donwood says that shifting from Dan to Stan helped him make sense of his work with Radiohead in the mid-Nineties, when he first started creating record covers as the band wrote and rehearsed their music, leaving his first baby at home. ‘I felt like I was a split personality anyway, because I’d be changing nappies and doing the washing up and then hanging around recording studios and making artwork. It was very schizophrenic, I suppose.’
The Nether by Stanley Donwood was used for the cover of Robert MacFarlane’s The Underland
He’s been collaborating with Radiohead and Yorke, on the frontman’s solo projects, ever since. This suggests a kind of tacit exclusivity, although Donwood says it’s more that other musicians haven’t asked, aside from, in the Nineties, ‘a well-known band’ who were ‘very interested in very serious drugs. Not very interested in artwork.’ Preferring to work with a band that were, he ‘chose poverty instead’.
Poverty, and the opportunity to define Radiohead’s public image over the years. The icy peaks of Kid A – inspired by footage of the wars in former Yugoslavia – and the bright colours of Hail to The Thief – road signs in Los Angeles – have become totemic, emblazoned on T-shirts and gig posters.
For Donwood, regardless of the project, the process remains similar: “Everything is difficult to start with, gets harder, becomes impossible and then it ends up OK.” (Guardian)
(British digital arts studio Universal Everything)
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Refs: https://www.jealousgallery.com/artists/stanley-donwood
https://www.nme.com/photos/the-art-of-radiohead-sleeve-designer-stanley-donwood-1424920
http://www.artnet.com/artists/stanley-donwood/
https://www.monsterchildren.com/untold-stories-behind-radiohead-album-covers/
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/feb/stanley-donwood-interview–on-radiohead–bad-things-and-being-a-/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/oct/05/the-art-of-radiohead-sleeve-designer-stanley-donwood-in-pictures#:~:text=Bath%2Dbased%20artist%20Stanley%20Donwood,creating%20artwork%20for%20Glastonbury%20festival.
(Modified Bear) By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14718213
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Saves:
https://archive.slowlydownward.com/index.html
https://www.slowlydownward.com/
Title for article will be – Radiohead: Everything in its right place…
(the title of the first track on ‘Kid A’ album, the start of something different)
Article Text
Radiohead: Everything in its right place…
A collaboration between Radiohead and Stanley Donwood (real name Dan Rickwood), 1994 – present.
Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (above: left) and artist Stanley Donwood met whist studying at the University of Exeter. Donwood jokes about his first impressions of Yorke as “mouthy, pissed off, someone I could work with”, together they’ve created all the visual artwork for Radiohead: all record sleeves, website, merchandise, etc.
Donwood’s first album cover was for ‘The Bends’, he says: “I vaguely remember me and Thom arguing about how big ‘Radiohead’ should be on the cover. I was like, “Fucking massive mate.” And I wanted ‘The Bends’ to be central. And he was like, “I want it over there,” so I conceded and he won. We have many arguments, but they’re very genteel arguments about fonts and composition, we don’t fight, fight”.
What’s unusual is that Donwood is present during the recordings, allowing the music to influence the artwork, “I just try to absorb what’s going on. I usually get it hugely wrong to start with and then adjust what I’m doing.
“I hear what they’re doing and they see what I’m doing and the two collide in some sort of incident…”. Thom Yorke describes it as: “All the artwork… it was all the things that I hadn’t said in the songs”.
Although the work itself is intense and the process highly stressful, I get the impression of a relaxed relationship and a huge trust between Donwood and the band, that what will be produced will be right. Donwood talks of he and Thom producing “20, 30, 40 different covers with titles [for the Kid A album]” asking the rest of the band to “…just go to the kitchen [and pick one] because, fuck, we’ve had enough.”
He sums up the process as: “Everything is difficult to start with, gets harder, becomes impossible and then it ends up OK.”
References:
Main image: https://www.factmag.com/2013/06/17/painting-by-thom-yorke-radiohead-artist-stanley-donwood-heads-to-auction/
http://www.nme.com/photos/the-art-of-radiohead-sleeve-designer-stanley-donwood-1424920
http://www.artnet.com/artists/stanley-donwood/
https://www.monsterchildren.com/untold-stories-behind-radiohead-album-covers/
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/feb/stanley-donwood-interview–on-radiohead–bad-things-and-being-a-/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/oct/05/the-art-of-radiohead-sleeve-designer-stanley-donwood-in-pictures
Modified Bear Image: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14718213
Editorial
Layout note: Donwood is looking towards Yorke through the eye of the ‘Modified Bear’, one of Radiohead’s many symbols.
Reflection
A nice bit of self indulgence. It’s good to research something you already like, you find out all sorts of things you didn’t know.
