Today I went to the design Manchester conference 2013 at the town hall, the theme was "longevity."
The first speaker was Andrew Shoben who was the founder of a design company called Greyworld.
He said that he was a designer of public spaces. In 2004 he launched "The Source." He is a professor of public art at Goldsmiths. His work is about taking urban space and look for ways to create momentary creativity. Shoben's early work was centred around music. He said he tries to find ways to break down the gulf. One of his projects was called "The Clockwork Forest (2011)" where his team placed giant keys in a forest and described it as a space of fairy tales. Shoben said Greyworld were constantly looking for interactive strategies. Another of their projects was "Flower Box (2012)", where a box began to blossom with flowers. It was important that people had the choice to interact or not interact , that there was a sense of openness. "The layer", also a Greyworld project, made sounds of nature as you walked along a bridge. Their aim was to draw cause and effect together and their audience was everyone. Shoben believes what you find in urban spaces to be appropriate.
Their project "Bins and Benches" was described as a monument to the unknown artist.
The next speakers were Nat Hunter and Mark Shayler. Their most famous project was "The Great Recovery." Mark Shayler said he was a the founder of a company called Airside and how he believed "Three trees don't make a forest" and that they were trying to find ways that design can make peoples lives interesting. He talked about RSA animate and the talks and events then ran and sid he believed in the recognition of great achievement. Shayler then went back to talking about "The Great Recovery" and that longevity linked in with it and that 90% of consumer goods end up in landfills in 6 months -this is the opposite of longevity. He works in Eco Design and is obsessed with how long things last and that eco design is about environmental impact and solutions to make things last longer and how design can be used to make things better. He believes that design is like a super power- it can be used for good or evil. Shayler said that the product needs to be green, brilliant and cost effective. He then talked about the way we use digital devices and that we need to recover value as we just let things slip through our fingers. Shayler then said that it is important that we get long use out of our technology. Next he talked about tantalum capacitors - they hold a lot of energy and are in most devices. He talked about the supply chain of materials and that we need to manufacture in the UK again because the market is bigger somewhere else. Nat Hunter said that she tries to take people out of their normal working environment and that you need to think about lifecycles when you design anything and that LEDs are a good example of lifecycle energy. She talked about The Agency of Design and that their new project was about peoples relationships with objects and created something called the makehub. The next speaker was Kate Moross, a graphic artist, filmmaker, art director. She said she had a fascination with 3 sided shapes and typography. She has a studio called studio Morross since 2012. She described her self as a Jack of all trades and she believes in that its not what you say you do but what you actually do. talked about the importance of visualising and creating what she has in her head and heart. talked about the fear that we have to be good at everything to compete. 'be active' 'the future is multidisciplinary' talked about the importance of myspace- create oppurtunities to interact with other people. she started doing logos. find a way of getting paid, find a way to keep your work going. 2007 started isomorph records. was a vj for bands for a while- visual journalist, good at making music look good, no longevity as a freelance illustrator, don't be afraid to make mistakes, they are very important as a creative, learn how to do something if you don't know how, connect with people.
The Colophon Foundry- the Entente, Independent, platform for font, design by themselves, make products, digital type foundry, operate mainly as a design studio, tasks are split, use live/commercial projectsas a testing ground. Do things the hard way, remain, automonous, curate an aesthetic via colophon, collaborate with contributors, they are not a reseller, keep prices affordable, we do not design to predict trends (manifesto), design for themselves, bespoke typeface called relative - playing with scale, how something can be used in a limited space, apercu. The last speaker was Mark Farrow. He was a designer for factory records. He was interested in record sleeves in his youth. formed alliances through working at record stores - Stockholm monsters - did their cover, dis flyers before hand , moved to studio in London, pet shop boys in album sleeves
