We noticed the other day that our Ten Questions series has had a rather severe shortage of photographers. While the majority of focus on the blog has been on graphic design, our influences and inspirations come from far and wide. Photography is one of those areas and we plan to showcase plenty more of it on the blog in the future. Will Robson-Scott is a photographer who came to my attention some time ago with his series showing the London grime movement. Shining a light on the more outsider or marginalised subcultures has become a bit of a theme in his work, the most recent example of this being his Ego Bombing series, showing graffiti writers going about their business in and around London. The series eventually became the basis for Crack and Shine, a book produced in collaboration with publisher Fred Forsyth, TopSafe and Vans. The success of Crack and Shine enabled the collaboration to continue in the shape of Crack and Shine International, where Robson-Scott travelled to various major cities around the world to document some of the most well known graffiti writers in their natural habitat.

Will was kind enough to take some time to answer our Ten Questions.

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We first became aware of the work of Liam Brazier through the image bookmarking site Ffffound. His illustrations of Star Wars characters and superheroes in a distinctive, skewed style caught our attention = simple, stylish and refreshingly original. We checked out his portfolio and saw a wide range of varying styles and techniques in both static and moving image for clients such as Dazed & Confused, Creative Review, Design Week, Glastonbury, the Museum of London and Virgin TV. So, we thought we’d get in touch to see if Liam would be interested in answering our Ten Questions. He kindly obliged and gave us the following insight into the life of an illustrator – although please, don’t call him that.

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Whilst we do lots of different things here at Mat Dolphin, our main focus is graphic design. We design graphics. The stuff that sits on a computer screen and showcases what a person or company is offering. Or stuff that is printed onto a business card and introduces who that person is and what they do. Some of the stuff we design has to communicate a great deal within a very limited space or format. Some of the stuff we do has to communicate a great deal without actually saying too much. Often we have to work with strict, client-imposed constraints and occasionally we have complete carte blanche (which can often be the more difficult way to work).

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Music plays a big part in everyday life here at Mat Dolphin. We’re constantly listening to it, discussing it and plenty of our work has been inspired or related to it in some way. In fact, like many graphic designers, it was a large part of the reason we became interested in design in the first place. Pouring over the typography and layouts of our favourite album covers played a massively important part in shaping our design understanding and tastes. With the record sleeves shrinking from a 12inch gate-fold to a pixelated square on your phone, the art of record sleeve design has obviously changed and will probably continue to do so. I’m sure many of the brilliant examples of cover art we know and love wouldn’t exist today if they had to go through the approval process of any major record label. Which is a shame.

That said, we’re all about embracing change and this blog post certainly isn’t about crying about the good old days and getting nostalgic about the crackle of limited edition vinyl. Beautifully designed ways to package music releases in (physical or otherwise) is still with us and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

I’m fairly sure we’re not alone in our love of the marriage between great design and great tunes. There are countless books, websites and articles dedicated to the craft of creating the images which to go with music. One thing that often seems to get either overlooked or even completely ignored when discussing cover art is the music itself. With this in mind, we’ve come up with our pick of the design-geek-classic-covers of recent years, along with the actual songs contained within (sometimes not the most obvious choices). Sound & Vision will be a regular feature on the blog, showcasing music artwork we love alongside the tunes so you can listen while you read. Click below to have a look and, equally importantly, listen.

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Hello World.

Our blog has been comparatively quiet over the last couple of weeks, mainly due to ridiculous amounts of client work (which we’re not complaining about), looming deadlines and a couple of well deserved holidays in the sun. Feeble excuses aside, we’re back in your face like a plate full of shaving foam with another Five Things that have caught our interest this week.

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Tate Britain’s current exhibition is The Vorticists: Manifesto For A Modern World. We haven’t had a chance to see it yet but we’re definitely going to check it out before it closes on 4th September. The exhibition ‘celebrates the full electrifying force and vitality of this short-lived but pivotal modernist movement that was based in London but international in make-up and ambition’. Adopting the spirit of Blast – the art movement’s short-lived journal launched by Wyndham Lewis – Tate and Creative Review have teamed up to invite submissions on the themes of ‘Blast’ and ‘Bless’. The entries are currently available to view on the Blast/Bless Tumblr site and will be projected at Tate Britain during the upcoming Creative Review ‘Tweetup’ (apologies for the use of such a cringe-inducing word) on the 21st July.

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Seeing the logo you designed emblazoned down the side of a 747? The commemorative stamps you designed becoming collectors items? Garnering every award going whilst picking up a host of new clients along the way? These are the kind of things most designers would eat their own MacBook to have acheived. Johnson Banks are an agency that has ticked the above, and much more, off their to-do list. Virgin Atlantic, The Royal Mail, The BFI, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Yell.com, More Th>n and countless other companies, government organisations, universities and charities have been queueing up for re-brands and design work from them. At the helm of the operation is Michael Johnson. Amazing designer, guitar obsessive, brilliant writer, regular contributor to Creative Review & Design Week and very down to earth, nice guy.

His excellent Thought For The Week Blog is also a must read for anyone with a passing interest in what happens behind the scenes in one of the UKs most respected agencies. Michael kindly agreed to take time out answer our Ten Questions.

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Recently we were surprised and delighted to be asked to become regular contributors to Typetoken, a new blog showcasing the best typography from around the world. The site is a collaboration between graphic designers Mike Sullivan of Mister and Mark Millic of Modularlab, and web developer David Cole of Mayfield Digital. The three have joined forces and created a beautiful looking site, which will be a constant source of typo-inspiration and other design related goodness. With contributors from all over the UK as well as Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo, you can guarantee there’ll be plenty of good stuff to check out.

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That’s a fairly big number right? Well, it’s a slightly daunting number when you think about that number being actual people… And they’re all looking at you… Waiting on your every word. ‘Perform Monkey!’

Well, it wasn’t quite that bad, but following our The Tweet Goes On… post this week, I guest edited Creative Review’s twitter feed for one day yesterday. They had in excess of 374,000 followers before we took hold of the reins, and I’m glad to say that the number is still rising and it would seem as though their great magazine hasn’t been affected too much by my diatribe.

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Last week we were granted the opportunity to take control of the Creative Review Twitter page. We’re big fans of CR and their output both printed and digital so we’re very chuffed that they’ve agreed to hand over the steering wheel and allow us to connect, excite, interest, amuse and engage with their 372,565 (and counting) lovely followers and the design world at large. The big event will be happening this Thursday 26th May so tune in for our unique blend of inspirational creative goodness, Wildean witticisms and bullshit chit chat.

Big thanks to Neil and the crew at CR for getting us involved.

Mat.

It’s Friday, it’s sunny and it’s time once again to let you know about Five Things we’ve seen this week which we like. Encompassing a number of areas including advertising, design, second hand shops, passport stamps, jelly and toys, there’s sure to be something for everyone.

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Brighton-based designer Kyle Bean is two things: 1. A conceptual, passionate and dedicated creative who has made a name for himself with thoughtful and beautifully crafted work for a number of high profile clients. 2. A really nice, down to earth bloke.

Since graduating from Brighton University in 2009 Kyle has gone on to complete freelance projects for Wallpaper*, The Financial Times, New York Times Magazine, Selfridges, Liberty, Diesel and Hermes. Whilst his work covers a range of disciplines and styles, his most recognisable projects involve 3D objects crafted from paper, cardboard, wood and… eggshells. With a great body of client work and personal projects under his belt, we thought we’d ask Kyle to answer our Ten Questions.

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Last night we traveled to The Parfitt Gallery to attend the opening of ‘The Designers Republic Come Home To Croydon‘ – a solo exhibition of work by Ian Anderson shown in his childhood home town. The founder of the legendary Sheffield based studio was showing various pieces of work curated from the last 25 years.

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For the latest installment of our Ten Questions series we got in touch with Cornwall based Ben The Illustrator. For over a decade Ben’s unique views of the world have been wrapped around cars, stretched along shop walls, solved problems, covered magazines, advertised fruit juice, satisfied clients, accompanied orchestras, adorned underwear and welcomed you at airports. Having worked with the likes of BBC, Cadbury’s, Girl Scouts of USA, Michelin, Honda and Land Rover amongst others, Ben has helped make the world look a better place. He likes to keep busy too. If you haven’t already seen he’s dreamt up a new way to market himself with bensseasonalbillboard.com, and recently oragnised www.therenmenproject.co.uk.

Ben kindly took time out of his busy day to answer our Ten Questions.

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So it’s award season again. Well — least it is at the D&AD — the one we all know about and keep tabs on.

At some point as a hungry ‘n’ thirsty new design agency eager to succeed, you mention the word ‘AWARDS’ amongst yourselves. You only need chat for less than a minute though as straight away reality kicks in when you consider the entry fees and who you’re up against. You soon realise you’re punching above your weight and think to yourselves ‘…what’s the point of wasting the money?…’ and back to work you toddle.

Mat Dolphin is coming up for its second year in business soon so awards are definitely something we’ve discussed (and dismissed) in our small studio on more than one occasion. With a heavy dose of risk involved entering into the fray, we wanted to explore some of the merits, pitfalls and woes of being a small agency in a big award pond.

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Once again we’re back with Five Things. Our regular selection of interesting bits and pieces we’ve come across over the course of the last week. We have another mixed bag of creative stuff for your perusal (as well as a shameless bit of self promotion…). Enjoy.

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A while back we told you about some of the design blogs we look to for inspiration. The sites we check out on a regular basis barely skim the tip of the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s out there and with this in mind we thought we’d share some more bloggy treats with you. The last set we looked at focused on specific design-related disciplines – this time we’re going to have a look at sites which, whilst covering a broad spectrum, are aimed squarely at the purist design geeks like us. All of these sites are quite different in what and how they blog, but all of them are a constant source of interest, inspiration and entertainment.

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Shoreditch based design and branding agency SomeOne are passionate about what they do. A quick nose around their brand new (pardon the pun) website is proof that they actually care deeply about their work. ‘Launching, re-launching and protecting brands’ is at the heart of their work and they’ve been doing plenty of it. Along with sterling work for Sky Sports, O2, Betfair and New Look, SomeOne have re-created the iconic crest for The Royal Opera House, designed the sports pictograms for the London 2012 Olympics and most recently, created new branding for Eurostar. A huge project which covered practilcally everything including the advertising, print work, pictograms, moving image, a new typeface, signage – even a series of 3D sculptures!

Suffice to say, they know what they’re doing. Simon Manchipp is the creative director and co-founder of SomeOne – he was generous enough to take the time out to get involved in our Ten Questions series.

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An Aberdeenshire fish farm is not necessarily the typical breeding ground you’d expect for developing young creative talent, but the flora and fauna surrounding Johanna Basford in her early years had a lasting impact on her work. Her intricate and beautiful illustration style is organic and free-flowing, and she uses the highly futuristic medium of pen and paper — with Photoshop coming to the rescue to remove any tea stains. We’re big fans of her work and it seems we’re not alone — clients such as DKNY, Channel 4, H&M, Creative Review, Heals, The Tate Modern, The Body Shop and Johnson & Johnson have formed an orderly queue to commission her work. And no doubt you know already know about her love affair with Starbucks?

Johanna put the fineliner down for two minutes to answer our Ten Questions.

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