1,000 word response

"Compare and contrast the processes and practices of your two chosen practitioners. Upon this analysis what lessons could be applied to your own practice?

My two chosen practitioners that i feel i can relate my own practices to are Truth Design and Glorious, these two design agencies are completely different in style but both relate to me in individual ways.
Truth design presented a lecture that i attended, during the lecture i learnt alot about the company and there values. Truth design started with a partnership between two very down to earth people based in Manchester who enjoy the design industry and enjoy producing work for clients. The name Truth design came from there own values of wanting a company that only tell the truth they quoted " At the end of the day, we believe that if a brand is to succeed you must first be honest about it's weaknesses and turn them into strengths".(http://www.truth-design.co.uk/) I have noticed with Truth design that they focus alot on typography and experimenting with it, One font that stood out to me was Bad Angel, which has a Gothic style to it but is easy readable. The fonts they have created are DST, Sodium,Rub on and Nitrogen, which they use in there own work for clients. I feel Truth can relate to me through there font designs, i really enjoy experimenting with fonts and making new shapes from letters, to be able to create a full alphabet would be amazing and looking at some of Truth's examples really inspires me to pursue my developments.
Briefs that i felt i could relate to are Reebok, DST font, Bad Angel font, Great Northern Aid Trust, Christies and Ram.
Reebok brief was to create a brand identity for Amir Khan to support Reebok Boxing Range endorsed by him. Truth design solution was to develop a brand for Amir Khan, they took inspiration from the youth scenes for example music and fashion to create a visual language that could resonate with the target audience of 15-21 year old boys. The brand needed to be able to work with various media. Amir Khan was so pleased with the final product that he even looked into getting the logo embroidered onto the seats in his car, I found the final pieces very bold and well developed, which caught my eye. I feel i can relate my work to Truth through this brief as they have used very strong photography in there posters to help with the advertisements, I feel i use mainly strong imagery when designing promotional pieces because it helps to get the message across to the target audience and imagery is a very strong source if used correctly. I really like the contrast between the red font and the smokey dark imagery, which is something i have used and played around with on some of my previous pieces, i enjoy colour and what effects it can have for example the different moods and meanings it can create and then what clashes and looks hideous.
Another brief i found interesting was the Christies charity re-branding. Truth design created this piece free of charge as they felt they were helping a good cause with the charity to help them get noticed and promote their hard work. The reason i liked this brief was the fact that Truth had already recognised that Christies was a well known charity with the heart shape that everyone recognised them for, so they played around with the heart shape to create something even better but that people could still recognise as Christies. In my opinion if something already works don't destroy it just improve it and work with what you have, some of the best designs i have created have been developed from previous pieces that have needed updated.

My second design company is Glorious who are a multi award winning company based in Manchester and have been together for three and half years, there main focus is craft and production and base alot of their work on typography. Glorious are a identity specialist who are renowned for creative thinking and craft skills and we enjoy the challenge of problem solving.

I really liked the Red Dog Communication brief a marketing communications company, which required a piece of direct mail to launch the company, above all it had to be impactful and provoke a reaction from the recipient. Glorious solution was " in an age when political correctness seems to have gone barking mad, we designed a launch poster which, at first glance, carried a controversial line that really got people's hackles up, those who dug a little deeper appreciated the humour". (http://www.gloriouscreative.co.uk/) I loved this project and found the red dog identity really modern and fresh. Its fascinating how the designer can create something so big from there own everyday life as the designer had just got a new puppy and used the puppy as an idea but cartoonized it, its remarkable how are personal lives can effect the decisions and the designs we create in work. when i look at some of my past designs i see certain elements that had been effecting me in my designs and development and yet these pieces are some of my best.

Another brief is Roses Symposium aim is Every year, the Liverpool and Manchester design initiative hosts a design symposium before the Roses Design Awards. The theory is to create debate around current issues. Glorious has handled the design material for the past five years. The solutions was although the symposium was aimed at creative, it was a corporate event. They created a loose style - in contrast to the corporate nature of the event, it appealed to the target market. The poster is very hand rendered, which gives a more personal touch to the poster. I always think that the hand rough style works really well and gives a completely different approach it sometimes can look child like depending on the brief. I think that some designers can think to technical and try to give a polished finish to each piece and sometimes its to over done, i look at my work and try to take different approaches and try not to over do everything.

Both companies are very different and approach each brief in a different style. Truth Design is completely truthful in all there designs there process is very strict and they use alot of the existing work for example they use the fonts they created in all there designs where as Glorious don't have a pre-planned agenda and just start a fresh. Although the two companies have typography in common they attack it in different ways, Truth use computers and lecture sets to create there fonts, where as Glorious use everyday objects like masking tape. From my research and lectures i realise that Glorious are very experimental and loose with there designs, which is a fascinating quality, which can create some unique pieces, where as Truth are more strict and polished with there designs, which again is a brilliant quality as it shows professionalism to the clients. Both company's are unique in different ways but i feel i can relate myself to both of them through there different styles.