Workshop Challenge: Places of Design Practice
McCann Manchester
https://www.mccannmanchester.com/
Comprising of 370 employees, the company is organised into hierarchical teams covering marketing and vis com specialisms such as branding and advertising design. Operating at a much larger scale than smaller practices in the North West, McCann Manchester is part of the wider McCann World Group which comprises of 23,000 individuals based in 100 countries worldwide. The large global culture of McCann as a brand itself enables collaboration with high profile brands such as Aldi, Matalan, Cross Country and Smyths Toys through its attractive reputation of 100 years working internationally for iconic brands such as coca cola and L’oreal.
As an example of design related practice/ business McCann Manchester describes itself as a marketing communications ‘agency’ which compliments the traditional corporate feel of the large organisation. It’s rural setting, historic architecture and contemporary office space balances corporate atmosphere with a modern progressive culture. Informal language used on the website such as ‘drop in for a coffee’, inviting innovative creative new clients.
The company name ‘McCann’, named after founder H K McCann gains the trust of long-established higher end brands by signalling heritage and specialism. The company’s long-standing ethos, established by H K McCann’s personal philosophy ‘‘find a truth and tell it well’ accentuates this universal approach to advertising and creates a sense of intimacy and personalisation in balance with mass corporatism.
The idyllic business setting in rural Cheshire is perfectly situated to draw in aspirational clients from the affluent Cheshire district, however is also accessible from Manchester, attracting higher profile clients from the commercially active city. McCann’s philosophical emphasis on brands playing ‘meaningful role in people’s lives’, empowers profitable collaboration across client sectors mostly including food and drink, health and wellbeing, retail and travel and leisure.
Company Statement:
“Helping Brands Play A Meaningful Role: And how we work is by helping brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives. If you’re meaningful, you’re relevant and have a clear role. And if you’re relevant and have a clear role, you’re more likely to be valued, loved and most importantly used by and bought by consumers. We create meaning by harnessing the power of truth. When H K McCann established the company more than 100 years ago, he came up with a compelling idea; find a truth and tell it well. It’s a philosophy that has stood the test of time. More than a century later, we are still guided by the thinking of our founder. We call it Truth Well Told.“
LoveLive
https://www.lovelivegraphics.com/
LoveLive’s tagline ‘An Agency with passion’ withholds traditional associations of professionalism in the linguistic corporate associations of ‘agency’ whilst appealing to a local audience appreciative of small business culture by using emotive language such as ‘passion’ and ‘love’.
Unlike McCann, LoveLive has an anonymous brand identity, using playful alliteration and abstract language to emphasise humanist values of creative passion and a rewarding family orientated company culture. This is also evident in it’s origins in health care communications which is a less profitable, more education based/ public health sector. This is reflected in the office’s physical presentation which is smart and professional, but not overly extravagant like McCann. The name also has an emphasis on technical craftmanship acknowledging the company’s origins specialising in design for live events.
The small organisation of 13 employees is structured into conventional Director and Managerial roles with the remaining 7 employees having broad ‘Designer’ job titles (at senior and midweight level) implying a multidisciplinary approach to graphic design and a collaborative way of working and sharing specialist skills. This seems to be necessary in order for them to operate as a full-service agency now dealing with a broad client base with demands for creative branding, scientific redraws, video editing, infographics and presentation apps.
Company Statement:
“Understanding the need for accuracy with your data, our team has the scientific knowledge necessary to work right across the healthcare sector – and at every stage of the clinical development pipeline. From powerful print and presentations, to exhibitions, e-learning resources and apps for your events, we’ve got healthcare covered.”
Jack
‘Jack’ is a small graphic design consultancy located in a studio space within the Longton library building in Stoke-on-Trent. Despite it’s discrete occupation of space in Stoke on Trent, a less affluent area with an industrial history, it still boasts a substantial portfolio of high end clients such as Rolls Royce as well as smaller clients across a wide range of sectors including Arts & Culture, Construction, Events, Entertainment, Environment, Education, Finance, Healthcare, Leisure & Hospitality, Manufacturing, Retail, Social, Sports. This suggests that Jack may be an example of how digitisation influences the studio culture of new 21st century design practices as a traditional sense of place/ corporate space isn’t necessary. Established in 2007 ‘Jack’ has a simplistic minimalist aesthetic which emphasises its contemporary perspective and ethos of a ‘holistic’ approach to design projects. This is evident in the wide breadth of services available including brand strategy & creation and development, animation, audio engineering, vehicle graphics, packaging, exhibition graphics, interior spaces, print, stationery, internal comms, digital design and copywriting (advertising/literature)
The use of proper noun ‘Jack’ to refer to a small creative co-operative offers a quirky sense of anonymity which appeals to a more contemporary innovative client base. Considering this, a sense of professionalism and respectability is maintained by the self-descriptive language ‘consultancy’ implying specialism and service driven client relationships. Despite this, the address is registered as a ‘studio’ implying specialist craft and establishing it as a place of creative innovation.
Company Statement:
“Jack is not just one person: We are a creative-led, graphic design consultancy based in Stoke-on-Trent at the heart of the Midlands. We may be a small team but we’ve been fortunate enough to work with organisations of all sizes locally, nationally and around the globe. Jack was set up in 2007 by an experienced graphic designer who spent many years at one of the UK’s top 25 agencies. Since then, we’ve earned a reputation for our outstanding, friendly service, alongside quality work to suit any budget. We work across many sectors including retail, finance, industry and healthcare, often becoming long-term, trusted partners for many of our clients. We specialise in proactively helping them to shape their brand strategy before bringing it to life across a range of communications.”
Places of Design Production
The Capture Factory
https://thecapturefactory.co.uk/
Provides cost effective website design for smaller independent companies in Staffordshire, professional photography, design for print, web development, SEO and blogging, content creation and digital marketing.Leek Sign & Graphics
Leek Signs and Graphics
Provides signage, print design and vehicle wrapping to small local independent businesses in the Staffordshire Moorlands and Stoke on Trent.
Reels in Motion
https://www.reelsinmotion.co.uk/
Video production service for a range of client sectors across Stoke, Manchester and London producing music videos, commercial ads, animated videos, drone footage and product videos.
Four key evolutionary design steps that contributed to the identity of your design culture today.
William Blake
Combining disciplines of fine art, poetry, illustration, and printing to contribute to the moral conversation in England about issues such as of the industrial revolution, the class divide and failings in society. William Blake used evocative imagery informed by his skills in traditional painting to compliment the political messages in his poems. His influence on visual arts during the romantic era are reflected in modern visual culture. Banksy’s political street art for instance embodies the spirit of creative subjectivity and individual expression through a metaphorical and poetic visual language.
Blake’s work fascinates me as it epitomises Romantic acknowledgment of the individual and the changing role of the artist or designer to adopt a sense of political agency. This resonates strongly with my own practice the purpose of my study which is to influence positively, social movements related to environmental destruct and emotional and psychological divorcement from nature.
William Morris
Leader of the arts and crafts movement, William Morris influenced the evolution of design by reacting against industrialisation and mass production and decreasing quality in designed goods and artefacts. He initiated a return to craftmanship by establishing a printing press designed to achieve the high quality of incunabula and creating rich pattern designs with evocative illustrations and colour. Inspired by the Medieval and gothic art, he designed typefaces nostalgic of 15th century design artefacts, such as ‘Golden Type’ which are used by designers today. William Morris’ gothic influences reflect Maziar’s emphasis on the ‘importance of history’ in design practice.
Maziar’s recollection of Phil Baines remarking how ‘medieval work was more influential to me than what was going on at Cranbrook at the time in the 80s’ has further inspired me to take a deeper historical approach to design practice. I feel that William Morris and William Blake’s nostalgic influences from the gothic – reacting against the disconnection from nature in industrial modernity – are relevant today in a pivotal decade of climate crisis, pollution, species extinction and environmental destruction.
Peter Saville
Innovative work in the music industry, creating famous record sleeves for New Order and Joy Division in the 1980s. ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Division features a solid black cover with a waveform design, inspired by CP 1919 the first pulsar from deep space. It’s likely that this graphic waveform came from the Jodrell Bank Observatory which ties in well as it is local to Manchester and Joy Division. This is a highly iconic design which is recognisable 40 years later and has been imitated in different contexts advertise such as advertising and fashion, proving its cultural relevance today.
Abram Games
Well-known for iconic British images and influential posters such as ‘Join the ATS’ recruitment poster of 1941, ‘Grow your own food poster’ a campaign to get people to grow their own food during the war. Games was passionate about designing for a social cause; however, he used his experience working for iconic clients such as Guinness and BP to gain recognition. This resonates with my own attraction to design and exemplifies the changing role of the designer and how design can be used to exercise agency over more meaningful issues.
CATHY DAVIES 