Design talk in Preston

Time & Date: 5-8pm, Thursday 23rd November

Society1 in collaboration with Digital Lancashire and Creative Lancashire are hosting their first creative collaboration evening. Lets Talk ... with guest speaker Andy Walmsley - artist & creative director of award-winning Wash Design

Lets Talk... is a regular post work gathering bringing together creative & digital businesses and freelancers and practioners to discuss and debate the key issues faced by creative practitioners.

The format of the evening will be relaxed and informal providing a space for emerging talent, established businesses and freelancers to share ideas and inspirations.

For each event there will be a different topic to encourage conversation and ideas sharing.

We will begin the discussion by inviting a local business to present about a topical talking point to get the evening started.

Following the talk and Q&A there will be an 'open floor' opportunity to share any relevant news and ideas.

This months topic: What drives us as Creatives?

Andy Walmsley from Wash Design will speak about his experiences and what has driven him to create his style of agency and work they do at Wash. It will be an open floor for discussion so bring with you your thoughts on where the group could help you with any issues in your business or if you have something topical to discuss as inspiration for us all.  

REGISTER HERE

Lets Talk is free to attend but pre registration is essential via the Eventbrite Page

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Andy Walmsley - Creative Director, Wash

Born in Preston 1966, Andy left school in 1982 and started work at Hamilton Press, Preston as a trainee ‘paste-up artist’ working in newspapers and print. Andy now runs his own Design Agency (Wash Design Studio) in the town with clients far and wide.

“As computers are now a main tool to our creative output in my line of work, I felt I needed to get back to using my hands as well as my mind. I started dabbling in oils in 2005, mainly working on portraits. However, I’ve always had a love for the outdoors and the fells, but in 2006 I found a real passion for cycling.

I now spend my time riding around this part of Lancashire, taking photos on my iphone and working them up in oils. I have a strange fascination of what’s just over the next horizon – the urge to keep moving on.

I’m trying to keep my work lose and slightly abstract, I’m not attempting to copy exactly what I see, but attempting to inject that atmosphere you absorb when you are out on the bike, that sense of open space, freedom and colour that surrounds us – even on a bad day.

Having left my educational journey at 16 to then go on working my way through many jobbing studios and eventually in to design studios, I now bring almost 30 years industry experience to the Wash Design Studio team. I've worked with all sorts of clients in all sorts of sectors over the years, from large global companies to public bodies and many SMBs."

I've directed documentaries, art directed photoshoots, managed major brand development projects and worked on countless projects to generate and tailor marketing & communications materials of every sort imaginable."

wash-design.co.uk
behance.net/ANDYWALMSLEY

A Seat of Learning

'A Seat of Learning' - Sight specific installation - 2015

Every unique style of chair that the curator could find in the Victoria building over a period of 4 hours was extracted from the studios and base rooms from all 3 floors. These chairs were then placed at random, in the PR1 Gallery, to form a square - nine chairs by nine.

What people read into this sight specific artwork at the time was very much up to the viewer. However the curator would like to think that one aspect of the piece was how it reflected the unique nature of all those creative individuals who practiced within the School of Art, Design & Performance. Both students & staff.

In the two years since this piece was first shown the building has undergone a furniture standardisation and refit. Sadly the majority of these chairs have now left the building. Therefore this piece could never be recreated again. Let us also hope that the individuality and creativity didn't leave with them!

9x9

Time lapse of the installation.

A portrait of every individual chair.

DM17: The Design City Reframed

Last week one our 3rd Year Advertising students, Jemma Redpath, attended the 5th annual Design Manchester all-day conference. She's kindly sent through some of her thoughts for Disciples...

The Design City Reframed conference was an experience full of diverse speeches and presentations that have certainly left an impression on me. The conference covered all sorts of topics including branding, architecture, film and modern art that were very refreshing. However, some were a little more random. One designer (not to mention names) spent his whole allotted time talking about writing songs for his LP- which would have been fantastic if we had seen some of the actual process. Half way through the talk he revealed, “by the way, you’re not actually going to hear any of my songs.” Not the best start to the event I must say!

There were however some really great speeches that made up for the disappointing start of the conference. Louis Mikolay from North gave a fantastic talk all about the rebranding of the Science Museum. As we know there was a lot of public backlash about ditching the existing brand image, but he represented his agency well and stood by North’s decisions and final work. I took away 3 main lessons from his talk… Number one: research is important. Number two: making visual observations of a brand will help you to identify ways to develop it further. Number three: be brave and stand up for what you creatively believe in, even when other people’s opinions might differ.

Tash Wilcox who is currently working with Hyper Island and Jane Murison, from the BCC, talked about very similar topics. Murison talked about how a lot of the time, we don’t make informed decisions due to our tendency to wait to be given information, and how social media has emotional consequences if we use it too much or too less. Wilcox relatedly discussed how we often seek the approvals of others on social media and how that can stop us from exercising our brain. Both talks were slightly anti-tech but amongst the humour and jokes they both highlighted some important advice. Firstly, we can make our own choices by making the good popular and the popular good. Secondly, we can put technology aside and strengthen our mind by developing our physically talents such as drawing and painting.

Overall, I would definitely attend the conference again. It was full of creativity and I genuinely left feeling motivated and more excited about my own projects. The general atmosphere was great to be in and it was reassuring to know that some of my own student creative worries were echoed amongst such successful and accomplished people. I look forward to attending similar events in the upcoming months and I most certainly am looking forward to attending the next Design City Reframed.

DM17 - Design Manchester - Manchester’s fifth annual festival of design

The fantastic Design Manchester festival will be taking place this year between the 11th and 22nd of October. There are a wide range of events (both ticketed and FREE) taking place, with the highlight being the Design City Conference.

It has been a great, inspiring event in recent years - plus there are potential networking opportunities and a chance to meet other designers.