We had 2 talks from the design studio BUILD who are based in Leeds, formerly in London. The practise is run by partners Michael and Nicky and we had a talk from them both separately.
The first from Michael about his life story, how he became a designer and what his inspirations are. This was really interesting to me as he has always had a strong interest in music and this has always shown in his work, as well as being really enthusiastic about designing art work for bands/artists. He spoke about how initially his love for music and fashion lead him to design without even realising and later gaining him jobs after attending a few different courses. He showed us some of his early work as well as the methods he would have to use pre mac such as a rotring pens and letraset letragraphica. I found this very interesting as I like to hear about how designers got to where they are and how they use their skills in different ways to achieve the jobs they want. Speaking of design he gave us a tip 'go all out with the detail or keep it very minimal' in other words don't sit on the fence, trust in your idea.
Nicky also shared her life story about how she attended Liverpool for university and ended up staying there for a long time, not fulfilling her dreams of wanting to illustrate children's books but illustrating for a games company who ended up being owned by Sony. She eventually moved to London with Michael and they started to set up BUILD whilst she continued to work for Sony through the first few years. From this I learnt that sometimes you do have to work to get money and to be known rather than doing something you love, however that is life and eventually you should be able to have your dream job - as they do with BUILD back in Leeds with clients such as Virgin America and Nike.
