Earlier this year, we wrote a blog post regarding some of our thoughts on inspiration. Sprungseven left a considered and well written response in the comments section, using a quote from the brilliant Bob Gill:

“Don’t look for inspiration in design books. Don’t sit at your computer, waiting for lightning to strike. If the job is for a dry cleaner, go to a dry cleaner. And stay there until you have something that you honestly think is interesting to say about dry cleaning.”

The sentiment is spot on and one we wholeheartedly agree with. If inspiration for designers comes from the same sources (a finite handful of popular websites and design books), its only a matter of time before things begin to look similar. Without wanting to cover old ground, we concur.

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Paul Rand was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, as well as his NeXT work for Steve Jobs. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design and we’ve long read about his working methods and approach. He almost single-handedly convinced businesses that design was an effective tool, so when Paul Rand spoke, people listened.

We just came across this three part interview with the man, and thought we’d show you them in one place so that every one can watch the genius. Put your feet up and enjoy.

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We’ve been designing for a while now. Nowhere near as long as some, but a while. Without wanting to sound too nostalgic about it, things have changed a lot since we first set foot in the big, scary world of paid employment. Trends have come and gone (and come back again), technology has made huge steps forward, something called the internet has started up, and we have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to make a few waves…

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Like practically every designer working in the UK in the past 30 years, Creative Review magazine has played a huge role in our development as designers. For many people it’s their first peek into the elusive inner workings of ‘the industry’ and has always been a brilliant source of news, well written opinion and information. This was especially true before the internet changed the way we consume information, but even now, getting hold of a new printed copy is as much of a thrill as it was back when we first discovered it. That’s not to say CR haven’t moved with the times, their blog is a lively platform for debate and one of the best in the business for design news and gossip. Their new iPad app (unveiled this week!) is as stonking as we knew it would be. In our opinion, they’re the best, most useful and most established industry magazine around. Over the last few years, we’ve become friendly with the CR crew and thought it would a good idea to get them involved with our Ten Questions series.

Editor Patrick Burgoyne was kind enough to take the time to give us his answers. Covering a range of topics from bilge tanks to idiotic maths teachers, here’s what he has to say…

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Like any industry, design is a bit incestuous. We know you, you know us. Together we know so-and-so. If we haven’t met face to face (which is oddly the rarity these days) we’ve no doubt ‘met’ on the net or conversed via Twitter — the goto hub for conversation. Our friendship circles are tight and everyone knows and talks to the same people. Views sometimes but rarely differ and before you realise it you’re in an echo chamber of thought and opinion with lots of nodding heads (one of the reasons we now rarely attend industry ‘get-togethers’ — controversial, but true).

This circle of people who think the same thing is not necessarily a good thing and something that got us thinking about the knock on effect to design and everyone’s work.

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It’s that time again…

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You know how it works by now, we show you Five Things we’ve seen this week that we think are of interest, and you love ‘em. Simple as that. Always a random mix, this post includes amazing architecture, scary monsters, beautiful bookmaking, a nose into someones diary, and lot of lipstick. Enjoy.

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We just came across this faded old printers sign on a lunchtime walkabout.

We’re not the first to spot it by any means, but we like it all the same.

Bring back the good old days of signwriting we say…

Tom and Phil.

What Jonathan Zawada does is difficult to define as his work blurs the lines between design, art and illustration. The one thing we’re sure of is he’s a uniquely talented guy and we’re big fans of his. Alongside a number of exhibitions showing his personal work, he has been commissioned by clients such as The New York Times, The Type Directors Club, Nike, Sixpack and Commonwealth Stacks.

Based in Los Angeles by way of Sydney, he works in a way which creates wildly varied and always visually stunning results. Effortlessly moving between commercial client work and experimental personal projects, Jonathan seems to approach each piece from a completely different perspective resulting in a body of work which is both amazing to look at and truly original (the latter of which is a rare thing to see these days).

Mr. Zawada kindly agreed to take the hot seat and answer our Ten Questions. Here’s what he had to say…

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A little while ago (way back in 2009, in fact) we created some T-shirt designs for Yutaka Tajima, the clothing label set up by Bob Sanderson of Sheffield-based design studio, Sanderson Bob. Our love of the work of tDR is no secret and Bob, a former designer for the studio, has upheld their legacy with some brilliant work for Nike, Nokia, Zune, Kemistry Gallery and Uniqlo amongst others. When he established his clothing label, we were more than happy to join the likes of Mario Hugo, James Goggin, Guy Hulse, Andy Smith and others in reworking his ‘Y’ logo for the use on T-shirts.

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Whether we like it or not, here at Mat Dolphin, we conform to a few incredibly predictable ‘designer stereotypes’. One of the big ones is the fact that we’re unashamedly geeky Star Wars fans. And we’re not alone. Amongst our peers it’s clear that whilst it’s not a prerequisite for a graphic designer to be hugely influenced by the creativity and storytelling of the George Lucas masterpiece, it helps.

So, it’s with great sadness that we heard about the death of Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual designer and illustrator who’s sketches and paintings played a huge role in defining the look of the original trilogy. Designing key characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO as well as many of the sets and vehicles, McQuarrie was instrumental in creating what would become some of the most iconic imagery in film.

Also playing the uncredited role of Pharl McQuarrie in The Empire Strikes Back, he has had an undeniable impact on millions and his pioneering, unique vision will be not be forgotten.

George Lucas remembers “…his genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy. When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph’s fabulous illustrations and say, ‘do it like this’.”

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Fancy seeing an exhibition featuring some stunningly rendered illustration work? Want to check out some beautiful and delicate sculpture? In the mood for some elegant, balanced typography? If you are, we would advise you to steer clear of London’s Haywood Gallery until the middle of May. They’re currently showing Brain Activity, the first major UK solo show by Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley. Being big fans of his work, we checked it out last weekend and whilst we can confirm you won’t be seeing any of above, you will see a fantastic mix of interesting, bemusing, weird, thought-provoking and utterly hilarious drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture and animations. Thankfully, the opportunity to exhibit old and new work on a large scale in such an established gallery space hasn’t tempted Shrigley to stray from his signature style; a combination of crude, cack-handed imagery that effortlessly walks the line between ridiculous visual puns and abstract, emotive poignancy.

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This is the 25th post in our Ten Questions series and as it’s a bit of a milestone we thought we’d do something special. Since we started the series, we’ve spoken to some of our favourite designers, illustrators, writers, artists and creative directors. This time, after months of talking to her agent and countless emails, we’ve finally managed to pin down a response from a uniquely talented individual who can turn her hand to all of these disciplines and many more. A true visionary and all round creative renaissance woman, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Abigail Dixon. Writing, illustrating, art directing and overseeing production of her own independently published books, she has forged a unique, distinctive style that is gaining a huge amount of attention within the creative industries. Expect big things from this one, you heard it here first…

See below for what happened when Abigail was kind enough to take some time out of her day to answer our Ten Questions.

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The ‘£25 logo‘ article we recently wrote for Creative Review seemed to cause a nice bit of debate in the comments section of their blog. Which is what we had hoped for. We did however notice their was a bit of confusion over certain wording. Although we never mentioned ‘crowd sourcing’ or ’spec-work’ in the piece, people leaving comments were using these terms in reference to the cheap logo service we used. We thought it was worth clearing things up a bit.

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If you’ve read this blog before, you may have already guessed that we like graphic design. A lot. It’s what we love doing, looking at and talking about. There are a huge number of designers and design agencies that we admire, look up to and take inspiration from – some of them are well known greats from the past, some of them are a bit more obscure, some of them are our peers and some of we’re lucky enough to count as friends. There are a small handful of designers we admire, however, that are simple legendary. Josef Müller Brockmann is one of those designers.

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Jon Burgerman is a multidisciplinarian artist and illustrator who has created a unique, distinctive style of his own. Often working on a large scale, his loose, colourful creations are instantly recognisable and have graced all manner of client commissions, personal work and solo gallery shows around the world. Alongside drawing on stuff he lectures at a number of universities and produces lots of lovely things for you lucky people to spend your money on in his excellent shop – in need of an laptop sleeve, pillow or pair of socks? Get them all and much, much more at Burgerplex.

Mr. Burgerman kindly agreed to be the first Ten Questions participant of 2012 and we’re very happy to get him involved in the series. Read on for plenty of random ramblings, beautiful doodles and a glimpse inside the mans mind – it’s an interesting place to be.

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Our guest blog post, as featured on Creative Review and LogoDesignLove.

One of the services we offer as a design agency is logo design. No surprises then when we recently stumbled upon another agency offering the same service. So far, so average – the majority of graphic design agencies throughout the world do exactly the same. The difference with this one, however, was the costing of their work. Keep reading…

Hello 2012! We’ve hit the ground running this new year and are very excited by the projects we’ve got coming up. We’ve got plenty of exciting things in the pipeline and, as always, lots of lovely things to share with you. Which brings me nicely onto the latest post in our Five Things series. A mixed bag as always, we’ve got some great student work, some brilliant filmmaking, a lovely bit of branding, something music-related and some foodie stuff. Hopefully something to keep everyone happy.

Without further ado, click below to check out what’s been catching our beady little eyes recently.

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2011. It’s been busy, it’s been stupidly quick and most importantly, it’s been good. Along with the constant stresses and pressures that go along with doing what we do, this year has been a decidedly positive one here at Dolphin Heights. We thought a good way to round off the year was to take a quick look back at what we’ve been up to in the last 12 months. What’s been keeping us busy in and out of work, where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing and who we’ve been doing it with.

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We realised recently that it’s been AGES since we last posted a Five Things. For the uninitiated, it’s a regular series in our blog in which we share five interesting, creative things that we’ve spotted on the world wide internet over the course of the last week or so. It’s always a mixed bag, and this post in no different. Jelly hand grenades, flying dogs, sitting on Hercules’ face and festive booze are just a few of the things you can expect to see this time round. Take two minutes out of your day, put your feet up and have a look at what we’ve found for you.

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