|
|
 |
I was confident enough to interrupt my typography exams with a job interview at Pentagram (at the time my favourite prestige London studio) and still pass. But would I get a job?
In 1981 the design standards of the leading London studios were significantly higher than most provincial studios, and this was especially true of Cambridge.
To my tutors' surprise I decided against the bright lights, instead renting a small room in Swavesey (just outside Cambridge) for the minimal sum of just £10 per week. So there it was: in a fit of 'madness', I decided to employ myself.
This was prior to the Segal Quince Wicksteed publication, The Cambridge Phenomenon, which included a large fold-out 'family-tree' illustrating Cambridge's rising reputation as a centre for high technology. One of my first projects was to design this illustration of how Cambridge-based companies linked to each other, often being able to trace their origins back to the University.
My self-confidence was growing. An early client was Ciba-Geigy Plastics (now known as Ciba). Others also approached me, including Torch Computers - an important computer company then, even though relatively unknown now. Next was Philips, the electrical giant, and very soon clients from further afield, such as EMI Record Tokens.
Among these early projects was the official biography of Sir Clive Sinclair, written by Rodney Dale - both unusual and stimulating personalities. This was published to coincide with the now famous (or is that infamous?) Sinclair C5 electric vehicle. I recall literally working through the nights during this period, such was my workload.
Hodder & Stoughton Paperbacks employed me for paperback releases, point-of-sale and publicity material for their authors, such as Jeffrey Archer, Dorothy L. Sayers, Stephen King, Harold Robbins, James Herbert, John Le Carré, Melvyn Bragg, Enid Blyton and (as the cliché goes) many more…
By 1984 I was employing seven staff. Over the period of the next three years this number would double, and then double again. By 1988 my studio, known as Portfolio, had become the largest studio in East Anglia - and, more importantly, voted the most creative, according to independent market research of that period.
Success attracts success. Others appeared, such as Simon Engineering, Prime (Computervision/CIS - GIS and CAD technology), Chevron Oils, and RTZ. The work was increasingly diverse in market areas: from cosmetics to the defence industry - including projects for Royal Ordnance and Hunting Engineering; the health industry - such as Travenol Laboratories and Glaxo; the aerospace industry - including British Aerospace; and education - the National Extension College and Open University.
During the mid-1980s, Dakin - an American company with the licensing rights to Garfield - approached me for my assistance. Until then Garfield was marketed as a toy, and (it seems hard to believe now) failing. I was instrumental in developing the concepts that successfully moved Garfield into the newly developing gift industry - a transformation that resulted in a staggering commercial success for my client.
During 1989-91, characters from The Beano and The Dandy were also successfully adapted for the gift industry. Many more followed, including the European launch of the then unknown Fido Dido characters, later to be adapted by 7-up for a worldwide advertising campaign.
My clients were becoming successful. A ten-year liaison, with what started as a small hi-fi company (and despite a relatively tiny marketing budget) was one of many. It wasn't long before Audiolab became recognised by What Hi-fi (one of the leading magazines in this area) as the benchmark against which all other hi-fi products would be rated. This rise of fame eventually led to a partnership in 1997 with the Grand Prix TAG McLaren organisation, to become known as TAG McLaren Audio.
I had experimented with Apple computers as early as 1987. By 1990, the development of what was then called Desktop Top Publishing (DTP) made the leap from drawing board to computer possible. The marketplace was changing rapidly (when doesn't it?) and I made the decision to fully embrace this technology - and before most other designers considered it viable.
The knowledge gained gave me crucial commercial advantages - and during a time of economic turmoil. I believe that computerisation is not truly accounted for in its contribution to the early 1990's 'recession'. Greater productivity together with my continued desire to maintain as much direct involvement in the design process as possible, gradually led me to working on a one-to-one basis with a select number of like-minded clients. I always believed that successful clients equalled a successful design studio - and I longed for a return to my early days when I concentrated my talents on a few key projects. That approach had always proved the most successful as well as satisfying.
In 1992, IXI Corp, an innovative software company specialising in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) asked me to design a new identity. This wasn't unusual in itself, but different because of their plan to increase the perceived value of the company - and not just achieve greater product sales. The aim was a company sale, and within 24-months they accepted a highly profitable take-over by the Santa Cruz Organisation (SCO). As part of this objective one of my tasks was to solve technical presentation issues for their advertising campaign, conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi. At this time my experience in converting computer images was greater than any London studio - albeit an advantage that didn't last long.
My reputation continued to spread. More projects arrived, including an identity manual for AT&T ISTEL, and identity consultancy for UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) - who impressed me, if only because they had '36,000 different pieces of printed literature'.
I'm pleased to say I didn't have to redesign each one!
I was also working on projects for pharmaceutical companies, including BayerCare, SmithKline Beecham Biologicals, Glaxo (later becoming GlaxoSmithKline) and Bristol Myers Squib.
I was also commissioned to design and illustrate a major reference work for Shell Oils - The Shell Oils Tutor - a 466-page illustrated teaching aid complete with six audio tapes, which became their main publicity item for 1992-93. This was totally produced on computer, which at the time almost defied belief! 'As would be expected from a major oil company, this Tutor is well thought out, easy to use and beautifully presented' - Industrial Lubrication and Tribology.
I became conscious of exactly how graphic design contributes to commercial strategy. I was interested in issues far beyond presentation alone. My clients increasingly confided to me their innermost strategic plans. Of course, by now I had been involved in hundreds of start-ups. My experiences in these successes and failures, meant I was now much more than a graphic designer, and so I was often drawn into the wider creative issues.
In 1995 Cadcentre selected my proposal for their new identity in preference to several larger international agencies. Their previous identity had failed the test of time, outdated by the technological advances in CAD that they themselves had made possible. CAD was developing far beyond the pixilated and early wire-framed graphics of old - and they were the world leading company in this emerging technology. I was briefed to produce the design work for what was to become their successful stock market floatation in 1997, followed by the launch of their Virtual Reality Centre - an animated 3D experience where viewers could 'walk' through a 3D modelled oil rig or power station, and where the same visual display is directly linked to the engineering data.
Cadcentre's client list doubled within only 18 months to £10m. Then rose to £17.3m 6 months later, and then £31.8m the following year; and thereafter (to date) has increased every year in succession.
Another identity programme, this one for Grant Instruments, leading manufacturers of laboratory equipment and data loggers, led to many intricate and contentious issues of demarcation between departments and products. Work was required in product design guidelines as well as graphics. To ensure clear procedures for naming, terminology and marketing of all Grant products. In many ways this seemed as much to do with the politics of power as it had to do with clarity of presentation - which is always true of identity work, for both are often directly linked.
Further work, beyond the traditional confines of graphics, occurred during 1997 when the owners of Battersea Power Station approached me to submit radical concepts for a proposed seven-floor shopping centre. This was part graphics, part interior design and part architectural concepting work. One level within the existing structure of the old power station was planned to contain no less than thirty cinemas. In addition, the site was expected to include hotels, apartment blocks, TV production facilities, a railway station and even a new footbridge across the Thames. In short, it was muted as being the largest planned retail development in Europe. However, property speculation proved to be more profitable than the risks of development itself. In 2006 the owners sold the undeveloped site for ten times the original purchase price. It is a fact that most of London, and myself included, failed to spot the ruse soon enough - so my ideas, although 'accepted', were not implemented.
Closer to Cambridge, Papworth VBB, a small vehicle body-builder, were up for sale. Their prospects had looked bleak, until a new management with bold ambitions asked me to design an identity to match their new vision. Renaming the company ATT Papworth, they soon became one of the largest manufacturers of their kind within the EC. The old company was established in 1947, which also made them one of the oldest. However, the new management lacked confidence talking about the company's history (now regarded as 'low tech' and tarnished by years of management neglect) but, at the point of takeover, had little else to publicise. As I always stress, perceived negatives can nearly always be turned to positive effect - if only because the majority of their client base were automotive enthusiasts, and so it was this passion that would propel ATT's marketing. When I discovered that they were also the builders of the famous 'Green Goddess', and that these 1947 Cold War fire tenders where unexpectedly in the news, due to the government re-commissioning them, I knew exactly what they should put in the centre of that year's exhibition stand.
ATT Papworth now successfully partner Iveco, Volvo and Renault, as well as supplying major clients such as British Telecom. Also, from a standing start in the health market, they soon became market leaders of ambulances. All this was achieved by the simple rule of first identifying the objectives, followed by the true impediments that need to be tackled. Excuses for failing often include the 'competition' (nearly always falsely identified and quantified), or a perceived lack of marketing funds. Reasons for success always reduce to a remarkably small combination of factors, and where financial capital is lacking, the creative mind can, as is so often the case, literally create it from nowhere.
In 1999 I started writing what was to become a book on corporate identity, The Art of Identity. Until then I'd never been one for explaining my work or communicating my methods. After all, the proof of my work had always attracted new clients, and without the need to market myself.
So why did I write the book? I felt the need to demonstrate that design is a rational subject; that it is not unlike engineering. I was alarmed by the rise of 'well presented rubbish'. Nowadays, aided by the computers (that I also use and respect) even the worst designs can be presented with a certain polish. The world of advertising has swamped us all (in the western world) with distraction and confusion - a virtual and all too real litter for us to accept or reject. Our senses are bombarded continually with those who wish to manipulate and, on present evidence, this trend shows no sign of abating.
Of course, good design can manipulate as well as bad. I know about these things; I have been employed to convince and convert. I have sustained success where success was perhaps only tentatively deserved - and succeeded. I have increased the fortunes of companies, and propelled individuals to great wealth. Yet suddenly, I needed to express in words as well as graphics. I was no longer able to accept copywriting without question. Now, words were more than an important part of the design process; they had become integral. And so I began the transition from designer towards a combination of both art and words.
Other changes were also occurring. I had been involved in the Internet from (almost) the beginning. Businesses were entering the new era of 'dotcom'.
Farming Online started life operating from a Leicestershire farm shed. My identity programme was thorough enough to help secure their bid for £6m of funding. With a mission to revolutionise UK, and then EC, agriculture, their early success was spectacular - 26,000 registered users by 2000. I became involved in launching several 'spin-offs', including A-Trade, FOL Networks and milkquota.com. Their growing list of clients included British Sugar, CWG, MLC, Merial, SCATS, Hutchinson, Greenvale AP and NatWest Agriculture - indeed, almost all the major players in UK agriculture. Most of these received my art direction as they rushed to go online.
About this time I also created a new identity for Chamberlain Communications - the most significant agricultural PR company in the UK. I also assisted HGCA (Home Grown Cereal Authority) to focus their various identities.
I worked for others, including Hertz Lease, an identity for ISEIT, and the UK's largest credit insurers, Euler Hermes.
I designed the core identity for the £37m government funded project, TLRP, into the future of UK teaching and education. Then, in 2001, the new identity and world-wide launch of AVEVA.
My first book was successfully translated into foreign editions, including Spanish, Russian, Hebrew and Chinese. The reviews that followed helped me increase my fees.
By 2004 my publishers asked if I would revise The Art of Identity. I decided to extend the book with several new chapters, and so the new book, Identity, was published. The newer sections were originally written for another publisher who intended to print a ground-breaking 'branding' book, but withheld by me, as my writing ambitions were quickly moving to other areas of interest.
New clients kept appearing, and as I now wished to write more than design, then the management of my time had become an important issue. I started to refuse work. However, Spendor Audio Systems interested me. In the late 1950s they were known for their connection to BBC broadcasting studios, but since then they'd faded to almost obscurity. Because I knew the new management and their intelligent approach, I was delighted to help them.
One of my last jobs seemed a suitable point of departure: Information Transfer wanted to 'pitch' for the Arts Council UK. I helped them win a major contract. It inspired me to see the Arts Council, as ever, trying to move the boundaries of where art meets business.
Information Transfer also asked me to revise their own identity - so, as it had always been for me, one project would lead to yet another, and therefore my time would always be taken up by design unless I made a more determined effort to change my direction. The desire to spend more time writing had become overwhelming. By the end of 2006 I retired as a designer.
© Mark Rowden, 2007. |
|
|
