I got in contact with Ryan through a family friend, at the beginning of the year I visited the exhibition 'Coming Out', at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, I was discussing the exhibition with my family friend and she mentioned that she knew the designer who was doing the branding for the Birmingham stint of the exhibition. I promptly asked for his contact details, I was keen to contact him as he was part of creating a piece of design that I was so inspired by. Ryan was also a desinger who studied graphic design in Leeds, at Beckett University and is now desigining in Birmingham, rather than London or Manchester or Leeds, a city not know for its design; which his transition intrigues me.
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Before contacting Ryan I looked at his social media accounts to get a feel for his work and the style of his design. As I had his name, I decided to message him on Facebook as I felt that it was more informal than e-mailing and could lead to possible communication in the future to continue discussions and possibly work with collaborating with him on a brief.
The messages led to e-mailing questions because of the amount of content was needed for what I wanted back.
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To ensure a sense of professionalism, but also retain the colloquial manner we have been previous discussing in, I made sure to add my own personal branding and identity at the bottom of the email, with my email and Instagram, which I have already mentioned in the conversation; an attempt to get my name out in the industry.
E-Mail Sent:
Hey Ryan,
The whole idea around the brief is to contact practitioners in the industry and get a better understanding of what it is like to be a designer in the creative sphere at the moment.
Would you be able to answer these questions for me?
1. Do you have any common considerations you always reflect on when you take on a brief? Are any of these from an ethical beliefs point of view?
2. What do you believe are your strongest skills as a designer? Why?
3. Who is someone you collaborate with the most when completing a brief? E.g. copywriter, publisher etc.
4. In your creative process, what stage do you spend most of your time on and why?
5. Who is your biggest influence in the creative industry?
6. Have you ever worked on a project where you disagreed with a client’s feedback? How did you deal with it?
7. Do you feel moving away from the north, to a larger city, has helped in kickstarting your career?
8. What was your path from studying to getting into the industry?
9. Do you feel like your personality and life, influences your design and the briefs that you take part in?
10. What’s one creative blog/publication you can’t do without?
If you could answer these just as openly as possible, the answers don’t need to be formal or anything at all! The whole idea is to get an insight into the what the industry is like through your eyes!
Thank you so much,
Callum O’Reilly
Callum O'Reilly
E-Mail Recieved:
Hey Ryan,
The whole idea around the brief is to contact practitioners in the industry and get a better understanding of what it is like to be a designer in the creative sphere at the moment.
Would you be able to answer these questions for me?
1. Do you have any common considerations you always reflect on when you take on a brief? Are any of these from an ethical beliefs point of view?
2. What do you believe are your strongest skills as a designer? Why?
3. Who is someone you collaborate with the most when completing a brief? E.g. copywriter, publisher etc.
4. In your creative process, what stage do you spend most of your time on and why?
5. Who is your biggest influence in the creative industry?
6. Have you ever worked on a project where you disagreed with a client’s feedback? How did you deal with it?
7. Do you feel moving away from the north, to a larger city, has helped in kickstarting your career?
8. What was your path from studying to getting into the industry?
9. Do you feel like your personality and life, influences your design and the briefs that you take part in?
10. What’s one creative blog/publication you can’t do without?
If you could answer these just as openly as possible, the answers don’t need to be formal or anything at all! The whole idea is to get an insight into the what the industry is like through your eyes!
Thank you so much,
Callum O’Reilly
Callum O'Reilly
E-Mail Received:
Here you are mate
1. Do you have any common considerations you always reflect on when you take on a brief? Are any of these from an ethical beliefs point of view?
Working for an agency, I don't really have a say and what clients we do and don't work for. I would feel uncomfortable producing work for a company that I do not ethically agree with, so if it ever came to it i'd ask for another designer to work on that particular client. With most of our clients, you get to know what they do and don't want – so you kind of know what to expect with their briefs come in.
2. What do you believe are your strongest skills as a designer? Why?
My skills are always evolving. My strengths currently lie in InDesign, so design for print (brochure, poster, typesetting, layout etc), simply because this is what I do the most. I'm often called on for concept work, coming up with new ideas etc but I believe it's important to be multidisciplinary, so I always try to improve in areas where I lack confidence, like animation. A lot of clients these days expect graphic designers to be a jack of all trades so I’m always trying to widen my skills set.
3. Who is someone you collaborate with the most when completing a brief? E.g. copywriter, publisher etc.
At GRIN, our team of designers are collaborating with each other every day – everyone works on each others work, so everything we produce is a collaborative effort. This is great for combining skills and gaining new perspectives on your own work. Some of the best work we’ve made has been collaborative (theres also a slight aspect of competitiveness in it too which helps).
4. In your creative process, what stage do you spend most of your time on and why?
Well it depends on the type on brief, but lets just say the brief is coming up with new concepts, then it'd be typesetting. When I began as a designer I never fully realised how important typesetting is and how much difference it can actually make. I look back at some of my work now and cringe with horror at all the awful tracking and huge leading (not to mention the amount of widows). So yea, typesetting can really transform a document so I think it's important to work on this.
5. Who is your biggest influence in the creative industry?
At the moment, I’d say it’s my fellow work colleagues. My knowledge in web and animation has developed massively since joining GRIN. But outside of work, I’d say social media – I follow a lot of design-spiration blogs and accounts so I’m constantly flooded with interesting things. It also keeps me up to date with events and artists that are in and around the city at the time.
6. Have you ever worked on a project where you disagreed with a client’s feedback? How did you deal with it?
This happens frequently, you just get used to it and move on. Sometimes it’s good to push back if you really don’t agree with something, but sometimes it’s best to take the ‘customer is always right’ approach and give the client what they want, even if you necessarily don’t agree with it.
7. Do you feel moving away from the north, to a larger city, has helped in kickstarting your career?
Not necessarily, I think Leeds & Manchester have a more well known design scene than Birmingham does. But since I’ve come to Birmingham, the design scene has really started to hit off. We have the first ever Birmingham Design Festival starting this June with loads of events and speakers, and I’ve got to know all the major agencies and art communities around the city.
8. What was your path from studying to getting into the industry?
I was applying for internships at my favourite agencies in Leeds (like Thompson, GOLDEN & Elmwood) while completing my third year. I had an internship at GOLDEN lined up for when I finished my degree, and then at my end of year show I was scouted for a job at an agency called 2304. I was very lucky to get a job so quickly, I was working full time before I’d even graduated, but looking back at it now I kind of wish I pursued more of the internships as it would have been great to get an insight into some of those massive big-client agencies.
9. Do you feel like your personality and life, influences your design and the briefs that you take part in?
I suppose it sort of does? I’m a big supporter of equal rights and I’ve worked on a few briefs that are based around equality. When briefs come into GRIN, our account team do tend to give them to the people that they think suit them best.
10. What’s one creative blog/publication you can’t do without?
It’s Nice That? Fonts In Use? There are too many! I love it when I stumble across a new one, my most recent favourite being Trend List.
Best Regards,
Ryan Tallent
social: ryantallentdesign | phone: +447865 973 158
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