For one of our tasks, we have to email a piece of graphic design to the designer Ian Anderson. We have to create this work with our partner who we created a manifesto with.
I'm going to do some individual research into the kind of designer he is, as we have to design something that he will want to keep forever.
http://www.madenorth.co.uk/ian-anderson-the-designers-republic/
From my perspective, because I didn’t study design, just doing creative things interests me – why wouldn’t a designer co-curate and architectural biennale?
It’s design in the bigger sense. The terminology of designer – to me there’s that sense is design equated to French dessiner/to draw – or design as in terms of designs for life or grand designs. For me it’s grand designs and the idea behind it. It’s about ‘I’ve done this by design, for a reason’.
Collaboration changes the nature of what you put in and also changes the nature of what you need to satisfy. For me working on either a book design or the EXD Lisbon Biennale there’s not a great difference in thought or work process.
With the problems TDR went through in 2009, what’s your advice to other designers?IA. You can turn around everything I’ve just said and say that’s why you went out of business. All the cliches about being true to yourself and not growing too quickly; there’s a whole sense of ‘be careful what you wish for’. When we first started working with Coke in Atlanta they said be careful, what you’ve got is quite special which is why we’ve come to you but by doing this work with us you could go and shake the money tree. If every job you have is worth £100k – £200k you only need two of these to go and there’s a big hole left. It’s relatively easy to get a £2k – £5k job to replace a £5k one that goes. You can’t just go and say we need a couple of £100k jobs by end of the month – you need to cultivate the clients.
There was a clear tension in what I wanted to do creatively – I was told “The problem you have running a business is that you’re just not interested in money”. I feigned I was – you want to make money but it doesn’t drive you.
If you have a business employing 20 people your motivation has to be profit and money at the expense of creativity. Is that advice or exorcism?
What are you working on right now?IA. We’ve got quite a few exhibitions coming up this year. Also some TDR book projects that we’re working on. One of the things we’re doing is returning to a working process where we’re funnelling our creativity into commercial clients which always used to benefit the clients – the right kind of clients. The right kind of client is anyone who will say we can see the value of working with you let’s celebrate what you do and help you do it for our benefit. That takes a certain kind of person and client. It’s worked for some of the biggest brands in the world.
Who or what inspires you?
IA. It’s difficult to answer that question as I don’t really know – I can say I like that piece of design or that style but there’s a low boredom threshold so that will change. Inspiration can come from anywhere, travelling on a train, watching a film – you just have to allow connections and ideas to form. There’s things that over 25 years keep coming back – like immediacy of communication, rawness of communication.
