Ey Up Me Duk! (yes the typo is intentional).

I don't want to spark some etymology turf war regarding the saying but as I hail from the county of Derbyshire (now living in Yorkshire – sorry mum) it's something everyone said whilst I was growing up. But it's commonly used across the midlands, I do believe. 

Forgive my tangent, I speak this way and also think/type like this, so it felt only natural to include my brains side quests whilst communicating (ADHD for the win). It's only fitting as this post is an introduction to myself. 

I have been a graphic designer as my occupation since 2009 after graduating from University. It was a tough year to enter the job market due to the International Finical Crisis at the time. But despite bumps along the road I have thankfully remained as a graphic designer ever since. I am thankful that I am able to earn a living and support my family whilst working in a role that is aligned to my passions of design and creativity. 

Although my job title is 'graphic designer', I've always been uneasy with labels or specific roles. Even when the title was called 'commercial artist', it's always been a multi-faceted job which require skills and talents that pull from a range of disciplines including drawing/illustration, composition, art direction, photography, typography, layout, brand identity and the list goes on.

I think of myself as a creative person that doesn't have one place to park my ideas on. I have many avenues ahead of me. Graphic design just enables me to earn a living whilst satisfying the majority of my creative interests. But not all of them. It's important to note that not all of them need to bring in revenue, the pursuit and practice is enough.

I love to write, to express visually, to draw, printmake, to create art. I think and express visually far greater than any other form of communication. It's also a much fuller experience for me and of me.

Below I'll go into more detail of some of the areas I am particularly interested in, some of my work experience and some personal annotation of the journey thus far.

Typography
When I first opened the book 'the art of looking sideways' by Alan fletcher (which is a true creative treasure trove) and came across a quote from Steve Byers "Typography is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters". I was puzzled for a moment but it was one of many encounters with typography that drew me further into a deeper appreciation of the discipline. As designers we need a lot of knowledge and understanding of type and since it's such an integral part of visual communication you'd be a fool to not spend time refining your skills in this subject. Digital typography and it's many application offers up new and fascinating challenges to solve in addition to print.

As someone with a stammer, I was drawn more to typography than most purely because it was easier to express and communicate with the written word than it was verbally for me (I had very successful speech therapy in my 20s and now I struggle to shut up, so you have my speech therapists to thank for that). It allowed more nuance for me, plus less chance of being misunderstood. I even created a typeface called Yatagan which had this strange counter-space embedded it that created a flowing ligature and also broke that flow, thus expressing my stammer and disrupted speech through typography.

What a wonderful endless playground typography is.

Composition
An early project in my National Diploma in graphic design led to being fascinated with layout and composition. We were of an age where the mac was the end part of the process of design. We used A2 layout paper and had desks that you could raise the angle of 'inyourface', a technical term for as upright as possible. I loved this time of exploration and really took advantage of the time and resources on offer. Sharp angles and Bauhaus inspired arrangements mixed with early 00s grungey, skater, punk culture and street art was my bag. An odd bag.

Back then the pinnacle of graphic design craft seemed to be the album cover and magazines, nowadays it's a fixie bike, or a coffee brand. David Carson and James Victore were big personalities that influenced my approach back then. That was before 'branding became a big thing'.


Brand
Creativity, in large is solving a problem, that's what's happening in your brain essentially. You have a brief - the problem and your ideas and work become the solution. Brand at least the visual identity part is a big juicy problem that I really only got exposed to whilst freelancing at agencies. It was intense work but really made my brain come a live. You're mixing, strategy, marketing, illustration, typography, and art direction of photography and other brand applications. It was so rewarding. I've been fortunate enough to create visual identities for everything from churches, to government companies, health programmes, retail brands, SEN equipment suppliers, tech companies and once I even branded a choir. Although my ADHD was late diagnosed it all makes sense now looking back on the variety of my work and ability to focus and research brands no matter the sector.

I'm super proud of all of the projects I've been involved in over the years and I use this to further sharpen my tools going forward. Always looking to improve and refine the process.


Illustration
I was never great a drawing, my mind often created the visual so vivid it would take me years to hone my skill to get even a smidge closer to how I'd pictured it. But mark making, collage, textures and layering images up seemed to really work for me. When I interned at Dust Collective, they were huge on that and it influenced my approach going forward. The idea of illustration being more than a drawing seemed really novel and new to me. I've developed it over the years and it bring freedom to my practice but I can't say I'm a natural at it. But the beauty of a practice is that it's constant, never ending. you always have time to improve.


Me
Life has to be part of the mix too. I can't compartmentalise this. My creativity is part of my identity and I've always wanted to pursue work that I'm passionate about which gives me meaning and purpose. I love to help others and contribute positivley to the world around me using my skills and stengths. What a blessed life to lead. I'd rather being doing this even though at times it can be very frustrating and unpredictable – especially with any disruption AI might bring for my industry in the future.

Bringing your weirdness into your work as James Victore would put it, really is more valuable than you think. Although there will always be an element of objectivity involved in design, there always has to be room for you. The unique way that you see the world. I always capture things around me that inspire me like colour, shadows, type, posters, textures or whatever randomness you find whilst being out 'n' about. It fuels the furnace.

So if you've made it down this far, firstly thank you for reading what I have to say. Secondly, I hope it helps you or interests you in some way that keeps the creative lights on for you because it can be hard to sustain it over a long time. Thirdly (soz for the waffling), I hope you've learnt a bit about me and why I do what I do, so don't be a stranger reach out, or follow me on instagram, I'd love to hear form you.

Christopher Goodwin Graphic designer