Taking the International Stage: Global Studios and Their Approaches for Working and Delivering Creative Strategies
Cannot believe we’re in the seventh week of this module already. I need to pick up speed again for sure. But anyway… This week’s theme is international studios and their approaches of how they make it work. I have to admit that for one of the case studies I had a tough time wrapping my head around the way they worked – which I will talk about who, how and why in a bit.
Interview with Kenjiro Kurton, HATO Studio
The first part of the lecture was a series of interviews, starting with Kenjiro Kenton from HATO studios. We already looked at this studio earlier on in this module and even in previous modules. In a previous lecture, the concept of Playtotyping was explained in detail, which I also mentioned in a previous blog post (read it here). The main topic for this interview was how HATO Studio came to be and looking into opening a third studio in the East after the success of the Hong Kong Studio.
A lot of interesting points were highlighted in the interview. In Kurton’s words, the main goal of HATO was to engage more with the community, and in order to achieve that one needs to work with the community in question, rather than for them, or at them. Which is why expanding to an international scale makes this goal more achievable. Through globalization, in terms of business as well as on an individual level, it allows exposure and exploration to diverse cultures, and through this learning curve, any project aimed to benefit any given community will be far better and more effective for various reasons. Kurton does point out that both studios – that in London and in Hong Kong – both have a similar structure in terms of how they handle a project, however the client base varies a lot, therefore some adjustments are required to cater for different clients and different cultures. When it comes to Hong Kong, Kurton makes an interesting remark that the culture is very much driven by ‘Instagram; – social media has a big influence on the people. In addition, the people in Hong Kong gave the impression that they are not into contemporary art as much as Europeans. I was surprised at this last comment to be fair…. That being said, in such cases, there is an even better challenge for any design team, as you need to make any given work more appealing to those who are not keen into creativity.
On a completely different note, Kurton makes an interesting point where he differentiates the consumer from an audience. He says that whilst you make a product for the consumer to buy, you have conversation with an audience. I found this description interesting, and it is quite sensible indeed. When it comes to audiences, it is more a question on an experience, and how the message is communicated to them. Design should indeed co-design and co-create, but with the target audience in mind.
Interview with New Studio
The second interview was with Rita Matos and Axel Poemeller from New Studio. New Studio is a designer collective spread across the world made up of a number of design studios. Both designers decided to go full-time on a freelance basis after not being able to keep up with their full-time jobs and freelance work as well. Matos is currently based in Portugal, whereas Poemeller is based in New York.
Poemeller was always a believer of collaborations. So New Studio was a bit of a dream coming true to an extent. He describes it how New Studio started off with his network of people, and keeps making reference to their partner Dimitris, who is based in Greece. He iterated that being an international studio makes the clientele more diverse, as they have projects coming in to their studios across the world. That being said, as the Studio is essentially working on a 24 basis -different offices in different time zones – getting feedback on a project can be a bit tricky. In order to minimise this problem, each designer involved in any particular project has a very specific role in it. In some case one of the partners would fly out to meet another one and get the project done in two weeks. It is not the first time Matos flew to New York to meet Poemeller regarding a project.
Both designers described the way how the studio grew and works as ‘organic’. Despite sounding very hip and inspiring, I had a bit of a tough time understanding how this studio functioned on a day-to-day basis. Firstly, the fact that since the offices are in different time zones, some form of catch-up sessions would be required. However, it was not mentioned. Similarly, when income was being discussed, the answers given were a bit vague in my opinion. I am not familiar with such a structure of a typical studio. Mind you, it could be the fact that I was always the ‘employee’, rather than an ‘employer, so I can only comment on one perspective. In addition, I currently work for a big company where it has a very structured hierarchy. That being said, I do believe that when companies reach a certain size and are growing at a fast pace, some form of structure is required. Streamlining some processes as well as having communication lines completely open is beneficial.
The Impact of Globalisation and Technology on Graphic Design Education
The second part of the lecture was a series of smaller interviews. The designers interviewed are the same designers I make references to in multiple posts. They were asked about how globalisation and advancements in technology can affect graphic design education, and what are the prospects for students undertaking a course such as this one – the MA in Graphic Design.
Starting off with Simon Manchipp from SomeOne, he is very much in favour of globalization and believes that it gives designers the opportunity to expose themselves to different cultures. In addition, thanks to major advancements in technology, prototyping and producing first drafts of a project has become a lot easier, making it easier for the designer to present ideas to the clients. Similarly, Sarah Boris speaks from personal experience. Although not a big fan of social media, it has helped her build a solid network of international contacts.
Julian House and Adrian Talbot from Intro talk about the advantages of remote learning. As resources are readily available around the clock, learning is only a few clicks away. A similar opinion is shared by Sam Winston. In addition, he concludes by describing the difference between ‘data’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’. The first is ones and zeros. It is chucks and chunks of material waiting to be processed. Information is the facts and figures about a particular topic. It can also be said that information is processed data. However, ‘knowledge’ is how one ‘embodies’ that information and make use of it to learn and put it to use.
It was a very interesting note to conclude a lecture. Living in a day and age where technology is a huge part of our lives (now more than ever) it is up to us to maximise its use to bring about positive change. As designers we are naturally creative, and thanks to technology, we are able to take our creativity to the next level. Just like what Walter Gropius did when he opened the Bauhaus School in 1919, he embraced the technologies of the time – the Industrial Revolution was in full swing – and used it to better his creative designs and teach aspiring designers to do the same.
