As a ‘good’ designer yourself it seems niave of you, not Alan, to have thought a full scale solo Olympic project would be feasible in the time scale of a third year with multiple projects in hand.

Generally rubbish and unhelpful criticism – the arrogance astounds me! Were you not once ‘another young designer’ yourself? Off the cuff remarks with no attempt of an explanation.

Look beyond the surface? Nice sign off.

Unbelievable! No wonder people loose faith in the industry when thats what we have to look up to. SHAMEFUL.

I see after the placement I did with you last summer, and your advice to explore using more colour and shapes in my design solutions has paid of.

The posters were only part of a much larger body of work, including way finding and pictogram designs, which I have not published. They were the result of my exploration and interest into communicating to an international audience. Not me trying to please a design audience.

I agree some of my projects may be a little naive, in the sense of appealing to a certain audience. But have been more of a result of my research, into learning how to use type, image, colour and form to convey a message (during my time as a student).

To complete a whole project like the Olympics, I thought it would take a team of designers several years to complete? Am I expected to have done all this?
I would love to get involved in working on an Olympic job…

I had a really good time on placement last year with you, I would have hoped you would have liked my folio more, sorry to disappoint.

Alan

Sure the posters look pretty, have some little ideas in them but the whole it\\\’s just wallpaper. I\\\’d be more excited if I could see how the graphic treatment could be developed to signage, ticketing, leaflets, ads etc so I can see he\\\’s really tried to understand what would be required from such a project campaign.

I think Alan will probably do quite well but my question will always be, does he really understand what it is to be a \’good\’ graphic designer.

Look below the surface people.

Gui’s right you are referencing out your arses people.

also I would love to see in which aspect you would compare these to Otl’s work. is it the colours? the type? what?
colours aside i see no resemblance.

it’s kind of like saying every book on grid is a Muller-Brockmann rip off //

I was hoping they would not be reminiscent of the Otl Aicher designs. I tried to focus on the equipment used and it’s movement with the sports. Apart from the diving where I was influenced by Japanese optical art.

The main focus of the designs was to propose a visual way-finding system for the London Underground. It would have helped people associate tube stops to where they could be viewed. Is this a good idea?

I think Aicher’s design’s were just focusing on the Olympic sports and the athletes themselves, rather than locations? Saying that I suppose you can’t easily get away from being inspired by his work.

Alan

I guess when you see a set of posters including Sailing and Cycling and Fencing you naturally make that leap – but I think Alan’s work is a lot more ‘graphic’.

I like Alan’s portfolio very much, and ironically, it reminds me more of Mick Dean’s work over at Various Creative.

I’ll just repeat myself, I don’t feel they are that different from Otl Aichers work.

I’m not saying I dislike the work Alan Clarke has done but for me personally I find it uninspiring. I’m not saying that a piece of design needs to be processed through photoshop either. Consideration for all aspects of a project need to be taken into account and I can’t see why Alan chose to go down the route he has, apart from the fact they reference Aicher like a sore thumb. I don’t feel it speaks London today or indeed the Olympics…