FormFiftyFive™

We were lucky to attend Typo12 London, watching some of the big names in our industry present to an audience of designers and students on the loose theme of ‘Social’. Among the 30+ speakers packed into two days, were A Practice for Everyday Life (APFEL), book designer Irma Boom, illustrator/designer/film-maker Kate Moross, Henrik Kubel of A2/SW/HK and my personal design hero Vaughan Oliver. Overall it was insightful, humbling, though-provoking and humorous. We will be posting more detailed write-ups on some of these great talks in the coming days, for those who didn’t make it to the conference. But in the mean time, there were some common conceptual themes that emerged across the board, including:

• Being obsessed by what you do
• The usefulness of knowing what’s gone before, and access to this knowledge
• Social & cultural roles/responsibilities of the designer
• Having the courage of your convictions
• Serendipity, the importance of collaboration and building relationships, and having a strong support network
• Being able to let your work go
• The impact of the social and cultural climate in which you grow up
• The studio as a safe place in which to play and the value of embracing failure
• Connecting with content.

Plus some aesthetic trends, some of which you may have already noted:

• DIY
• Data as image
• The rise of Riso.

Look out for further posts on Typo12 very soon.