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Design Week
Inspired

  • Inspired

    30 June 2011

    Phil Dolman - Studio DB

  • Inspired

    23 June 2011

    Callum Lumsden - Lumsden

  • Inspired

    Thu, 16 Jun 2011

    Paul West: Imagination

  • Inspired

    9 June 2011

    Sallyanne Theodosiou - University for the Creative Arts

  • Inspired

    2 June 2011

    Robert Soar - Dragon Rouge

  • Inspired

    26 May 2011

    Joanne Shurvell - Payne Shurvell gallery

  • Inspired

    19 May 2011

    Neil Svensen - Rufus Leonard

  • Inspired

    12 May 2011

    Stuart Wood - Fitch

  • Inspired

    5 May 2011

    Mike Dempsey - Studio Dempsey

  • Inspired

    28 April 2011

    David Stock - SAS

  • Inspired

    21 April 2011

    Warren Hutchinson - Someone Else

  • Inspired

    14 April 2011

    Samuel Wilkinson - Samuel Wilkinson Design Studio

  • Inspired

    7 April 2011

    Sally Mackereth - Wells Mackereth Architects

  • Inspired

    31 March 2011

    David Badock - Him & Her

  • Inspired

    24 March 2011

    Richard Hart - Disturbance

  • Inspired

    17 March 2011

    Mark Major - Speirs & Major

  • Inspired

    10 March 2011

    Anthony Burrill - Graphic Designer

  • Inspired

    3 March 2011

    Johnathan Collins - The Grid

  • Inspired

    24 February 2011

    Nick Eagleton - The Partners

  • Inspired

    17 February 2011

    Emma Sexton - Added Value

  • Inspired

    10 February 2011

    Charlotte Newey - Artist Residence

  • Inspired

    3 February 2011

    James Good

  • Inspired - Tara Hanrahan, Think Do Studio

    27 January 2011

    A few months ago, while rifling through some boxes outside a junk shop, I stumbled upon an art catalogue from 1968. It included, among others, the early work of Justin Knowles.

  • Inspired

    20 January 2011

    Daniel Mason - Something Else

  • Inspired - Nicola McEwan, Zizzi

    13 January 2011

    In my role as design manager for Zizzi restaurants I’m always looking at what’s new in terms of interior design, product design, architecture and ceramics, and taking inspiration from all these things so that each of our new restaurants is different from the one before.

  • Inspired

    18 November 2010

    Henry Brook Digit

  • Inspired

    11 November 2010

    Dominic Wilcox - Independent designer

  • Inspired - Simon Adamson

    27 October 2010

    I have always been fascinated by Tokyo. As a young lad, my intrigue and excitement about the place came from watching programmes that featured robots and boys’ toys and thinking ’wow’.

  • Inspired - Paul Dean

    20 October 2010

    In 1982, obsessed with music and graphics I went to college with a head full of Jamie Reid, Malcolm Garrett and Peter Saville. In 1983 something happened. The Cocteau Twins released Head Over Heels, with a sleeve by 23 Envelope.

  • Inspired - Bob Chan

    14 October 2010

    Working within a medium that’s constrained by time, I guess my greatest source of inspiration comes from the constant pursuit of flow. Recognising moments where individuals have perfected flow excites me the most.

  • Inspired - Renee Rosen-Wakeford

    7 October 2010

    I studied violin from the age of five, using the Suzuki method which emphases ear-training over reading music and has a large amount of Baroque music in its repertoire. Both of these things have had a great influence on me creatively.

  • Inspired - Katherine Skellon

    30 September 2010

    As a spatial designer working within the museum sector, my work has its own in-built inspiration in the objects and spaces museums bring to us.

  • Inspired - Steve Price

    23 September 2010

    Simple things like sunshine. There is nothing better than a clear morning with the sun beating down. Travel helps broaden the mind (and get a suntan). Culture, music, food, the arts and writing can all help one be more aware and accepting.

  • Inspired

    16 September 2010

    Being a huge believer that car design leads the way for other designers to follow in terms of form and style, I often keep track of concepts unveiled at motor shows.

  • Inspired - Mark Gabbertas

    9 September 2010

    It can be pertinent for designers to put into perspective all our huffings and puffings in the earnest striving to do something better than what has gone before, and be reminded that nature has already been there.

  • Inspired: Jesse Boyce - Lethal

    2 September 2010

    Not everyone loves a rubber stamp, but I’m hooked - there’s no better way to set foot on new soil than with a freshly inked passport. It sets the scene for what’s to come and sparks the inspiration.

  • Inspired: Lee Bennett - Propaganda

    26 August 2010

    I can trace one of my earliest inspirations all the way back to my childhood. Although it’s something I greatly admire now, it scared the living daylights out of me at the time. I watched this particular film title sequence repeatedly, not because as a ten-year old I loved the typography and animation. No. It was because I found its eeriness so haunting that it scared me from watching the film itself.

  • Inspired: Jonathan Butters - Butters Innovation

    19 August 2010

    For me, inspiration comes from many sources. What makes inspiration useful is the process that enables human creativity to be focused and directed towards an end goal when there is no road map or prior knowledge.

  • Inspired: Oded Ezer

    12 August 2010

    Oded Ezer Typography

  • Inspired: Dean Johnson - Brandwidth

    5 August 2010

    Ask a bunch of students what interactive design is all about and more often than not, the answer will be ’digital, Web, mobile stuff’. However, bringing it back to basics, it is about creating moments to interact with the world around us, in its digital, human and physical form.

  • Inspired: Andrew and Iain Foxall - Foxall Associates

    29 July 2010

    Feeding the inspiration bank is key, and the broader the inspirations, the more unique our work becomes.

  • Inspired: Fiona Burnett - Tsuko

    22 July 2010

    Having spent much of my school years in the art department, not on the hockey pitch, I’d never seen myself as particularly sporty. However, on joining Nike for my first job in 1997, I was exposed to the gloriously indulgent and exciting visual experimentation and opportunities afforded by the expression of sport through design.

  • Inspired: Steven Ramsay - Baigent Digital

    15 July 2010

    It’s not often you come across something in your creative work that really cuts to the bone.

  • Inspired: Marc Atkinson - Marc & Anna

    8 July 2010

    At the age of 14 I was given this Letraset catalogue, circa 1980, by my dad. Until the age of 17 this was my favourite book - I would leaf through, studying fonts for hours, drawing those that appealed to me most. I was a geek of the highest order, fascinated by typography long before I knew what it was, and this was my bible.

  • Inspired: Ian Watson - Manchester City Football Club

    1 July 2010

    There’s only one person that I can rely on to always kickstart the ideas process: the legendary David Bowie.

  • Inspired: Tommy Taylor - Alphabetical

    24 June 2010

    I find change inspiring. I find that change can add refreshing vigour to my mind both creatively and emotionally.

  • Inspired: Cathy Stuart - Victoria & Albert Museum

    17 June 2010

    It’s always satisfying when things come full circle, especially when you least expect it. Graphics and text are, of course, intrinsically related. A beautifully set piece of type can have all the aesthetic kick of a painting, and a clever and witty font just the same appeal as a dynamic illustration.

  • Inspired: Ben Christie Magpie Studio

    10 June 2010

    The modern world is full of inspirational design, but it’s often the weaker stuff that gets me going.

  • Inspired: Stuart Price - Thoughtful

    3 June 2010

    For me, the D&AD’s Black Pencil award simply radiates inspiration.

  • Inspired: Benji Wiedemann - A&B Studio

    27 May 2010

    Being a creature of habit, I enjoy nothing more than living my life to the beat of a stuck record: same walk to work, same lunch, same rituals, same routines - especially the realisation when things around me start to synchronise.

  • Inspired

    20 May 2010

    Jean-Michel Basquiat, who turned up to private views in the paint-splattered £700 Armani suits he painted in, and Keith Haring both showed a relentless creative energy and unselfconsciousness.

  • Inspired: Zoë Bather - Studio 8 Design

    13 May 2010

    I first saw Stanley Spencer’s Shipbuilding on the Clyde series in London’s Imperial War Museum.

  • Inspired: Mickey Stretton - Utile & Beau

    6 May 2010

    What’s not to love about Richard Buckminster Fuller? OK, his habit of wearing three watches may not have caught on, and his penchant for white suits may not be to everyone’s taste, but who can’t identify with someone who makes up words to describe exactly what he means?

  • Inspired: James Hurst - Higginson Hurst

    29 April 2010

    The thrill of living and working in a really big city: London. I really love it.

  • Inspired: Ian Hambleton - Studio Output

    22 April 2010

    It’s probably not the best thing to say, but I don’t get out anywhere near enough. Certainly not to take in everything I need too, to filter the world and its culture, to seek out inspiration and new things.

  • Inspired: Tin Brown - Landor Associates

    15 April 2010

    A £3.50 return ticket for a seven-minute train ride to oblivion, the end of the world’s longest pleasure pier, tons of Victorian iron jutting out into a muddy estuary, where the blast of black air from a fog horn blowing up Aunt Daphne’s dress awaits.

  • Inspired - Peter Christian Kingston University

    08 April 2010

    A few early experiences and personalities helped shape my design direction.

  • Inspired: Glenn Tutssel The Brand Union

    01 April 2010

    Designers love to cook and I remember seeing a chef prepare cauliflower, courgettes, runner beans, small pickling onions, garlic, tumeric, coriander and ginger to make piccalilli. The ingredients would be boiled, left to cool and put into storage jars. Months later the piccalilli would be transferred to posh ’serving’ containers.

  • Inspired - John Speight

    25 March 2010

    It’s a tricky question, inspiration. It’s like being asked what your favourite film is - it’s always changing and definitely unexpected. Which brings me to change itself. How things constantly change and evolve, especially today.

  • Inspired: Steve Smith - Beakus

    18 March 2010

    The technology behind, or often at the front of, visual expression inspires me.

  • Inspired - Lee Bradley B&W Studio

    11 March 2010

    My dad’s sketches from Carbis Bay beach overlooking St Ives. Completing my 1978 Panini Football Album. Collecting Airfix kit dry transfers and building Tamiya warships. Latvian Lem at Jacob Kramer College for teaching us how to draw nude women. Colorplan colours. Nick Jenkins and his smoking and drinking habits (hope you’re still around). Uppercase typography from the Experience book by Sean Perkins. Wearing paisley shirts with Farah trousers, and Kappa jumpers with Adidas tracksuit ...

  • Inspired - Katie Scott - Illustrator

    04 March 2010

    I stumbled upon Jean Painlevé in the library of the University of the Arts London some three years ago. I must have borrowed the selected works DVD about ten times before becoming the proud owner of a copy late last year - so now one of my greatest sources of inspiration is here at my fingertips.

  • Inspired - Phil Jones Wired Sussex

    25 February 2010

    As author Nigel Richardson says, ’How did England ever produce a town with the fizz and craziness of Brighton? It is a marvellous mystery - like a family of duffers producing a babe of Mozartian genius.’ Situated on the edge of the country, both geographically and spiritually, the good burghers of Brighton provide a daily dose of inspirational stimulation.

  • Inspired - Lizzie Mary Cullen

    18 February 2010

    What I love about the UK is that around every corner there’s a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. Whether you’re lost or you’ve gone exploring to find that secret treasure, chances are you won’t be disappointed.

  • Inspired - Nick Bedford Wonderland WPA

    11 February 2010

    The most important thing about inspiration is to never go looking for it. It has a habit of finding you. But if I’m in need of a fix, I go shopping.

  • Inspired - Louisa Pacifico

    04 February 2010

    We all need an injection of inspiration from time to time, and my daily fix is www.ffffound.com.

  • Inspired - Martyn Cummins Alberto-Culver UK

    28 January 2010

    We work in an industry where people don’t really understand what we do, and so we aren’t always valued - sometimes that drains the life out of us. Once I said to my mum I used Photoshop and she thought I went to Boots everyday…

  • Inspired - Steven Blaess, Blaess

    21 January 2010

    The infinity symbol represented as a three-dimensional form was the original inspiration behind the Marli series of products I designed for Alessi.

  • Inspired - Helder Pombinho, Brandia Central

    14 January 2010

    When communicating something, there are two simple questions we, as a consultancy, need to consider - what’s interesting in what we’re saying, and what’s the most interesting way to say it?

  • Inspired - Glenn Harrison

    07 January 2010

    Like most creatives, I’m sure, I find inspiration an unpredictable bedfellow. It comes in many forms - art, music, literature, film, design - yet it can still prove elusive. Typically, given a tough brief and a short deadline it is nowhere to be found. Two hours after the deadline it appears everywhere you look. Such is the nature of inspiration.

  • Inspired - Sasha Vidakovic

    17 December 2009

    The following inspired me to design these climate change posters:

  • Inspired - Chris Walmsley

    10 December 2009

    Bikes have been mentioned in this column before, but for me, the bike I’m currently riding is special, and my inspiration.I’ve heard it said that cycling is the most efficient form of human-powered transport. That’s some pretty high design kudos right there, yet for the past 100 years, bike design has not moved on much.Until now.One of the things I love about being a designer is approaching a problem from a fresh angle, and creating something both ...

  • Inspired - Niall McRiner

    03 December 2009

    However hard I tried to think of something cool and unusual as my inspiration, I couldn’t ignore my architect father’s influence. From day one, he proudly instructed me to hold my pencil correctly and to respect it. That may not be a priority when nurturing a toddler, but I’m glad he thought it was.My wonder escalated at a ferocious pace - watching his liberal sketching style, his enviable chiselled handwriting and the sharpening of a pencil with a knife. Over the years ...

  • Inspired - Jocelyn Bailey

    26 November 2009

    There is little that I don’t find interesting, and London is rich in material, so answering the question ‘what inspires me’ produced a rather long list. Here’s the shortlist:Books. Especially, but not only, fiction. To fuel my addiction I’ve started a book club with other secret bookworms where we can indulge our geekery without fear of persecution.My job, sometimes. Working for the Associate Parliamentary Group for Design and Innovation has opened up a world of ...

  • Inspired - Philip Handford

    19 November 2009

    Inspiration for me comes from personal relationships - I enjoy exploring ideas with creative people who have enthusiasm, understand and appreciate the complexity of the context, and have fun doing it.People are my inspiration - and no one more so than Christopher Bailey. He has been called England’s Tom Ford, and at 38 he is creative director of Burberry, quite an unbelievable position to hold for someone of his age. Yet he is still totally down to earth and a lot of fun ...

  • Inspired - Daniel Mitchell

    12 November 2009

    Inspiration to me is a designer’s breakfast. It’s an essential starting block, and it gives everything more clarity.Inspiration is a rite of passage for many projects, informing how they will pan out. It comes in many shapes and forms, and it’s only when you realise what those mean that you can use them.The value of an object, picture, place or event can only be defined by someone’s involvement with it - to some, it’s the seed of an idea, but to others it’s nothing.

  • Inspired - Nikki Nechvoglod

    05 November 2009

    That ‘scared feeling’. There’s a lot to be said for fear. The gut feeling when you’re doing something new and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone - you’re terrified of failing, but you know you might succeed.Don’t get me wrong. Contentment and satisfaction are comforting, but they’re nothing compared to the motivation and inspiration that come with utter panic.I’ve felt it when I snowboarded down a near-vertical mountain in Canada, when I arrived at London ...

  • Inspired - Paul Mullins

    29 October 2009

    Lance Armstrong, cycling legend, at 25 ranked number one in the world. He is diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer and given a less than 50 per cent chance of survival. He beats it, coming back even stronger, going on to win the Tour de France a record seven times. This is an amazing feat for anyone and quite incredible for someone who was scheduled to ‘check out’ three years earlier. I’ve just rediscovered the challenges, joys and pain of road cycling, and you can’t help ...

  • Inspired - Ruth Galloway

    22 October 2009

    Inspiration? Manchester, white wine, the madness of India, Tracy Emin, travelling by train, Paul Madonna, limited-edition Coca-Cola bottles, stylebubble.typepad.com, late nights, Liberty department store, swimming outdoors, Jeff Koons, London at dawn, Vogue in my postbox, weird fonts, the grime of the East End, sitting on the floor in a bookshop, Vyner Street, crossing the Thames, the Sunday Times Style Magazine, Barbara Kruger, The Turner Prize, peeling layers of paint, supermarket ...

  • Inspired - Kate Dawkins

    15 October 2009

    I have a passion for puzzles, tangrams and wooden geometric shapes that create beautiful mosaic patterns or physical structures. My favourite and most enjoyable are the visually engaging Swiss Naef toys, originally designed in the mid 20th century by Kurt Naef.For those who have never come across these objects, they are sculptural, abstract, physically stunning, perfectly hand-crafted wooden toys, designed to encourage creativity through play and interaction. However, these ...

  • Inspired - Nick Stickland

    08 October 2009

    Inspiration comes from within. We all need external stimuli, of course. I learned that at the feet of Richard Rogers and Eva Jiricna. But the creative inspiration of design - of the built environment, of an exquisite interior, of a vacuum cleaner - comes from within. Here, then, is one from the heart.Kodak’s picture-slide wheel, the Carousel, is more than four decades old. It has nothing to do with our relatively young creative design and ad agency Odd. We didn’t design ...

  • Inspired - Ben Stott

    01 October 2009

    A fat black pen, found, my children’s scribbles, a 1960s bookstall ‘find’, the temporary sculpture I just walked past, a coat hanger, Futurism at Tate Modern - for me these things add up to nothing without the time and space to interpret them into ideas.Cycling across London may not sound like the best place to think, but, believe it or not, this is when my mind has licence to wander, flicking through endless subconscious references without my permissionOf course, ...

  • Inspired, Barney Rodgers, Bureaux

    17 September

    When and where does inspiration come from? Is it a colour, a thought, a person, a sound, or probably all of these things combined?For me, it was all about being at the right place at the right time - specifically, the late 1970s at a club called Eric’s. This was a music club in Mathew Street, Liverpool, and became one of the top Punk venues in the country.

  • Inspired: David Martin, M Worldwide

    10 September 2009

    As a student at the Royal College of Art I lived in Greenwich in south-east London and happened across the most original lunacy - a Sunday night comedy show called Vic Reeves Big Night Out at the Albany Empire in nearby Deptford. Vic and Bob [Mortimer] are back on TV with a new series of Shooting Stars - 15 years since the show first aired in 1993. Apart from the odd Christmas special, it’s all been quiet from them in the past few years. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to watch it - perhaps ...

  • Inspired - Zahira Asmal

    03rd September 2009

    Age. Old things marked by time, yet still sturdy. Old people and the stories they have to share with us. Old cities steeped in history with their fine networks created, over time, for convenience and communication. Narrow, winding, cobbled streets carrying whispers from past generations and a smörgåsbord of smells. An unhurried reflection of a moment in time can be a revelation.Ageing takes time, in the sense that it takes time to age, as well as the aged ...

  • Inspired - Keshi Bouri

    27th August 2009

    I’m a hoarder. There, I’ve said it. I have a very hard time throwing things away. I think I inherited it from my mum or nan. Their houses were like Aladdin’s cave, full of interesting things to discover.I’ve always loved ‘stuff’. Whether it’s old magazines, advertising, concert ticket stubs, travel cards, flight boarding cards, stickers, photographs, random bits of typography, shells and fossils from the beach or name badges from events, I keep it all. These items are like ...

  • Inspired - Jason Holland

    20th August 2009

    My source for inspiration has changed many times during the past 15 years of designing for digital, but I make sure the sources are not just in pixel form. All things pre-screen and retro fascinate me, especially when combined with ‘modern’ methods (my current favourite example being the typographic posters from Official Classic - The Sport of the Kings and I Love Techno pictured here), and interactive thinking (how new behaviour can be used with old imagery).One thing has ...

  • Inspired

    13th August 2009

    You can often tell a lot about a country by simply walking around, browsing and observing the social interactions of the small market stalls that sprout up outside those corporate organisations that sell the latest consumer goods.A memorable trip to Akihabara electronic district in Tokyo last February springs to mind. These individual electronic components, displayed alongside new and old products, gave me such delight, and made me think of possibilities for our built environment. ...

  • Inspired - Simon Massey

    06th August 2009

    Years ago, as a student, I found art history to be a very useful lecture for catching up on the sleep I so desperately needed to support my social life.All that changed when we moved on to the ‘modern era’ of the Bauhaus. The aesthetics and design sensibility of the Bauhaus was extremely appealing, from the ‘essential for modern living’ chairs by Marcel Breuer to the stark, yet grand, forward-looking architecture of Mies van der Rohe.I was fascinated by the fact ...

  • Inspired - Mark Elwood

    30th July 2009

    The most interesting part of my job is collaborating with talented people.Those people might be the design team I work with, or some of the other great minds at Fallon.But sometimes you get really lucky, and you get to work with someone you greatly admire from a different field. Perhaps a great photographer, director or illustrator. Or, as in this case, the fine artist Jim Lambie.We are currently working with Jim on the new membership pack for the ...

  • Inspired - Guy Smith

    23rd July 2009

    We all know what it’s like. You’re in a store, weighing up a purchase, trying to find that something that will convince you it’s worth parting with your hard-earned. All the more frustrating when a key part of the equation is missing and you discover that the staff simply don’t know their product.As retail designers we are used to managing this process, presenting the information consumers want in a way that they will enjoy. So imagine my delight when I found myself chatting ...

  • Inspired - David Sudlow

    16th July 2009

    The mind has a way of controlling memory, and I find that it is early memories that reveal themselves as significant influences on, and inspiration in, later life.

  • Inspired - Steven Anderson

    09th July 2009

    It’s official, I’m an ‘iPhone geek’ (as my nine-year-old son embarrassingly jeered at me last week). This was confirmed again this week when I was reprimanded by the rest of the team here in a management meeting for taking us completely off our new business discussion and on to my latest favourite iPhone app.

  • Inspired - Emma Atkinson

    02 July 2009

    Clifford D Field was David Ogilvy’s chief copywriter in the first Ogilvy & Mather New York office, and writer of some of the most elegant advertising of its time.

  • Inspired, Jo Kotas - Bunch

    Thu, 18 Jun 2009

    The recession. I’m beginning to think it’s not all bad. People have started talking to each other. And it’s not just storytelling or entertaining, it’s genuine conversation. We want to know how others are surviving and faring. And the lovely thing is that people are sharing their knowledge.

  • Inspired - Brendan Thorpe, Springetts

    11 June 2009

    Given the chance to write 200 words or so on what I find inspiring seemed like too good a chance to miss. Then there was the problem - the deadline. It should focus the mind, but did it? Not really.

  • Inspired, Viv Wilcock - The Team

    04 June 2009

    Picture the scene: you’re on your 15th car bodyfiller package redesign, then, in a moment of inspiration, you go and put a lion on one, a leaping lion. Brilliant. That will change the face of bodyfiller packaging forever, thinks you, and it does. The next day you’re moved off bodyfiller to work on a bed linen catalogue.

  • Inspired, Patrick Volavka - Let My People Play

    28 May 2009

    The release of the film Beat Street (1984), featuring New York hip-hop culture, is what inspired me to be a graphic designer. Along with the earlier film Wild Style (1983), it was the beginning of a new counter-culture back in the late 1980s, which combined many artistic forms - from graffiti and DJing through to music and lifestyle - all of which are still very relevant and even mainstream in today’s culture.

  • Inspired: Richard Sunderland - Heavenly Group

    21 May 2009

    It might be something to do with starting out in the world of newspapers, but the habit of scanning for relevant ads and articles means that I can’t read one these days without a ruler in my hand to chop them up and pass them round. For me, newsprint still rules. The digital age is just going to have to wait.

  • Inspired, David Tonge: The Division

    14 May 2009

    At art school we are encouraged to find our own way of seeing life.

  • Inspired, Jonathan Silver: Silver & co

    23 April 2009

    ‘Imagine … It’s easy if you try’. Could there ever be a better creed for a designer than this mesmerising phrase from John Lennon’s extraordinarily powerful and timeless plea for peace, written way back in 1971?For me, great design results from the opportunity to imagine - with freedom from restrictions, from the constraints of everyday life, from regulations, from costs, from programme and from all the things that we face every day in the design industry. However complex ...

  • Inspired, Nicolas Tye: Nicolas Tye Architects

    16 April 2009

    The opportunity to design your own architectural office in the middle of a field is the kind of chance that does not come along very often, even for an architect, but we took this opportunity and made it an award-winning piece. As you study the building you can’t help but realise where the architecture is coming from, investigating the ideologies of ‘cabins’, ‘huts’, ‘camps’ and ‘nature-inspired design’.The Long Barn Studio is simplicity itself - an elegant glass rectilinear ...

  • Inspired: Mark McArthur-Christie: Freeman Christie

    9 April 2009

    You find inspiration in the strangest places. This, though, is the first time I’ve found it in a car park in the middle of Oxford.Take a look at the original sign. More than 400 words in reversed-out, close-packed type, it is so confusing that it took more than half an hour to read and understand. At night the colour scheme made it almost impossible to decipher. It was so bad that local tramps were earning a few coins explaining to people how it all works.We ...

  • Inspired, David Bicknell: Echo Brand Design

    2 April 2009

    In my youth I was entranced with W Heath Robinson’s fantastic gadgets - not only with the absurdity and complexity of his devices, but with the compelling nature of his illustrations which forced my mind to follow and delight in their workings. Powered by bald, bespectacled gentlemen, forces were ingeniously transmitted through complex pulley arrangements and threads of knotted string to eventually perform quite simple, mundane tasks.Years later, while working on dispensing ...

  • Inspired

    26 March 2009

    It’s when things appear to be going wrong or I’ve made a mistake that I become most aware of a visit from inspiration. Because everything now becomes ‘off plan’, your antennae are sharper and you are more awake. You need to find a new way through.The other day I was interviewing for a new au pair and misplanned the times, which resulted in two arriving at the same time.It was a mistake that made me uneasy until I realised that by witnessing the two of them engage ...

  • Inspired - David Worthington: Media Square

    19 March 2009

    When asked to write this some time back, my instinct was to highlight the inspiration of my school and college tutors. Since then, I’ve watched other contributors select all manner of wonderful things. By comparison, my inspiration felt almost lame and self-indulgent.However, I was nagged by the idea that the older you get, the more you appreciate the inspiration that people provide rather than the objects they create.And then I came across Ruth Artmonsky’s book ...

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