Inspired

Bob Gill has been an inspiration for me since art school, when I first read his book Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design. I didn’t have to get past the cover to realise this was an epiphany career moment. Now it gives me great pleasure to see my original copy still being thumbed through by graduate designers at Pearlfisher. It gave me even greater pleasure to finally meet the man and hear him in characteristic form at the recent D&AD Congress Fletcher/Forbes/Gill talk.

What I find fabulous in people like Bob is their fearlessness and hunger for an original idea, which forces you to think again or see something in a new light. Bob’s evident strength of conviction and simplicity of expression is a poignant reminder that investing in ideas, quality of thinking and design, is intrinsically linked to success.

Which is why designing for a unique company like Waitrose is great: people who understand that by commissioning rule-breaking design, they can change perceptions or underline simple basic truths in an honest and desirable way.

Jonathan Ford – PearlFisher