Designers pan Liverpool 08 for ‘bypassing’
Liverpool design consultancies are criticising the organisers of the city’s year as European Captial of Culture for ‘bypassing’ them.
‘The programming process has bypassed the design sector in Liverpool – there is no frame – work for us to fit into,’ Smiling Wolf managing director Simon Rhodes tells Design Week.
‘The Capital of Culture programme should be a terrific opportunity for design,’ adds Design Council chief executive David Kester. ‘It is well known that the Liverpool programme has had a difficult birth, marked by political problems and changes of leadership.’
Design Show Liverpool, a four-day design exhibition scheduled for June, will provide the only major platform for commercial design in the Liverpool 08 programme.
Some local design consultancies plan to organise their own events, to take advantage of the spotlight that will be on the city during 2008.
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The only agency to be involved is the ‘old-skool’ fim of Finch. While having a great reputation the amount of other agencies in Liverpool with their fresh, new ideas could offer so much more. Old boys club springs to mind.
The Finch designs for the Liverpool08 look have been lazily lifted from their archives.
If you get the chance to see the lampost banners around the region, ask yourself if they look new or look like they have been up there for about 5 years! You can’t read what is on them – the colour choice is questionable – and I thought design was there to communicate!