Description:

We believe that the beauty in a project, is the process rather than the outcome, but the process is not often showcased in the same way, we are instead inclined to show the polished outcome.

Through creating this publication we wanted to highlight how the design process is the most important part of learning and growing as an individual designer and that getting lost in a process, can be the best part of creation.

Our response to this project was to have conversations with graphic designers through interviews, emails and zoom (because of COVID), asking them a wide range of questions we had explored. ‘Conversations with Graphic Designers’ is a discourse between people within the industry as well as students, allowing us to get a diverse perspective from varying experience levels. These questions all revolved around the idea of the process, each conversation helping us get some sense of the idea or rationale behind a piece of work.

The discussions provoked through creating this publication opened a network between students, industry and ourselves, but ultimately we now look at the process of design in a whole different light than what we did before with new perspectives gained on the process of design. An approach that is liminal and open to play, open to failure, something that will allow for unexpected outcomes and methodologies to—not only push the norm—but our individual practices and craft. Throughout the process of this publication, we gained a huge insight and perspective on different graphic designers and their approaches. We have a more open mind towards a process that allows us to sit in the feeling of being lost a lot longer than we would've previously liked, this is something we have learnt to enjoy.

Colours of the publication were inspired by awards platforms themselves, websites that highlight all the polished outcomes but never the gritty process that many graphic design students want/need to see. How did they get there to where they are? How could we ever design something as polished as this? These were many of the questions we have asked as aspiring graphic designers.

To support the colour we used three typefaces. A serif and two sans serifs working together to represent what we wanted to communicate, the tension between process and outcome, between deadlines and play and between stability and liminality.

‘Conversations with Graphic Designers’ is a book that holds conversations inside but also initiates conversations outside. Something we had hoped would happen.