The Designer as Author: A Symposium on the Legacy of Hard Werken (1979-1994)

“We were artists who made design, today they are designers who make art” - Gerard Hadders, 2014 Described by Hard Werken, One for All co-author Ian Horton, the members of the Dutch design studio (Willem Kars, Kees de Gruiter, Tom van den Haspels, Gerard Hadders, Rick Vermeulen and Hank Elenga) were autonomous artists.  Starting with…

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Eddie Opara. From atoms to bits… and back again.

In the second of this term's Design School Lecture Series, Pentagram's Eddie Opara came to discuss the role between design and modern technology, meanwhile demonstrating his impressive design background. "The problem graphic design has, is when you try to define it." LCC Alumni, Opara, identifies not as a graphic designer, but as a tinkerer. Moving from place…

CS Presents – Agency 2020

"Agencies are fighting the last Advertising war" - Brian Cooper Down the red staircase to 146 Brick Lane’s studio basement, a periscope looking to the future of advertising agencies was presented to an audience of wide eyed young designers. Creative Social selected five creative leaders to share how they are shaping and redefining the agency…

Orbit

Britain's largest sculpture, The ArcelorMittal Orbit stands 114.5m tall over the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. At the top of the distinctive red steel structure, reminiscent of a warped Helter Skelter, a circular room of white empty space contains two mirrors worth £1 million each, offering an upside down view of the London skyline.…

Brands, Advertising and Commodity Fetishism

Are brands and commodities 'a way of being'? This lecture encouraged us to question if brands and commodities define us, or if we use them to design ourselves. Karl Marx's theory of 'Commodity Fetishism' defines the irrational preference for one commodity over another, suggesting that there is no difference between two objects, but people will…

Department Stores

In the lecture that captivated my interests most, and perhaps discussed topics I would like to research and explore further in my essay, we learnt about the role shops undertake in advancing customer's purchase habits and consumption. Prior to the lecture, I watched a clip from Channel 4's documentary 'Mary Portas - Queen of the High…

Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising

This evocative, yet slightly jumbled, time tunnel offers a fond reminder of the domestic brands, packaging and advertising we grew up with, highlighting the way they have evolved with design trends and how Britain’s favourite brands developed the strong emotional bonds they have with their consumers today. In the middle of its renovation, the hidden…

Branding a country

John O’Reilly's article for Eye; ‘The floating signifier’, explores what makes a nation’s identity, or a national brand; stating that “the biggest significant difference between a nation’s identity and brand identity is time” (O’Reilly, 2004). He elaborates this point by using examples of countries such as Lichtenstein. Previous to 2000, the European country was known…

Commodification of Dissent

This lecture discussed consumer capitalism and the rebellious spirit. Making us question why images/language of dissent or rebellion are used in advertising, what it is that is being offered to us, and what we are looking for. An example of visual culture presented to us was the advertising of a Boxfresh shop in Covent Garden, London... What…

Digital Activism

Through the aid of digital advancements and the democratisation of technology, activism and methods of protest have significantly progressed.  Whether this is an advancement on previous methods of protest or not can be queried however. The internet has transformed activism severely; it offers a cheap, faster and more efficient way of communication which helps not…