Experimental Jetset spoke at the D&AD lecture I attended last night to a sold out theatre. They chose to present work they had done for French clients, simply as a theme for their talk. At first they seemed nervous speaking to such a large audience in a foreign language but it didn’t take long before they became more comfortable and enguaged the audience with their charisma and humour. It was interesting to listen to their process, they explained that they try to make design physical in their work, in that it references the real world through tearing or breaking an element, or the medium itself. I was particularly interested in their choice of sans-serif typefaces in 99% of their work, specifically what was their reason for it. Luckily this question was asked in the Q&A session at the end. Their response was that it wasn’t intentional, they’ve just always found a sans-serif better suited their projects. They thought serif faces were always associated with old fashioned typography, where you would chisel the forms in to stone or marble, while sans-serif was more current and reflective of the work they do.

My favourite piece of work they showed was the work pictured above, an invitation they did for a Wim Crouwel exhibition — a famous Dutch designer and typographer. They made reference to a calendar he had designed where the type was cut and on different layers of paper. They printed the letters of his name on to long sheets of paper at different sizes and hung the sheet from sliders on the ceiling of their studio. The letters increased in size so they could be placed behind one another but appear like they were the same size when viewed front-on. Then they got Crouwel to walk through the sheets of paper and had a photographer take photos —- a good example of referencing the real world through the design. They showed some other pieces of interesting work too like the branding for 104 - Cent Quatre and RMN, quite inspirational projects.

I met Stefan Sagmeister and had a brief conversation with him after listening to him talk at the Design Museum in London last week. I was even given a signed copy of his new book because I was the first person to ask him a question! While I wasn’t as inspired as I was after the first time I saw him in 2004, there were a few inspiring stories and pieces of work. One of them (which you can participate in) is a website to promote his book which is based on typographic explorations of various quotes that summarise things he has learnt in his life. The site has the same name as the book, Things I have learned in my life so far, and it encourages people to write things they have learnt and then express them using a variety of mediums. I think it’s particularly interesting because people use a combination of languages, written and visual (as well as the actual medium) to communicate something they really believe in, which makes them really personal and gives a real insight in to the author. Sagmeister originally developed his quotes from his diary so when it was time to execute the quote “Keeping a diary supports personal development” he wanted to make it special so flew to Singapore to film this beautiful sequence. My first contribution is here.

Q. Is it more or less difficult to effectively gain the attention of an audience who already has a high exposure to digital technology; and specifically the programs you use as a designer?

A I think it’s easier to design for an audience familiar with the medium, whether it is digital technology or not. If they are familiar with it they will have developed certain patterns in interacting and decoding the message and the designer can make use of these patterns in conjuction with a visual language to ensure the audience will interpret the sign in the intended way. Whether the message is enguaging or not really depends on the content of the message and how appropriate the execution and medium is for the target audience.

Q. Is it necessary to challenge the conventions of digital technology in order to create a unique experience for the audience?

A Definitely — I think if you want to create something innovative you need to avoid conventions and approach the execution or idea from a different perspective. Working on something innovative is, perhaps, one of the things I’ve most enjoyed about being a designer. Not every piece of work demands, or has the budget to create a unique experience though.

Q. How do you effectively achieve innovation across your work when audiences are becoming increasingly acclimatized to what used to be considered radical?

A It’s easy to follow trends, for example Web 2.0; widgets, user-generated content, mobile/web integration, and believe you are creating an innovative piece of work because you are using modern technology, when really you’re not pushing any boundaries at all. This might been seen as innovative if you are bringing these concepts to an industry that hasn’t used them before though. I think developing truly innovative ideas with digital technology is a collaborative process between many professionals, often designers, developers and programmers. The key to innovation is not to restrict the process of idea generation, it can be a great start to include a diverse range of people with a multitude of experiences, or if this isn’t possible trying to adopt some methods that allow this like Edward de Bono’s hats, or IDEO’s method cards. Sometimes a great idea may come from someone who has never worked in design or technology and therefore has no pre-concieved ideas.

Q. How has the industry changed since you first became a designer?

A When I started in web design in 1997 there were hardly any ‘designers’ in the industry, with most web designers being programmers or people who had never had to consider how an audience might interact with their content. The technology was far less sophisticated and we were very limited with what we could do, dictated mostly by file sizes. Advertising agencies seemed scared of using technology as a medium. Now, web designers must have experience with design as a priority, and technology secondary. Advertising agencies have integrated with digital, and digital designers make up 50% of their designers, if not more — with this figure continually growing. The industry was quite small and quirky with very little written about it as a profession back in 1997, it’s now much larger and taken more seriously. Though it’s still fighting to be seen as a professional and independent and often borrowing theory from related fields such as writing and communication.