Andrew also wanted to share part 1 of 3 interviews from youtube.com of the man himself. If you can tolerate the interviewer‘s hair, his awkward interviewing technique and the cheese factor, it is wonderful witnessing the great man share his ideas on design and the world.

Vale Paul Rand.

Visit Paul Rand‘s website here

13 February 2008

In the spirit of the recent Chinese New Year celebrations, I open my thoughts with a Chinese proverb;“guo zu bu qian“ (binding your feet to prevent your own progress) sourced from the text, A Thousand Pieces of Gold, by Adeline Yen Mah —which illustrates the self destructive nature of mankind.

I use this proverb in reference to the notion that one can create his or her own destiny and a strong belief that you are in charge of your own future. Hence, in simple terms, if you intend to embark on a somewhat successful design career upon being released from tertiary studies into the industry, I would strongly recommend you help yourself by involving yourself in an internship program.

Doing so is a valuable experience, if one can find the time and a studio willing to take them on. If anything at all, on the most basic level, an understanding of the ‘ins and outs‘ of a design studio is developed, and one designer‘s name can be scratched from the ‘cold calling‘ list and added to the new (and most likely quite limited) ‘friendly call‘ list. All this and you have barely left your comfort zone. If you put your ear to the ground and observe, designers‘ processes can be seen and new ways to develop and tease out ideas are discovered. Ask lots of questions and who knows what kind of incredibly useful tips and tricks you could come by. You can safely say partaking in an internship program enriches your mind and creativity as a budding designer and seems to reveal new inspiration that you can take with you at the end. As an intern you are given the opportunity to make industry contacts, be involved in studio projects and learn a few tricks of the trade ranging from dealing with clients to the short cut keys of indesign you never knew existed. I also personally feel that my time as an intern has given me the confidence to aim a little higher and think a little bigger – yan que yong you hong hu zhi (little sparrow with dreams of swans)

14 February 2008

Learning by observing —

During my time at the studio, I have observed various way that designers come across the inspiration or information that feeds the development of a concept for a brief. From what I can see, the best concepts do not always come from design related research and inspiration can come from a range of areas, from Bjork video clips to old school image dictionaries to trawling google image search for something random. And it‘s the random that grows into something exciting and unique…

Erin Morris
Studio intern — February 2008
Communication Design, Honours — RMIT University

Studio intern programme at Andrew Hogg Design

Friends of the studio, Andrew Hogg Design, are looking for studio interns seeking four to six week assignments at their studio. A modest allowance will be provided to the successful applicants as well as plenty of hands-on experience at the studio. Please email your C.V. to: info (at) andrewhoggdesign.com for details.

There is an expression that states — that beauty is in the detail —and after working a little on the Moonlight Cinemas small press campaign, I truly appreciate what it takes to make, even the smallest of things in graphic communication, right.

As an intern at Studio Pip and Co., I was working on newspaper small space ads — I mean the size of two postage stamp for weekly screening times for Moonlight Cinema. This involves changing different movies titles for the week, paying close attention to ratings, dates, spacing and type sizes, etc. During a Moonlight season a new ad appears each Thursday to Sunday in publications like The Age over several weeks, across five Australian cities. With over 300 hundred ads in production it is little wonder that an individual ad begins to blur into hundreds of other ads.

After the ads have been designed incorporating their appropriate content, they are checked by three people within the studio, and then sent to Moonlight Cinema for approval. Upon approval each ad is saved individually, then uploaded to a special media placement website — another confusing task; there are so many similar looking files and if you weren‘t careful you could easily upload the wrong file or ad.

One of the many things the internship has taught me is how much work goes into producing small design projects such as a 2×4 inch mono ad. It was rewarding to finally see the ads printed in the paper. I promised myself to pay more attention to everything I see in future. That said paying attention to the detail in pre-determined moderation is probably a better idea.

Elise Lampe
Studio intern — December 2007 to January 2008
3rd year graphic design student — Monash University

Vertically endowed or challenged?

Recently Lloyd Garver from CBS wrote this…

“Tall people have a special status in our culture… they are thought of as leaders — as ‘standing tall above the rest.‘ In school, the tallest boys are the first to get dates. Tall girls are told they look great — “like beautiful models.“

…What a load of slosh. Everyone feels sorry for short people and that the sky is the limit for tall people, but it just isn‘t so. It‘s pretty obvious that Lloyd Garver is not 6‘7“, otherwise he would know what a pain in the neck height can be (pardon the posture related pun).

If you are short you probably never thought about what you take for granted in your life. Bet you never realized how lucky your are that you can…

…fit in your car, even in the back seat
…fit in a train, bus, tram or airplane seat
…fit in a rollercoaster
…always find shoes because they‘re manufactured in Asia and you know they just make extra size 8 shoes for the fun of it
…always make a pair of jeans shorter, you can‘t make them longer
…move through door ways without banging your head, including every vehicle design known to man
…sit anywhere you want at the movies, you won‘t block anyone‘s view
…get people to let you near the front of a concert because all of the big people are blocking your view.

If you read through these things and think “hey yeah, maybe it‘s not so bad being short after all, I never did think about it like that“ your right. Being tall generally sucks unless you play basketball, but if you‘re white and can‘t jump then that‘s out of the question as well.

The one bright side is a little known 2004 study by psychologist Timothy A. Judge, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, and researcher Daniel M. Cable, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina. They found that for every inch taller you are than your colleague you would earn $749 more per year, thus a six foot tall person could earn over $5000 more than their 5‘6“ work mate.

Doesn‘t matter really, that poor tall guy is probably an accountant and will now be spending that extra money on physiotherapy because office furniture only comes in one size, short.

Back to Adelaide where it‘s still okay

After an amazing experience with the team at Studio Pip and Co. as a four-week intern, Owen has (finally) left the building. Thank you very much for this opportunity. To learn and experience truly good design, with very friendly and intelligent people, is a rare and special chance for any design student. Many best wishes to Andrew and Shelley at Studio Pip and Co for the future. Thank you!

By Owen Ridgwell.

On a strange balmy autumn evening in Melbourne, the warmest in 150 years, the AGDA design night, Forty-eighty, gave around 200 people the chance to congregate in RMIT‘s Kaleide theatre for two hours and become intimate with a few designers, and their work.

With a tight schedule in hand Andrew Ashton kicked off the night introducing Alex Tyers. Tyers touched on his career success in using research and critical analysis told to deliver functional information design.

Kate Hannaford, from Moth Design, gave some exciting samples of her work and collaborations in retail design, public art/design events, and interior design from her career to date. Her “cushion thrower“ term for the amateur interior designers was something one will keep in mind for the next interior design conversation. Luca Ionescu followed, delivering an enormous range of images ranging from early influences, to fashion, to digital/motion and anything else he thought was street fresh, funky and cool.

After a ten minute break everyone crowded back into the theatre to see Shara Henderson and her wanderings in portraiture photography. Shara‘s commentary was spare and heart felt, her work was a visual treat for anyone with a creative bone, even if it‘s only in your ear.

Soren Luckins from Büro North showed some interesting process and way-finding design, and shared with us what made him tick. His effort to make whole projects environmentally accountable was a staggering example for those of us that want push the sustainable design cause.

Last, not least, we were treated to Wendy Ellerton from Hofstede Design. Wendy talked about her work in developing and designing typefaces in Australia and at the Royal Academy of Art in The Haag, in the Netherlands — a skill set that is a rarity in this corner of the world, and a simply inspiring insight into a world of black and white — a life in type design.

The night was a resounding success. Attended by mostly creative industry related people who witnessed an array of design disciplines in a successful format. Big thanks to AGDA; it‘s sponsors, and the speakers for putting on this event for a bargain $10, or $1.67 a speaker.

By Owen Ridgwell, UniSA

A recent exhibition at the NGV International “Cinema India the Art of Bollywood“, hosted a staggering array of Bollywood film posters. This was a visual treat for people of any background. The posters displayed were made by brilliant artisans, typically on a peasant wage, documenting the amazing flavour of Bollywood in decades past. The example above is a glimpse of what the exhibition had on offer, and has driven one to seek out more Bollywood films and ‘Deewaar‘. Who is this ‘Deewaar‘ character? Where does he come from? Why the look of pensive determination and the thousand yard stare?

Indeed one felt like the ‘outsider looking in‘ while eagerly digesting the amazing use of colour, type, composition and restraint evident in the pieces. One wanted to drop everything for a ticket to India — Is there countless evil fathers sending their beautiful daughters off to an arranged marriage with an equally evil and ruthless husbands? Will the ‘Deewaar‘, or whoever the hell he is, burst in with red hot guns blazing (John Wayne crossed with beef vindaloo style), save the daughters, kill the bad guys, maybe put the fathers right as well?

That is the spell of Cinema India — inspiring. The Bollywood mix of emotion and thought in film posters is something that Western posters lose in their persistent image making formula and annoying credit lists — including the Third Director of Makeup, Third Director of Makeup‘s dog, and Third Director of Makeup‘s dog assistant. No offense to Make-up Directors, their dogs and their dog‘s assistant of course.

By Owen Ridgwell ( and Aunty Di we suspect )

by Owen Ridgwell, the studio’s intern from UniSA, Adelaide

I like Adelaide. I don‘t mind Melbourne either, but it just isn‘t the same as Adelaide. Melbourne is a vibrant, multi-faceted, contemporary Australian city, becoming a bit of a mover and shaker on the international stage. It is reminiscent of lavish, high fashion, always something new even if it‘s been done before; it‘s always ‘different‘ in Melbourne.

Adelaide, on the other hand (the right hand, not the left) is like those favourite pair of jeans you have. Maybe they‘re a little worn, but you just can‘t seem to find another pair that fit so well, that make ‘you‘ feel so good. God, if only SA Great (Adelaide‘s centre for propaganda) could hear me know, how proud they would be.

It‘s nice in Adelaide because…

• Not a day goes by that you don‘t meet someone you know whilst strolling down Rundle Mall.
• You don‘t need to organise where to meet up with friends when you go out, you‘ll all be going to the same pub anyway.
• A cabby can‘t rip you off taking you into the city from the airport, because you‘ll have landed right in the middle of it.
• Winter only lasts for about 2 months, it doesn‘t snow, and until recently it didn‘t rain either.
• The summers are long and hot, but not Darwin hot, they don‘t make people go crazy.
• The majority of the population is old, so it feels a bit like grandma‘s place, only all year round.
• Adelaide is the city of churches. If Jerusalem was wiped out tomorrow, Jesus could always launch his comeback tour here.
• Speaking of Jesus, Adelaide is the home of the blood of Christ. Wine labelling also being the one staple income for graphic designers here.

So while I immerse myself in the hustle and bustle of big city life, I remind myself from time to time of some of these quaint little traits of Adelaide