the design family tree
Six degrees of design separation
Hello there curious. Here's a story for you.
I was preparing for a lecture that I'm giving at Falmouth College of Arts—it's about 12 things that you learn in the first 12 months out of University and one of them, for me personally, is that the UK design industry is relatively small. Everyone seems to know everyone else. Rather like Six Degrees of Separation: you're never too far off someone, who knows someone, who knows, er, lets say Michael Johnson.
I not only found this very intriguing, but really reassuring (as a then student/junior), in the manner that it illustrates the transition of culture from one studio to another.
So, here it is: I'm trying to put together a design family tree.
Quentin Newark and Domenic Lippa loving undertook a similar task in 2002 with this (apologies for the terrible scans).
So I'm aiming to put together a large format 'diagram' illustrating the close-knit-ness of the industry and the origins of the numerous design groups to aid students. A kind of larger-scale, updated version of the above on this sort of thing:
Pentagram (have direct links with) — The Partners (Who have spawned links with) — 300millon, Hat-trick etc.
The, then, Graphics International piece is my brief starting point but I wanted to produce an updated, farther reaching model. But I feel the project might just be a little outside my knowledge span to update alone and so I wondered if I could enlist your help.
I'm looking for links, relations, mergers, deceased and born again studios, divorces, transfers, loans and any relation from one studio to another, anywhere in the UK. Anything you could share with me would be greatly appreciated. Who went where to start what, who has strong links (for whatever reason) with whom, anything.
If you have anything to throw in, could you chuck it to:
familytree@craigoldham.co.uk
I should also stress that this is for the aid of Graphic Design students and not for any other gain. I mean, how could you make money off it anyway?
Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
Kindest.
Craig.
P.S. I'll post up here what I get for both inspiration and verification from, well, anyone (and I'm not into changing spelling, grammar or stuff, I like it as it comes).
Contributions
Jack
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Alexis Burgess worked at Johnson Banks (starting
2001ish)) for about 10 months before setting up BOB
design with two other Kingston graduates;
Zoe Bather worked at Frost design straight after
graduating from Kingston before leaving to set up
Studio 8 Design;
Luke Gifford was a key player at Johnson Banks for
about 10 years until 2004 (i think) when he left for
Wolff Olins.
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Various
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A lot of you good folk are raising a recent issue of Creative Review, any more specific details on this?
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Jamie Ellul
Magpie Studio
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Hi there saw your design family tree on The Serif and thought I'd add
another branch.
Magpie is a spanking new design agency which spawns from hat-trick
(myself and Ben Christie) and Blast (myself and David Azurdia). Ben
also worked at Dew Gibbons pre hat-trick and David at WMH pre Blast.
Good luck with the project...
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Matt Baxter
300million
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Hi there
A quick bit of info, having spotted your project on the Serif.
Of the four partners at 300million, three of us are from The Partners,
whilst one of us is from Blast (via a stint at 3Deep in Melbourne,
Australia). Blast originated as a break-away from Trickett & Webb. T&W
have disbanded and are now (respectively): Webb&Webb and Together Design.
Of the other staff at 300million, we have people from (amongst other
places) SAS, Identica, Atelier Works, NB:Studio, CDT and the London
Symphony Orchestra!
Incidentally, we had a delegation of students from Falmouth recently,
who were excellent guests.
Good luck with the project and regards to The Chase.
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Michael Johnson
Johnson Banks
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Hi Craig
Interesting project
Sadly I had tons of jobs pre-johnson banks, do you really want this info?
Ok here goes
Graduated 1985
Worked at wolff olins 85/86
Worked in Sydney 86/87 at the Billy Blue Group (?)
Worked in Tokyo 87/88, freelancing at Dentsu (J Barnbrook did their logo
recently)
Back to Australia
To work at Emery Vincent for a bit (the group that Vince ended up merging
with)
Fired
Then art director for an ad agency called Omon (where I worked with David
Droga, briefly, who now runs Droga 5 in New York)
Back to England 88
Worked at Sedley Place (all ex-Wolff Olins)
Fired
Then got a job at Smith & Milton 89/90 (both ex Michael Peters)
Nearly fired
Then set up johnson banks 92
Alumni info
Yes luke Gifford here for most the 90s then went to Wolff Olins
David Jones here in the 90s then Lewis Moberly, Glazer and now The Joneses
Harriet Devoy came here from Turner Duckworth then stayed here forever,
then the chase, now apple
Lexi here for 10 months then BOB
Well, you did ask ;-)
Michael
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Mark Lester
MARK Studio
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Hi Craig,
Not sure if this is of any use/interest, but my post grad design experience
consists of:
1. Protocol (fired after 6 months for being incompetent)
2. Tango Design (dossed about for 2.5 years)
3. The Partners (left after 6 months)
4. Lippa Pearce (fired after 1 year for being Northern / incompetent)
5. The Partners (blagged back in for 5 years)
6. Hat-Trick, CDT, Conran (freelance stints over 2 years)
7. Set up Mark
Other designers here have come from various places including:
The Chase, Thompson Design and Costcutter!
Best of luck with the project.
See you soon...
Mark
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Marc Atkinson
MARC&ANNA
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Hey, this sounds fun.
Ours is simple really. I worked at the Chase London after graduating.
Anna Ekelund worked at Jannuzzi Smith. This was from 2001/2.
We both left at the same time and set up MARC&ANNA in 2005.
Good luck!
Marc
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Alistair Hall
We Made This
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Hey there Craig
It'd probably be worth chatting to Mike Dempsey - CDT has given birth
to a huge number of design groups, big and small.
He's at x@xx.xx.xx (probably best you don't leave that
address in if you post this mail to your site...)
I worked at CDT for a couple of years before setting up here.
Since you're talking to students, it might also be interesting to ask
people about the placements they did before / after college.
I was lucky enough to spend some time at Frost Design, Wolff Olins
and The Partners before graduating, which made finding work a whole
lot easier.
~ A ~
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John Dowling
Dowling Design & Art Direction
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Hi Craig
Welcome to the Dowling Family Tree, hope this is of some help:
1991 – 1995
University of Northumbria
(Ex students include: Vaughan Oliver, Purpose Design, 300million,
Together Design, Blast, Very Studio, SEA Design amongst many others)
1994
Roundel
1995 – 1998
Area (set up by Richard Smith and Cara Gallardo who both came from
Peter Saville Associates – [Smith then went onto Creative Director at
Wolff Olins NY)
1998 – 2001
Pentagram (worked for John Rushworth)
(Other Pentagramers who left and started on their own include: NB
Studio, Thomas Manns, Atelier Works, Vince Frost, David Stuart amongst
many many others)
2001 – 2002
SEA Design (set up by ex Roundel [and Imagination and Landor] designers
Bryan Edmondson and John Simpson)
2002 – 2003
Frost Design (set up by Vince Frost, ex Pentagram associate)
(Other Frost designers – Sonya Dykova [Phaidon Press], Matt Willey, Zoe
Bather [Studio8], Brad Yendle [Design Typography], Melanie Mues [Mues
Design], Andrew Collier)
2003 – to date
Dowling Design & Art Direction
Best
John
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Benji Wiedemann
A+B Studio
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Hi Craig,
A+B Studio was founded by Alex Lampe (graduated from University
College for creative arts at Epsom in 2000) and myself, Benji
Wiedemann (graduated from the Arts Institute Bournemouth in 2001)
after having slaved several years at Lewis Moberly. We 'officially'
opened our doors on Valentines Day 2007.
Good project. Good luck!
B)
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Adam Giles
Hat-Trick
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Hi Craig,
This sounds like a lovely project - I look forward to seeing the results. Before working at hat-trick design I worked at Zulver & Co, with David Kimpton who was creative director there, and is a partner at hat-trick.
Hope this helps
Adam
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