When Rob Banham sent out an email advertising the St Bride Design Conclave event, we knew we had to be a part of it and instantly applied for tickets through the Typography student fund which were very kindly approved.
This was our first time visiting the St Bride Foundation after hearing it referenced many times by tutors and peers. After browsing the many editions of Eye magazine for sale in the waiting area, we headed into the hall to take our seats ready for the talks and were introduced to the day by the brilliant host and curator of the event, Becky Chilcott. The theme of the event was ‘Outside the Lines’ and the speakers delivered on this, introducing out-of-the-box ideas, techniques, and ways of thinking throughout the day.
The first speaker of the day, Micaela Alcaino (figure 01) knew exactly how to get the audience warmed up and engaged for the day ahead, asking us all to stand and stretch before inspiring us with her talk. Micaela spoke about her career in book cover design, talking us through her research and inspiration processes (which can involve visiting the countries that the books are set in to absorb the culture) as well as the more business-orientated side of her work involving contracts and rights.
The next speaker, Charlotte Bartrop (figure 02) had a perspective that was unique from the rest of the speakers on the day as her role is in project management within the brand studio Saboteur. Charlotte took us along her self-proclaimed windy path to where she is now, consisting of brutalist architecture, interior design and fine art publishing. It was a hugely important message to takeaway that the journey to the career you love is rarely a straight path, but that is part of the joy of it.
We then heard from Kate Dawkins (figure 03), who opened our eyes to a whole other side of design. Kate told us of her journey to becoming creative director at Kate Dawkins Studio, who specialise in projection design for stage shows and other large-scale event spaces. It was especially exciting to hear that Kate was behind the London Olympics stage graphics where she used 70,500 ‘paddles’ each containing high-powered lights to create graphics that spanned whole sections of seating.
Next up was the hilarious and heartfelt talk by Aoife Dooley (figure 04), who spoke about how a career in stand-up adult comedy turned into a career in writing and illustrating graphic novels for children. Aoife took us on a full-circle journey, from her childhood illustrations and sketches, that helped her find the comedy through tough times, to turning those same illustrated characters into a funny, educational, and inspiring graphic novel.
The next speaker, Kelli Anderson (figure 05) flew all the way from New Orleans for her talk on her career as a graphic artist and paper engineer. This talk changed our whole perspective on paper and introduced endless possibilities. Kelli described some of her favourite creations from pop up books that can project constellations into the reader’s bedroom, to a book that actually is a camera.
Seb Lester (figure 06) then had us all laughing and smiling with his talk featuring his adult-humour calligraphy and unforeseen career highlight. Seb described how his name began to spread rapidly after being recognised for his short calligraphy videos that he had been posting to social media. Seb ended his talk on the hilarious story of how a small comment beneath an online article resulted in him designing the branding for a NASA space rocket.
After this, we took a break where we got the chance to chat to some of the speakers and take part in a printing workshop held alongside the event. We used a variety of printing presses (figure 07) in the workshop – some of which we were experienced with from the Typography department’s facilities – to print some memorabilia.
The next speaker to take the stage was Tudinh Duong (figure 08) who shared his inspiring journey to becoming CEO of Made by ON and Chair of the St Bride Foundation. He told us about what it was like doing tourism design work for the King of a small country, and a little about how we can use AI to bring the past to life. He showed us some photos of the St Bride Foundation in the past that had been transformed into videos with the help AI, allowing us a look into what it was like.
The penultimate speaker was Danielle Duncan (figure 09), who found a fascinating career in food typography. Danielle showed us the incredible way that she creates complex lettering by hand by manipulating different foods to form a shape. She spoke about how she transformed her career when she experimented with AR. She then explained how she integrated her food typography with the AR technology and began creating QR codes out of food.
The final speaker of the day was Malcolm Garrett (figure 10), who told us of his love for punk and fashion throughout his youth which kickstarted his career into album cover design and drove his passion for the subject. Malcolm told us of his time studying at Reading University and the teaching of the history of typeface design that has stayed with him throughout his career. He spoke about his inspirations for his album cover designs and the frustrations that came with third parties warping the idea for promotional material. He ended the talk and the day giving a platform to many local artists and students that he had met through founding the annual Design Manchester festival.
The incredibly inspiring range of speakers who spoke about a diverse array of careers and journeys will stay with us for a long time. It is through hearing from those that are doing things outside the lines that we can grow as designers, whatever path we choose to follow.
– Tommy Molnar and Amirah Yasin