Jonathan Barnbrook

The guest lecture by Jonathan Barnbrook was really interesting as he talked about a different viewpoint of design rather than the comercial aspects. Talking about his work for Adbusters and their philosiphies was interesting to me as this is an area which I had been studying as part of my dissertation, it was good to hear the view point on these issues from a talking designer instead of views taken from books and essays.

Founder of Barnbrook Studios, his work is unusual and original, Jonathan talked about how he made a decision quite early in his career to not work for clients where he didn't agree with their ethical values, which means he doesn't really work for many corporate companies, his work is mainly books, typography and charity design.

He talked about how his career began and advised that although it can be a risk, setting up on your own, can work quite well when you graduate as you have new ideas and are still learning so are not as prohibited in your designs. He spoke about how he became interested in Adbusters and how he believes in having a social responsibility as a designer, He showed images which he had worked on for Adbuster campaigns and explained the thought processes behind them.

He was honest about the problems he faced on various projects, including the collaberation with Damien Hirst to create his Monograph book, and the problems with a typeface they designed originally called Manson which had to be changed to Mason.

His work varies and he also works on short films and collaborations, mainly involving typography and pictogram's, the film Klint was released as a promotional film for Monotype imaging.

He talked about how you didn't have to just work for corporate clients to make money and said he was funded mainly by galleries, occasional grants, commissioned work and typography design.

The lecture was interesting and it was good to hear about another type of design which is not often promoted, speaking about his association with the First Things First manifesto, he explained his motivations for choosing not to have associations with unethical promotions, but also explained that to follow this route was something personal and was not a decision to be taken lightly as this predicted your career and you could not just suddenly change your mind and start working for consumer led projects.