Thoughtful

The lecture by Thoughtful was a preview of a lecture they were presenting at the '4 designers Conference, the presentation was well structured and spoke about their work, career and personal inspirations. It was good to hear what personally inspired them, including inspirations other than design as this engaged them with the audience and became personal which in turn became more interesting.

They gave some good advice about breaking into Graphic Design when you have completed your degree and spoke about how they had personally got jobs and how you have to keep self promoting yourself to gain work even when you are in the industry. They spoke about being confident about your work and the importance of being able to express your ideas.

Something which stuck in my mind was when they spoke about how they produced some unpaid ideas to send to Howies clothing company to promote themselves and in the hope that they would receive work in the future, this showed me how important it is to always be ready to complete self initiated projects and to forward think about potential clients.

The talk was really interesting and not only spoke about their work but also their experiences which made me think about the future of getting a job in the design industry and creative ways in which you can promote yourself and gain confidence in a competitive market.

Alun Cocks

Alun Cocks co founded Dust in 2000, based in Sheffield, Dust produces design in Advertising, Branding, Exhibit design, Illustration, Photography and Typography, working with high profile clients such as Manchester United, Vodafone, Orange and Penguin. Starting his passion for design at Stockport College, he went on to Leeds Met where he completed a degree in Graphic Arts. His talk at Stockport College was interesting and he gave a good insight on breaking into a Graphic Design job. He spoke about co founding his Design company Dust and how previous inspirations including a brief he completed at Stockport college have influenced his designs in the future.

The design he worked on for Manchester United was influenced by a mark making project he did at Stockport and when looking at the design you can see the influences and how he has incorporated these ideas into a design for a client, which is interesting how the simplest of ideas can be produced into something great.







I especially liked the book and cover design which was produced for the Photographer Duncan Higgins, the design perfectly suits the title (Unload) and atmosphere the book is aiming to create from the images displayed by the photographer. Rather than using heavy imagery, Dust have used texture, materials and simplicity to create the design.







The talk was interesting and it was inspiring to listen to a designer who began his career at the same level and who now has a design agency.