Reflections on the Lectures

The effect of globalisation on design

The lectures this week will be exploring design in a global context and the positive and negative effects globalisation has had on design practices worldwide. Globalisation is the process in which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and therefore results in increased trade and cultural exchange.

How has globalisation affected your business over time?

Simon Manchipp

Sam Winston

Sam acknowledged the many positives that globalisation can provide but he also discussed the negatives that it may have on businesses. Sam believes there are negatives to relying on technology to collaborate and that he would much rather be in the same room as the person he is collaborating with. He would rather get on a plane to see a client than send an email

Reflects on graphic design practice globally and broadly

Simon Manchipp

Simon believes in all the positives of globalisation and that it should be something to be celebrated and embraced. Globalisation encourages collaboration and allows a wide range of cultures to learn from one another, it’s never been easier to communicate with people all over the world. Simon states that globalisation is an unstoppable force.

Regular Practice: Tom Finn & Kristofer Soelling

Tom and Kristofer echoed Simon’s ideas saying it allows you to work with people all over the world. They believe this has made their workflow more slick and efficient. They also see the positives in being able to look all over the world for different production companies so they can find places that are the most specialised in different prints and products.

Intro Design: Julian House & Adrian Talbot

Julian and Adrian also echoed the positives of globalisation and the opportunities it provides now compared to back when they both started out. “Anyone can do anything from anywhere.” But like Sam they also like to meet with clients in person and believe the heart of their success comes from their passion and personality which is much easier to convey in a face to face meeting.

My thoughts

I can see both the positive and the negative effects that globalisation has on design and design businesses. I believe globalisation as a whole allows designers access to many more opportunities and really pushes the boundaries for collaborative work. Different cultures can come together to produce unique work and as Regular Practice spoke about you have access to so many different production companies so you can work with the best people who specialise in their field of practice. With technology constantly evolving the world around us will continue to become even more connected, allowing for greater collaboration and bigger ideas. However there are of course some negatives, I am just echoing some of the thoughts from above that sometimes people to respond more to in person meetings and discussions. It can sometimes be easier to bounce ideas of one another if you are in the same room.

Harriet Ferguson is a senior designer at Pearlfisher, an independent brand design agency. Pearlfisher have clients from all over the world and have four studios in London, New York, San Fransisco and Copenhagen. As displayed on their website They have an extensive list of clients including many high profile ones such as McDonald’s, Wagamamas, Cadburys and many more. Pearlfisher try and connect with their audiences by understanding the stories behind the brands they are working with to create exciting and engaging visual identities.

https://www.pearlfisher.com

Taylors of Harrogate

Harriet discusses how collaboration is at the heart of what she is a part of at Pearlfisher and that it is a treasure trove of talent. Technology allows so many diverse people to work together on one project and all of the offices work together and inspire eachother. Globalisation gives Pearlfisher the opportunity to work with a broad range of production partners as well as designers and artists from all over the world.

For example Harriet talks about their work with coffee brand Taylors of Harrogate, they wanted each design to echo the global origins of each product. So to achieve this they worked with a variety of illustrators and artists from around the world to create unique designs and stand out from their competitors. Suthipa Kamyam is a artist based in Bangkok who was commissioned to create beautiful illustrations for Taylors premiumum single origin coffees. For Taylors range of green teas and herbal fruit infusions artist David Bates created some colourful and expressive paintings of fruit. Finally, illustrator Izutso Hiroyuki created the artwork for Taylors most iconic lifestyle roast and ground coffee range, using vibrant colours and bold hand painted graphics.

This shows that globalisation can be very positive and allow for diverse collaboration opportunities. Although Harriet did mention this project didn’t come without it’s struggles, she discussed how both language barriers and time differences did make this project a little bit trickier to navigate.

Harriet also goes on to discuss the importance of authenticity in design and how globalisation has a negative affect on this. The current design landscape means it couldn’t be easier to to find inspiration and follow design trends and this can lead to many designs being unoriginal and unauthentic. This is where Pearlfisher’s work really showcases how they believe in really understanding a brand’s story and creating exciting visual identities.

This is reflected in their work with Havana Club Rum. Instead of trying to imitate what they thought were Cuban aesthetics, Pearlfisher actually visited Cuba to take in all the traditional culture, colours and textures. As well as this they also worked on every step of the design process with local artists in Cuba to ensure the work they were producing was authentic and really captured the Cuban culture.