London February 2013: 4 Designers conference

As a field trip arranged by my university, I was able to travel down to London for a couple of days to visit the 4 Designers conference in London along with the other students on my Design: Communication course.

An example of one of the presentations which tried to
help us know what to focus on when working on projects.

Held at the Odeon Theatre in Leicester Square, 4 Designers is an annual event which attracts hundreds of budding artists and designers from all around the world and allows us to witness first hand the experiences and ways of working from four different designers/design collectives.

This year the guest speaker over the two days were Jim Sutherland and Gareth Howart (Hat-Trick Design), Neil Smith (Howdy), Jen Mcaleer (Start JudgeGill) and finally, representing "Dare" were Kerry Roper and Ron Siemerink.

Of all of the designers, the two who stood out the most to me were Neil Smith and Kerry Roper. Smith, representing Howdy, a group of London-based designers, gave us a guide through his entire working life from where he studied to the people he worked for as well as previous collaborations and personal interests that inspire his work and lifestyle. He ended with a quite comedic film in which he himself had took a picture of every meal he had eaten over the course of a year or two.

An example of work by Dare's
Kerry Roper

Welsh designer Kerry Roper's talk really inspired me. He elaborated on the fact that he came from a really rough and "dead end" place in South Wales and worked his way up to the high-ranks of British design with his non-PC approach to his work and endless use of expletives and 'graphic' graphic imagery. His work really had an effect on me with their almost "anarchist" qualities and range of techniques and I left the conference thinking "I need to look up this guy's work!!".

All in all the 4 Designers conference (as well as the free time in London sightseeing) proved for a very memorable and extremely enjoyable couple of days.

Links to the official sites of the design companies of the speakers at the 4 Designers conference:

Hat-Trick Design
Howdy
Start Judgegill
Dare

Image Source