Jonathan Barnbrook

Earlier this month Jonathan Barnbrook one of the most famous graphic designers came to Stockport college to give a talk. I really enjoyed his presentation, It wasn't boring he made it his own presentation. He discussed his work and his style and included projects that he was working on currently. This talk was perfect for me because he was very typography based.

Background

Barnbrook from ages 16-18 studied at a local school in Luton and he that was the best teaching he had. Then he went on to do a diploma for a year and after this he went on to do a degree.
After this he wanted to get a job but it was quite difficult so he then started doing freelancing. He has now been working for 20 years.

He talked at lot about his contact with David bowie which I thought was quite interesting. Barnbrook created many album covers for Bowie. He showed us one called 'Breathen'.
His interests are music and art Barnbrook said ' I think its beautiful how music and art come together. This was one of the reasons he became a designer.
He also did some work for adbusters the magazine. Adbusters has been around from 1989, the layouts that he showed us were cleverly done. He talked about the typefaces that he had done and was currently doing such as, prozac, mosley, drone and mason.

I found the talk very useful. He gave good really good advice on life after graduating e.g Its better to start off on your own, especially due to the current economic climate. He also said when it comes to showing our work to that we should have a portfolio that has really good work in it because if you take a portfolio that is 'ok' we will just be unhappy, so he was urging us to take risks.
I think the way he portrayed himself in the presentation was good he seems like he is quite a laid back person with a funny personality which is good because, some design talks that I have been to previously haven't been so entertaining.