Design Weak

I have known Hamish for ten years back when he was co-founder and creative director of Red Design. He left his number in my book at the New Designers show (for a work placement, not a date). I was thrilled. I went to work for a week or two and ever since then he hasn’t been able to get rid of me. He even moved from Brighton to Lewes to try and escape. He failed, and I emailed him recently to spark this, the first of a series of discussions with people whom I know or consider to be beacons of inspiration and hope.

Hamish comes from a fine art background, but don’t let that put you off (he does wash regularly). His calm temperament, reasoning, and ability to converse have always been so effective I often come away from his company with a feeling of ‘why can’t I be more grown up and intelligent?’. I think his approach to design echoes this temperament. It has a wonderful, clean, considered grace which exudes class, definition and if his work was a room you’d hear a pin drop – every detail captures you, without even trying.

Anyway enough of this gushing introduction; he does have ginger hair and an unhealthy collection of vinyl. He’s married with two kids, teaches at Brighton University two days a week and somehow manages to run his design studio inbetween.

SP:How do you do it?
HM: Thank you Steve – I feel slightly shy after that introduction. I must remember to call you when I’m next feeling down.

The short answer is that I work hard and my day is long. But I enjoy it so I don’t feel at all negative about it. I’m a compulsive creative. When I go on holiday, within a day or two I am creating new work in my head, getting excited about Danish bus stops and wondering whether I should redesign the Studio’s stationery.

I have recently taken on a new designer, so that should take some of the pressure off. But it’s not like you sit around on your arse all day watching Home and Away – how do you do it?

SP: I hate Home and Away, but put Frasier or Everybody Loves Raymond on and I’ll sit on my arse all night.

I have found myself approaching work in a more relaxed fashion recently. Partly because I’ve not been as busy, partly because I want to try and spend more time with my family. It is also because I’ve been in and out of the UK quite a lot this year, and have come to realise that I can actually work anywhere. I’d prefer to work from my al-qaeda (meaning ‘base’, see this post), but I think that has recently been part of the problem and I’m trying to force myself to think beyond those four small walls.

After ten years, and seven of those working for myself I’m also going through a period of reflection (slash mid-life crisis). I’ve found that my once youthful zest for design has worn alittle thin, but to be expected given that I’m a ripe old age of 32. Having said that I have started pursuing other avenues that I find interesting. I think I have a feeling that I need to start doing stuff that has more permanence, more meaning; if only for me as a human being. Writing, directing films (in my head), pretending I’m a racing car driver (on PS3). This web site is also part of that process to re-engage myself. To force myself to look beyond design so that when I come to designing I am fresher. That is the theory.

Apart from Danish bus stops, and Luxor foiled stationary, do you find the need to take similar steps to me to maintain that passion? If so, what?

HM: I have an in-built let’s-keep-things-interesting function – I’m always thinking of new ventures or ways of working. On the whole they are ideas that I only really flirt with (I’d love a studio that could double as a gallery/shop or I would love to re-train as a cabinet maker). There is something necessary about this process for me – it balances me creatively knowing I’m still exploring and able to re-define what it is I do.

Recently, however, I have found myself doing less of this. StudioMakgill’s first birthday was yesterday and though I am very happy with its progress, I am well aware that there is a huge amount to do to get it where I want it to be. So I guess the new studio is keeping me engaged. I am still in that ‘honeymoon’ period, whereas it sounds like you are feeling the seven year itch.

More and more I see myself as a craftsman and I am not sure that I’m much past my apprenticeship. If graphic design were a mountain (a nice well organized Swiss mountain like the Matterhorn) I may have only just got to base camp. That thought – however daunting it is – excites me and makes me want to keep developing my craft. Do feel that running a company has corrupted that feeling for you?

SP: 1st Birthday, ah, they grow up so fast! Similarly to you I’ve been flirting recently (meaning I once checked out what courses there were near me) to train as a carpenter. Never been very good at DIY and I’d quite like to be able to make things with my hands; which I guess is a result of me feeling like all I do is make stuff that gets thrown away.

I have always maintained running my own business is about the little things. Aside from everything else is affords me one major advantage: flexibility. I’m not talking about what time I get in or leave, but being flexible to go away with the family if needs be, or take days off, or go teach for two weeks. Certainly getting up in the morning (even at my lowest) was never a problem because I always have a sense of ‘today things can change’; does that sound very American/Oprah? Fuck yeah!

However running your own show means you are involved in the entire production, including the finding and securing of new work, the admin and the chasing on monies from clients, or worse. It has definitely had an impact on my view of the industry, but every industry is competitive, non more so than Design. Being at the tale end (boutique my misses calls it) means that it is very often a fight to survive, and being at the ‘base camp’ of that journey is no bad thing, it is a daily challenge.

Interestingly a mutual friend of ours at Represent told me recently that I’d soon have to make the decision about what I wanted to do in the future because I was apparently near that age whereby people will prefer to employ someone younger. Brilliant! I think I’ll stick with my day job, until I decide I’m too old and give myself the sack. As my old man says, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger

I made a conscious decision two years ago to maintain Plan-B Studio as small as possible. Can you give us an insight into your hopes/dreams/plans for Studio Makgill; an epicentre of focused empassioned designers, or a multi-layered empire taking over the earth one poster/brochure/typeface/indent at time?

HM: I’m still in planning stage, but what I do know is that I want to keep it small – around three designers. I also know that if I have to do all the business direction and the creative direction for StudioMakgill, then the company will never make great shakes. So I am looking for a managing director at some point. Finding the right person will be hard. This is the third time that I have run my own company – either by myself or with someone – and I want this to be the last.

I’m much happier running my own thing than I am working for others – despite having had some great jobs. For me it’s a lot to do with authorship. I love the whole of the job, from meeting the client to delivering the finished article. That’s where I get the most satisfaction. I’m not saying I like to work alone. I don’t. I just don’t enjoy being involved in one small aspect of a project as much.

In terms of output, like discussed earlier in this post, I want to the Studio to feel like it can try anything. If we want to produce a range of products, I am keen that we can use our contacts and make it a reality. The thought of just producing flat graphics for the rest of my career doesn’t get me too excited.

I do often wonder that if I wasn’t a designer what would I be? I know I am wondering about this because I’m looking at my children and I think I am secretly hoping that they don’t become struggling creatives. I don’t know what I would be – how about you? Given the chance to start again, would you still be a designer or even a creative? Pole position at Monza?

SP: My dreams of being an F1 driver are all but over I fear. I live that life through playing Grid/F1 on the PS3 – Not mine I might add, I don’t own a PS3 I have to go to my friends house to do that!

I feel exactly the same sentiment. I joke with Enzo that he shouldn’t become a designer, but actually there is sincerity in that joke, albeit without wanting to direct him in his career path. Who knows what the design industry will be like by the time he is ready to decide. The possibilities are certainly there. I guess what is important is that he/they enjoy what they do. Besides the moaning, the struggles, the highs and the lows I do enjoy what I do for a living, and that is physiologically crucial for any human being.

I am currently running a project for another agency and I keep having ‘outer-body experiences’ during conversations about ‘the brand plan strategy’. I faze out sometimes and the little voice says ‘This is all vacuous bullshit!’. Cynical I know, but I often find myself leaning towards the notion that there is very often too much vanity to what I do. A severe lack of any permanence or meaning worthy of a true legacy. I sometimes think about what I would leave behind if I went tomorrow and would my epitaph simply read ‘Good husband and father, and did some nice work once for diesel using a double-hit Pantone.’ That was a rhetorical question, don’t answer it.

Funny you should ask about what would I be if I started again. F1 driver, if only I could drive that well. Film direction, lead singer of Pearl Jam… but being realistic I do not regret choosing design. It’s provided me the opportunity to travel around the world, teach, and work with some interesting people and projects. Right now I am exploring ideas around music and film. I’m desperate to make more time to write more, film more and listen to more music than watch crap on TV in the evening.

This project/building (see above) in Nyksund (a remote island in the North Norwegian Arctic) that myself and the misses are working on developing is (I/we hope) going to become a springboard to a more inspiring platform which will hopefully become another revenue stream, helping us to work on things that we want to rather than have to.

Included in the plans for this ‘creative place’ is apartments to rent to like-minded artists/creatives, a large apartment/workspace studio in the loft and a cafe/shop/gallery on the ground floor. My main focus of interest is looking at how we can also install a recording studio on the ground floor and basement (which requires us drilling out a basement in to the rocks!).

I can’t play an instrument, but I love music (mainly rock). I just discovered Matisyahu – a New York based, reggae , beat-boxer, rapping Hasidic Jewish artist. The Kings of Leon’s new single ‘Crawl’ has a great video of them in the studio – which sparked a mental post-it note for me to finish some more research on recording studios.

I often feel like I have a hundred projects (slight exaggeration) inside me and I think doing what I do has helped me explore those ideas and given me the confidence to actively persue them. I have a range of T-shirts I want to get printed (see below), a script I’ve been writing (for too long), a documentary I want to make about Nyksund, and my latest is an idea for a documentary film on ‘The Circuit’; the $140Billion earning private close protection/security companies that are now the second largest military force in Iraq behind the US Army(!).

I’m conscious that I have to try and actually make these a reality in one form or another. Although I did get in this morning and look online for a good sound engineering degree!

As for my son I bought him a McClaren F1 driving suit, just incase…

With the looming economic crisis are you preparing to tighten your belt or ride the wave?