OUGD502 - Studio Brief 01 - Berlin Educational Visit - Justus Oehler, Pentagram Talk

Educated in visual communication in Munich, Germany, Justus Oehler began his design career in 1985 at Büro Rolf Müller. In 1988 he attended the Central School of Art and Design in London and graduated with a Master’s Degree in graphic design. In 1989 he joined Pentagram and in 1995 was invited to become a partner in the firm.

As part of our educational visit to Berlin, we were lucky enough to do a studio visit to the Berlin branch of Pentragram and have a talk with Justus Oehler and junior designer Joanna. 

These were the most pertinent points from the discussion with great advice for our next generation of designers:

• Luck is a massive part of getting where you want. Oehler only got a job at Pentagram because they were looking for someone at the time when they applied. 

• You have to be passionate to be successful in Graphic Design. It is not paid well enough to not be passionate about it. Hard work and passion will get you where you want.

• We have to look at ourselves critically. When you design something you think of yourself first. That's natural. Your taste plays a big role in what you do. But taste is a very individual thing and you will very rarely find someone at the other side of the table who will share your exact taste completely. We're not designing for ourselves. We are designing for other people 99.9% of the time. Taste is the things you see, common knowledge, the things you read about, the furniture your parents had. You have to solve a problem, not think of yourslef and learn to not take things too seriously. 

• Design is all about making everything more and faster and nicer and sexier. But you have to be mindful of the waste this causes and it's impact on the environment. 

• Everything has to be justified in Design. A story behind it is easier to explain. A good story makes it easy for the client to understand. They'll buy the design because the story is good. Everyone gets behind design when they understand the concept. 

• Tactile physical things strike more resonance with people than images on a computer screen. You have to show an element of the process that can't just be done by anyone. If you take the time to make physical mockups and design boards and actual products clients will be more respectful of your work as simply owning the latest version of photoshop won't be good enough to replace or degrade your work.  

• A logo is the first thing you think of when you think of a brand. It's the foundation that everything else is based on. 

• The good thing is there's a lot of graphic design and the bad thing is there's a lot of bad graphic design. Who's to blame?

- Those producing it

- Those buying it

- The public - because they don't know what bad design is

- People who call themselves designers when they have no discipline and no idea.
Everyone who owns photoshop thinks that they are a designer and has an opinion on design. 

• People do care and once they understand they are willing to and want to have a conversation about it. 

• No one is educating the public about the quality of design and that's the biggest problem we have in our industry. There's no column in any newspaper, no one talks about it for breakfast. 

• Tips for graduates is that you have to be humble, hard working and never give up. You have to be yourself and not be cocky because in reality, you know nothing. 

• However good you are as a designer, you won't be any good unless you are a good salesman. 

• An explosion of designers - Too many students and too many young, inexperienced designers and much too easy to graduate. 

When designing a logo is has to perform on 2 levels: functional and emotional.

Functional criteria:

1) Is the story good? Does it make sense?

2) Is there an idea? Think of a concept that makes an idea right and timeless. Purelli tyres with the stretched P in the logo. What does the idea say?

3) Design detail. Has the logo been crafted? When you draw a circle you have to embolden the verticle lines (the sides). Design principles have to be adhered to. Anything less is shabby. 

What's the meaning behind a design and what makes it better? When redesigning something you have to think what does it actually add or is it a gimmick. A question of trends vs timelessness. 

AT&T followed trends and soon its logo became unfunctional, incorporating a drop shadow, then becoming 3D and transparent and eventually dropping the name. Soon it looked like thousands of other logos and was also very unpractical across many applications such as on wallets where it had to be embossed and on signs etc. 

Coca-Cola on the other hand, is probably the World's most iconic brand and has remained almost completely unchanged for over 100 years, creating an air of timelessness which remains relevant to this day as it has surpassed trends and passing gimmicks. 

Joanna, the junior designer who sat in on the talk traveled to Pentagram 5 times from Portugal with her portfolio before being offered a place, emphasizing how if you have a passion and a drive you should never give up on your dream and keep working for what you want. 

IN SUMMARY I learned from the talk to succeed in the industry you have to: 

• Be passionate about graphic design. Do it because you love it. 
• Have drive, motivation and never give up. 
• Learn the basic design principles and craft things properly with correct spacing etc. 
• Be humble and have a willingness to learn. You are not an expert when you graduate.
• Learn how to take criticism. Not everyone has the same taste as you. Try not to take it personally when someone doesn't like your work. 
• Always have a strong concept/story behind your work. It makes it easier for clients to understand and get behind.