OUGD602 - Creative Convos - Robot Food (Eve + Chris)

Eve and Chris from Robot Food, a local design studio in Leeds came in to talk to us about studio culture, 5 day briefs and life after graduating. 

• Both graduated in 2004
• Chris did internships at Robot Food, The Chase and Big Phish in London before leaving LCA and getting a job at Robot Food.
•  Eve graduated, did a couple of placements and internships in Manchester and around the North for a year before going freelance and moving to London. 
• She started Robot Food last year.
• When starting a project on branding and visual identity the first thing you must do is establish and define the core values and perosnalities of the company/product/instituion.
• Projecting this idea should be the main focus rather than tryig to simply make it 'look good'.
• Shout about it's unique selling point whilst keeping the design memorable and simple.
• Disrupt the category by making it completely different to its competitors, eg. load and say cheese projects. 
• Always consider product, range and distribution, how will it be promoted/sold/packaged etc.
• Identitfy a consumer who is not being catered for
• Design for the consumer/audience and the category
• Find out what everyone is doing and do the opposite!
• Introduce unexpected visual styles into stagnant categories (Project-Disrupt)
• Explore 3D rendering
• Keep messaging minimal.
• Spend the first few days of a project brainstorming and coming up with ideas and researching.
• Check out Google Design Sprint - It sets time limits for working on projects.
• Tailor your portfolio to where you want to work.
• Spend a lot of time on research! Be interested in what's going on around that subject
• Show your interest in design to your boss and piers like 'Have you seen this?'
• Designers are promoted the more owenserhip they have over projects - that's how you climb the ladder.
• Working as a freelance designer means you get paid a bit more and freedom to leave and start at your own times on your own terms.
• Robot Food has a good studio culture, everyone works as a team
• Sometimes you have to stay late to get projects finished but most of the time you're out by 6pm.