This was a useful talk by the designing pair who have just combined their efforts to form a publishing company -Unit Editions-. They talked openly about their opinions on where design is going and the problems of designers drawing too closely on the visual language from past decades. What was most interesting was their love of the book as a valid form in contemporary culture, given the progressive nature of much of their work. They saw, quite rightly, that there is room for well crafted design books which exist as a beautiful object in their own right and that the care that goes into their design has a great deal of value. They talked for quite some time about images of other designers studios which they collated from designers all over the world. They spoke of different ways of working which were equally valid. From large agencies to lone designers and small agencies that can produce co-operative work while working from different countries (thanks to the internet). This was useful to me as it covered the ways in which I’d like to work. They discussed much of the publishing work they now undertake and the cultural value of print work like studio culture magazine and the spin papers. They have prooved that there are innovative ways of interperating the idea of a paper or a book and that working on projects off their own backs, which they find interesting, can have some resonance with people and people will buy them. Despite the appearance of their companies size they operate very much as a cottage industry and even do much of the physical work themselves such as packing up and posting books to customers. This was very appealing.
