In no way strange.

Studio music policy. Now there’s a touchy subject. When Julian, our Creative Director, isn’t insisting on a start-to-finish playback of the Grease soundtrack, there’s Studio Manager Dawn requesting Energy 98’s hands-in-the-air euro-trance cheesefest. It’s enough to drive you insane. Or in my case, put some headphones on.

I like listening to music when I write, but it has to be the right kind. When you write, you should be listening to the words in your head as they hit the page. So any particularly vocal tunes are distracting. That means hip-hop’s a no-no, Olivia Newton-John is out and Energy 98 should be locked in a soundproofed room…full of vipers.

Matthew Herbert on the other hand is just right – light and sinuous, deep house grooves with hushed rhythms and jazzy melodies. He’s pretty cool, I’d recommend him.

He’s an interesting guy too…

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You get a great feeling of pride when you see your work appearing in a book. It’s like that nice feeling you got when your Mum put that picture you did at school on the fridge for all the family and relatives to see. I knew when I received my copy of ‘Touch this, Graphic Design that feels good’, that I had a piece inside it… it was only when I flicked through the pages that I was amazed to see three pieces of work I did with my then Art Director, Simon Rowlands, had been chosen to appear in this fabulous book.

Compiled by Designer Scott Witham, who has worked for global clients including Sony, Virgin, Orange and the Royal Bank of Scotland, ‘Touch this, Graphic Design that feels good’ features intriguing projects that incorporate a gamut of “you can’t print on that” materials, including pleated, Issey Miyake type forms and razor-thin metal business cards; X-ray film; heat-sensitive inks; ceramic tiles; and carpet samples. In short, there are design solutions in this book that use any and everything, except plain paper.

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It’s not very often that I see a graphic design book that really amazes me with the levels of inventiveness contained on every page. Tactile, however, is certainly a book that does that.

Tactile shows how graphic design is moving into three-dimensional objects and products and presents graphic design that works with space or the perception of space. The book focuses less on murals than on products, objects, installations and collage that demonstrate how designers are developing and implementing their ideas spatially from the very outset of a given project. Tactile proves that spatial innovation in graphic design is not limited to personal work or artistic endeavours for exhibition, but is being sought out more and more often by commercial clients, for example in store design.

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Abram Games was one of the most influential Graphic Designers that this country has ever seen. He created some of the most memorable designs of the 20th Century by following his own personal belief of: Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means… and back in the early 90s, maybe ’92 or ’93, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by this true great of design at Icograda (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) Conference.

To be honest, when I attended Icograda that year, I had absolutely no idea who Abram Games was. In fact as far as I was concerned he was just a warm-up to the main attraction… Neville Brody. Yet as I entered the Odeon Cinema where Icograda was being held that year and was greeted by his work… it soon became clear that even though I did not know the name Abram Games… I certainly knew his work.

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Red C are celebrating yet another award win thanks to the Communications in Business (CiB) awards. Our ‘Spot the Difference’ campaign for Wolseley’s Electric Centre has been given an Award of Excellence and is now shortlisted for a Class Winner award.

The British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB) is the UK’s leading professional body for in-house, freelance and agency staff involved in internal communications. And our ‘Spot the Difference’ campaign really struck a chord with them as it aims to ensure that employees who work for Wolseley’s Electric Centre have high levels of customer service.

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