Non-Format: One creative company of two designers divided by 4,000 miles

Kjell and I both studied graphic design but at different colleges. Kjell came over from his native Norway to attend the renowned Central Saint Martins in London; I attended the rather unremarkable Leicester Polytechnic, which has since rebranded itself as De Montfort University. I finally ended up in London after a few years working for a small agency in Bath, in the county of Avon – which, coincidentally, has also rebranded itself as Somerset, for some reason. Maybe it’s London’s turn to rename itself now that I’ve emigrated to the United States…

We both of us worked as designers for the publishing industry, which is how we met. We weren’t working at the same place, we were just moving in similar circles. We got chatting and the next thing we knew we were tackling projects together. Mostly music packaging. Then the editor of The Wire magazine approached us to take over as art directors, which we did on the proviso that we could redesign it from scratch. Luckily for us he agreed.

Think first, then design. One of the most important questions to ask is not, “What does the client want?” but rather “What is the client trying to achieve?” We reckon it’s important to ask the right questions before designing anything. One of our favourite mantras is “hierarchy is king”. It doesn’t really matter what you’re designing, what’s really important is figuring out what the most important bit of any communication is and then making sure that it’s conveyed first. The rest can wait, even if it’s just a second or two later.

It doesn’t seem so complicated to us because we try to keep it simple. The most complicated part of it really is dealing with the accounts, but that’s too dreary a topic for here. We each have our own studios and we use the wonders of technology to make our collaboration possible. Skype is a big factor. We tried FaceTime for a while but went back to Skype in the end. I forget why.

We often work with Skype on in the background to make it feel like we’re working in the same room. We basically share files between us and collaborate on every project we undertake. Everything we produce is the result of sharing and discussion. Lots of discussion.

We each have our own strengths and weaknesses but we tend to complement each other. The work is certainly better for having each other’s input. While one of us might be more inclined to obsess over the tiny details, the other will take a step back and look at the bigger picture. These roles switch constantly and each new project is a learning experience. If we didn’t see each one as an opportunity to learn something new we’d be in serious trouble. Experience is invaluable but it’s just as important to keep an open mind to new ways of looking at stuff.

Well, it depends doesn’t it? Typography requires words, which means it takes a split second or so to read the words. But that cannot mean that every photo has more visual impact than any piece of typography. It all depends. Kjell and I are great admirers of Japanese design. We can’t read a word of it but a bit of wonderful Japanese typography can often have more visual impact than a photo. We love both. There’s no need for a winner.

Every project poses its own set of challenges so, rather like photos versus typography, it’s hard to size them up. Redesigning The Wire was certainly a huge undertaking, especially as we hadn’t designed a magazine before, but that’s just a different kind of challenge to designing a fashion newspaper in a language we don’t understand, or creating lookbooks worthy of fashion designer Rick Owens, or making a set of fully working fonts for Nike, or creating an illustration that suggests a supply chain for IBM, or one that sums up the idea of curiosity for The Economist.

Actually, the biggest challenges are the ones we impose on ourselves. Sometimes we know there’s an easy solution to a problem and we simply ignore it in favour of a far more difficult solution. Case in point, the Drop Matrix videos we made for Visuelt, a Norwegian design awards. We could have designed a simple print campaign for the show but no, we had to design a typeface made of ball bearings, have a machine built that could release them in perfect formation, film them on a camera capable of shooting at 1000 frames per second and then learn how to edit them all together into cohesive videos that would be shown once at an awards ceremony. That’s a challenge we made for ourselves. It isn’t the first one and it’s unlikely to be the last.

Technology is the reason we have a design practice in the first place. We’ve both of us been in the business long enough to remember when Macs really started to change everything. I can’t draw. I can’t paint. I’m not very good at making things unless they come with a set of instructions. I can remember the first time I really got to grips with an Apple Macintosh computer or, more specifically, Photoshop and QuarkXpress, and it changed my life. It gave me a career. Since then the internet has been thrust upon us and, along with it, technology like Skype has made it possible for us to work together, as if we’re in the same room, despite being over 4000 miles and seven timezones apart. Adobe creates most of the applications we need to do our job and Apple makes the experience all the more enjoyable. Of course the changes in technology over the years have also changed the kinds of projects we undertake. We tackle a lot more screen-based projects, which is fine by us. Thinking of things in terms of movement rather than being just static opens up a whole new universe of possibilities. Technology is fun.

Like most obsolete industries, before they disappear completely they transition into craft. It’s happened with film photography and it’ll happen more and more with ink on paper. The fewer things there are that are printed the better quality those things are likely to be. Why produce a book as a stack of printed paper bound along one edge if it’s not beautifully crafted? What will be the point? If there’s ever to be a market for printed products they’re going to have to offer a tactile experience that’s worth the extra effort and cost. Having something printed will eventually become the preserve of the wealthy. But screen technology has a lot of work to do before we get to that point. Maybe the printing industry will one day consist almost exclusively of applying a coating of “screen” technology to every surface imaginable. I look forward to that. Mostly.

Less ink, more pixels.

Credit: Lookbook created by Non-Format for fashion design Rick Owens (PRECO F/W 12)