Friday, 9:16am
2 December 2011

The Sheffield connection

Discovering a diaspora of former TDR designers in Eye 81’s ‘The far side’

A reader has pointed out an unintended pattern in the latest issue of Eye magazine.

In ‘The far side’, Chris Maillard spoke to five design commissioners about the way they manage to ‘commission good work, steer it past corporate obstacles and keep a relationship of mutual respect with designers.’

Top and below: Cover and spread from the University of Sheffield postgraduate research prospectus 2011-12, 2010. Designed and art directed by Human, the Sheffield studio founded by Nick Bax. Photography by Shaun Bloodworth.

shef-spread

Curiously, three of the five clients had commissioned work from the studios of designers who had once worked at The Designers Republic: Nokia (Build, Michael C. Place), Sheffield University (Human, Nick Bax) and Deutsche Bank (Universal Everything, Matt Pyke). As the Eye reader pointed out in an email to the editor, it is interesting to see the alumni of a small Sheffield studio [i.e. TDR] ‘working globally on their own terms.’

Deutsche-Bank-media-wall-1

Above and below: Media wall, Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, 2011. Creative direction and design: Universal Everything. Creative coding, Field.io. Photographs: David Mullins.

Deutsche-Bank-media-wall

Below: Spread from ‘The far side’ showing work for clients Nokia (left) and University of Sheffield.

Nokia-Shef

Below: Spread about Deutsche Bank commission.

Deutsche-Bank

For an article about Sheffield and type, see ‘Sense of place’ in Eye 58.

For more about The Designers Republic (see Liz Farrelly’s Reputations interview with Ian Anderson in Eye 71, below).

EYE71 cover (1000 pixels)

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop. The new issue, Eye 81 is out now – see Eye Before You Buy for a visual sample.