excellence in design

7/28/2019 excellence in design

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EXCELLENCEINDESIGNREPORT

EXCELLENCE

IN DESIGN

DARCY LAMPTEY

TY2PRO

STEVE SIMPSON SMORGSBOARD

2012


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The ability to combine both your own characteristics andpersonality, yet bring forward a good design at the end,

is something that can be tricky to achieve. Steve Simpson

has on mulitple occasions solved this problem with lying

colours. His work is no shy of ditching the notion that

simplicity is the key in excellence in design.

For the past ifteen years Simpsons originality with his

approach to designs have won him various awards such

as The Institute of Creative Advertising & Design (ICAD)

awards for his Inferno Chilli label design. Steve also won

gold in the Association of Illustrators (UK) Images 32

for his Pure Pie branding and has regularly had work

accepted for The Society of Illustrators (NY), 3x3 Mag

awards, Applied Arts, Communication Arts & AmericanIllustration.

Categorising good design can be dificult to determine.

The deinition of good design can be implemented when

you understand the deinition of design as a whole. Good

design does not necessarily need to be categorised as only

packaging or only web design or only product design.

It can be anything as long as people can understand the

concept;whether they are f rom the design industry or not.

Hilary Cottam, the social designer and founding director

of Participle, asks t hat can something be good design if

no one enjoys using it?2

Cottam gives a good argument that good design is con-

veniently deined as simplicity and more functional, how-

ever if no-one is using the f unctional design, then is it gooddesign? As graphic designers we design for clients and the

viewers. Good design should be something that is able to

accomplish both the viewers needs to be enjoyable and

the clients needs to be functional to that speciic client. It

should be something that will never grow old, yet has the

understanding of what it is.

Steve Simpson has his own distinctive style yet is not

within trend, it is something that the viewer can enjoy yet

his chosen audiences can be identiied. The organic feeling

throughout his designs is something that will stay organic

in the future. Simpson has the ability to use his design for

anything yet still be both functional and enjoyable. When

looking as his work, there is a feeling of belong and as ifhe knows that he is doing something right.

ABOUTSTEVE

SIMPSON

The Habit o calling a fnishedproduct a design is convenientbut wrong. Design is what youdo, not what youve done.

English born, Steve Simpson is currently based in Ire-

land, specialising in both illustration design and chil-

drens books. After studying technical Illustration in

Portsmouth, he spent the irst six years of his career

working in animation and during that time, work-

ing in multiple departments within the company.

His gateway to design orientated illustration had been

when he met the founders of a design studio in Dublin.

Whilst working as an animator, he stated in previous

interviews how he would regularly change his style tomatch the type of show that he was working on1, how-

ever, as an illustrator he was able to keep a unique style of

his own, which could be used for any type of design when

you do it right.

STEVE SIMPSON TUZO MEXICAN KITCHEN

2012

STEVE SIMPSON WHEN I DIE

2012

DEFINING

GOOD

DESIGN

Fletcher, Alan. The Art o Looking Sideways. London: Phaidon, 2001

1.

NewWebPickE-magazineIssue42.NewWebPickE-magazineIssue

42.N.p.,10Jan.2012.Web.20Jan.2013.

2.DefningGoodorBadDesign:AliceRawsthorn,New

YorkTimes,

Jan

uary31,2009

STEVE SIMPSON 7UP WONDERLAND

2011


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Simspon understood that producing a menu cover needs to be interesting and above all

appealing. He understood with his design that people will see this from all angles, which

shows with the organic busyness of this design. He has sidestepped the issues that can

easily arise during a menu design with an appetising piece of imagery. When given the

brief, he was given a set of ideas from the client, like having a busy kitchen. Simpsons

ability to instantly adapt an idea into something of his own which also pleases the client

almost immediately is inspiring. Simpsons skills of being able to hand-draw fonts which

work extremely well in tandem with the imagery can be seen throughout.

Having problems with the client is always the norm for designers, yet Simpson had the

ability to work around the clients need for menu size changes but remain organised foreach illustration within the whole image. Something that gives me another reason why

I ind his work very inspiring and has potential to deine good design.

MENU COVER

FADE STREET SOCIAL


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INFERNO

MICS CHILLI

Mics Chilli is Simpsons most prized design, and it can

easily be seen as to why it has that title. Gathering inspira-

tion from the day of the dead festival in Mexico, it merges

perfectly. He gives attention to the detail that never gets a

detailed look excellently and collaborates them to create a

fun yet chillable design.

It may not have the characteristics of a t ypical chilli sauce

bottle, but that is why it has won so many awards. He

has created his own characteristics of a chilli bottle and

really understood what the product does. From the handdrawn font, to the different humanistic illustrations, he

has developed an in mind case study of how people really

feel when tasting chilli (feeling that your skin is about to

burn off).


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SMORGASBOARDSTEVE

SIMPSON

The mass growth of gaming online and free lowing

gaming on consoles is something that has reduced the

original and more enjoyable family/friend board games.

This in term creates dificulty for a designer to really

catch someones attention when designing such a board

game. A board game needs to generate the right audience

and the right category. It needs to be something differ-

ent, like most designs that have been replaced by digital

devices.

However, Smorgasboard seems to overcome such prob-lems and give a dif ferent appealing feel towards it, which

when viewed gives a glimpse of hope that board games

can still be in the midst next to gaming digitally.

Smorgasboard is a board game with a hidden determinationthroughout. SMORGASBOARD is a board game or oodies,riends, and amily alike. Players take on the guise o aspiringches as they work their way around the board in search ogastronomic success. Te object o the game is to be the frstteam o ches to graduate rom Ricks Culinary Academy! Teloser...does the dishes!3

When designing the board, Simpson had to c reate various

parts of the design:

1. Type Logo

2. Chef Character

3. Game Board

4. Game Markers - Used to move around the board.

5. Cards - Questions and forfeits.

6. Box - Packaging.

7. Barcode - Illustrated.

8. Base of Box (underside) - game information.

Enriched with its colour scheme, Smorgasboard has the

ability to progress further due to Simpsons style. Pitchinghis irs t ideas to the client gave the board game more of a

future. He states that I experimented with some charac-

ters for the vegetable around the board. But these made

the game look like it was for a younger audience. Some-

thing we might go back to if we do a Junior version.4

However, having a good design and not having a good

budget to co-ordinate this can be tricky to overcome.

With this design, and the amount of elements involved the

budget had been the most problematic. Knowing where to

cut costs and still create a good design shows experience

and the determination to create something eye-catching

without a problem getting in the way.

The most inspiring throughout the Smogasboard design isthe type used. Mostly I like to hand draw the type. Espe-

cially for logos. The type face used for this project is a res-

toration font based on Victorian newspaper ty pe.

I think this has a great organic feel that works well with

my style. On this project it also help give a more mature

feel to the game. A fun font would have made it appear too

kiddie.5 Having the right typeface can make or break a

design. Smorgasboard has just the right typeface which

with Simpsons skill creates a great approachability for

the right audience.

3.Richard.Smorgasboard-TheBoardGameorFood

ies.

Sm

orgasboard-TheBoardGameorFoodies.Richard,Maggie&Tom,

n.d

.Web.20Jan.2013.

4&

5.TakenromwhenIinterviewedStevenSimpson


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Having such a detailed personalized design can have

restrictions in the development process. However, Simp-

sons skill in perfecting this creates comfort and coni -

dence. But having such a limited colour scheme with a

great organic feel has its problems. His illustrations are

produced with over thousands of layers that are con-

verted from RGB to CMYK to keep the ile size down as

easy as possible without ruining his organic taste.

A design that looks like a new creation of colours yet

using the CMYK system can be very dificult to achieve

and Simpson does it perfectly.

As a whole, the smorgasboard has the essentials which can

be categorized as good design, however the attention to

detail and the personal approach that Simpson gives the

design brings an element of excellence. The belief of deining

excellence within a design differs from designer to designer,

however, seeing a design that answers the brief and the cli-

ents needs to perfection, is something that Simpson does so

easily. I believe that deining excellence in design is some-

thing that you can only achieve when you know your style.

Your style could be anything, but as long as you can incor-

porate your style and create something enjoyable as well as

functional then that is an excellent design.

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excellence in design