The design industry is currently the fastest growing sector across Kirklees. Huddersfield has an amazing wealth of talent and Wilson'd Republic Conference will aim to explore our design 'roots', by bringing together the network to stimulate a conversation of what part we can play in the future of Huddersfield. Design freelancers, agencies, intellectual property, business development and more. Wilson's Republic exists to provide a voice for the design community in Huddersfield. It brings together all types all types of designers, illustrators, photographers, artists and other creatives to share ideas, swap experiences, chew the fat and raise the profile of design across the town.
At the Wilsons Republic, I decided to join
the typography workshop lead by Tom Foley. Tom Foley is Creative Director of
Dalton Maag. Tom earned his BA in Visual Communications from Limerick School of
Art and Design in 2007. He later completed his MA at Central Saint Martins in
2009. Prior to joining Dalton Maag he worked with Polimekanos, Micha Weidmann
Studio, Atelier Dreibholz, Atelier David Smith. Tom also occasionally teaches
design whilst carrying out lectures / workshops at Universities including:
Central Saint Martins, University of West England, Limerick School of Art &
Design, Dun Laoghaire Institute, Ravensbourne.
I chose this workshop as typography is an
area of design I’ve always found myself focussing on. The workshop primarily
went over the basics in type design discussing how we form letters and the
reasoning behind it. I took some useful tips from this workshop but, for the
most part I had already learnt this during my undergraduate study. The workshop
did however allow me to reflect on the sustainability of branding and how a
logo for any organisation must be adaptive yet appear as a timeless identifier
for that company.
This workshop allowed me to reflect on the
branding of the WRCONF. I feel the branding of this event was very clear whilst
matching the house style of the Wilsons Republic. The website provided a good
understanding of the conference however, on the day I found the directions to
be misleading. The event was covered over all social media platforms. This allowed
traffic to the event resulting in many online platforms / news articles supporting
the brand. As I entered the event it was clear that the signposting /
merchandise was produced to a high standard. Overall the graphical media
reflected the Wilson Republic through the use of colour. Red was the primary
colour used at the event which appeared quite eye catching in all the forms of
literature and signposting across the event.
