The Harrington Lecture Theatre,
The Harrington Building, UCLAN /
Adelphi Street, Preston, PR1 7BE /

Speakers From 6.30pm /
Networking from 8.30pm /

Directions here
Register by emailing here

Cliched, but true: the future of our industry will be built on the passion, skill and creativity of our graduates. As part of an ongoing commitment to ensuring this responsibility is passed into safe hands The Hub and GroupHub has put together an event dedicated to the creative and design students of our region.

This special gathering will centre around Craig Oldham’s infamous 12 IN 12 presentation—a fresh, frank and funny run through of things you should/could learn in your first year as a designer. This presentation comes with a beautifully crafted pamphlet (available on request here from Craig’s site) and has gained something of cult following since Craig first delivered it at Falmouth University last year. More on 12 IN 12 here.

Whilst this event is specifically for students, it’s not exclusively for students. Anyone in our industry could benefit from the down-to-earth intelligence that Craig brings to his understanding of the design game and the gathering will also provide creative businesses with an ideal opportunity to scout for new talent.

Read on for more information on this event in Craig’s own inimitable words:

When that dreaded time of year comes around where the Universities open their gates and out pour the thousands of Design graduates looking for that elusive first job, I get a little troubled. I feel that there’s a veil of mystery (sounds like a Harry Potter prop) between the act of leaving College (or University) and landing that all important first job: and this is something I tried to correct in the production of the 12 IN 12 booklet.

12 IN 12 is an accompaniment to a lecture I gave in April to the students of University College Falmouth. When I was invited to give a talkie I didn’t want to resort to the usual ‘show and tell’ approach that I had experienced so many times during my Design education (as I feel there are more suitable people to tell the story of The Chase—my place of work—other than myself). I decided that it would be more useful to the students to speak of the things that they would really like to hear about the industry they’re entering. Thus, I gave an account of 12 things that I had learned in my first 12 months as a designer. Things that I feel I could have only learned through an active participation in the industry, and not from the outside looking in.

Not only offering advice on placements and portfolios I also raised issues about the professional practice of Designers and the industry; I touched upon the different cultures of designers: those working more rationally and logically compared to those who strive for an emotional connection between their work and the audience; how Graphic Design can be just a job, where as being a designer can be different; and the realisation that Designing can be a reasonably small part of the job.

The twelve things are:

• Understand what Graphic Design means to you.
• Be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses.
• A portfolio is for life, not just for an interview.
• Placements matter. Do them.
• The Design industry is small, everyone knows everybugger else.
• Participate with other people and share your ideas.
• Graphic Design is just a job, but being a designer is different.
• Fall off your bike. If you don’t fail then you are not trying.
• Life and work exist outside of London.
• Designing is only, about, 20% of your job.
• Have a life outside of Design.
• Work hard and be nice to people.

The 12 lessons were discussed in an open and honest, black-and-white manner to engage the students and to allow for accessibility between them and the subject. With this in mind I allowed a lot of mistakes to remain uncorrected; I wrote it in my personal, conversational tone (which, you’ll find, reads with a Yorkshire accent); and I handed them out for free.

Ffffound this and thought it would be cool to get a string going. Fonts are full of character as well as characters—anyone up for Art Directing their favourite font?

Something similar here: http://www.grouphub.org/2008/10/16/font-characters/

Speakers:

Moy Williams
John Washington
Andy Walmsley
Steven Johnson

Originally planned for May 2008, we’ve decided to resurrect this event due to popular public demand for what promises to be our most heated discussion
to date.

We all know that the path of design progress is littered with casualties. Compositors, typesetters, pre-press—extinct species rendered redundant by the rise of technology. As this relentless advance threatens to add ‘photographer’ to the list, the GroupHub March event will cut to the chase and ask do we need them anymore?

Featuring an illustrious panel of photographers and art directors, we’ll be discussing the rise of stock libraries, the advance of CGI and the magic of that ‘A’ button on your digital SLR. We’ll be looking at how these advances affect the role of the photographer and, more importantly, what impact they are having on the quality and integrity of the output of our designers.

Places are free, but limited, so please register here so we know how many sausage rolls to buy.

South Meadow Lane, Preston
From 6.30pm /
Free entry, food and welcome beer /
Register here

As well as being a vehicle for driving our work to ever-greater heights, GroupHub is a vibrant creative network: a gathering of like-minded people around a shared passion; a catalyst for new collaborations, partnerships and projects.

With this in mind we’ve decided against ‘The road to Bethlehem: the role of wayfaring systems in the birth of Christ’ as a theme for our Christmas event and gone with ‘Beer, food and chatting with mates’ instead.

Yes, our Christmas special will be all about fellow feeling and getting know thy neighbour. With a warm room, festive food and more than a drop or two of Christmas spirit you’ll have the perfect opportunity to get to know your fellow GroupHubbers a little better.

Mistletoe and party games included.

Places are free, but limited, so please register here so we know how many sausage rolls to buy.

The events space that we’ll be using is an impressive self-contained hall that doubles as an art gallery. We will have complete autonomy from the main pub area (completely eradicating any unwanted background noise) whilst being a stone’s throw from the bar.

The New Continental is located on South Meadow Street, Preston.  If you’ve never been before, check out directions here before you set off – it’s a little off the beaten track but still within walking distance from the centre.

Whilst we think the fusion of arts space and pub complements the GroupHub personality perfectly, we don’t expect you to take our word for it. Register here for our November gathering, see for yourself and please feedback your comments after the event.

Font characters

A very special evening with international type guru, Bruno Maag. As always, places are free (how on earth do we do it!?), but are limited. We’re already receiving early registrations for this event so make sure you email our events team at events@grouphub.org Please note the new venue – more on this soon. Check out the new Continental here and read on for more on Bruno Maag.

Born in Zurich, 1962, Bruno Maag graduated from Basel School of Design, Switzerland, with a degree in Typographic Design and Visual Communications. From Basel he moved to England to work for Monotype. After a year and a half in England, Bruno transferred to Monotype Chicago where he was responsible for their custom typeface department. During this time he re-cut all of the typefaces then in use by The New Yorker magazine for use on Macintosh.

After returning to England in 1991 Bruno started Dalton Maag with Liz Dalton. His studio designed typefaces for clients like British Telecom, BMW, Hewlett Packard, and many others. Amongst some of his own designs is InterFace, a contemporary Sans.

“No one who is good just dabbles in the typographic arts. As Erik Spiekermann once said, ‘You don’t do type. You live it.’ The problem is that just ‘living type’ is not enough. Compromises and trade-offs are almost always necessary to have a rewarding career and life in type.”

“If you love letters and want to draw type, you will love all aspects of the process. Never again will you crave color or graphic design layouts. Instead you will marvel at the beauty of letter shapes. You will adore serifs and terminals, curves and straights. Type will be yours for life.”

“If you want to get rich, don’t go into type design—become a lawyer, banker or accountant. Design type because you love it.”

http://www.daltonmaag.com
http://www.daltonmaag.com/news/61.html
http://www.stepinsidedesign.com/STEPMagazine/Article/28791
http://www.tipocracia.com.br/blog/en/2008/04/22/interview-with-bruno-maag/en/
http://www.identifont.com/show?3WF
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/features/experimental_typography
http://www.scottbillings.co.uk/?cat=25
http://www.designweek.co.uk/Articles/137502/Balancing+tricks.html

There’ll definitely be a Hub delegation being dispatched to check it out, but if anyone else fancies a having look, let us know and we’ll get a school trip organised.

More info and registration here: www.liverpooldesignsymposium.com/

Speakers //

Ben Casey / The Chase
Bryn Jones / City Brand, UCLan

As Preston finally begins to live up to its city status, GroupHub’s September gathering will be looking at the vital role the design and creative community needs to play in defining it’s new look and feel.

In addition to being inspirational designers in their own right, Ben Casey and Bryn Jones are dedicated Preston ambassadors and vocal advocates for its potential as a new city.

The Tithe Barn project – and the flurry of regeneration that it will hopefully inspire -  is about to change the visual landscape of Preston forever. More than simply creating more places to work, rest and play, this vital phase of transition will define Preston’s identity and character for generations to come.

As well as showcasing inspirational plans to transform Preston into a vibrant, design-led urban centre, we’ll be discussing the dangers of leaving the new Preston in the hands of town planners and calling on your support to get design on the agenda.

Designers of the county unite!

Places at this event are free, but strictly limited. Please confirm your place by emailing our events team here.