January 2nd 2009 - Visited Ray Gregory at Norwich School of Art.
Ray has been teaching at Norwich for 22 years, before that he worked in the design industry for over twenty years, both self-employed and working for the London based studio, Minale Tattersfield.
My attention was first drawn to Ray by his contribution to 'A Smile in the Mind' where he nails his colours firmly to the mast with the view that the skills necessary to conceive witty graphic design solutions can be taught. As this was the focus of my dissertation, I contacted Ray and set up a meeting.
Ray progressed from Stoke on Trent School of Art to a three year degree course in graphic design at the RCA. It was here that he became a convert to the ideas approach to visual design, inculcated by a number of American tutors including Bob Gill. It is this principle that Ray pursues to this day in his teaching at Norwich. In his words the course at NUCA is "unashamedly commercial, but from a position of challenge not acquiescence." There is no academic snobbery here. The aim of the course is to produce "design graduates who can think through problems rather than decorate around them. Style is easy because it's mostly derivative and usually self-indulgent - design by thinking is a more useful and longer term proposition," he says.
It was this fervour for the ideas approach that led to Ray's contribution to 'A Smile in the Mind'. During production of the book, an ex-student of his, working at The Partners, suggested that if the authors truly wanted to review witty ideas in graphic design then they should go to the 'horse's mouth': Ray Gregory. Ray admits that he has never read the book beyond proof-reading his own contribution and recalls turning down the free lunch at a London restaurant, offered by way of payment, for a sausage roll and two pints of lager with two ex-students. In fact Ray is slightly disappointed in the way in which the book casts him as an academic, a strategy he believes to be intentional on the part of the authors, designed to incorporate a solid educational view point. In Ray's mind they completely disregard his twenty years of work within the industry.
Without doubt there will be many graphics courses around the country that share Ray's passion for ideas but where he and his fellow team members, Ray supports 3rd year under-graduate students, impress is the thought put into the design of the course. All elements contribute to the development of an ideas approach whilst at the same time reflecting the broad range of graphic applications. In Ray's words the course is 'practice-based'. The third year students, for example, are required to tackle briefs that address corporate identity, packaging, publicity, book jackets, editorial and advertising/direct mail marketing. Throughout the course, no brief lasts longer than three weeks. The results, whilst neither ground-breaking nor avant-garde, are impressive in terms of the widespread use of wit, depth of thought and the quality of production.
How do they do it? Ray has a number of strategies and approaches that he adopts with his students. Essentially the general approaches can be summarised as:
- Begin reasearch with what you know because this is likely to yield solutions that are universally understood - if you knew it, without in depth research, the chances are that others will also know it.
- Visualise, visualise, visualise - push on through multiple ideas. Ray occasionally sets briefs where, via crits, students are not permitted to develop similar ideas. He pushes them on to unique solutions. Often those found towards the end of the process are the best.
- Don't go for the big idea, go for many ideas.
- 'See it - Do it - See it' is Ray's mantra to describe the cyclical design process. It is not sufficient just to visualise ideas. You have to put them into practice. Realise them and then review them.
- Don't necessarily dwell on design for the 'worthy' causes. They are difficult for experienced designers to deal with. A birthday card or wine label offers as much scope and is just as worthy of our consideration.
- Relax into the process otherwise your outcomes will be tight/anxious.
- Place restrictions on the brief - rewrite it for yourself.
- Use self-questioning throughout the process. For Ray this strategy was born out of frustration in his days at the RCA. He now sees the 'what if?' approach as of enormous value and often models this process alongside students until they are able to internalise the method. Questions might vary but they should be designed to clarify and move the process on.
- Brainstorm adjective and metaphor descriptors around the subject of the brief. Look to see how the subject can be implied rather than explicitly depicted, implicit/lateral not explicit/literal. Imply by using the opposite or by missing/cropping imagery.
- Explore verbal and visual associations related to different view points and research around the subject.
- Think on beyond the product - What is it that you are really buying into/purchasing? e.g. when you go into a DIY store for a drill bit, it's really a hole that you're after.
- Collect examples of witty design solutions.
Briefs have been specifically engineered to support these skills and strategies. They include:
- Design and promote a useless object. Develops a strong sense of the absurd and suggest avenues for future witty thinking.
- One Word Poster. Poster design around one word attending to visual and typographical associations with the chosen word.
- Design a Pub Sign. Terrific scope for lateral thought and subtle implied meanings. How many ways could you suggest 'The Spread Eagle'?
- Two Random Lists. Select a word or phrase from each list and visually promote the combination e.g. Jazz (list 1) on Ice (list 2) or Singing (list 1) under water (list 2).
- Random Word Associations - Select two random words and then generate as many associations as you can between them e.g. bomb and wig - fallout. No design required, simple idea generation in the de Bono mode.
- Imply using opposite imagery, e.g. How can you use cat to suggest dog?
Ray believes that what marks out a student's capacity to assimilate and wield the skills and understanding that underpin witty visual design is intelligence. Intelligence here is not necessarily the logical analytical variety but a type that embraces humour and intuition and whose quick-witted response has the capacity to ad-lib.
Ray believes that there is always a solution that has a degree of wit to it, no matter what the brief. It's simply a question of casting searchlights in the right areas. He is an interesting if somewhat irascible character who claims never to have read a single graphic design book and who doesn't hold much truck with the design establishment. He refuses to analyse what he does too deeply, believing that such pedantry is likely to jeopardise the spontaneous intuitive aspects that he holds dear. He agrees that a certain amount of analysis must take place in order for him to assess and nudge students on, however, for Ray, instinct and intuition are king. By his own admission he wasn't on top form for our meeting. Celebrating New Year he had fallen and gashed his temple. Fortunately the booze had anesthetised the effects of this until the following day but it couldn't mitigate the shame.
What was noticeable looking around the studio with Ray afterwards was his pride and attachment to the students and their work. What was also apparent was just how widespread the application of witty thinking was throughout that work. It was both inspirational and yet disconcerting.
