Nick Garrett

Category: Craftsmanship skills

  • You want to be a quality designer?

    Then you already are… you have entered the path

    Learning how to master…

    SHAPE: MICRO DETAILING


    I learnt how to recognise and deliver balance and (profile) shape characterisation for furniture and accessories design from an apprenticeship as a typographic designer and sign-writer.

    Task:  draw ‘C, E, O’ (or whatever) with pencil and eraser a 22cm height Helvetica, Franklin, Bodoni, Univers and Gill, accurately and you have the basis for the first rung of exceptional detailing skills. Then repeat at different sizes a few dozen times.

     

     

     

     

    Checking

    Then check the forms by drawing a box around each letter, 25mm off and not touching and drawing the void space.

    Above: here we see how the void between objects draws the forms by default. Apply this method to check accuracy and ‘follow’.

     

     

    Image above:  ‘2 Pears’ by British artist, Euan Uglow.  Lower image: type layout drawing – I used these a lot in signwriting – above there are some minor errors around the cascade of the curves… like the relationship between the internal curves and the external and where they converge into straights. Thanks to brad.sussex@gmail.com

     

    Analysing Shapes and Voids

    APOLOGIES FOR LOW RES IMAGE BELOW –

    THE TICK MARKERS LOWER LEFT INDICATE A BULGE THAT COUNTER BALANCES THE OPEN AREAS OF THE OPPOSITE SIDE AND TOP RH QUARTER SECTION.

    THE HELVETICA ‘e’ HAS A SLIGHTLY HOOKY FEEL BECAUSE OF THE COUNTER BALANCES, ESPECIALLY NOTE THE PULL IN TO THE DESCENDING TOP RIGHT QUARTER COMPARED ALSO TO THE OPPOSITE UPPER LEFT QUARTER WHICH FEELS MORE LOADED.

    ON THE BOTTOM LEFT QUARTER THE SECTION IS FULLER BETWEEN THE MARKERS – THESE ARE COMPENSATIONS FOR THE VISUAL BALANCE OF THE LETTER. ALSO NOTE HOW LIGHT THE CROSS BAR IS. 

    Special thanks to Roger Leworthy, Giorgio Morandi, Chris Chamberlain and Euan Uglow.

  • Ken Loach talks the talk

    Ken Loach: Rioters were ‘working class kids without work’

     

    The British director Ken Loach turned 75 this year and to celebrate 50 years of his film making the British Film Institute is holding a retrospective of his work.

    Asked about the political drive in his films, Ken Loach tells Sarah Montague that he has not softened with time. He also explains why he believes that the world follows a downward spiral towards economic chaos and alienation.

    I have to agree…

    When I was at school in South London scores of kids in my class just got left to slide into criminality.  Many of the most aggressive violent youngsters I knew at school were people who had talent, empowerment and energy but who were serially obstructed by a system that disowned the social mandate of providing education and jobs – a chance for all.  Today they are parents not with stability and social accord but with maligned stories of social decline.  They have in many cases lived lives at the behest of the criminal courts – mechanisms they never chose and failed to escape.  The tragedy is that we all pay for this loss.

    You cannot fail childrens’ rightful expectations, not even the most ephemeral of their valid, treasured visions, aspirations and futures and have a harmonious society as a result.

    We have the creativity and raw materials for 100% employment in UK and Europe – society is understandably reacting as a result of broken homes, economy and outright poverty.

    Nick Garrett

    You can watch the full interview on Thursday 22 September on BBC World News at 03:30 GMT, 08:30 GMT, 15:30 GMT and 20:30 GMT. And on BBC News Channel at 0030 and 04:30 BST on Friday 23 September.

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