Showcase: Craig Oldham

This is the website of the Manchester based graphic designer, Craig Oldham, who left Falmouth in 2006. It's one of the best sites by a young designer I've seen for some time - and there are a number of projects here that will be of particular interest to you, I like what he hast to say about Branding a Colour, which should help those of you on the I AM A BRAND brief who are struggling to identify your palette, the poetry book he produced for the BBC also has plenty of parallels with the animated poetry and typo briefs that FDA1 have worked on, and his ambiet media campaign for Adidas is clever and economic ( which is, frankly, what most of your competition briefs should have been )

All of the work here indicates a designer who takes the time to understand the brief, the client and the language needed. I keep banging on about having an emotional connection with the work and letting that drive your creativity and this just goes to show that the more you engage and investigate - the stronger and 'cleaner' your work will be.

Interestingly, I find the way he presents himself just as important. All of you working on your professional practice portfolios have struggled to find your own identity ( not that unusual - it's easy to design for clients but very difficult to turn the focus on yourself ). This is a designer who has a very clear sense of his own identity and a tone of voice that comes through the written parts, he has established his perspective, interests and sense of place ( .. he is even more 'Northern' than me ). I keep telling you that this is the industry of communication and you must use everything in your power to connect with the design community, your clients and your peers - but to do that, you need a very clear sense f who you are and what you are trying to say ( ... now do you understand what the 'Brand' brief and P&P are all about?)

I like the fact that he talks about himself and his industry - and the technique of having more than one version of his CV would be a useful approach for some of you who are struggling with your own.

Spend some time reading the words as well as looking at the pictures, and note that he also asks YOU to respond to him.

Some of his work.

( I doubt that any of you will know what the Urbis was, click here for it's current site... it was formerly a brilliant art and design center that is about to become the worlds largest football museum. This is called, I believe... progress )