25.09.06
Memoir to a missed colleague

I first met Alan Fletcher in the mid-eighties when, as part of a Wolff Olins team we had to show our ‘logical’ solution to Fletcher, the client’s main design consultant. It was probably my first experience of two schools of design meeting head-on – one that said ‘here’s the logical solution’, the other that said ‘but it looks awful’. Up until then it hadn’t occurred to me that one could simply say ‘it looks awful’ and get away with it. But somehow he could. (And he was right, it did).

We met again years later when he interviewed me for a job as his assistant. Both he and I knew I was entirely wrong for it - I think he may have remembered our previous meeting and that wouldn’t have helped much. Then I interviewed him for an article when ‘Beware of wet paint’ came out and we seemed to have turned a corner (by that I mean that he’d started to remember my name).

By the turn of the century we had the chance to work together on two real projects, both my own book and the Rewind project. For the first he was encouraging right from the start, for the second he helped us out of a couple of jams when the project had seemingly irrevocably stalled. And all the time he demonstrated that brusque charm that we all remember, and loved. He amazed me by agreeing to write a foreword for a little book on johnson banks that a French publisher had proposed – as ever the offer of ‘a case of nice red’ from me was all that was required, even though by his own admission he found writing a chore.

It goes without saying that his body of work is second to none. I’m sure many will hail him as one of the godfathers of British graphic design and I’d agree. In terms of visual legacy, it may get distilled to the remarkable sleight-of-hand of the V&A logo, or the publishing phenomenon that is ‘The Art of Looking Sideways’. For me it was a remarkable poster series for IBM that preceded the purchase of art for the office walls – his art-inspired posters were probably more interesting than the ‘real’ art that replaced them.

The thing that always amazed me about Alan was that he always seemed to have time for people – he became a living legend without acquiring any airs and graces. Perhaps as a suitable postscript I should share this picture he did for my birthday once – egged on by my design team (and of course a ‘nice case of red’) he produced my own typographic error, for me. I’ve always treasured it, it’s always made me smile. Just like its author, really.

By Michael Johnson, remembering Alan Fletcher

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18.09.06
Look up, number 3

Continuing our occasional series on lost typography. This was found in Camden.

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11.09.06
The Clapham Clock

A recent piece submitted for the My London/My City exhibition being held at the City Inn in Westminster. We were asked to celebrate London typographically, and decided to make a one-metre diameter laser-cut wooden clock that documents the hourly changes of life in Clapham. It starts at 8am and ends at 8pm, and each number is made up from all the logos you might see in each hour. The exhibition runs until the end of the month. We'll document your bit of your city too, if you like...

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04.09.06
Why Japan?

Some people will have you believe that the balance of power, in design terms at least, shuffles continually from city to city like some nomadic and elusive prize.

I’ve never subscribed to that. To me it’s always been perfectly clear – if you want to get on, go to London, Paris, New York or Tokyo. Probably by virtue of its lack of tourist attractions, Tokyo has always been the odd one out, but it’s a place where you go to do, not to dawdle.

Much has been written about the Japanese affinity to all things design related but this truly is a design-aware culture where just the design of the manhole covers can physically stop you in your tracks in the middle of a street.

It’s a place where a simple stationery shop can hold you for hours or their equivalent of our Woolies can leave you perplexed at a nation’s seemingly insatiable desire for yet more mechanised miniatures. Tokyo itself even has two permanent galleries dedicated to design and art direction. Now that’s got to be a world first (London doesn’t even have one, does it?)

It’s not a destination for the faint hearted. Try my 3 point quiz to see if you qualify. Question 1: do you love the beginning of Bladerunner with that amazing cityscape complete with floating billboards and fireballs? 2: did you laugh all the way through Lost in Translation? 3: do you love the idea of always getting the wrong exit from the tube and getting completely lost on a twice-daily basis? If you answered yes 3 times, start booking your seat.

Since the Japanese economy has recovered from its 90s malaise there are even opportunities for designers other than the traditional 3d variety. The Japanese working habits remain legendary though. I’ve adjusted to their unique way of running projects and appreciate their desire to let a design ‘percolate’ for a while but others struggle to adapt to an environment where ‘yes’ and ‘no’ may or may not mean what they say on the tin. Mind you I’ll never forget meeting an important art director of the agency Dentsu. Maybe I should say meetings, because it was only on the sixth meeting that he actually asked to see my work (before that I met his friend, then had lunch, then saw his office, then saw his awards, then saw his work...)

We’re enjoying the projects that are starting to come our way (but in fairness it’s taken 3 or 4 visits to get the ball rolling). We’ll continue to grab every chance that comes up, probably because it’s a uniquely odd environment to practise design. We’ll continue to explore just how possible it is to work in a completely different language (which uses 3 different alphabets), mainly because it’s a serious and unusual challenge. We’ll continue because everything we do there and every visit teaches us something new, which to us is priceless.

This is an adaptation of a recent article written for Design Week by Michael Johnson.

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Thought for the week is a regular posting-place for the visual and verbal observations of London design consultancy johnson banks.

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