Welcome to Second Thoughts - a new and hopefully regular feature on Thought for the Week. It’s a spin on those question-style articles you see eternally asked in the weekend magazines. They of course rarely ask any designers and general creative types, so we’re going to fill that gap.
First up, Why Not Associates’ Andy Altmann.
On leaving the Royal College of Art in 1987 Andy formed the multi-disciplinary design group Why Not Associates with fellow graduates Howard Greenhalgh and David Ellis. In over 20 years of experience Andy has worked for a range of clients including Malcolm McClaren, Pompidou Centre, BBC, Channel 4 and the Tate Modern, on projects ranging from exhibition design to postage stamps via advertising, publishing, television titles, commercials, corporate identity and public art - most recently the award winning Comedy Carpet in Blackpool.
How old were you when you first suspected you could become a designer? I guess at St Martins School of Art in the mid eighties.
Did you see or experience something early in your life that was a significant influence? My mother watched me studying the label on the back of an HP sauce bottle as a child and asked me why i was looking at it. I said 'someone must have to design this label'. It led to a life long addiction to HP sauce and design/typography.
Who were your early heroes(and what do you think of them now, in retrospect)? George Best was my first hero. I still think he was the greatest. If only I could design like he played football.
What’s your recurring dream (or nightmare?) I don't really have any.
Describe the worst boss or client you’ve ever had. My God, if I described some of the mad clients we have had I might get sued! One (no names mentioned) liked a presentation so much he got his member out under a glass table top and pretended to masturbate! And then wanted to shake hands when we left!
What’s your worst Apple-z (‘undo’) moment? We had problems with our optical drive years ago and sent it to be looked at. They also requested the discs. They then wiped them losing 3 years of work!
(Above) Typography Now: The Next wave - a collaboration with Edward Booth-Clibborn and Rick Poynor.
What do most people cite as your best/most well known piece of work? I think it has to be the book Typography Now. Very often I meet a thirty-something creative who says how influenced they were by it. Rather like I was by Pioneers of Modern Typography by Herbert Spencer. Although the Comedy Carpet really seems to have touched a nerve with so many different types of people, not just designers.
The Comedy Carpet in Blackpool. A collaboration with artist Gordon Young.
What do YOU think is your best piece of work? Why? No idea really. They are all part of their own time. I never really look back. I'm more interested in what is happening in the present.
What font would you choose for your gravestone? It would have to be Gill Sans.
(Source: Wikipedia)
What wins, ideas or style? If you can execute a great idea with great style then that is the perfect solution.
People have different ways to stay enthused, excited and interested in what they do for a living? What’s yours? My enthusiasm has constantly fluctuated over the years. Many times I've considered trying to do something else. But I'm always seeing things that inspire me. It may be a purchase from ebay, a found scrap of printed ephemera, a sound, a photograph... anything and everything.
When and where do you have your best ideas? It used to be in the pub.
Seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, tasting. You have to give up two. Which ones? Wow, that's difficult. If pushed – smelling and tasting.
If you could travel back in time, just once, and give yourself a few words of advice, what would they be (and when would you say them?) Don't have that last pint. Last Friday.
Do you still draw or has the computer taken over? When we left the Royal College of Art in 1987 we just had a drawing board each. As computers developed we gave them away. About four years ago I bought one for home and one for the studio. It's so nice to get off the computer and get a pencil out. I really miss the craft element of producing artwork for print. For many jobs over the past few years we have tried to produce things by hand. It's really good to get your hands dirty!
What’s the worst design crime you’ve seen (or committed?) Mmm... I think it's best I don't mention the worst design crime, especially at this moment in time.
Poster artwork by Howard Terpning
You can only watch one film, read one book, listen to one album and eat one type of biscuit. What would they be? Film: Oliver (the musical).
Book: I can't wait to read Peter Ackroyd's forthcoming book on Charlie Chaplin.
Album: Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
Biscuit: Dundee (I don't think they make them any more but they were large, circular shortbread chocolate biscuits. So large you couldn't dunk them without nibbling off an edge)
Let’s say it all goes pear-shaped. What’s your back-up plan? As Spike Milligan said 'we've never had a plan... so nothing can go wrong'.
Thanks very much to Andy for kicking off the new feature.
Find out more about the Why Nots here: www.whynotassociates.com.
Follow johnson banks on twitter @johnsonbanks, and feel free to suggest who we should ask next #2ndthoughts
