Iain Macdonald

Cultural change in the creative industries: a case study of BBC graphic design from 1990–2011

Using his own experience as a witness and participant in the convulsion that the BBC, and specifically the BBC Graphic Design Department underwent, the author aims to illuminate the cultural change to the creative industries in many advanced industrialised countries that has occurred over the last 20 years. Many industries in the past have undergone similar ruptures and transformations and they will again in the future. The author hopes to draw lessons from an analysis of television graphic design using examples of work that can point out the attributes and skills that a new designer across the globe will need to have and obtain in order to withstand future industrial and cultural changes.

Designing to engage a television audience: how are different media used in TV ident creation?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how designers attempt to engage audiences through different media in TV idents; and to explore how the human mark (such as drawing and model making) in a hybrid with digital media can not only revitalise traditions in design, but also the reception of illusion in this context. Design/methodology/approach – The study focuses on the work of RedBee Media, a company that has a global market and reputation. The phenomenology of how BBC Three and BBC 2 Christmas were rebranded was examined through interviews with the designers and animators involved. Taking a media industry studies lens to examine an art/technology divide the author will expand the visual culture theory of Manovich’s (2007) metamedium. Findings – The influence of technology on television graphic design is contested and continual. Designers might begin to question rather than rely on technology through the process of design. They can confront generic software solutions and apply more critical ...

Political Economy: Conditions of Production

Using his own experience as a witness and participant in the convulsion that the BBC, and specifically the BBC Graphic Design department, underwent, Macdonald aims to illuminate the cultural change to the creative industries in many advanced industrialised countries that has occurred over the last 20 years. Many industries in the past have undergone similar ruptures and transformations and they will again in the future. Macdonald hopes to draw lessons from an analysis of television graphic design using examples of work that can point out the attributes and skills that a new designer across the globe will need to have and obtain in order to withstand future industrial and cultural changes.

Richard Stammers: Visual Effects Supervisor

The Moving Picture Company has long been at the forefront of the movie visual effects (VFX) industry, having started as a television post-production facilities studio in London’s Soho in the 1970s. Richard Stammers is one of their world-leading VFX supervisors who has worked on Prometheus (2012) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) to name just a few. He reflects on his design education and how that informed his career path to VFX. Stammers explains the factors that influence the creative decisions when balancing aesthetics and narrative in constructing and designing the spectacular (and even unspectacular) sequences that have drawn in huge cinema audience around the world. The advantages of combining real elements with CGI and the comparison of using model miniatures over CGI are debated.

Adam Valdez: Visual Effects Supervisor

The Moving Picture Company has long been at the forefront of the movie visual effects (VFX) industry, having started as a television post-production facilities studio in London’s Soho in the 1970s. Adam Valdez is one of their world-leading VFX supervisors who has worked on The Jungle Book (2016), Maleficent (2014) and The Lord of the Rings (2002). Valdez describes how he learned his VFX craft through working with real lights and cameras in a studio on Jurassic Park (1993), then being mentored by Star Wars VFX legend Phil Tippett. Valdez offers a contrasting argument that is more concerned with the emotional impact of the narrative over any particular process or production methodology.

Nobrain: Directors and Animators

The French studio Nobrain comprises directors Saii, Charles and Niko, who began their careers as compositing artist, computer graphics editor and post-production supervisor, respectively. Despite what may appear to be a digital orthodoxy they were responsible for the acclaimed multimedia animation sequence for the Christmas on BBC2 ident (2011–2015). Nobrain prefers a rougher, more organic texture and aesthetic to the once ubiquitous smooth veneer of CGI. Nobrain’s CGI experience informs its process to exploit the speed and cost-efficiency of computers to often imitate heritage practices. The Christmas on BBC2 idents involved puppeteers working as consultants to provide the raw movement of characters, which were then imitated with greater flexibility that is only possible with CGI software.

Momoco: Motion Graphic Designers

Momoco is an award-wining small studio based in London’s Soho that began in Los Angeles when Nic Benns from England and Miki Kato from Japan teamed together after graduating from California Institute of the Arts in 1999. Under the influence of Ed Fella and Jeff Keedy they had a privileged education in typography and graphic design that has contributed to their television and film titles for HBO, BBC and Hollywood studios. Their understanding of heritage graphic processes and approach to research are essential to the success of their ideas. They combine context and narrative factors with great technical skill in Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D. Momoco sees a bright future for interdisciplinary creative work that blends literature and music with moving image design.

Graham McCallum: Executive Creative Director of Kemistry

McCallum’s long career covers the most radical and challenging developments in television graphic design: the introduction of colour, video and digital technology. He moves with the times, and his inquisitive exploration of materials and processes are fuelled by his creative and intellectual curiosity as a designer. McCallum’s perspective is rare, and he provides an eloquent critique of the business and moving image culture. McCallum has gone further than many to raise the public awareness and status of design through his gallery in Shoreditch, London. The Kemistry Gallery sits beneath his design studio offices and offers a window to contemporary graphic designers, as well as celebrating some of the legends of the last 50 years, himself included.

Heritage and Digital

Macdonald introduces the concept of heritage and digital media within the domain of moving image design. ‘Heritage’ is defined as traditional, analogue and handmade practices that predate or overlap digital technology. ‘Digital’ is considered as a description of the means of production and also a medium of communication. A theoretical overview is provided to position the book in relation to Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard amongst others. Using the writing of typographer Eric Gill, who abhorred the idea of combining craft and machine-made design, Macdonald argues that a hybrid approach can revitalize film and graphic heritage crafts that might atrophy and die if they were not combined in digital media practices.

Skills and Educational Research

Macdonald gives a brief introduction to the technological changes of the last decades of the twentieth century that affected creative industries as well as art and design education. Williams (Culture, 1981) argues that as new technologies arrive there is more of an overlap than an immediate replacement, but today the situation is particularly confused by the rise of online social media and communication. The democratising impact of digital technological advances in moving image design and particularly how that affects art and design education are discussed in relation to practice-based learning.