D&AD President's Lectures: David Hillman

Unfortunately, Studio slunk in twenty minutes late for this event thanks to delays on the rail network. Typical. Anyway, stood at the back I was still in time to hear David Hillman talk about his work in the sixties and take his guided tour through the decades that followed. In conversation with Patrick Baglee, it was a relaxed evening and like the many magazines that David's worked upon: content packed.

Is David the Austin Powers of the industry? Behave – but he was in London just as it was beginning to swing, working on the Sunday Times Colour Supplement and being appointed art director of London Life magazine in '65 at the style hungry age of 20. The word 'colour' is key to the sixties, where the UK was leaving behind the black and white world of post-war austerity and dazzling all with its creativity.



Working on Nova magazine from '69 until its closure in '75, he helped create a richly photographic and lavish publication for men and women (which confused potential advertisers). Its content, forever striving to break taboos such as reporting on homosexuality, VD and other confrontational issues. The design would also challenge the status quo - David's favourite example being a front cover featuring a pair of legs instead of the required formula of printing a Big Face. Such a crusading spirit resulted in a desirable magazine you didn't mind being seen reading on the tube.



Step into Patrick Baglee's D&AD tardis and you'll promptly appear in 1988 where David has been asked to re-design The Guardian. By making such radical decisions as placing the masthead on the right and the ultimate heresy of placing text content above it. Plus, a belief in quality photography and designing around the Big picture. There's a feeling throughout David's career that he continues to be in the right place at the right time, but with the talent to create era-defining design.



Of course that was a long time ago, and The Guardian has had another facelift since then (David dislikes the blue bar masthead) - here we are in 2009 and local newspapers and national magazines alike are facing closure. But for David he doesn't believe the threat is from technology alone. It could be the publishing industry itself. Where is the imagination? We still enjoy the printed word, greedily absorbing magazines and newspapers in depth and at our leisure, rather than the quick hit of the interweb. But we will only be appeased by provocative, stimulating content – superbly designed. For David, he sees too much repetition in news stand racks - the same celebrity faces staring back at a fame deluded public. The future can learn from the simplicity of the past - content to be driven by the 'idea', and the vital combination of style and substance.

Visit David Hillman's Studio here

Far East and Far Out With Andi Sapey

Andi Sapey is one of Studio's regular collaborators and takes a great picture. And I'll tell you a secret; designers love working with photographers - as we sit chained to our macs, we envy them as they race around taking fabulous pictures, talking casually to models and generally recording a more glamourous world. And here is your exclusive preview of his recent second trip to Japan.



Andi was like an over stimulated child when he first returned from Tokyo. He absorbed its fluorescent and dizzy culture, seen its eccentric youth tribes which ram raid the 20th Century for inspiration. And he took a lot of pictures. Even the crowded street shots tell their own story, with the occasional face in the crowd disguised by a surgical mask - respectfully not spreading germs.



"While you're out there, take plenty of pictures of young people", I asked him before he left, "I want to see what they're wearing". I wanted to see its youth culture – and the Japanese appear to have borrowed much from the bored and disinterested of the west and ran with it. And created an identity strange and fascinating but still their own.



These guys are the Bōsōzoku, a 50's style motorcycle gang who look to have been cloned from Gene Vincent's DNA. Their exaggerated quiffs threaten the ozone layer and doorways alike. They hang around, rev their bikes and dance to a weird electronic rock and roll, stomping madly and binding their winklepickers with black tape so they don't fall apart.











BBC Four's recent 'Hidden Japan' season, featured the photographic work funded by Albert Khan, a wealthy retired banker who while travelling the world despatched a photographer to document his journey - and in colour too. He first visited Japan in 1908, and discovered a country on the cusp of change, their national identity still proudly routed in the past but about to be consumed by the wider world. It's weird to compare Khan's shots with Andi's – 101 years apart but still revealing an amazing culture. Japan still respects its traditions, but with a wicked sense of humour.



Here are the links: Andi's Flickr - Albert Khan on BBC Four. And Andi's main site.