Neville Brody: Wanker or Genius – The Verdict.

Another unmissable event in the D&AD President's Lecture programme and provocatively entitled too. But it was all part of the fun and refreshing to know that while Neville Brody takes his role seriously as a designer in society, he can see through the facade of being regarded as a design celebrity.

The other widely reported quirk to this evening was the usage of twitter and its invitation for everyone to participate and ask questions with the all important hash-tag. Our host for the evening, the ever-readable Adrian Shaughnessy, keeping Neville on topic and occasionally browsing the tweets for those emperor-baiting questions.

And Studio intern Scott got the first question! He asked:


A valid question and one that perplexes most students, frustrated by choice. Neville stroked his chin and answered that "you can never have enough chairs" or "everyone should have their own font". For a designer famous for creating his own fonts, he would hardly restrict himself to his favourite three. Plus, mostly his letterforms are hand-drawn, like his recent title sequence for the film 'Public Enemies'. He gives good font does Neville.





The work exhibited was all recent examples from his Research Studio. Which was cool considering he could easily rely on the legacy work of the 80s - The Face and Arena magazines pretty much define the era. And here is where the theorizing began and much more chin stroking. Neville really needed a whiskey to complete the picture. He feels the decline of popular culture and societies use of design began with Thatcher, Reagan and Haircut 100. Seriously, this must have amused and befuddled the youngsters but this stuff could help your Critical Studies. For the record, he remains deeply suspicious of the Tories and fears the worst if Cameron gets into No.10 next year.

He is also frustrated by the way design is taught at art college. That there is too much focus on aiming for a career and not enough time to nurture creativity, stating, "college is to nurture your soul - your convictions". OK, but the times haven't changed that much. I went to art college to learn a trade and obviously graduates want jobs. But I do agree, there are too many graduates competing out there. But like all great thinkers, there was an element of self-contradiction. Neville thinks there should be 100% creativity and 100% skills. So, learn flash.



After Adrian branded a heckler a wanker it was our time to vote. The audience was all given voting cards, each to hold aloft in Apprentice style. And like a suited Dermot O'Leary I can reveal the result. From my seat it was 65% Genius / 35% Wanker.



Nicely done D&AD. Visit Research Studio here.

PS. Neville considers himself a genius because he is a Spurs Fan. And all you Arsenal supporters say... ?