As information designers, we trace a line back to the Bauhaus… 'Design
has many connotations. It is the organisation of materials and
processes in the most productive, economic way, in a harmonious
balance of all elements necessary for a certain function. It is
not a matter of facade, of mere external appearance; rather it
is the essence of products and institutions, penetrating and comprehensive.
Designing is a complex and intricate task. It is the integration
of technological, social and economic requirements, biological
necessities and psycho physical effects of materials, shape, colour,
volume and space.' |
| Julie
Depledge trained in Visual Communication and was a designer
with Pentagram before working independently as a designer. She
taught Graphic Design at the University of the West of England,
Bristol 1989 - 2003, was course leader 1992-96, and co-ordinated
the Socrates/ Erasmus European programme for UWE Faculty of Art,
Media and Design. She spent 1995-6 working in the United States
at Rochester Institute of Technology as a Fulbright professor.
From 1992 and 1999 was a member of the executive committee of
GRADE, the national subject association for graphic design education.
Her MA in Visual Culture resulted in the curation of a series
of international symposia at the Arnolfini in Bristol and a collection
of papers: 'Going
Critical': conversations about graphic design. Since 1999,
she has worked half-time at DeMo. |
| Nick
Gornall joined the team as a web engineering specialist in
April 2001 providing the necessary expertise in-house to develop
innovative and integrated technological solutions for our work.
His background is in IT support, programming, management and development
in academic and professional contexts. His MA in Information Technology
Management focussed on e-government projects. He is also a musician. |
| Kevin
Mount trained as a fine artist and was a prize winning journalist
before he moved to Dartington Hall in 1985 to run The Dartington
Press. In 1992 he joined Dartington Social Research Unit as a
research editor and publications designer to assist with a number
of UK Department of Health research dissemination projects. He
supervises the design of the journal Performance Research, which
is the vehicle for much of Dartington College of Arts' recent
writing on theatre and performance and the focus of a series collaborations
with the Institute of Digital Art and Technology at the University
of Plymouth. He has also contributed to Émigré,
a leading contemporary American design journal. |
Going Critical:
conversations about contemporary graphic design.
Click the titles to download the following papers as pdfs.
© Julie Depledge
1
Introduction
2 Participants
3 We've received orders not to move: resisting the corporate cool
4
Karaoke culture: graphic design education
5 You see I think we mean: communication design and social attitude
6 Appendix of all lecture transcripts available for research purposes,
please email
for more information.
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DeMo's business is communication design: we use visual explanation and innovative structures to make ideas and information accessible and memorable. We work with text, photography, illustration, video and sound, to prepare books, websites and many other kinds of printed and electronic material. Our strategy is to build a good reputation for cross cultural, socially engaged design and as Paul Klee might have said, we enjoy taking an idea 'for a walk'. DeMo is part of the Warren House Group at Dartington , which undertakes social research, innovative scientific development and dissemination for the benefit of children and families. DeMo collaborates with artists and arts organisations, writers and educators. We write books, catalogues and articles as well as designing them for other people. Our involvement in design education and research is guided by an interest in socially engaged practice, together with an enthusiasm for craft knowledge. DeMo has contributed artist's pages to design magazines and journals, designed materials for Dartington Plus, Dartington International Summer School and the National Student Drama Festival. We have taught information design to social science Phd students and artist's book making and typography to art students at Dartington College of Arts. Julie Depledge curated a series of events, Going Critical, at the Arnolfini in Bristol on the future of graphic design. Move the cursor over
the numbers below to see some of our work in more detail. DeMo practices socially engaged and sustainable communication design, primarily by working with businesses, organisations and individuals who are making a contribution to the rural economy of south-west England and beyond. We design materials for print and for screen based applications and develop communication strategies to combine the two. People we have worked with include: Move the cursor over
the numbers below to see some of our work in more detail. Schumacher College is a department of The Dartington Hall Trust offering courses in ecology, philosophy and holistic science. We designed a leaflet to provide information and fundraising support for their development plans. It unfolds to make a 3D object, suggesting a connection with the architectural plans that form the basis of the development. It also turns into a poster for more straightforward display. The paper object and the request for support it represents are intended to become more memorable as a result of these simple transformations. Click here to see the leaflet unfold.
DeMo provides consultancy on identity design and information design to The Dartington Hall Trust. We produced a prospectus for the Trust's successful bid to the Arts Council to set up Dartington Plus, and have worked on various other development materials. A portal has been designed to the Trust's numerous departmental websites to provide a coherent introduction to its diverse charitable activities. Click here to visit their website.
Kevin Mount has a long-standing connection with the Taylor and
Francis journal Performance Research. He has designed and authored
prepared pages for print, and electronic (.pdf) delivery, as well
as taking an editorial role in preparing certain issues for publication.
An example is Issue 9.2 ‘On the Page’ a collaboration
with the Institute of Digital Arts and Technology www.i-dat.net
at Plymouth University. DeMo is part of the Warren House Group at Dartington, which undertakes social research, innovative scientific development and dissemination for the benefit of children and families. The Warren House Group works in Europe and North America to improve social care for children and families on the margins of western society. The group comprises five activities: Dartington Social Research Unit conducts scientific research Identity design projects the aspirations and personality of individuals, organisations and brands. We use symbols, logotypes, typefaces and colours to develop memorable design strategies. Identities can be applied on a small scale, or across a range of different applications, such as packaging, websites, vehicle livery, publications, display and promotional material, and presentations. Move the cursor over the titles below to see examples of our work: Warren House Group Information design is a category of graphic design specialising in representing sometimes complex ideas clearly and memorably. 'the proper arrangement in space and time of images, words, and numbers for presenting information about motion process, mechanism, cause and effect'. In our work, it can include diagrams, charts, illustrations, maps and text, animation and sound. Wayfinding is another useful term to describe strategies to help readers navigate informational spaces, real or virtual. Click on case studies
below to read more: DeMo designs print and screen-based publications. In print, we are particularly interested in the craft aspects, concerning for example the choice of materials and bindings and using paper engineering to present ideas effectively and imaginatively. We pay as much attention to clear, well-written text as to visual design. When appropriate we like to work with other specialists in photography and illustration. Click on the case
studies below to read more: DeMo designs websites for a range of purposes but always with the aim of making them fast and easily navigable. Click the links below to view our websites, some are simple pages or an extension of paper publications: DeMo designs interactive multimedia applications for cd and web-based applications, adding sound and video to image and text. Our multimedia collaborators include the Institute for Art and Technology at the University of Plymouth and the Performance Research Journal.
ACAPI stands for Audio Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing by which responses to on-screen questions are recorded directly to a database for a variety of research purposes. Several instruments have been engineered for Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. A collaboration with Dartington Social Research Unit is examining the scientific value of the combination of considered typography and interface design and the creation of a professionally engineered soundtrack. Click on the case study below to
read more: We pay as much attention to words as to the visual aspects of our work. We have wide experience of editing and preparing research texts to make them useful to social care practitioners; we bring similar skills to translating the ideas of artists and performers into exhibition pieces and catalogue texts, and to writing copy for commercial clients. Practice
tools DeMo shares Dartington Social Research Unit's interest in academic design research and curriculum development, particularly concerning the cross-disciplinary ideas embodied in the Warren House Group's portfolio. We have a developing involvement in evaluating the effectiveness of dissemination in social care whilst also contributing, for example, prepared pages to arts publications. Click the case studies below to read more: Paperwork
DeMo Communication Design phone/fax: +44 (0)1803 762400 click 'contact' to email us Dartington is 2 miles from Totnes, Rollover a name for more information or click to email. Julie Depledge Information designer and co-director Nick Gornall Web engineering specialist Kevin
Mount Information designer, writer and co-director
'The visual language is capable of disseminating knowledge more efficiently than almost any other vehicle of communication. Visual communication is universal and international: it knows no limits of tongue, vocabulary or grammar and it can be perceived by the illiterate as well as the literate. Visual language can convey facts and ideas in a wider and deeper range than almost any other means of communication.' 'There has been a shift in the designer's centre of attention from the interrelationship of visual components to that between audience and the design, recognising the receiver as an active participant in the construction of messages.' The Centre for Social Policy was established in 1995 to complement the work of the Social Research Unit. It has a key role in developing and sustaining a collaborative network of independent expertise for the benefit of the Group as a whole. DeMo works with The Integrated Care Network part of the NHS Modernisation Agency to design printed publications and website counterparts. Integrated working: a guide uses a fold out map to help readers understand the connections between the strands of background research and implementation information. Electronic versions in html, Word and pdf formats are available on the ICN website. 'Unit Costs: not exactly child's play' was commissioned by the Department of Health to provide a nationally consistent means for social care managers to estimate the costs of looking after children. Our contribution included editing and designing the book, making use of fold-outs, colour coding and illustration to make a complicated process understandable and more bearable. Practice tools (www.dartington-i.org) are print publications, supported with web-based content, based on the scientific development work of Dartington Social Research Unit. Their purpose is to help social care practitioners put good social science research knowledge to work. Paperwork: the clinical assessment of children in need is part of the series. It describes the development of a set of paper forms to record data about children and families and to map connections between needs and casework outcomes. It discusses the continuing value of paper and the relationship with screen-gathered data. There is an interactive screen version at www.whg.org.uk/paperwork DeMo designs and edits publications for Research in Practice, which works with social care agencies to support evidence-informed practice with children and families. The work includes designing and managing research in practice's visual identity, and preparing research texts, handbooks, audio and dvd products, as well as conference and information materials. DeMo designed and provides continuous engineering consultancy to the website, www.rip.org.uk, which is central to the publishing strategy. The is managed and maintained by Research in Practice staff and has been built to meet RNIB visual accessibility criteria. DeMo has designed and engineered Flash-based ACAPI questionnaires for Youth at Risk to help staff assess young people offered places on a 'Coaching for Communities' mentoring programme and to evaluate the project's success. The ACAPI approach to personal interviewing and data collection combines voice, text and image, and seems to encourage an open and honest response to quite lengthy questioning. The database component allows researchers to use the responses for a range of analytical purposes.
Kevin Mount has a long-standing connection with the Taylor and
Francis journal Performance Research. He has designed and authored
prepared pages for print, and electronic (.pdf) delivery, as well
as taking an editorial role in preparing certain issues for publication.
An example is Issue 9.2 ‘On the Page’ a collaboration
with the Institute of Digital Arts and Technology www.i-dat.net
at Plymouth University. DeMo works with artists on the preparation of documents and catalogues. This example is an accordion-fold publication designed for My Three Fates, an exhibition by Nicholas Pope at Bernard Jacobson, London, in 2003 with text by Kevin Mount. The Dartington Hall Trust commissioned a prospectus to present a bid for Arts Council funding to establish Dartington Plus as a centre of national excellence for music and the arts. DeMo designed a gatefold, die-cut wrapper to introduce Dartington Hall and its 70-year provenance in the form of a flow of words and images This illustrated timeline formed the cover for a booklet focusing on the detail of the Trust's (successful) proposal. Click the number icon to see the leaflet unfold. DeMo has designed the promotional and information materials for Dartington International Summer School of Music, including prospectuses, posters, programmes and flyers. Émigré is an international graphic design magazine, based in California. Kevin Mount wrote and designed prepared pages which were published in two anthology issues selected by the writer/designer Anne Burdick of Calarts. The Sunday Times National Student Drama Festival commissions DeMo to design posters, flyers, brochures, programmes and other communication materials. An asymmetrically folded leaflet doubles up to work as a poster on the reverse. Their website has been engineered so that it can be easily updated each season by NSDF staff. Click on the number icon if you'd like to view the website. Theatre for Business use theatre practice and performance skills in the commercial context of workplace staff development. DeMo designed their identity and initial promotional materials - low budget, high impact -; to give them a professional presence in a highly competitive world. Riverford Organic Vegetables run an award winning vegbox home delivery business, and are expanding nationally. Julie Depledge designed a visual identity and wrote copy to match the new ‘look’ with a clearer tone of voice. Her design review led to a series of new marketing and information leaflets. The identity has since been applied to office and franchise materials, packaging, delivery vans and staff T-shirts and fleeces. Signage at a farm visitor centre, exhibition, display panels and website design are all part of the continuing work. DeMo provides consultancy on identity design and information design to The Dartington Hall Trust. We produced a prospectus for the Trust's successful bid to the Arts Council to set up Dartington Plus, and have worked on various other development materials. A portal has been designed to the Trust's numerous departmental websites to provide a coherent introduction to its diverse charitable activities. Click on the number icon to visit their website. Short Run Press is a family owned print and bookbinding company in Exeter, offering specialist craft knowledge often lost in the fast-moving digital technological environment. They asked DeMo to help them promote their business among the community of literary and academic publishers and small presses by writing and designing a product 'sampler'. At the same time, DeMo overhauled their identity and made proposals for updating their website. Schumacher College is a department of The Dartington Hall Trust offering courses in ecology, philosophy and holistic science. We designed a leaflet to provide information and fundraising support for their development plans. It unfolds to make a 3D object, suggesting a connection with the architectural plans that form the basis of the development. It also turns into a poster for more straightforward display. The paper object and the request for support it represents are intended to become more memorable as a result of these simple transformations. The Centre for Creative Enterprise & Participation is the focus for Dartington College of Arts' reach out work with the creative industries sector in south west England. It is hosted by Dartington College of Arts (one of DeMo's neighbours on the Dartington Hall estate) and supported by the South West of England Regional Development Agency. They asked DeMo to work with Tony Gee on a handbook on workshop as a form and about strategies for running successful workshops in education. The resulting publication A Moveable Feast tries to convey something of the processes, and outcomes of workshop.
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