Graphic Designer Tony Clarkson tells us about his journey that led him to create his hardback book that promotes his new studio venture: Severn. “I’d been pretty restless at the old studio for quite a while but told myself that it would be ok, that things would change and things would happen if we worked at it, but we never got around to it and things just coasted along. After finally admitting to myself that it wasn’t going to happen there I left to start again and I needed to somehow set the stage. I looked back over that time to see where it all went and I saw that much of it wasn’t pretty, what was I going to do? I came up with TENYRSLTR. By looking for the smallest detail left from a brief which was still worth something.
Clarkson presents his newly made hard-backed, 100-page book filled with a collection of work and images from the past 10 years. The theme of the book shows you should always keep moving forward, and looking back can give the incentive you need. It represents the time spent waiting for ‘it’ to happen when at the back of your mind you know it’s not going to unless there’s a big change, looking back over that time to see where it all went and seeing that much of it wasn’t pretty. Looking for the smallest detail left from a brief still worth something, the smallest piece of typography, a logo, an image… all overlooked by a client. Interspersed with reference points along the way it is turning negatives into positives to help launch a new, more creative studio.
This particular publication has a purpose of celebrating the fact that the artist decided to leave the mundane and the same-old, in order to start again. To look for the work that he would be proud to be doing, the kind of work which will be seen because Clarkson wanted people to see it. Clarkson felt that after having ten years under his belt and not enough to shout about in terms of work worth shouting about was all wrong, but nonetheless here are some bits worth seeing, the bits that managed to get past design experts in marketing departments.
It was time to move away from the corporate catchphrases, the -ilities, the -alities, the no-brainers and the miscommunications. To do something different.
Something that Clarkson will happily say, ‘I did that’. A final word of advice from Severn is that “you should always try to keep moving forward, and looking back can be a great incentive.”
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