You da Man(ifesto)

Stephen "The Man with the Plan" Johnson
Apr 21, 2016
2 min read

Alex Milton, the director of ID2015, held a guest talk for us in the penultimate CDC lab. He delivered one of the most engaging talks we have received during the module. He spoke about his experiences in the world of design and how he worked during the Irish Year of Design.

His talk was particularly good because he didn’t just speak about the good parts of his career, but spoke about the more difficult points, such as when he left Lincoln Car Company due to difference of opinion. Having always wanted to be a car designer, he learnt (perhaps the hard way) it was not for him, and that he was in fact a better design director. For me, the fact that he spoke about the good and bad aspects of his career gave a proper insight into my future career. That it will not be plain sailing and that there will be some bumps in the road along the way.

From start to finish, his talk thoroughly enjoyable. From the Claystation project, where everyone and anyone were given a go at redesigning the London skyline and buildings. This piece was fascinating as it allowed people who normally would never have even considered doing any design work to do some of their own. The project was one that focused on fun, team work and collaboration in the world of design and in the design process.

Following on from his talk, we were tasked with our own manifesto to improve the design presence in Ireland. This task was tricky, as the sheer time needed to do this was something we do not have at the moment, seeing as we have 6 deadlines in the next week. Personally I felt the workshop was not up to the standard of the talk. It lacked something, be it overall explanation of what was to be done, or just being done at the wrong time, it really wasn’t my cup of tea.

That said, myself, Finch, Brian and Cian managed to throw together some decent pictures to tie the idea of “Our People, Our Designers, Our Land” into a plausible concept. With some nice graphics to illustrate our point, we tried to get the point of our identity being one of our greatest strengths. By highlighting, and emphasising how good and rich a culture, history and population we have, we tried to show off what good things we have, and what sets us apart.

One piece of advice I gained from the Milton talk however was “Don’t apologise for anything” to which I replied “Sorry”. This is something I do quite often and something I wish to take on board. Not only does the apology straight away make it look as though you lack confidence in your work, it also gives the audience something to pick up faults on.

All in all, I did really enjoy the day. However, I would have rathered a longer talk and lecture from Alex, because I enjoyed the projects, pieces and topics he spoke about. Even still, had we had this at the original time it had been scheduled at, I feel it would have been received slightly better.