This morning we had Jamie Keenan come in for a guest lecture. I hadn't seen Jamie's work before so wasn't sure what to expect. He designs some lovely book covers using a lot of photography and typography.
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| Book Covers by Jamie Keenan |
Jamie likes to create designs that combine two elements together, and often uses an "unfinished look, to give the viewer something to do". I really like the simplicity of Jamie's work, and the way he incorporates the title text into the images. My favourite of these covers is the one in the bottom right ("All shall be well") because of the use of handwritten type and the negative space.
Jamie made a lot of good points throughout his talk entitled "Things I wish I'd known", and I've picked out some of my favourites:
- "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."
Keep everything fun and always keep playing with different ideas.
- Don't become a "designosaur".
Don't be too tentative.
"We're not surgeons, if you mess up completely no-ones going to die."
- Try to turn positives into negative.
Bad news come sometimes be good news in disguise.
Things change.
- Do it yourself.
Just get on with it.
Create your own world.
- Believe in yourself and believe that you are the best illustrator in the World.
But at the same time, question everything you do.
Be on a roller-coaster of ideas.
Overall this talk was really inspiring, as well as honest and realistic, and a lot of what he told us should be really quite helpful in the future.