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Cannes Lions Design Jury
BY Ninart Lui
BY Ninart Lui
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Rodney Fitch
TAXI >>You resigned from Fitch in 1994 in order to “start again” with the smaller, more focused Rodney Fitch International, only to return as Chairman in 2003. Having taken a breather from the company you founded, what was the greatest obstacle you were facing upon your return to the fold?
Rodney Fitch>>The company I left in 1994 was independent, focused and sure of itself. The company I returned to had been through a series of owners, managers, structural and cultural changes. My task has been to create a sense of purpose and to bring everyone onside with the belief that we play at the top of the Premier League.
TAXI >>“Shopping is the purpose of life” – in a world where market brands grow increasingly homogenous and consumer brand loyalty rapidly becomes elusive, how do you envision design as part of a shaping process of the generations to come?
Rodney Fitch>>Design is the only hope; it is the great differentiator and properly used will always be so because it’s a very practical art, one that consumers can personally experience.
TAXI >>No stranger to the realm of design education, being a senior governor of the University of the Arts, London, as well as supervising an MA course in Retail design at the Hoegeschool Academy in Rotterdam, Holland, what gives you the strongest reaction towards the crafting of design education curriculums today, and how do you think this in general is beneficial or to the detriment of tomorrow’s designers?
Rodney Fitch>>All design education is good; is it good enough? My fear is that todays curriculum are rooted in past needs rather than the future. For whilst craft skills will always play a major role in the designers toolkit, they much be complemented by a more diverse range of skills and learnings. Vocational courses that do not pretend to be otherwise; Graduate courses that embrace strategies, economics, teamwork and relationship building; MA courses that are more akin to an MBA in their challenge.
TAXI >>With a portfolio spanning Amazon, Spencer, Nokia, Microsoft, Starbucks, Unilever, Ikea, Lego, DHL, BP and many other prominent global brands, Fitch has probably worked with every major brand in the world at least once. Is there any other brand or company you wished you could have collaborated with but never got around to doing so?
Rodney Fitch>>You flatter us for there are many, many brands that have never knocked on our door and I wish they had. At this moment I wish I worked for Ford in the US. The brand needs so much help and good design, across several disciplines is a part of the answer, “save Ford and we save the Western World!”
TAXI >>The Alchemists Film features luminaries of The One Club Creative Hall of Fame. What makes an advertising legend?
TAXI >>We understand that you employ the 4D process over at Fitch: discovery, definition, design and deliver. Who came up with this and what does it represent?
Rodney Fitch>> The 4D method is practical, disciplined way of approaching all manner of projects and challenges. It demands that the design team ‘discovers and defines’, before it starts designing, thus ensuring that the creative process is an informed one, not only an intuitive one.
TAXI >>You once said “I am arrogant enough not to admire any contemporary designers except Raymond Loewy”, as Loewy was the father of bringing together people of different design skills to work together collectively for a client – which is growing increasingly commonplace now. However, whom among your peers or contemporaries do you accord respect to, if not admire, and why?
Rodney Fitch>>I respect all my fellow creatives who struggles to deliver, day in day out, high quality work. I love those, sadly fewer in number, who in doing so enhance peoples lives and their experience of design. The people I admire are all dead, the most recent, Alan Fletcher.
TAXI >>In between building a “green” studio in Arizona, US, and wanting to contribute to solving the problems of the National Health Service in the UK, as well as wanting to work on the new airport and manage the traffic system in Dubai, there seems to be a subtle shift towards altruism which may not have been so apparent in earlier years. Can you perhaps elaborate a little more on this divergence from purely commercial-driven projects?
Rodney Fitch>>Perhaps I’m getting old and want to go to heaven, for you might also have added that Fitch operates, across all studios, an ongoing pro bono program for smaller, underfunded, local charities, where an effective design programme can deliver real results and is often more valuable than a donation. Altruism? Maybe a little, but more, is my genuine and long held belief that solutions to many of the worlds problems are to be found through good design because design is both an agent of change and a platform for a civil society. My ultimate goal would be a partnership with Muhammed Yunis – who knows, heavens beckons!
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Rodney Fitch>> A version of ‘sustainability’.
..........................................................................................................
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Alvin Tan
With the setting up of DesignSingapore Council, the void of organizing design events locally and internationally has been filled, which is an important part in pushing the design scene in Singapore. Design has morphed from a traditional format into a cross-disciplinary form of aesthetics in the last 15 years, much due to globalization and the internet. We are a young country without a history strongly rooted in design, but within a short period of time we did very well to make an impression on the creative scene, internationally. That goes to show we have what it takes.
TAXI >>:phunk studio is known for its signature style of controlled chaos in no matter what project it takes up – amidst all this creativity buzz, what do you do to seek out a sense of peace and balance, or is that an overrated commodity in today’s society?
Alvin Tan>>Controlled chaos explains our state of mind in a creative sense. There is always a constant flow of actions in our heads that lead to self-initiated projects. Our projects are not usually planned, if we are very inspired by a book we’ve read or a song we like, something creative happens between the book and the song, that becomes the seed for a new project. It is chaotic in a way but because of that we get to experience something and we get to control all these little things between us. We find peace and balance within that and thrive on it.
TAXI >>No stranger to controversy, you have dabbled in print, multimedia, illustration, typography, exhibitions, hosting parties, directing music videos and commercials, lecturing, etc. – all in the name of experimentation and collaboration in order to keep creative juices from running dry. Can you let us in on what you’re excited about in the near future?
Alvin Tan>>For :phunk, it is always about trying new things. We have attention deficit disorder so we are always moving ahead to experiment, entering new realms fuels our creativity. Currently we are working on the next series of Universe, which is about the creation of our own imaginary world, re-collecting our influences, personal ethos, values and translating that into a visual and physical format. Our plan is to grow it into a mature collection of works which includes canvas art, sculptures, video-art, toys and other merchandises. We already have exhibitions planned for Seoul, Beijing, Singapore and New York City which we are very excited about.
TAXI >>We are seeing a huge surge in the amount of creative output from Asia in recent years. However, the Asian market remains relatively fragmented due to relative barriers, which also poses as a very real obstacle from international award festivals trying to break into the market. How do you think this situation will pan out in the next few years, and do you think the Asian market is ready to have a home-grown world class international design or advertising festival of its own which the entire world will look towards as the definitive benchmark for creative output?
Alvin Tan>>Asians are pushing themselves into the western world and China is a good example of how the west will look towards the east. China itself has gained a lot of attention creatively in terms of its architecture projects as well as contemporary art. Experimentation is definitely more free in Asia and by being new we have broken a lot of rules.
The Swiss have a strong history in design which most Asian countries do not, you can’t compete with that, it’s like a natural resource. However Asians have a strong sense of tradition, and if you can combine tradition with design sensibilities, you create something new and strong in identity. It won’t happen so soon in the next few years, but I’m very confident that there will be a time when we’ve a design festival in Asia which the world will look at.
TAXI >>:phunk studio was the proud recipient of the prestigious President’s Design Award in 2007 – the highest accolade in the creative industry Singapore has to offer. As one of the country’s premier creative ambassadors, how would you define your role in shaping Singapore’s creative scene?
Alvin Tan>>I guess we were one of the early design collectives that started to push our own creative projects at a time when graphic design was still a very functional form of discipline. Our inspirations were our design heros and magazines, pop-culture, eastern mythology, street trends and different genres of music which we experimented with. That led to a series of work which got us a lot of attention from the international media. The internet was just booming and we got people wondering who this group of designers from this small city were, and all this time we were just dreaming up our own projects and doing our own thing. I hope through this we have inspired a new generation of designers.
TAXI >>One of :phunk studio’s mottos is: “stealing from thieves” – where you professed learning through imitating masters such as Peter Saville and David Carson because “in the internet age, controlling stuff is less important than how you use it”. Do you genuinely believe imitation is the best form of flattery? Where does “control” come in, if at all?
Alvin Tan>>If you steal and not copy, you’re making a good statement. Somebody who copies and pastes, does not think. We do believe that it is very difficult to steal an idea and make it into a clever parody. There was an instance in which a friend stole our title from “Stealing from Thieves” (which is a parody) and requested that we create a design for “Please steal this album”. It started a chain of parodies which led us to steal from our own work eventually, with a work titled “Stolen”. Recently, I was reminded of this again when I was watching Michel Gondry’s “sweded” trailer of his own movie Be Kind, Rewind, and it started a whole trail of “sweded” re-makes on YouTube. It went totally out of control and I thought that was very clever.
TAXI >>In Decade of Decadence, :phunk’s tongue-in-cheek response to its contemporaries who think you live a bourgeois lifestyle was “We can do whatever we want, however we want” – exemplified in the cover portraying a Brazilian model wearing undies with your faces on. Do you think establishing the “rebel” image has worked well for you so far, and what would you say to someone who is just starting out and wanted to embark on the same path?
Alvin Tan>>That is one of our favorite pieces of work because we enjoyed the creative process and it didn’t stop after it was done. People started talking about it and there were many stories of why we wanted to put that for the cover of a design book. With that, the creative process continued. We’re enjoying the final product and its process, that’s the most important thing about doing a piece of work. Whether the kind of reaction it garners about us being rebellious… it’s really like a band playing or an artist painting a picture and having ten different opinions from different people through their own view of things. Art explains itself sometimes. The most important thing is to do it for a reason.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Alvin Tan>>Indigenous.
..........................................................................................................
Read OTHER INTERVIEWS on DESIGN LEADERS
Steven Heller, Chip Kidd & Stefan Sagmeister
Sara Little Turnbull & Darrel Rhea
Adelia Borges & Linda Fu
..........................................................................................................
© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Interview with Rodney Fitch
 | TAXI >>Hello Rodney. Congratulations on your being elected as chair of the inaugural Design Lions jury for the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival! You famously said “I had often wondered why Cannes never honored design; for isn’t design the very platform on which so much creative endeavour is based?” – as the inaugural chair, what do you hope to see and achieve that would make the design industry a better place tomorrow?
Rodney Fitch>>I would like to see: • A strong body of work that showed the Design community really cared about showcasing its work alongside other, complementary creative work from advertising to film. • That this work should be of such high quality that our community will be able to feel proud. • And that seeing this work, will be revelatory to the client and professional audience at Cannes. |
TAXI >>You resigned from Fitch in 1994 in order to “start again” with the smaller, more focused Rodney Fitch International, only to return as Chairman in 2003. Having taken a breather from the company you founded, what was the greatest obstacle you were facing upon your return to the fold?
Rodney Fitch>>The company I left in 1994 was independent, focused and sure of itself. The company I returned to had been through a series of owners, managers, structural and cultural changes. My task has been to create a sense of purpose and to bring everyone onside with the belief that we play at the top of the Premier League.
TAXI >>“Shopping is the purpose of life” – in a world where market brands grow increasingly homogenous and consumer brand loyalty rapidly becomes elusive, how do you envision design as part of a shaping process of the generations to come?
Rodney Fitch>>Design is the only hope; it is the great differentiator and properly used will always be so because it’s a very practical art, one that consumers can personally experience.
TAXI >>No stranger to the realm of design education, being a senior governor of the University of the Arts, London, as well as supervising an MA course in Retail design at the Hoegeschool Academy in Rotterdam, Holland, what gives you the strongest reaction towards the crafting of design education curriculums today, and how do you think this in general is beneficial or to the detriment of tomorrow’s designers?
Rodney Fitch>>All design education is good; is it good enough? My fear is that todays curriculum are rooted in past needs rather than the future. For whilst craft skills will always play a major role in the designers toolkit, they much be complemented by a more diverse range of skills and learnings. Vocational courses that do not pretend to be otherwise; Graduate courses that embrace strategies, economics, teamwork and relationship building; MA courses that are more akin to an MBA in their challenge.
TAXI >>With a portfolio spanning Amazon, Spencer, Nokia, Microsoft, Starbucks, Unilever, Ikea, Lego, DHL, BP and many other prominent global brands, Fitch has probably worked with every major brand in the world at least once. Is there any other brand or company you wished you could have collaborated with but never got around to doing so?
Rodney Fitch>>You flatter us for there are many, many brands that have never knocked on our door and I wish they had. At this moment I wish I worked for Ford in the US. The brand needs so much help and good design, across several disciplines is a part of the answer, “save Ford and we save the Western World!”
TAXI >>The Alchemists Film features luminaries of The One Club Creative Hall of Fame. What makes an advertising legend?
TAXI >>We understand that you employ the 4D process over at Fitch: discovery, definition, design and deliver. Who came up with this and what does it represent?
Rodney Fitch>> The 4D method is practical, disciplined way of approaching all manner of projects and challenges. It demands that the design team ‘discovers and defines’, before it starts designing, thus ensuring that the creative process is an informed one, not only an intuitive one.
TAXI >>You once said “I am arrogant enough not to admire any contemporary designers except Raymond Loewy”, as Loewy was the father of bringing together people of different design skills to work together collectively for a client – which is growing increasingly commonplace now. However, whom among your peers or contemporaries do you accord respect to, if not admire, and why?
Rodney Fitch>>I respect all my fellow creatives who struggles to deliver, day in day out, high quality work. I love those, sadly fewer in number, who in doing so enhance peoples lives and their experience of design. The people I admire are all dead, the most recent, Alan Fletcher.
TAXI >>In between building a “green” studio in Arizona, US, and wanting to contribute to solving the problems of the National Health Service in the UK, as well as wanting to work on the new airport and manage the traffic system in Dubai, there seems to be a subtle shift towards altruism which may not have been so apparent in earlier years. Can you perhaps elaborate a little more on this divergence from purely commercial-driven projects?
Rodney Fitch>>Perhaps I’m getting old and want to go to heaven, for you might also have added that Fitch operates, across all studios, an ongoing pro bono program for smaller, underfunded, local charities, where an effective design programme can deliver real results and is often more valuable than a donation. Altruism? Maybe a little, but more, is my genuine and long held belief that solutions to many of the worlds problems are to be found through good design because design is both an agent of change and a platform for a civil society. My ultimate goal would be a partnership with Muhammed Yunis – who knows, heavens beckons!
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Rodney Fitch>> A version of ‘sustainability’.
..........................................................................................................
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Alvin Tan
 | TAXI >>Hello Alvin. Congratulations on your being elected as the first Singapore representative of the inaugural Design Lions jury for the 55th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival! Coming from a country that has been famously described as “Disneyland with a death sentence”, how do you feel Singapore has progressed in terms of growing its creative industry in the past ten years? Or if it hasn’t…why not?
Alvin Tan>>When William Gibson coined Singapore with that term more than a decade ago he was implying that we were a country that can have fun within a rigid legal system, and I think we seemed to have proved that right. Singapore has a lot to offer creatively, if you look at the 60s and 70s, there was a vibrant scene in the architectural, music and film industry. Creativeness has always been there. |
With the setting up of DesignSingapore Council, the void of organizing design events locally and internationally has been filled, which is an important part in pushing the design scene in Singapore. Design has morphed from a traditional format into a cross-disciplinary form of aesthetics in the last 15 years, much due to globalization and the internet. We are a young country without a history strongly rooted in design, but within a short period of time we did very well to make an impression on the creative scene, internationally. That goes to show we have what it takes.
TAXI >>:phunk studio is known for its signature style of controlled chaos in no matter what project it takes up – amidst all this creativity buzz, what do you do to seek out a sense of peace and balance, or is that an overrated commodity in today’s society?
Alvin Tan>>Controlled chaos explains our state of mind in a creative sense. There is always a constant flow of actions in our heads that lead to self-initiated projects. Our projects are not usually planned, if we are very inspired by a book we’ve read or a song we like, something creative happens between the book and the song, that becomes the seed for a new project. It is chaotic in a way but because of that we get to experience something and we get to control all these little things between us. We find peace and balance within that and thrive on it.
TAXI >>No stranger to controversy, you have dabbled in print, multimedia, illustration, typography, exhibitions, hosting parties, directing music videos and commercials, lecturing, etc. – all in the name of experimentation and collaboration in order to keep creative juices from running dry. Can you let us in on what you’re excited about in the near future?
Alvin Tan>>For :phunk, it is always about trying new things. We have attention deficit disorder so we are always moving ahead to experiment, entering new realms fuels our creativity. Currently we are working on the next series of Universe, which is about the creation of our own imaginary world, re-collecting our influences, personal ethos, values and translating that into a visual and physical format. Our plan is to grow it into a mature collection of works which includes canvas art, sculptures, video-art, toys and other merchandises. We already have exhibitions planned for Seoul, Beijing, Singapore and New York City which we are very excited about.
TAXI >>We are seeing a huge surge in the amount of creative output from Asia in recent years. However, the Asian market remains relatively fragmented due to relative barriers, which also poses as a very real obstacle from international award festivals trying to break into the market. How do you think this situation will pan out in the next few years, and do you think the Asian market is ready to have a home-grown world class international design or advertising festival of its own which the entire world will look towards as the definitive benchmark for creative output?
Alvin Tan>>Asians are pushing themselves into the western world and China is a good example of how the west will look towards the east. China itself has gained a lot of attention creatively in terms of its architecture projects as well as contemporary art. Experimentation is definitely more free in Asia and by being new we have broken a lot of rules.
The Swiss have a strong history in design which most Asian countries do not, you can’t compete with that, it’s like a natural resource. However Asians have a strong sense of tradition, and if you can combine tradition with design sensibilities, you create something new and strong in identity. It won’t happen so soon in the next few years, but I’m very confident that there will be a time when we’ve a design festival in Asia which the world will look at.
TAXI >>:phunk studio was the proud recipient of the prestigious President’s Design Award in 2007 – the highest accolade in the creative industry Singapore has to offer. As one of the country’s premier creative ambassadors, how would you define your role in shaping Singapore’s creative scene?
Alvin Tan>>I guess we were one of the early design collectives that started to push our own creative projects at a time when graphic design was still a very functional form of discipline. Our inspirations were our design heros and magazines, pop-culture, eastern mythology, street trends and different genres of music which we experimented with. That led to a series of work which got us a lot of attention from the international media. The internet was just booming and we got people wondering who this group of designers from this small city were, and all this time we were just dreaming up our own projects and doing our own thing. I hope through this we have inspired a new generation of designers.
TAXI >>One of :phunk studio’s mottos is: “stealing from thieves” – where you professed learning through imitating masters such as Peter Saville and David Carson because “in the internet age, controlling stuff is less important than how you use it”. Do you genuinely believe imitation is the best form of flattery? Where does “control” come in, if at all?
Alvin Tan>>If you steal and not copy, you’re making a good statement. Somebody who copies and pastes, does not think. We do believe that it is very difficult to steal an idea and make it into a clever parody. There was an instance in which a friend stole our title from “Stealing from Thieves” (which is a parody) and requested that we create a design for “Please steal this album”. It started a chain of parodies which led us to steal from our own work eventually, with a work titled “Stolen”. Recently, I was reminded of this again when I was watching Michel Gondry’s “sweded” trailer of his own movie Be Kind, Rewind, and it started a whole trail of “sweded” re-makes on YouTube. It went totally out of control and I thought that was very clever.
TAXI >>In Decade of Decadence, :phunk’s tongue-in-cheek response to its contemporaries who think you live a bourgeois lifestyle was “We can do whatever we want, however we want” – exemplified in the cover portraying a Brazilian model wearing undies with your faces on. Do you think establishing the “rebel” image has worked well for you so far, and what would you say to someone who is just starting out and wanted to embark on the same path?
Alvin Tan>>That is one of our favorite pieces of work because we enjoyed the creative process and it didn’t stop after it was done. People started talking about it and there were many stories of why we wanted to put that for the cover of a design book. With that, the creative process continued. We’re enjoying the final product and its process, that’s the most important thing about doing a piece of work. Whether the kind of reaction it garners about us being rebellious… it’s really like a band playing or an artist painting a picture and having ten different opinions from different people through their own view of things. Art explains itself sometimes. The most important thing is to do it for a reason.
TAXI >>What is the WORD, which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years?
Alvin Tan>>Indigenous.
..........................................................................................................
Read OTHER INTERVIEWS on DESIGN LEADERS
..........................................................................................................
© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
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