Graphic design veteran and recent graduate Rob Mowbray was one of twelve lucky graduates chosen to show his work at Emerge this year. The brains behind the captivating 'Flatland' (an impressive typographic reinterpretation of the novella Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott), Rob talks to us about on the power of creative freedom and his love of "exotic mediums”.
Rob Mowbray is clearly extremely happy to be one of the graduates exhibiting at Emerge 2011. Patiently sitting at a wooden table, making a tally of visitors to the show that day; he talks enthusiastically about his decision to become a graphic design student after two decades in the creative industry.
“After working in the commercial industry for 20 years, including owning my own design company, I wanted to move away from that.” So Rob is cultivating his career in reverse order, surrounded by young graduates, with dreams of heading where Rob has already ventured. “Working as a commercial designer meant constantly thinking about cost and target audience, there was very little freedom. When I started the BA it meant unlearning all of that commercial stuff and having the chance to be creative without restraint."
‘Flatland’ is the piece of work that garnered Rob a place at Emerge this year. Following a brief that asked him to “challenge the standard conventions of a book.” A panic surrounding his ideas for the initial concept was matched by his commitment to the construction of the work: the first chapter required positioning 3,226 geometric characters, which took up an entire week. Thankfully this hard labour paid off, tutors at Croydon College decided that the work was worthy of merit. The college contributed towards production costs of the final piece while Rob spent 9 hours cutting the acrylic and 3 long days assembling the panel, a labour of love.
Drilling, cutting and acrylic, Rob has shunned print in favour of what he describes as “increasingly exotic mediums”. MDF is a particular favourite and this too appears as a backlash against his ‘other’ life as a commercial designer: “During a career spent almost exclusively in a print-based environment…I made the conscious decision during my undergraduate studies, to work in any medium but print.” Rob lists glitch art and data bending as areas of exploration, enjoying the unexpected, random results they produce. “Working with as many methods as possible makes for a far richer design experience.”
Rob lists his Croydon College tutors as huge influences. "They were always pushing and encouraging me to un-learn accepted boundaries and develop new ways of thinking and doing.” Un-learning is a phrase Rob comes back to a lot during our conversation, a bridge between the commercial and academic worlds of design.
For some, the supposed demise of illustration and ‘classic’ design leaves them horror stricken, for Rob alternative mediums are an inevitable part of the evolution of design, “Graphic design, by its very nature is required to constantly evolve and adapt in order to utilise the latest and most efficient modes of delivery.” While more designers may be exploring alternatives to illustration, Rob does not believe it is the end of the art form, “I can detect no discernible slackening in the demand for illustration.”
For Rob, the majority of graphic design is largely an assault on the senses, “the commercial influence of branding and market research techniques seems to remove any spark of originality from most design.” Does he find it difficult to look at work without an analytical eye? Rob has no trouble switching off, “we are only jolted from this trance-like state by startlingly good - or remarkably bad design.” The difference between good and bad design for Rob is the age old notion of graphic design as art with a purpose: “at its best, design communicates useful information with a kind of wit and originality that genuinely lifts the soul. Bad design is a pollutant - adding nothing useful to the human condition.”
By – 04.10.2011
http://www.jotta.com/jotta/published/home/article/v2-published/1859/emerge-2011-rob-mowbray-interview
