Andrew Harvey of Moving Brands at Shillington London

We were so excited when we secured a talk from Moving Brands late last year at #shillolon. It couldn’t have come at a better time as our current full-time class were gearing up for portfolio time and who else better to spur you on than a designer from one of the most inspirational agencies of the moment? We were on the edge of our seats awaiting Creative Director Andrew Harvey’s presentation and were definitely not disappointed.

During his talk, Andrew took us through his journey as a designer working in London where over the years he’s worked in agencies Form and Saturday (now merged with Wednesday) as well as spending time working in-house for fashion giants Burberry before joining Moving Brands. Speaking of his earlier years as a designer he touched upon the perks of being a novice:

“Naivety is a good thing in a designer, you don’t follow the obvious conventions—you can challenge playing it safe.”

Now at Moving Brands, Andrew is a strong advocate for collaboration and teamwork—his design ethos is firmly invested in “people, personality, stories, principles, experience, experimentation, fun and above all, team”. We learnt of the trajectory of a Moving Brands project they recently completed for Irish Telecommunications company, Eircom. An enlightening glimpse into the finer details of a design job, from labouring over the tails and tittles of letterforms in a bespoke typeface to the satisfying feeling of accomplishment when it all comes together and is presented to an audience.

Andrew concluded his talk with his principles for designing in the Moving World:

1. Immerse yourself—discover your clients’ world, look at their competition, find out who you’re designing for and ask questions.
2. Ask why—ask why until it becomes painful, until you become sick of the word.
3. Heart over head—if it feels right, it’s right.
4. Give it character—there’s enough ‘nice’ design in the world. Whether sublime, exuberant, minimal or maximal, give your work personality.
5. Be awkward—what feels comfortable today will be boring tomorrow.
6. Work with the best—work with creatives that scare you, this is even more important when hiring and building a team.
7. Experiment—sketch, code, animate, write stories, prototype, make time for play and above all enjoy it as what we do is a privilege.
8. Sweat the details—that one little slip up is always a bit of a let down when you’ve invested in everything else.
9. Less, but moving—the best design is purposefully simple but leaves you feeling something.
10. Develop your taste—you got into the industry because you have taste, that taste will carry you anywhere, it will last a life time but style won’t.

Huge thanks to Andrew for joining us, we look forward to welcoming Moving Brands back for another engaging talk in the near future. If you haven’t already, have a look at their website—packed full of inspiring work—or follow them on Twitter for regular updates.