Interview: Kenneth Moore

Kenneth Moore is designer based in Manchester. After growing up in Brighton where he studied Art Foundation and worked at some mind numbing call centre’s, Kenneth took a long excursion around the globe for a couple of years.

Upon coming back he began studying Design & Art Direction at Manchester School Of Art as a spring board into the creative industries. Now in his third year he is one example of the many soon to be graduates coming out of design courses across the country into an industry that is at an exciting level of flux. A driven and highly motivated designer, Kenneth shares his insights of what design means to him.

To begin with, if you could outline what it is you do?

I am a final year Design & Art Direction student at Manchester school of Art. I work with ideas. I see 'the big idea' as the most important element in any good work, without it no matter how slick and polished the execution, there is no excitement in the creative process and no depth in the outcome. I realise this can be a dangerous road to take - it's easy to get lost in a conceptual maze that produces something as confused as a Shoreditch kids haircut.

I see really great design as perfecting the lifelong balancing act between brilliant execution and an exciting idea. James Webb Young talked about this in “A Technique For Producing Idea's” - linking seemingly benign things or thoughts together to create something that is original in itself.

For me this conception is the fun part and the execution is where my passion takes hold for creating beautiful communication in whatever media the idea needs to match its potential. This could be it print, digital, ambient media, publication, moving image etc.

I was once told; "don't take things to seriously, only then do you see opportunities to do things differently." Another very important thing I find to do in general is to listen. Someone wiser than myself once said 'its better to be interested than interesting." I try and aspire to do this within my work and life in general - maybe it will get me somewhere and maybe it won't.

What have been the highlights of your work?

I was lucky enough be chosen to take part in a monthly 'Design Thinking' workshop with Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic at university. The workshops usually have a challenging 24 hour turnaround and a complex brief that really needs interrogating. This process taught me some valuable knowledge and skills about how to really crack a brief.

Ian is always full of advice and is a great guy to chew over the fat with on any problem solving exercise from design too philosophy. He taught me that "identifying which battles to fight" is an important concept to apply to the design process especially when integrating a brief.

Another valuable thought that really resonates is - "think outside the box but learn to make the output work inside the box at the end." Having this insight from someone like Ian is really important for a soon to be graduate entering a creative industry that is underlined by business. It's already proved relevance because on every placement I have been on a conversation along these lines always crops up. You've got to work at the bread and butter briefs as well as the more challenging and potential award winning ones that's where "identifying which battles to fight" comes in. It seems the harder you work at the bread and butter and get what is needed on the table the more time you are left to play.

I have been told (and I think its reassuring to consider) that it's always easier to reign in a creative mind. Then teach it the ability to answer a brief with constraints and restrictions than it is to try and teach someone to think freely outside the box from scratch. If you look at the fashion industry for example, the most well respected high end designers create absolute madness on the catwalk. New styles and derived from this that are slightly less ridiculous and then so on and so forth down the chain until you end up with an item in Primark.

Without this flash of inspiration at the beginning you have nothing. Its the same with architecture, there are architects that design fantastic and genuinely genius structures and spaces that are then worked through with engineers and other architects who derive from the original what is functional. Without the original pioneering idea the final outcome could never be as it is.

The people who work like this are true influences and innovators and they inspire me. Why should it be any different with design? "It's not what you put in, it's what you leave out" is a common thread throughout creativity and I believe you have to think big to create something truly new, original and interesting. I always find it refreshing to pick up a Kilo of KesselsKramer and remember that Johan Krammer once said “After all we are in the imagination business, so let's go crazy.”

And the biggest challenges?

Keeping up with a fast moving and multi disciplinary and multi directional industry while fulfilling the needs of a university design degree. I'm a great advocate of Twitter and try to follow people who are massively ahead of their field be it heavyweight creative directors, philosophers or devout investigative journalists.

Doing this gives so much insight into how quickly the world is changing so a university degree program can hardly be expected to keep up with delivering what is needed when what is needed changes all the time. This juxtaposition can be a challenge but at the same time my course teaches other important aspects of design practice and the tutors are excellent at doing so.

One place that prides itself in trying to be constantly on the cutting edge seems to be the Swedish born Hyper Island. Conveniently it looks like they are opening a new school in Manchester's Northern Quarter in the near future. An interesting prospect and one I am currently looking into.

What events, shows, exhibitions do you have coming up?

I'm currently working on a concept and planning a pitch for the branding of the entire Manchester School Of Art 2011 Degree Show in June. Its going to be a blinder, it’s the last year my course will be entitled Design & Art Direction as it is changing to straight up Graphic Design.

We aim to go out with a well directed bang. Our year has some really brilliant designers such as my friends Sophie and Georgina known as Double Up among others that I am sure will be big names in the future. If you can you can come then you should around the end of June 2011 date TBA.

I have also been contributing to the OWT Creative zine series run by a group of students who graduated from my course last year. Their zine project is looking fantastic and you should check them out. Another publication and blog I am involved in is Fragment. Founded by my long time friend James Kirkup Fragment is a blog, club night and newspaper project I contribute towards. Based in London, it aims to keep print alive and features music and new art and design. Originally we wanted to bridge the gap between the North and the South design communities with me being up in Manchester but this turned out to be a massive, massive task! So at the moment Fragment is London based with big possibilities in the future, keep your eye on it.

Where would you like to be in five years time?

I think I would work best in creative advertising or a related field and I am currently looking for a placement at challenging, inspired and forward thinking creative places from July 2011 onwards.

In a dream world I would love to get together with a broad range of talented friends and fellow creative graduates from different disciplines and backgrounds not just designers. We would acquire a nice space and form a super effective creative vanguard of fresh minds to find solutions to today's creative problems of all kinds in a fast moving, contemporary world. We would be brief driven, hungry for design and I think its exactly what the "technology driven", "digital vs print", "social media", "dying advertising agency's" and "asking questions" creative industry needs right now.

On a more realistic note, I would love to work outside of the UK, I think it would be more challenging and rewarding. There are some studios and agency's with interesting approaches in Berlin, Vancouver, Amsterdam, San Francisco and of course New York that I will be pestering for placements soon.

Who inspires you? (other artists, designers, websites?)

Adrian Shaughnessy - Possibly the most insightful man on design around today. How To Be A Graphic Designer without losing your soul and Graphic Design: A users manual are must reads. You can follow Adrian on Twitter @AJWShaughnessy

Johan Krammer - Co founder of Kessels Kramer, Amsterdam and provider of brilliant lateral thinking and executions.

Criag Oldham - Designer at Music in Manchester and all round straight talking creative and enlightening writer. Check out his publications in association with D&AD “N12” and “10 penneth”.

Alain De Botton - Modern day philosopher and founder of 'The School Of Life'. He is a refreshing voice moving philosophy away from academia and to every day life where it belongs and where it started with Socrates but that's another story!

TED Talks- A brilliant platform for people who are pioneers of their field from all different backgrounds and subjects. Truly inspiring and enlightening viewing for free.

Johnny Hardstaff - All round exciting, clever and creative individual. Johnny kindly does workshops with us at university, he is really inspiring to be around and talk to.

"Advertising in the future has the potential of corporate money going to facilitate truly creative projects, as has occurred in art with commissions." Quote from an article of his in Creative Review.

Moving Brands - Independent international design studio that I recently saw give a talk at Design Symposium North. I love the way they work across all mediums from start to finish and really focus on telling a story about a brand.

Rory Sutherland - Big time ad man at Ogilvy International. I love his lateral thinking talks on TED and aspire to be as aware as he is one day.