Creative Review, November 2009

This month’s issue, which is all about the workspaces and work environments of designers/studios, features a photo of my/our home studio in the Comment section, accompanying my response on the CR blog Question of the week “Where do you work” —

Since 2005 Kleber has converted to what you can call a “virtual” company — meaning we got rid of our office in London in favour of working remotely from our homes. Since we’re a small studio to begin with and have been working together for a long time it was a painless transition, and we’re in touch with each other every day via phone, IM and email.

As far as location is concerned… We’re currently spread out all over the UK with people in Sheffield, London (me) and the South-East — and have no problems whatsoever with being available for clients (we can easily meet them at their offices), and the luxury of working from home is second to none. Location these days is not important. With a proper internet connection and a phone you can work for anyone, anywhere at any time.

The theme of the CR issue was largely inspired by the excellent Studio Culture book from Unit Editions (Tony Brook+Adrian Shaughnessy). Its quite an interesting topic to discuss, partly because of the inherit voyeuristic tendency we have to have a peek into other people’s work place, but also to see how they actually work… and there seem to be largely 2 categories: the ultra-clean white Vitra/Vitsœ setup (Modernism by numbers?), or the Ikea/2nd hand/whatever works interior that kind of organically grows over the years.

Personally I’d love to one day have a wall covered in Vitsœ shelving — although Mrs M is an advocate for the democratic Billy book case. When reading about other studios and looking at photos of their work environment its always pretty obvious that the ones with all the high spec “design must-haves” impress you first time round, but on second thought they all look a bit soulless at times. And while I like some of that clinical minimalism, I personally prefer a bit of organized chaos. And Mrs M has a keen eye to combine Modern with Vintage or Ikea, to create an environment that looks alive. Even now, after more than 10 years of having worked at, and seen, different work space setups I still haven’t found my “perfect” work environment at home.
I’m pretty happy with how my work space has been for the past 3 years (constantly evolving), but there’s always that nagging “Hmm, how about a bigger desk? Should I get that extra shelving?”. But then I get rightly told of by Mrs M who has a more practical eye on things and keeps me in check while I try to convince her that maybe one Vitsœ unit in the office wouldn’t hurt ;).

(via Designed by Muller)

Comics this month (October 2009)

• Gantz #7 (Dark Horse Comics)
• Hellboy — The Wild Hunt #7 (of 8) (Dark Horse Comics)
• B.P.R.D. 1947 #4 (Dark Horse Comics)
• Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #4 (of 5) (Dark Horse Comics)
• Fantastic Four #571 (Marvel Comics)
• Astonishing X-Men #31 (Marvel Comics)
• Batman and Robin #5 (DC Comics)
• Hellblazer #260 (DC/Vertigo Comics)
• Planetary #27 (DC/Wildstorm Comics)
• War Heroes #3 (of 6) (Image Comics)
• Haunt #1 (Image Comics)
• Gravel #14 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Chronicles of Wormwood: The Last Battle #1 (’Visions of Hell’ wrap cover) (Avatar Press)
• Anna Mercury 2 #2 (Wraparound cover) (Avatar Press)
• Crossed #7 (Wrap cover variant) (Avatar Press)
• Wolfskin Volume 1 TPB (Avatar Press)

(via Designed by Muller)

Is the portfolio CMS the new black?

The other day I was checking QBN, and saw a thread titled ‘Free Portfolio Website’. The thread with the spam-sounding title turned out to be an invitation to beta test a new CMS ‘4ormat‘ (yes, I know it doesn’t add up) geared towards the ‘creative professional’. This one is the latest addition to a list that includes Indexhibit, Indxr, Cargo, Krop, Core, and probably more that I’m not aware of. Suddenly every Tom, Dick and Harry with a bit of PHP knowledge and a copy of Photoshop is building a bespoke system that allows designers to create homogenous portfolio sites.

First of all, there’s nothing wrong with the portfolio CMS. For most its an incredibly useful (and timesaving) tool to publish their work online in a structured and direct manner, foregoing unnecessary visual clutter for a focus on content.

But.

What started as something that grew out of a personal need (Daniel Eatock needing a system for his portfolio, and then releasing it to the world as Indexhibit) has become the goal in itself it seems. Your portfolio is only as good as the CMS you’re using. Me? Yes, I have accounts at Cargo and Krop — but I still have to use them. The reason why I don’t want to make the jump is because despite the qualities of both systems there would be more focus on the fact that its a Cargo or Krop portfolio instead of a Muller portfolio. See what I’m getting at?

When Indexhibit was launched, it felt like a real invisible tool that would allow you to publish your work: no fussy styling, no branding — just the work. With each subsequent system that gets launched the CMS branding becomes more prominent, taking focus away from the work. The success of Indexhibit sparked a trend of portfolio systems, some hosted (Cargo, Krop, Behance,…), others where you need to put in some extra work (Indexhibit, Core,…), with people racing to get private beta invites (yes, guilty as charged) to see what the fuss is about. While some systems make perfect sense —Krop is a job board, so why not integrate a portfolio, and Cargo grew out of a modular gallery system — while I get the feeling others are being created as a means in itself. Is it the new black?

Is it because designers are inherently curious about new technologies & services, or are we just being trend whores who want to be able to say “Oh yeah, I host my portfolio on the XXXX system” and hop from system to system — which kind of defeats the purpose of using them in the first place…

(via Designed by Muller)