Anthony Burrill Lecture

I lived with a horse

Anthony Burrill’s lecture is one that is memorable due to the way in which he talked about his work with enthusiasm and had a narrative to go with most of work which makes the person connect with a piece of design more, in addition to this by starting the lecture of with a picture of himself and a horse it showed a sense of humour and the person behind the work. Before the lecture by Anthony Burrill I had never really knew much about his work or style of practice, as he was a artist I had not previously used as inspiration due to I have never really looked at type as the central imagery in a design piece. His lecture started off with the work that he did after his degree and was based heavily on found text, signs images and handmade pieces of design which he created in his kitchen and created a zine every month that was stapled together and was commonly in black and white which was cheaper, I felt that by starting off at this point it showed how he has developed as a designer and how his previous has impacted his work now from the boldness of the type and clarity of the work which can be seen from a distance. It also shows what he did after his degree which is a time that many people worry about the time before becoming a designer that works in the industry. One of the most memorable work in the lecture was the posters that he created for the Hans Brinker a budget hotel in Amsterdam as a type of anti campaign in the way in which he was trying to put people of the hotel but in turn peoples curiosity made the place more popular, which is something that is not seen often in design and how advertising can only do so much in preventing people to do something. The style of flyer design suited the place well due to the type of budget nature of the place as the simplistic drawings and bold type made it look like a normal flyer, this however changed in to a more stylized piece as the hotel developed and became more professional, I particularly like these posters as the simplistic imagery and clean type make the work professional and beautiful to look at. In addition to this Anthony Burrill’s London underground posters have the same design aesthetic and the bold imagery is modern and can be seen from a distance also the restricted colour combination and clear typeface make the piece memorable. After moving from London to the countryside village Rye, Anthony Burrill’s worked focused on the use of a letterpress in which he made the iconic piece ‘work hard & be nice to people’ in which he gave away to people in the town and to friends in London the bold type and coloured background make the piece stand out and from its boldness it makes the person take notice, from the simplistic nature of the piece it gives the type more power and words more meaning. After this piece Anthony Burrill then developed a wide range of different quotations that were presented on a different coloured backgrounds, I particularly like these poster series as quotations and sayings is something I like to incorporate in to my design practice as I feel that it makes the design work more memorable and gives the viewer something to think about rather than only looking at a piece of work and seeing it at face value.  In moving away from his style of poster designs I liked the bold geometric pattern design and the bright colouring in his work that was created for the band Acid Wash and how his bold prints that he created for the Kemistry gallery in London where then transferred into the sleeve design for the band and in addition to this where the inspiration for their set design in which moved with the music, this caught my attention as it made me realise how a piece of design can be changed to suit very different media formats but still keep its original feel and style. Anthony Burrill’s work in Korea for the happiness for ever day life showed me how the style can be transferred in to different format and in addition to this how the traditional geometric Korean patterns can be modernised and brought to life in a different style with the introduction of a modern typeface.

 One of the aspects of the lecture that related heavily to the unit x project that I am currently undertaking was Anthony Burrill’s work in Sao Paulo and the collaborative process in which he created one of his poster designs with a Portuguese artists, which therefore meant his style of poster design was both in English and in Portuguese. The poster is however a one off due to the printing methods but in turn that makes the piece more special and memorable.  It was also valuable to see how he takes his research and the stuff that inspired him from his own photography he took. ‘Oil and water don’t mix’ is one of Anthony Burrill’s most famous posters that came out of the Bp oil that hit the Gulf of Mexico the piece is the most memorable for be apart from being a beautiful piece of design work is the way in which the concept of using sand and oil which related to the tragedy happening to print the image rather than just normal printing ink make the piece more unique and it also showed how a relatively old method of design can be tested and adapted to suit a particular theme in a more conceptual way.