Lily is an MA Graphic Branding and Identity student at London College of Communication.
What attracted you MA Graphic Branding and Identity at London College of Communication?I am a very conceptual person and the course’s high degree of conceptuality attracted me here. My college degree was in commerce and I didn’t want to study branding from a sales and marketing point of view again.
When I was “university shopping”, I paid lots of attention to their course specifications. Many of them were too general for me to know what I was getting into and LCC was one of the very few courses that made me understand clearly what I would be studying.
The course specification (the 2018-19 version) stated “we approach branding from a designer’s perspective, not a business one.” This is exactly what I was looking for. So here I am.
What's the most interesting project you've worked on so far?The typography project where we designed typeface London underground stations. I did both online and offline research for three stations: Elephant & Castle, Piccadilly Circus and North Greenwich. The moment I went to those stations physically, I realised that online research can never substitute researching in the actual physical environment, which is just so much richer in information and personality. When I was organiaing my designs into a portfolio, I was amazed by the amount of primary research data I had, simply because I was there physically. From that project onwards, I found myself shift from preferring secondary research to primary one.
What are your fondest memories of your time at London College of Communication so far?The printing workshops. By workshops I mean both the physical space, the techniques, and those amazing technicians. They are patient, encouraging, and impressively articulate. I am a part-time teacher myself and their ways of explaining new concepts inspired me to improve my own teaching. They are not there to just tell you how to push buttons on different machines; they are people who have know-hows in their areas, can answer your specific questions, and help you to realise your goal.
What piece of advice would you give to new students?
If you can figure out how to collect and organise effectively, you are on the road to be a great designer.
It is funny to say, but in retrospect, what determined the quality of my work has always been the effectiveness of my collecting and organising things. By “things” I mean literally anything: course materials, notes, physical sketches, design concepts… and even those whimsical thoughts that quickly shoot across your mind.
My design problem is not that I lack inspirations but that when I need them, I can’t find them. And I can’t even count how many times I couldn’t find an image that I knew I had downloaded. So, don’t be lazy in collecting, and after collection, organise your stuff smartly so they work FOR you.
Why would you recommend studying MA Graphic Branding and Identity?As I said earlier, this course approaches branding from a designer’s point of view, not from a business one. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean it does not focus on practicality.
We are given a lot of reading and lectures to deepen our theoretical understanding of a variety of brands, but ultimately students will need to connect those theoreticals to their own practices. The course team really wants you to be able to convert know-whats to know-hows so you have practical tools to serve your own purpose.
Visit the MA Graphic Branding and Identity course page.