Working in an educational space is vital for the development of a creative craft, but a professional career can take creatives away from their instincts, bringing immediate pressure to focus on the commercial aspect. A residency can be the best way for recent graduates and alumni to earn a living while sharpening their creative skills.
One such example of this is the GMD Residency: a paid initiative that sees BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design alumni return to the College to develop an independent project over the course of 5 weeks. This gives alumni a chance to experiment and improve their craft outside the harsh environment of freelance projects and high-pressure internships, setting them up to deepen their creative journey and create more impressive works in the future.
Working individually or as part of teams or collectives, residents work alongside current students and staff to create new and exciting projects. They also put together workshops to share their practice with the wider community of LCC and beyond. This all culminates at LCC’s summer degree shows, where their final work is featured alongside LCC graduates. Friends, family and the wider public can then see the fruit of their labour and see first-hand how their craft has developed over the residency.
This year, the GMD Residency was completed by two former students, who blended moulding and materials with extensive type knowledge to create something truly unique.
For their residency, Peter Roden and Marion Bisserier worked with moulds made of mycelium (a structure of fungi similar to plant roots) to create Fungal Flourishes – an ornament arrangement made in mycelium inspired by the interconnected nature of fungi. They developed a series of type ornaments inspired by organic forms from the world of fungi, before transforming their ornaments into 3D forms. From there, they used moulds to grow their forms into wall tiles made of mycelium, bringing students along with them to create an entire structure made of these mycelium tiles.
We caught up with Peter and Marion in their residency to chart their journey through the world of graphic and media design. We also spoke about Fungal Flourishes, the GMD Residency and where they plan to go in the future.
Peter and Marion currently work as freelancers, operating at a small design studio called Leighton Space. Run by Peter, it’s a small space in Kentish Town where they can carry out their various projects. Graduating in 2017, Peter’s design journey has taken him to different designers and creatives, and although he tends to revolve his practice around typography, he’s committed to keeping things fresh. “I like to keep things as diverse as possible, mainly to keep myself interested and challenged so that not every project or design solution ends up down the same avenue,” he explains.
Meanwhile, Marion spent time at several design studios including Two Times Elliott and Studio Nomad (plus a placement at Pentagram). After casting the net wide, she’s beginning to understand where her passions lie. “One thing that has fascinated me since university is type design and typography, mostly through the letterpress workshops and doing a lot with my hands”, she says, before adding: “I try to apply this analogue curiosity to everything I do and I think it’s especially compatible with type design.”
Born to a French family but growing up in Amsterdam, Marion was a keen drawer as a child, with trips to the record shop and a love of album giving way to an appreciation for Matisse as she got older.
For Peter, his love of design came from a childhood couched in music, photography and skateboarding. Although he wasn’t a natural at drawing or painting, he came to appreciate the medium through album art and skateboarding graphics, and this allowed him to explore his craft in a more creative way. Some of his early influences include Willem Sandberg, Bluenote Records designer Mile Reid and, after a trip to the Design Museum as a child, Wim Crowel. “I liked the predigital era of design where elements like type had to be hand drawn or cut, it adds a touch of humanity I think that is sometimes lost now,” he says.
When speaking of why they chose to go to LCC, Peter and Marion both spoke of the facilities available at the College, but there were unique aspects that spoke to their specific experiences. “I know there are many benefits to leaving your hometown,” says Peter, who grew up in London, but recognised the opportunities available to him in the capital.
Meanwhile, Marion took the opportunity to study abroad and was convinced to study at LCC after attending an open day. “Seeing people on the move, making things in workshops and walking around with aprons on was such a breath of fresh air after sitting in a classroom for 12 years,” she reveals, before deciding to pick BA (Hons) Graphic and Media over BA (Hons) Illustration and Visual Media due to the former giving Marion the flexibility she needed.
Peter and Marion's best memories of their time at LCC include exhibitions, trips across the country and the incomparable feeling of completing a degree. “I think a memory that stands out to me was when I learnt how to use the commercial Heidleberg Litho printing press with Tony and printed a series of posters on metallic paper for my final hand in,” says Peter. Marion remembers a broccoli-inspired typeset for her foundation year, where she worked with the letterpress technician at the time Christian Granados to learn how to print and layer colours. “We got weird looks from Tony at the time every time he passed because it was just a silly little vegetable drawing by but since then I never stopped going to the workshop,” she says.
Although Peter was 2 years ahead of Marion, they met on a workshop and bonded over their shared enthusiasm for type. During a deep conversation with Senior Lecturer Monica Biagioli, Marion was first turned on to the GMD Residency and she reached out to Peter to tell him all about it. “One of the best pieces of advice I was given last year is to keep working with people, freelance or not, in order to sustain creative momentum and learning,” she says, before explaining that Peter’s experience with process and making things in the physical sphere made him an ideal partner for the residency. Peter took the opportunity with both hands, encouraged by the chance to create outcomes without client oversights, plus the opportunity to work with LCC’s facilities.
Although the use of fungi is something that hasn’t quite been explored much in the design world, Marion and Peter came across the idea separately before deciding to join forces. “I had just started growing oyster mushrooms at home to cook and was learning all about the potential of mycelium as an organic material,” says Peter. “I find fungi fascinating because they don’t belong to any category within the Western understanding of the natural world. They make me question everything!” Marion says.
From there, Marion sought out Peter, knowing he would be able to help take the project to the next level. “I knew that it was starting to be used within building and interior projects by growing into moulds,” Peter says. Marion added: “Collaborating with Pete who has a lot of experience with mould making and ceramics brought the project closer to materiality and the environmental aspect of making something physical.”
To go along with their interest in fungi, Peter and Marion decided to use another component with similar standing in the design world: ornaments. “We felt that like fungi, ornaments were something overlooked and underappreciated. Neither type nor illustration, neither animal nor plant,” Peter explains. “It felt an appropriate avenue to take for this project as it also gave us more scope to embrace the varied forms and shapes of the fungal world without having to translate them into legible typography.” Marion added: “We decided we wanted to make something that had a cyclical life, that could decompose.”
Although the scope of the residency was only 5 weeks, Peter and Marion took some before submitting their proposal to prepare for their residency. They tested different forms of mycelium and honed the aspects of the workshop that would allow students to gain the best experience.
The residency itself was split into five parts. Firstly, Peter and Marion worked to familiarize students with the letterpress machines. From there, they brainstormed and sketched type ornaments based on the form and structure of fungi. Then, the students developed and refined glyphs based on the ornaments.
The next part of the residency involved learning more about sustainable and eco-friendly materials, leading nicely into the introduction of mycelium. Production testing was the next step, experimenting with different types of mycelium to understand which properties would lend themselves best to the purposes of the residency.
Once that was completed, it was on to the modelling workshop, where students would take their fungi-inspired ornaments and convert them into 3D-printed models. The next step of the residency was to convert these 3D printed models into moulds, and vacuum-form plastic over them ready for the mycelium.
Overcoming a slight overgrowth issue, the mycelium would enter the mould still alive, growing into the vacuum-formed spaces. Once the shape had been established, the team had to dehydrate the structure – killing the mycelium and solidifying the shape of the mould, ready for tiling.
The final step of the residency was putting together the tiles ready for exhibition – where Peter and Marion would have Fungal Flourishes displayed alongside student work at Shows 2024.
“The hands-on activities we did with the students like the letterpress workshop with Theo Hersey and the filling of the moulds were my favourite moments,” says Marion of the residency. “It was a lot of hard and frantic work as I could only work within the LCC 3D workshop opening hours but I managed to get it all finished in time,” added Peter. “It was a welcome change from my mostly meditative desk-based work at my studio, nice to put in some elbow grease and work up a sweat.”
The process of working in a residency can be somewhat surreal, especially after spending some time in the ‘real world’ of a professional creative career, but Peter and Marion both took plenty from the experience.
Peter talks about his appreciation for the more communal aspects of the design process, using communication with outside sources to further develop ideas. “It’s not often in my commercial practice that I have the opportunity to exhibit and showcase my design outcomes and then discuss them with other people in my field,” he explains. “I think this was really valuable and gives me more insight and purpose when taking projects like this further.”
Meanwhile, Marion was quick to espouse the benefits of learning more about yourself, creating new friendships and connections in the process. “The importance of allocating time, when you can, to self-initiated projects after graduating and using it to explore avenues of your practice that commercial work might not offer you normally,” she says.
Peter plans to grow his studio Leighton Space, and alongside his client projects, he has aims on creating more ‘sellable’ items within his ceramic work. “This project has reminded me the value of self-initiated and experimental projects, so I also aim to make time for another one this year,” he added.
As for Marion, she’s heading back to school to study a Masters degree at Royal Academy of Art (KABK) – located in Den Haag in the Netherlands. “I want to nerd out on type as much as I can with fellow bézier curve weirdos and come back to London with a fresh insight,” she explains.
Finally, Peter and Marion gave us their thoughts for any prospective students looking to study BA (Hons) Graphic and Media Design. Peter recommends prospective students take some online courses and familiarise themselves with the concepts and techniques that will make up most of their study at LCC. “I find that if you already have a decent understanding of what these things are you will waste no time learning and get stuck into the fun parts,” he explains.
As for Marion, she echoes the same idea of getting stuck in to all that LCC has to offer. “You’re probably tired of me saying this but going to the facilities, doing all the inductions. I find that the more techniques I’ve learned the more ideas I seem to have when starting a project,” she says. In addition to that, it’s also important not to get too pigeonholed by the course and its expectations – instead, Marion says to focus more on honing your craft and understand your own creative voice.
“Once you’ve graduated, your work will naturally mould itself around it anyway through your experiences. Better to go nuts first and enjoy it.”