Hamish Muir...

I was so glad Hamish Muir came in to uni to give us a lecture on his work. I really like the way he works and I found it really interesting to hear about the techniques he used before the use of computers in the design industry.His love of air-fix models as a child inspired him to go into the design industry. He started off as an amateur photographer and then went on to study visual communication at college. I was suprised to hear that he had a photography background as his work does not appear to use as much of this technique as I'd thought.In 1985 he formed the partnership '8vo' - an abbreviation of the printing term 'Octavo'. He formed this partnership along with Mark Holt and Simon Johnston.

They went on to design a number of album covers for the Durutti Column such as this one for their album 'Circuses and bread.' I like the use of a grid, it makes the collage seem very ordered and yet complicated.

I particularly like this one which was for the album 'Guitars and other Machines.' It was made up of a photo collage separated by several sheets of glass. I love the subtle colours and the shadows that each layer casts on the next.

They designed a number of posters for the Hacienda club in Manchester such as this one which was to advertise their 4th anniversary...

As these were created at a time before computers they were all made by hand. I found it really interesting to see how he made them and I think I really benefitted from hearing about a different method of creating graphic design.

They created the magazine 'Octavo.' There were only 8 issues ever made, the first 4 stuck to a very strict grid system, the last 4 used a diagonal grid...

Again these used their signiature colour scheme and the grid system again makes the imagery seem very ordered and yet complicated.

8vo closed in 2007 as companies were becoming more of an online presence and their style of work was becoming outdated.

There was a book published in 1995 by Lars Muller, entitled 'On the outside.'

Even though this sort of work isn't particularly my style I really enjoyed this lecture. I think it's really useful to see a different way of working as we I think we all can have the tendency to turn to the computer straight away rather than experimenting creating imagery by hand instead.