This project evolved from a few conversations with Gareth Jenkins in 2008, and developed into a program committed to educate about the importance of design in our everyday world. How do we get across the value of well thought-out design? We implement it in all our work and client projects - but as he often says, “good design should be invisible.”

Yet often when viewed from a different position, it all makes sense. What I am trying to emulate is that slightly smug satisfying ‘a-ha!’ feeling when you understand.

You certainly notice lack of it when design is not there. Signage systems in licensing office, milk carton pourers that ejaculate, a billboard with five phone numbers on it as you speed past on a highway, the list is endless. In larger competitive markets, products, services and companies that are not well designed from the core add to the high failure rate of start-ups. Nature on the other hand takes care of this by itself - Darwinism.

I take everyday objects and construct them into a logo-mark using our style font; Meta Serif. Using photography I capture a point-of-view that we would normally see. But by then changing that position - we see the real subject is a lot different. By using the ‘everyday’ I can utilise our wonderful vernacular, colours, cultural events and seasons.

This is an obvious departure from my normal work, but we believe in pushing ourselves to step outside from our safety zones. When taking this on, I am actually exploring another journey a photographer can take. It involves pre-visualising a subject and making drawings, researching installation art, getting dirty with hands-on construction. It’s also just a whole lot of dam fun!

Look out for more mail outs during 2009

What’s really behind the raucous pre-lenten rite? An intrepid scholar hits the streets of Trinidad to find out

By Barbara Ehrenreich

Photographs by Alex Smailes

Smithsonian magazine, February 2009

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Up-Close-at-Carnival.html?c=y&page=1

When Northerners think of the caribbean, Trinidad isn’t usually the first place that comes to mind. Until recently, Trinidad had few tourist-oriented hotels or restaurants, and its crime rate is so high that visitors are advised not to venture outdoors wearing watches or jewelry, and definitely not at night. What Trinidad does have is carnival—a centuries-old blowout reputedly so wild and intense that it makes Mardi Gras look like a Veterans Day parade.

Barbara Ehrenreich has written more than 15 books.
Photographer Alex Smailes’ book Trinidad and Tobago appeared in 2006.