Craig Oldham Vs Truth (1000 word comparison)

During this year, a number of designers have come in to talk about their work. These include Truth, Music, Tal Rosner, Fudge, Fake ID and Glorious. Some of the lectures I have enjoyed a lot and others not so much, this is because each one will have different ways of presenting their work and giving advice. One of the lectures presented was from Truth, a small Graphic Design company, just made up of two people who used to work for McCann Erickson which is a major world wide Advertising company. Darren from Truth was very much into designing typography, over the years he designed quite a wide range of fonts, one which was in fact used in the mast head for the loaded magazine. Some of these fonts are Berliner, Sodium, Mechanic Gothic, Amplifier.

When lecturers come in to speak to us I find most people are more interested when work is shown that we see in our everyday life. This was definitely apparent in their work. They had done work for the likes of: Allsports, Sony, First Advice and Durex.

Truth obviously needed other people to join then in doing their work, as they were such a small company. They thought that this was a good thing as they were always in control and could choose who they liked to do the work. As they were such a small company they had a lot of stuff to do in a small space of time. They would have to speak to the client about their work and the reasons why they had done it, just like all agencies, they explained that its difficult to just hand something to a client and expect them to like it without you explaining it to them.

Craig Oldham has only been graduated 3years, he used to work for the Chase but is currently working for Music. Whilst at the chase he did a publication called 12 in 12 (12 things you might learn in your first year as a designer) This publication did win awards. Craig’s lecture was about his publication, which was very different. Craig has a very strong personality; he likes to make jokes which is why I found his lecture really interesting. This was a different talk from most which I had attended in the past as Craig had only graduated from university three years ago so his understanding on being a student was fairly fresh in his mind. He talked about staying up all night trying to meet deadlines while being a student. He seemed very passionate about his work. Like Truth Craig did show us some of his work, why wouldn’t he? This wasn’t the main part of his lecture though, Truth did what most designers do when they come in to talk to us and told us about what they had done in the design world and then shown us work, although this was good I find that after a few lectures of people coming in saying the same thing and showing the same thing it gets a bit repetitive.

Craig talked through all 12 of the points in his publication. He brought up a point which I found was a great question to ask “Are you a logical designer or an emotional designer? This question really did make me think. Logical designers do things that have an obvious purpose like toilet signs, no parking signs ect.

Then on the other hand there are designers who have an emotional eye for things, who would design something with a purpose but with a twist.




Being asked to think what type of designer you think you are was a really good question. I am still unsure and I’m sure many people will be, it is always fun to make your designs look emotional and have a great idea behind them, but at the same time you want your idea to work and be obvious. This is something young designers like myself need to consider as this splits up the different companies.

Craig asked us to think about what our strengths and weaknesses were?? He told us that he knew his weaknesses, being he wasn't too good at grids and web designing, a piece of advice he gave us was to try and get better by asking questions and seeing what other people are good at. Don't be embarrassed about telling people your strengths and weaknesses.The main points I took out of this part of the lecture was to have a hit list and research them. Be punctual, that a little enthusiasm goes a long way and most of all be yourself.

I found Craigs lecture really useful especially at this time of the year whilst trying to organise portfolio visits and creating my portfolio. Craig seems really down to earth and says things how they are. I think this is a great attitude to have while being in this industry. I did also enjoy the lecture by Truth as they shown that if you try and you believe in yourself aims are reachable, they left their easy job where they had people around to do things for them to be on their own where they had to do every little thing them self. Although I enjoyed both lectures as designers they are both very different and shown them selves is a different way. As Craig has only been out of the industry for three years, he spoke about things that we could relate to, also the majority of his talk was to give us advise, he did show us his work too. They do both work in different environment, Craig works for a very large company with different people to bounce ideas off and work with, where as Truth are a small company but still work with lots of different people.

I feel I took a lot out of both of these lectures as they were both so different it makes you realise that there are so many different things to do with graphic design and different ways of being involved. Craigs attitude was very enthusiastic and really made me think that things can be achieved if you try, which is the same thing I got from the Truth lecture.