In this week’s guest post, designer, illustrator, art director and curator Alex Bec answers a few questions about ‘If You Could’, and ‘It’s Nice That’, collaborative design projects devised by himself and Will Hudson, his partner-in-design. ‘If You Could’ pairs established and emerging designers to work together on a project of their choosing, and then publishes them in an extremely attractive book. This year’s project title is ‘If You Could Collaborate’, of course…
Tell us a bit about ‘If You Could’, if you would
If You Could started when Will and I were in the second year at Brighton University, and was initially a way to help raise funds for our final year degree show. The first question we asked was: “If you could do anything tomorrow, what would it be?” The project has grown from this question into lots of different incarnations and projects and we are now in our fourth year.
What’s happening for this year’s project?
This year we’re asking 40 artists who they’d like to collaborate with on a project. They don’t necessarily have to be creative – it’s acting more as an excuse for artists that we admire to work with others with whom they’d like to create something. Who they choose to work with, and what they choose to make is entirely up to them – we curate the show according to their pieces and their wishes. It’s all about facilitating exciting pieces of work from practitioners we admire, with no hidden agendas.
If you could pair any two people, who would it be?
Alex: I’ve always love David Shrigley and would love to see him make a piece of furniture, or a product – so I’ll go for a Shrigley with the quick wittedness of Martino Gamper.
Will: I think the idea of any two creatives at the top of their game coming together to create original work is exciting. I like the idea they are being pushed slightly outside of their comfort zone and there’s potential to see work they otherwise wouldn’t have produced.
How do you think the designers and illustrators benefit from this kind of collaboration?
Well they get to do something that they want to – so the benefits of that are easy to see. Any break from commercial work that facilitates experimentation in someone’s everyday practice can only be a good thing. Especially when they are as talented as they are.
What was the best possible outcome you could imagine when you first thought of doing this?
That it would happen and as many people as possible would see it and gleam something from it.
Please tell us a bit about It’s Nice That
It’s primarily an online resource of creative things we’ve seen but we also branch out into the offline. It’s Nice That is a way of us being able to provide worthy primary content to an audience that we respect.
Will, tell us about Alex / Alex, tell us about Will
Will: Alex does all the things I can’t do.
Alex: Will does all the things I can’t do.
There are a number of things neither of us know how to do, so we find people who can.
What different roles do you bring to your work?
It depends project on project, but in general I guess I do a lot more of the management and organisation, and Will does the design and finishing. The idea and direction is always driven by the both of us and to be honest we cross over quite a bit, and every decision is spoken about, so it’s not really too important what either of us do individually – it’s more about a final outcome.
How does the fact that you’re designers yourselves affect the curatorial work and commissioning you do? Does the fact that you curate and commission affect your own design work? Is there much overlap, and where, and how?
I think any background knowledge in the area you choose to make your living is a good idea. So I see our background as designers as the reason we became interested in what we do. We are very much still designers, whether we are commissioning, curating or working on commercial projects – it’s irrelevant what stamp you put on it.
We have an appreciation and respect for the talented people around us, and that’s the most important thing.