For this weeks task I have been completely lost to be honest. I keep reading the workshop challenge and the task and have no clue what i’m supposed to be doing. I have lived in London for the last 8 years, I went to Uni in London, London completely shaped me as a person, so I thought it was a good place to start my research looking at London, and then hopefully more will be revealed from there.
Research
The history of ink, printing and tattooing
Whilst researching the history of design, I came across the invention of printing in (as early as) the 6th Century which occurred in China by using woodblocks and ink to stamp designs into fabric or parchment.1 This made me think about the use of inks in design, and led me to look down the history of tattoo studios in London. Thinking of businesses that contribute or summarise London’s design industry today, I cannot think of anything that summarises London, or Britain, more than a tattoo studio.
Similarly to the Chinese using the woodblocks to transfer ink to a material, in the 17th Century, people would travel to places such as Jerusalem to get religious tattoos, the designs would be carved into wooden blocks, dipped in ink and transferred to the skin as a stencil, then similar to the ‘stick and poke’ method we know of today, a single needle would be used to puncture the skin.
In the 1700’s, the navy began to document tattoos as a way of recording identities.
“On your enlistment records the navy would have a column in the record book which lists what sort of designs you had, where on the body, sometimes the tattoo would be drawn or sketched”3
The first tattoo studio was opened in the late 1880’s at Jermyn Street, London, by Sutherland MacDonald. He was also the first man to be registered as a “tattooist” in the London Post Office Directory in 1894. MacDonald had served in the army beforehand and “had already tattooed officers in many of the famous regiments, including the Brigade of Guards”2.
Sutherland Macdonald (1860-1942) is now considered as “the first identifiable professional tattooist” in England. Sutherland was the first professional tattooist to run a tattoo parlor out of premises at 76 Jermyn Street, London2 
Body ink and culture
Culture influences the history of ink used on the skin, for example you have the Japanese style tattoos which include staples such as the koi fish, dragon, phoenix. India uses henna ink on the parts of the body as decoration, particularly on a brides hands and feet to keep the brides stress level under control.4 Tattooing has formed a part of Samoan cultural traditions for thousands of years, tattooing ceremonies are generally held to mark a younger chief’s ascension to a leadership role within society5 which shows the importance of body ink in culture, and how this is still carried through today. “At a tribal level, tattoos can indicate age, marital status, power and class, and outside the group they may distinguish friend from foe. In many tribes, women’s tattoos were symbols of beauty that simultaneously ensured they were of no value to neighbouring tribes.”6
Tattoos can be about “social, political or religious groups, or simply as a form of self-expression or fashion statement.”
Punk Rock & New Wave Tattoo
Lal Hardy founded ‘New Wave Tattoo’ in 1979 – which was a very exciting time in the fashion, music and tattoo world. The mid to late 1970’s saw a revival in teddyboy, rock ‘a’ billy music and fashion – teds, kats and rockers sported tattoos, then came punk rock and this saw the birth of ‘New Wave Tattoo’. Hardy started tattooing punk imagery onto the disaffected youth around London – the rest is history. From the teds, greasers, skins, punks, goths, new romantics and every other fashion/music cult, Hardy has tattood them all.
How tattoos influence design
Anchor & Rose is a London clothing company, which I actually discovered at a tattoo convention in London a while back when I was doing my apprenticeship in tattooing. On the about page on their website, their tagline is “Combining Urban Street Style With Minimalist, Tattoo Inspired Design”7. Their t-shirt designs look like tattoos, from the line work, the block colours, the Japanese style artwork, even to the fonts they use. Tattoos have influenced London’s design culture more than we think.
Street art
Location: The Graffiti Tunnel Leake Street.
Climate change & sustainability
Look at how climate changed influenced design and politics, look at how its evolved in packaging design and sustainable/biodegradable packaging. Veggie prets, plastic free supermarkets, wooden kids toys etc.
Task 1
I really have struggled with this week’s task though, and finding the connection between the lectures on the history of graphic design, and the task of finding studios in your city. Maybe there is no connection and this is a completely separate task? I was originally going to use the tattoo studios and clothing brands I found in my research to submit to the geo-tag task, but I think I have misunderstood and I think I need to just explore my area so that’s what I am going to do.
5 months ago (May 2021) I bought my first house in a place called Stevenage in Hertfordshire. The first time I visited Stevenage was the day I viewed the house and put an offer in. We bought a doer upper, as that’s all we could afford, (and its a doer upper to say the least, absolute sh*t hole more like) so for the last 4 months; evenings, weekends and lunch breaks have been filled with stripping wallpaper, caulking skirting, painting architraves and laying paving blocks (DIY or what!). SO, I have absolutely no idea about the place I currently live, and I have had no time in the past 5 months to explore it, so for my 3 studios and production business, I will be looking further into Stevenage as a creative area.
Let’s start by looking at the questions Tom from Regular Practice asked in the workshop challenge.
- How do each of these studios present themselves?
- What kind of work do they make and for what kind of sector?
- What kind of words do they use to describe themselves?
- Are they an agency? A studio? A practice?
- What do these choices of words say about them?
- What’s their name and how is it constructed? Is it two or three names merged together like Kellenberger White or Wolff Olins? Or is it more faceless like A Practice For Every Life or Pentagram?
- How are they organised and founded?
- Do they work in smaller teams comprised of designers and project managers? Or are there larger teams with marketing and strategy people? Or are they made up of designers who jump between these roles?
- Is there a relationship between this and their clients?
Smiths 1972
So I had actually googled design studios before moving to Stevenage for potential job opportunities or contacts, and most studios were in St Albans or a bit further, so I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled across this studio which has been in Stevenage Old Town for the past 50 years called Smiths ’72. They specialise in print, web and graphic design, but from looking on their website it’s more of a one stop shop for all things design, such as illustration, web design, branding, photography, packaging, to name a few.
They call themselves a creative agency. Name constructed by date of launch and last name of owner. (tbc, going to speak to them in person)
Whitehot Creative
We’re a Hertfordshire based design agency… Providing creative expertise to companies that want to make their products and services more desirable through beautiful brand communications.
It’seeze
Creates a unique website that delivers the right message to the right people. Web design/dev/SEO.
Task 2
Toppers
Same company as Smiths ’72, just the print side.
All Signs All Prints
tbc
Code Spirit Productions
tbc
References:
1. https://www.britannica.com/art/graphic-design/Early-printing-and-graphic-design
2. https://dangerousminds.net/comments/tattoo_you_meet_victorian_englands_first_tattoo_artist
3. https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/brief-history-british-tattoo/?fbclid=IwAR1DH4jjFP8sH0dSur34sVci1vXT8CuzD5c_TXkReySAcmSnoAceswTWGT8
4. https://www.vogue.in/content/the-history-of-bridal-mehandi-how-the-tradition-came-to-be
5. https://authoritytattoo.com/history-of-tattoos/
6. https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/W9m2QxcAAF8AFvE5
7. https://anchorandrose.com/
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