INTERVIEW WITH OK-RM BY Justine Brilmyer

original post:

http://www.justinemadethistoo.com/2009/05/interview-with-rory-mcgrath-of-ok-rm.html.

Justine Brilmyer: First off, when would you say you started designing?
Rory McGrath: From a very young age, I think its something you could trace back to infancy. In terms of graphic design as a profession after I graduated in 2001.

JB: What first drove you to design and what kinds of things did you create? 
RM: I was drawn by the control it gave me, or would give me. I'm not sure I created much until I was first commissioned to make a flyer in the first year of college.

JB: What were the first design objects you made?
RM: Flyers for music events at college.

JB: Do you feel your early projects still reflect who you are now?
RM: Not at all.

JB: Is there a particular project, or time period, where you wish your work could have been better or different in some way? 
RM: Too early to tell.

JB: Where and what did you study?
RM: Bristol UWE, Graphic Design.

JB: Do you think you learned more about design in or outside of the classroom?
RM: Outside, definitely.

JB: Which designers were important to you in school?
RM: I was instantly interested in Josef Muller Brockmann, but I didn’t know much about other designers at that time.

JB: Was music or art also a big influence?
RM: Definitely

JB: What music and which artists or movements?
RM: Reggae, the album covers from the 70's are absolutely amazing, I was looking at art a lot, but more sporadically, I did not start to gain concrete knowledge in this until after college.

JB: Why do you think this music and these artists in particular had such a great influence on you?
RM: The untrained craftsman approach felt very honest.

JB: Can you say a little bit about how they affected you work, or your way of thinking afterwards?
RM: I think it made me want to make design that remained tactile and pure in some way.

JB: Are you still influenced by the same things today?
RM: Yes, but my scope of reference is now much wider.

JB: What designers or artists do you like now?
RM: Many, every day I find another artist or designers work that I find interesting in some way.

JB: Are there works that particularly inspire you?
RM: I would say Sol LeWitts approach is very inspirational, any of his works.

JB: Is there an art/design movement or an artist that you find uninspiring?
RM: I am not that aware of terms for design movements. I would say I am part of one but its not got a name yet!

JB: What don't you enjoy about their work?
RM: Its too abstract to discuss

JB: When you sit down to design something, how do you decide what to make?
RM: We evaluate the commission and try to find clues that will give us a lead to a certain logic or way into a project. Each project has its own process; some are similar but never the same.

JB: Do you usually come up with your ideas at a computer or in a sketchbook?
RM: Over a sketchbook, but lots is worked out through conversation.

JB: How much freedom do you usually have when you design for a client?
RM: At the moment we have quite a lot, we earn trust quite easily because our ideas are always closely linked to the problem, so I guess they make sense to the person we are working with.

JB: Do you ever come up with ideas and designs for clients that are not necessarily what was asked for? If so, how to you present your new idea to the client?
RM: All the time, we make detailed presentations and put forward arguments.

JB: Do you have friends and associates who are designers in London?
RM: Lots, sometimes it feels like too many :-)

JB: Do you think that the design scene in London is different from that in New York? 
RM: Yes, not worlds apart but there are core differences.

JB: If anything, what do you prefer or dislike about each of them?
RM: London is like the capital of graphic design, it is full of most of the best in European designers as well as British so sometimes it feels like creating your own space is harder than it should be in another city. New York is full of opportunity lots of clients that would have connections in London are still unaware of what design can do for them so its like an un-tapped oil well. I guess this means when working with clients in London they are more savvy which makes it easier to communicate with them about the design. In New York it’s often the opposite.

JB: Do you think of yourself as being part of a movement? (like artists have movements: Expressionists, Cubists) 
RM: I am not that aware of terms for design movements. I would say I am part of one but its not got a name yet!

JB: If you do, what is the movement called and what ideas are important in this movement? 
RM: No name and the ideas are still being written.

JB: Do you prefer working alone or with a partner(s)? 
RM: With partners.

JB: Do you teach?
RM: Just started.

JB: Why did you decide to get involved with teaching?
RM: To help pupils gain knowledge and to help me gain knowledge.

JB: What do you most want your students to learn?
RM: How to have one idea.

JB: What advice would you give to a young person that wants to be a designer?
RM: Hmmm, unless you are really sure you are cut out to dedicate your life to it then don’t bother.

JB: What is the best advice you have ever been given about design? 
RM: Always reduce.

JB: In general, what is the best advice you have ever been given?
RM: Same as above.

JB: How important, if at all, do you think it is to do your work on the computer as opposed to doing it by hand?
RM: Computer is a good tool; it would be not be practical for me to work in any other way.

JB: Finally, after viewing your work, what ideas or impressions would you like someone to come away with?
RM: That we understand what we were asked to communicate.