Tea Time Thursday

Today's blog post is brought to you by Meg and J! 

(We are standing in front of the Victoria and Albert Museum logo designed by Pentagram.)

We had a rough start this morning! It was a little bleary, but we kept our hopes high for another adventurous day in London. Many of us got a little bit of sleep and we had some doubt because of the weather. Today was the first day that it rained on our trip.

We left the Clink at 9:30 for Pentagram from the King's Cross Station. We got a little bewildered by the neighborhood, but we found our way to the studio. 

We were greeted by Pentagram partner, Domenic Lippa who has been working there for six years. He showed us a slideshow of Pentagram's work, past and present, as well as a little bit of the history of the design firm. He sung the praises of working with designers of Pentagram, especially Paula Scher. He also showed us his own work and gave us insight about the projects.  

He gave us some advice to follow as we enter the field:

1. Work with people you like.

2. Keep things simple.

3. Experiment with things.

4. 

5. Work with people whose design you respect. 

Domenic held a Q&A session after the talk. I (Meg) asked him what inspires him and he said  that it was "the eternal search for better ideas and solutions." He also aspires to work on his own, and he admires smaller agencies because they have more control over projects.

After the Q&A, we were allowed to walk through the studio and see the way the office was set up and how Pentagram works in small design groups led by one of the partners. 

Next, we took a group photo and left, but did not forget the Pentagram swag! We got a book of Domenic's portfolio as well as a book that had cowboy poetry and a christmas card designed by the firm. We headed back towards the train station to go to Spin, another design studio. On our way, we got spanakopita and Orangina for lunch at a patisserie. On the way to the next train and lunch, we saw a piece of Banksy's street art, a karma car, and a lovely neighborhood to boot!

On the Tube, we saw and heard some musicians that hopped on at the Embankment Station. They played Johnny Cash!

We made it to Spin by 2:00, and they briefly told us about their work and showed us examples of the books that they published. The books were on topics within Graphic Design and artists in the field such as Herb Lubalin. The studio is about 22 years old and they mostly focus on art books, packaging, advertising and front-end web and mobile design. 

One of the many projects they are currently working on is a package for a high-end watch designed by furniture designer, Matthew Hilton. We can't show you the design, but here is the company's logo, designed by the Spin team, which is really freaking DOPE.

Here is a picture of me (Meg) infront of an Armin Hofmann poster and triangles at Spin!

Anne and Jessica invited us to afternoon tea with them at the Crypt Cafe at St. Martin at the Fields Cathedral. We had Cornish cream tea and cakes. 

Afterwards, my (Meg) knee started hurting because of all of the walking and wandering, so we found a Boots pharmacy near Charing Cross to get a knee brace. We hobbled back to the Clink and called it a night.