ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Walking into Leeds college of Art and Design library for the first time was an interesting experience, so much reference and so much amazing work all in print and at my finger tips. At this point I had just started my Advanced GNVQ? which meant I had a choice of paths before me Fine Art, Design, Textiles, Photography and 3D were just a few of the options.

It wasn’t a hardback or paperback book that caught my attention though, it was a magazine. Sat in-between ID and Face was Ray Gun, and it just jumped off the shelf at me, the images of musicians (Music and Art the two most important things to me at college) the use of typography just amazed me. I had never even considered using typography in that way or used a Mac much come to think of it. Big brash letters adorned the cover demanding your attention, text was spilt, distorted and on an angle, images were blurred and dirty… basically the cover looked like the inside of a rock stars pocket.

After seeing Ray Gun and some of Chris Ashworth’s other work it inspired me to start using the computer as a tool. Before, painting or drawing would be my first port of call, now I would use every opportunity to get on the Mac. Speaking to other design students I found that Ray Gun and Blah Blah Blah magazines were akin to some kind of holy graphic design bible of the mid to late 90’s.

When it came to deciding which direction to take, I’d now seen the possibilities of design, so there was only one choice, and that’s how I started on the road to ICM…