meaningless words and an answer of sorts

It's interesting that everyone who answered Friday's question correctly identified that these were words that only a politician speaks. But what's illuminating is that all of the politicians suggested happen to be labour (both new and old). Because such is the vacuousness of the statement, it could indeed have been spouted by any labour politician over the past 40 years, from Harold Wilson to Gordon Brown, via Bryan Gould and Peter Mandelson.

But you're all wrong I'm afraid, because the sentiments were expressed by that woman who thought that British design meant slapping the Union Jack on to anything that moved, the Iron Lady.

And facing her on the opposite page is that arbiter of all things progressive, the king to be.

He says that "we possess a wonderful legacy of design ideas and traditions on which our new generation of designers can build to produce products of quality and beauty to match any in the world." Indeed, it does seem that he'd managed to spot the young Jonathan Ive before the rest of us.

These come from a 1986 book that I've just found on my shelves: Profile 2 - British Design Groups and Their Work.

Goodness knows how it came into my possession or why I've kept it. But it does make for interesting reading some 21 years on. It profiles 58 design groups who were at the top of their profession. However, this is not a D&AD annual where the work is selected by one's peers (provided one's paid to enter, of course). These are 'paid for' profiles (advertisements in 'disguise'), and therefore a much more accurate gauge of the business of design, rather than design excellence. And it's certainly hard to find anything that one might consider to be excellent today.

Indeed, it's hardly any wonder that we failed to conquer the world again when what we had on offer included this:

And this:

But I thought it might be interesting to take a look beyond the design examples themselves and see how these companies have fared over the past two decades. And of the 58 companies listed, I can only find a trace of 21 of them as still being in business (that's just 36%). Even more alarming is that 52 of those companies offered graphic design, yet in 2007 only 14 of those remain in business (that's a mere 27%).

So, if you've just set up (or are thinking of setting up) a graphic design business, I have some advice for you based upon a look back over those 21 years:

1. If you have a choice, give up graphics and switch to product design. That way you'll have a much better chance of survival.

2. Move to Edinburgh - that way you've got a two in three chance of not only surviving, but flourishing.

3. Avoid London - if you don't, you've only got a 19% chance of surviving in the long term.

Comments

[Ben]

Great post.

[Andrew Kingham]

Interesting indeed. I wonder about the reasons behind the bare statistics? Is it just that the 1) firms went pop, and the people are still working, or 2)the recession bit deep and they all became carpenters or 3) they all managed to retire early because of the eighties boom?

[davidthedesigner]

Andrew - I'd have to do an awful lot of research to answer that (though I'm happy to do it if somebody would like to pay me). But I suspect the answer is probably all of those reasons.

But I still think it's best to take the statistics at face value. After all, if you'd consulted, say, a solicitor, dentist, accountant or even estate agent in 1986, the chances are their firm would still be operating today. But these figures put us on a par (as far as security of income goes) with actors and restaurateurs.

[Andrew Kingham]

I always compared being an illustrator to being an actor; either feted and earning; or sitting by the phone waiting for the phone to ring, after sending out a raft of promotional material.
And, don't forget, you're still going!