Visiting Professional- Patrick Thomas

Patrick Thomas- Graphic artist, Author and Educator:

• Got into design via music, was in a band
• Went to Central Saint Martins and studied BA(Hons) Graphic design, for the last 3 years he specialised in illustration- got into print and animation too
• After CSM he went to royal college of art, did MA Visual Communication, then went to London and was a bike courier
• The Cobi book in Barcelona saved him (design for the 92 olympic games):

The Cobi book

• Andy Warhol exhibition design- the design could be tilled which allowed him to use it in any scale and repeat it over and over and put it everywhere
• Black & White was the first book he ever published
• Moved to Berlin in 2010, established the Patrick Thomas Studio
• Interested in locksmith stickers and car hire promoting cards/auto expert car cards- made his own business cards inspired by this
• Design is always a political act, whether you like it or not
• Manchester design festival- he took part in this. Try to go this year!
• Protest stencil toolkit: a book of stencils of all the popular protest signs and symbols
• A poster doesn't change anything- a banner would be better for example, more impact.
• First t-shirt he designed was 'Fuck Brexit' purposely hard to understand what it says by the design of it:

Fuck Brexit t-shirt

• @Open_collab- currently working on 2.0: a way of collaborating remotely 
• PULP: way of working, printing on news papers
• Detritus 2019
• Working on news papers is good because 1. its free, 2. it freezes the moment in time and 3. each of the pieces is unique
• Loves William Morris and Dickens
• Aztech codes and QR codes- Aztech codes can carry information
• @klassethomas- the class he teaches
• Different between design and art- art should try to be more provocative. Not everything has to shout something in design
• You can't fuck it up at art school

Overall, I found the talk from Patrick really interesting, I love the way he told a story about himself and his work and his honesty about design. I also like that he didn't do the typical 'how to have a good portfolio' talk, he had his own approach to it and told us about how he made it to where he is today.