Interview: Brighton-based brand master Hamish Makgill

Now, after seven years, they’re spreading their wings even further, bringing their considerable talent to the field of furniture design, in collaboration with the ascendant new design brand H Furniture. We could hardly believe our luck when the studio’s founder, creative director and namesake Hamish Makgill asked us to come on board and help them fly even higher. We asked Hamish for the lowdown on everything his studio’s up to. 

I set up the studio in 2007. For the first year it was just me and a roster of talented freelancers. I was also a senior lecturer on graphic design at the University of Brighton at that time. This helped keep the wheels greased while I got the studio up and running.

I grew up in an artist’s house and was sure from a young age that I wanted to be in the creative arts. I don’t think I actually knew what a graphic designer was, let alone that I wanted to be one. However the hours I spent staring at album covers and pouring through the pages of magazines certainly had an influence on me. I went into art college as a painter and came out as a graphic designer. 

I left university in 1995 and set up and agency with a friend the following month. After eight brilliant years, I decided I wanted a change. I spent the next four years working for a number of London agencies, essentially undertaking the apprenticeship I never had – albeit at a senior level – before setting up on my own again.

There are six of us. Four designers, one project manager and myself.

Our manifesto says it best: we make beautifully simple design

We try not to have a house style, but there is definitely a quality that runs through all of our work. Our manifesto came from the need to express what that quality is. We definitely concern ourselves in communicating in the most simple and visually economic ways possible. Our conversations often centre on what it is in a piece of work that can be stripped away before the design loses its essence.

They are different. Of course both disciplines require original thought and knowledge of the audience, but the development process of both are wildly different. To try and create a rich experience on screen as if it were a piece of print is just not going to be effective. To me the greatest difference is that digital design allows an iterative approach where you can test, analyse and adjust. Print doesn’t have that luxury. It’s set in stone. I love that. 

There is a lot of experience needed to get the best out of a piece of print and again a huge amount of trust with whichever printer you are working with. They really need to understand what you are trying to achieve. But when you get it right, the experience of a beautiful piece of print is so deeply satisfying.

I think so. Certainly within the industry. There’s no end of blogs and awards to celebrate the achievements of studios and individuals. I sometimes wonder if we get sidetracked by all the accolades. 

We are working with a number of clients across a range of sectors – which is exactly how we like it. What defines them all is that they are leaders within their fields.

We have been working with G . F Smith for five years now. All of that time, we have worked alongside Made Thought, their lead branding agency. The relationship between both agencies and G.F Smith is excellent. Made Thought works on a lot of the core brand projects and Colorplan. We work on individual paper promotions such as the Applied series, their photographic album business, a range of exhibitions and a number of projects in between.

We created the brand identity for H back in 2013 and have been their lead agency since. We are currently redeveloping their website and working on the art direction for their 2016/2017 campaign. We are also working on a furniture collaboration with them that will be launched at this year’s London Design Festival.

U+I are working on the regeneration of Preston Barracks, a large area in the north east of Brighton. We were commissioned to develop the identity and the use of the space whilst the project is in consultation. Named FIELD, it is a new hub for start-ups that design and make physical products. This project has possibly been the most varied in terms of outputs that we have ever worked on. We have designed the interior and exterior wayfinding, a range of furniture, the entrance design, a launch campaign with Dean Chalkley, the website and now their first printed report on the progress of the project.

We have been working with Purple since 2011. We are currently working on their new website that’s due to be launched in the coming months.

On the back of the work that we did for illustration agency Breed, we have been working with one of their artists on his new website. Due to be launched in the coming weeks, we have developed a site that has the ability to adapt as James moves further into the art world.

I think the project I am most proud of is the identity we created for The Lollipop Shoppe. It’s actually one from several years ago, but, in my mind, it perfectly captures our strength as designers.

As a studio, we greatly admire Jop Van Bennekom’s design and art direction for COS magazine. He has such a light touch – the magazine is always very beautiful but the content has real depth too. It’s testament to a great relationship between designer and client.

Above: Their upcoming Field project in Brighton Below 1: The G . F Smith stand at Design Junction 2016 during LDF, 2: Art Direction for H Furniture, 2015, 3: The It's Nice That Journal 2014