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Anthony Burrill is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary graphic design, known for his thought-provoking posters, printed traditionally in letterpress. He has never worked for another design firm, and his first studio was at home — at his kitchen table.
Upon graduating in 1991, he has worked independently in loose collaboration with friends, designers, artists and a number of institutions such as the Design Museum. Some of his most famous work is self-published making graphic design, a standalone discipline in itself.
I first came across Anthony’s work in the early 2000s, traveling by the London Underground, and I was impressed by the timeless quality of those posters, projecting a sophisticated approach to travel safety. Those posters made a strong impact and had almost grim undertones that made them very memorable.
Anthony’s work echoes Bauhaus: simple compositions of type, primary colors and geometric shapes that convey a message in a very direct way. In the following interview, conducted at a Typo London conference, Anthony speaks about the integrity of making work by hand and the importance of reaching out to people.
Anthony Burrill at Typo London in 2012. (Image credit: Gerhard Kassner)
Q: It’s been 20 years that you’ve been working in graphic design. Do you remember what art college was like for you?
I suppose it was quite traditional back then. Although, in the degree course I was in, the borders were quite blurred between printmaking, illustration, graphic design and typography. You could do anything really. And then I got to the Royal College, and that was more about ideas and more about the context than the craft.
Q: Was there a big difference between undergrad and grad school?
Yes, I think so, because for post-graduate you had to be more determined and able to write your own brief. And actually the postgraduate encouraged me to go off and do it on my own really.
Q: Your education was in the pre-digital era; so, not many computers involved.
Analog, yeah, definitely.
Q: Did you intentionally carry that aesthetic on?
Because I am traditionally trained to make camera-ready artwork and to produce work using a photocopy machine, that [aesthetic] is very much hand-crafted. So, when computers came along, I kind of resisted them for a while; I thought I could carry on doing it the traditional way. It took a long time for me to embrace the technology. But now I still use technology with that analogue mindset. I like things that are physically produced.
Q: Did you ever think, when computers came along and you could do things so much more easily — was that a barrier or did it feel strange in a way?
In the early days, computers were hard to use. There weren’t the easier programs like now. I think computers are incredible tools, but they don’t have the soul, that quality, that human quality.
Q: Nowadays, I suppose you split your work between analogue and digital?
It depends on the situation, because I spend a lot of time setting type, making very traditional posters. But there is also technology like Instagram and Twitter. I think it’s about using the best things from each medium really.
A series of simple geometric drawings of some of Anthony’s favorite things, inspired by a technical drawing manual. (Self-published as limited-edition giclée prints, 2004)
Q: Sounds like you’re quite comfortable with digital then.
Yes, it depends on how it gets used in the end. Whether it’s a print or a film, you can do things now that were impossible twenty years ago, definitely. Well, it affects the work, but I think I am always looking for that thing that’s got soul.
Q: Could you tell me the story about the lady at Sainsbury’s who inspired your poster, “Work hard and be nice to people”? How did you come up with this poster?
I was just in the supermarket where I always go, and that lady was in the queue and said the secret to a happy life: Work hard and be nice to people. And it was just one of those phrases. You know, I try to remember things that people say that have a nice ring to them, nice honesty, really. It was one of the things that, at the time, I didn’t realize would be that popular.
Q: Was that a highlight for your studio?
Yes, I think so. It’s the thing that people know me for best. And that’s fine by me, because it’s positive. After that, I thought I could carry on doing more work like this.
Q: Seems like you’ve become a curator of phrases in a way.
Yes, it’s almost like the graphic design becomes less and less important. Like, I feel now that I am going beyond graphic design, because I’ve been doing it for twenty years. Now it’s more about reaching out to people, communicating. It’s about being social, as we all are.
Possibly one of the breakthrough posters of Anthony Burrill, a simple message he heard from a lady in a supermarket queue. The poster was produced using traditional woodblock techniques. It is part of an ongoing poster series and was self-published (2004 – 2011).
Q: What’s the part of the process you enjoy the most?
It’s when you pick up on something that you think other people will pick up on. It’s almost like finding something that everyone gets, at a certain time.
Q: Do you have an example that hasn’t worked for people?
I made that poster that said, “It’s OK for me to have everything I want,” and I thought it was an interesting phrase. But I put it out there and I saw people started saying, “Yeah, I can have everything I want.” But that not what I meant! There was a twist to it, so I stopped doing it. You realize you have to be careful about the phrases you use and consider the way people can read them.
Q: Does it depend on the context?
I think so. When you’re talking to the designers, they appreciate the typography, letterpress, things like that. But to the broader range of people, you have to realize that people can read things in ways you wouldn’t expect really. Definitely, you have to think about it.
Q: Speaking of posters, how do you see the future of the poster?
I think the poster will always be powerful, but it has to exist in the world that we’re in, whether that’s through social media or other means. If the statement and the tension are strong enough, then it is still going to be relevant. Good design is about understanding and it is about the people. It is not about throwing things out there to see what happens. Design is about having integrity. People will always respond to those things.
Q: Are you optimistic about the poster?
I think it’s always about the message, and the way that that is communicated is irrelevant sometimes. People also always like to have objects, to give things to each other, to their children, and these have more of a longevity. Who knows where we’re going to be in twenty years — things are changing so rapidly — but I think there’s always a place if something has integrity and value.
Ten-day studio residency, including graphic art workshops and daily collaborations with fellow designers, musicians and photographers. (Pick Me Up Contemporary Graphic Art Fair at Somerset House, 2011)
Q: Do you think there’s a comeback to basic tactile things?
Things are much more connected now. There’s a kind of shared humanity, and I think people want authenticity, they want things that are real. There is so much stuff that isn’t real and that’s just irrelevant. The real things are human relationships.
Q: You have moved out of London, living in the country. How do you find the move from the big town out to the fields?
I think it gives you a broader understanding and also, being close to nature, in a very rural place, gives you a kind of grounding. As you get older, you want things at a slower pace.
Q: Where do you find inspiration in a place where design talk isn’t an everyday thing? Is it good or bad that you don’t have daily chats with peers?
I think that’s a good thing! Events like today (at Typo London) are fantastic. You get to meet people and see interesting things. But I like to have time for reflection, to not be constantly bombarded. So, living down in Kent, I can switch the computer off, not look at it all weekend.
Q: Your posters are quite typographic. What’s the relationship between the type and the meaning.
The wood type that I use is always especially bold, and it fits. I mean what I’m saying, and I want it to be pretty strong, simple and non-designed, really. Because, the way it works with the letterpress printers, we work together. It’s as much their work as it is mine.
Q: So, in selecting the appropriate type, is it about the selection or about type as a found object?
Yes, it is like a found object, because it already has a weight to it, because it’s made physically. So, it’s almost that you can pretty much say anything and print it beautifully. But people do that and it doesn’t work, because you‘ve got to mean it. People do know when you don’t mean it.
Q: Getting back to the idea of curating words and letters…
Because I am always qing my design technique and skills, I like to use pre-existing things. If I’ve only got a blank page, there’s no reference, no starting point, nothing to hang anything onto. But when you find things that exist already or a system or a nice piece of wood type, there’s already something that you can work on.
A series of public safety posters commissioned by the London Underground (2001 – 2002)
This reminds me that graphic design is about the editing process, about selecting and putting things next to each other — because nothing is created in a vacuum. There’re always reference points, always things you want to draw into. Whether that’s history, tips that are repeated then technology pacman things that people instantly understand.
Q: I suppose your inspiration doesn’t come from the [design] discipline itself.
Yes, it’s from the real world, being a human in the world. Everyone’s an individual; we have our own way of doing things, our own history and perception of how the world is. It’s about reaching those things that are universal.
(al, il, ea)
© Spyros Zevelakis for Smashing Magazine, 2014.
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In 2011, Adobe sent shockwaves through the design community by introducing Adobe Muse: design software that made websites. You could imagine my excitement as well as other non-coders worldwide. They created this WYSIWYG editor mixed with InDesign that could produce real live websites. How was this possible? What were the limitations? What took them so long?
I must admit, I tried Muse when it was in beta and didn’t really get it because it didn’t really feel natural enough. Since then, I’d just stayed away from it until recently. My colleague was showing me a wonderful parallax website he made and I asked him if he could teach me how to do it. He revealed to me it was no big deal because he’d done it in Adobe Muse. I immediately downloaded Adobe Muse CC and have been playing with it since.
The best part about Muse is the Library filled with widgets that you can add to your website. Widgets range from contact forms, to light boxes, to menus, to full screen slideshows. After you create the design of your website, these features in the Library are what add the pizzazz and functionality to your website. They’re obviously important, so today, we’ve decided to showcase a bunch of stellar Adobe Muse widgets. Enjoy!
There are times when there’s a lot going on with a website. Sometimes as designers, we’d really like these things to load before you get a chance to see them. It makes a bolder statement when each piece is shown together rather than allowing it to pop up one at a time. This Preloader widget adds a spinning animation along with a custom message, visible to readers before they see the page.
Menus are pretty easy to make in Muse, however, they’re bland right out the widget library. They’re gray with no real style and will take lots of creativity to make something fun and unique. This widget takes the guess work out of creating colorful and interesting navigation bars by providing 5 ready-to-use variations.
It’s no secret that creating a website in Muse is exceptionally easy. It’s a matter of dragging and dropping what you want into place. One thing that Muse is missing is the ability to have placeholders for images when you’re just having ideas or perhaps the pictures aren’t ready yet. Muse also doesn’t have any type of dummy text generator. This is a simple widget that fixes this problem by creating several different prototypes and placeholders to be used when you’re just creating ideas in Muse.
If you’ve used Muse, you’ll know that there are some widgets already available, but when you want to use them, you have to do lots of styling to them in order to get them the way you want. This FAQ Box widget is a combination of different widgets that creates a standard FAQ box that reveals a question and answer next to its graphical representation. This is definitely a handy widget for product and business sites.
The Genius Gallery is an attempt to create an image gallery along with a lightbox for those of us who want to show off some photography or other pieces of work. It is highly decorated, but can be edited which makes it a great place to start for an image portfolio. The lightbox contains plenty of space to explain a project and how it was made.
Most of the widgets on this list are ways to add aesthetics to your page. This one is different because it adds some code to your page. This code allows your website to be downloadable on some iPhones and viewed much like an app on a mobile device. This is definitely useful if you have a site full of information for your readers.
Muse has widgets that come with the program that are dedicated to social media. The problem with these is that they’re not icons, but more like the buttons associated with following or liking each account. If you’re not interested in that, but would rather have a link that takes to each account, then this is the widget for you. Each icon comes as a circle, square, or drop shape.
Sliders are a bit of a conundrum in Muse, but there are work arounds available. This widget creates a slider that uses square and block elements. This means that your slider’s background can be one solid color, while different objects slide across the background (such as screen shots, app shots and more). Squarebox Sliders are great fit for any type of business or mobile phone app website.
We don’t talk a ton about using Muse as a tool for wire framing. As a matter of fact, there are programs and applications out there that create clickable wireframes for you. But why waste money by purchasing a whole new program? With this widget kit, you can create wireframes that are built out like full websites.
If you’re looking for a cool way to show off your web site, this could be the widget for you. It’s a simple introduction animation that scrolls through a bunch of phrases before loading up your homepage. With some quick stylings and creative thinking, this could really take your website over-the-top.
There are tool tips in Muse that are very simple. This Kodak Gallery creates a tooltip menu reminiscent of some Apple products that changes the entire environment when you scroll over it. It’s a wonderful idea and definitely useful for single page websites that want to show off a lot of information in one single place.
Lance of the Adobe Muse team configured some sample MuCOWs (Muse Configurable Options Widgets) in a tutorial of his. Today, those widgets are available for use to anyone. They include some pretty cool things like line styles, sliding text and images and current date place holders. There are some very useful and simple things in these widgets.
The video lightbox is a pretty straightforward widget that allows you to view video when you click on a thumbnail. Obviously, this is different from the simpler form, where you just view images. This is great for those of us who have a portfolio that shows off a little bit of video work.
This is a wonderful widget for those of us creating portfolios, single page websites or even reports that could use some infographics/graphical representation. These Smart Pie Charts are easily edited and animated to add a little movement to the page.
In the event you want to put more than one photo gallery on a page, this widget is for you. Perhaps you have a bunch of different categories of photos you want to share, or maybe you just want to condense what you have to fit a certain area. This expandable and collapsable photo gallery helps your organize your pictures.
Muse allows you to create active and hover states for your links, but doesn’t make it possible to add images of animations to your rollovers. This widget uses Edge animations to create rollovers for your linked images.
The Sticky Form widget is exceptionally useful for those creating websites with products or services that require lots of contact and support. This widget creates a form that’s hidden until called on, but is pinned to either side of the screen. It’s definitely one of the most functional uses of a form and definitely useful for Muse users.
If you’ve got $39 to spare on great, professional widgets, this is the place for you to be. Muse Themes offers over 60+ widgets that range from sliders to photo galleries and contact forms. This library alone could save you hours of stylizing and building in Muse for projects. This library is a great investment.
If you’ve ever used Muse before, you will know there are some limitations to what you can do solely in Muse. Now, if you know a bit of coding, Muse is a great way to start a website that you can edit to add more. These additions help you add functionality and some trendier web design pieces to your new website.
Adobe Muse is still fairly new and as time moves on, Adobe will create new updates and add new features, while widget developers will keep on creating. The future is bright for Muse.
Do you use Adobe Muse for your projects? Have we missed one of your favorite widgets? Let us know in the comments.
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