Dave Sedgwick

Dave Sedgwick is the mastermind behind Manchester-based Studio DBD and regular guest lecturer at Shillington. We asked him to share his advice on everything from tackling personal projects to how to make networking seem less scary. 

You’re based in Manchester, and a champion of the talent “up North”. What brought you to the city?

It’s always nice to be described as someone who champions The North, so thank you! I came to Manchester Metropolitan University (now The School of Art) back in the ’90s. I’d always been a big fan of the music and culture scene in the city, even when I lived back home near Southport. I fell in love with the place and I was fortunate to get my first job here shortly after finishing my degree. Who knows what the future might bring, but for now I am perfectly happy here in Manchester.

You spend a lot of time working on personal projects and collaborations!

About a year or so ago I found myself doing lots collaborations—I really enjoy the freedom and opportunity to express myself through personal projects. It helped to establish myself as a designer in the city. Even though I’d worked in Manchester for over a decade, it had always been for studios producing lots of work that maybe wasn’t always seen by my peers. So doing personal projects (and having a social media presence) allowed my work to get seen by a much wider audience.

Doing personal projects can help you stay fresh as a designer—but the main aim, for me, is to make sure the clients I work for allow me to produce the kind of stuff I’d do if it was a personal project. That way you can get paid for staying fresh.

How much time to do dedicate to personal projects? 

I used to spend an awful lot of time on personal projects. Sometimes hours, days and weeks. I realised about 12 months ago that perhaps I’d neglected more commercial work in the pursuit of the fun stuff. I didn’t even have my own up-to-date website and I was burning myself out. I was working 14/15 hour days and wasn’t able to get off the ride and take stock. So I said “no” a bit more and that’s where I’m at right now. Doing personal projects and collaborations is great and it’s definitely worthwhile, but it shouldn’t take over the basic concept that as designers we need to get paid for what we do. It should also, more importantly, not get in the way of family, friend and your own time. All this is crucial to a healthy and balanced work and social life. I feel like some kind of strange online preacher writing this, but it’s true.

Is there a personal project you’re particularly proud of?

I think we are all most proud of our last project. It should probably be the best one we do. Each time we should learn a little more, make some changes, make it the best we can. For me though organising BCNMCR, a design exhibition and series of talks involving Barcelona studios in Manchester, was something I am still very proud of. I started BCNMCR with no idea of how to put on an event, having no real contact with any of the agencies or designers prior to it, and realising I didn’t really have a clue what I was doing…

How do you approach designers to collaborate with? How did you get in touch with Barcelona studios like Hey and Lo Siento for BCNMCR? 

I find that flattery can get you everywhere! A nice email, tweet or, better still, a simple visit to a studio or designer you admire can really help to break the ice. With the Barcelona studios I was lucky that my wife was working over there at time. I decided to have a short break and slowly realised I had very little to do in the day while she was working! So I decided to contact some studios and see if I could perhaps go and show them my work, and at the same time find out a bit more about them. Not speaking Spanish was a bit of an issue, but they all spoke very good English and with lots of pointing, shouting and smiling I feel you can get by in most situations.

Why connect with Barcelona (rather than somewhere like Berlin or New York)?

I fell in love with the Catalan capital way back when I was an A-Level art student and have visited many times since. Having a wife who was working over there helped as well! I always thought in the back of my mind that maybe after I’d done one BCNMCR, I would change it to Berlin/Manchester or New York/Manchester. I’d like to do that one day. But I need a rest from it this year! It’s an awful lot of work to undertake alone and with a baby on the way, I’m not too sure if I’ll get as much free time anymore!

Have you found most people you’ve worked with have been willing to collaborate, or have you had to persuade a few people? 

Persuasion is a powerful tool when used well! I think if you asked some of the studios in Spain whether there was an element of persuasion involved (certainly with the first BCNMCR in 2013) then they’d probably say there was.

I’d like to change the word slightly though to “perseverance”.

Which could also translate as grinding someone down! Saying that, if people don’t want to work with you or collaborate then they simply won’t. So you need some kind of hook or something interesting to entice them. It was a lot easier with BCNMCR 2014 as I had a benchmark to showcase.

How does it work if you have conflicting opinions while working alongside other designers on a project? Do you try and work with people who have a similar style as you to make things easier?

I think the best collaborations are those when you bring two different styles together.

I worked on a project a few years ago as part of Design MCR with a guy called Tim Denton, who wasn’t graphic designer. He was more of a maker; someone who had great skills crafting objects and working with materials. We needed to find a way to showcase both our skills and most importantly work together to answer the brief. What we ended up creating was a really interesting answer to the brief. I don’t think we’d have got that if we’d both been designers working in the same style.

Do you have advice for young designers looking to tackle their own personal projects? 

My advice would be to definitely pursue personal projects. I hate seeing portfolios from graduates with the same exact projects in time and time again. I love it when they say, “This is something I worked on myself…” It shows initiative and passion. College briefs are great, but stick a few personal jobs in as well and bring your folio to life.

At the same time, don’t make your folio only about personal work. You need to be able to show you can think commercially as well. A nice mix of design and creativity is crucial to a good portfolio.

Networking can be considered a bit of a dirty word, and the idea can scare people off. Do you have advice about networking?

The word itself does seem a bit alien to me. I’ve been to one official “networking” event in my life and I spent the whole time drinking beer with the person I’d gone in with! We left after about an hour and half.

To me, networking should be something that happens subconsciously.

For example, Twitter and Instagram have been great at allowing me to connect with people I admire.

Like most things in life it’s important to just be yourself, whether that be online or in person.

Try to chat normally to people about anything such as the weather or the latest football results (or in the case of me and Anthony Burrill, Alan Partridge!). Don’t jump straight into design or work. It’s good to show you are interested in the subject you are studying or have studied, but to me it’s even better to show you are an interesting person. That’s when networking becomes more about getting to know someone than getting work from someone.

Do you have any upcoming projects (collaborative or otherwise) that you can tell us about? 

Well, apart from the project of my first child coming up this summer? I’m just finishing the design material for this year’s Manchester After Hours which is a one night event across the city featuring a range of events happening at various spaces after dark. I’m also working on a brand identity for ManCoCo, which is a roastery and coffee shop here in the city, plus I’m fortunate to be working with Skiddle this year on all their design and advertising. So there’s some fun stuff to show for them really soon.

In terms of collaborative work, myself and Stan Chow are putting the finishing touches to a year-long project we have done together for ForeverManchester. It’s not taken a year to do, it’s just we have both been super busy, so it’s been about trying to fit the work into our schedules as it’s a charity project. Hopefully really really soon we will be able to talk more about this!

Thanks Dave! Follow Studio DBD on Twitter and Instagram.