Trevor Johnson

Creative director Trevor Johnson from Creative Lynx came in to give us a talk. With his client / work list containing big names such as New Order, The Haçienda, Simply Red, MOSA, 24hour Party Peopleand many more it was great to see a graphic designer with a branding / corporate Identity background. As this is what I want to go into it was a vital lecture. Being a Manchester designer made him more appealing as most designer have uplifted from their roots but not Trevor.

Based with the company Creative Lynx and with 25 years of iconic designs to his name he has always stayed in Manchester, bringing with him the attention of the design world to 'Madchester' with his industrial and typographic designs for Factory Records and the Haçienda (alongside Peter Saville), Trevor has earned a place at the very heart of Manchester's creative legacy. Ever since, Trevor has been a consistently notable contributor to the city's urban renaissance through his work for many of Manchester's most prestigious brands and organisations, playing a key role in establishing Manchester as an international city of creative excellence.

He showed us some of his early work in where he started his career as a commercial illustrator which demonstrates his great hand drawn illustrations. I love how when he started he created beautiful work using his hand drawn skills, I think I liked him becasue I always prefer to work with my own hand drawn things rather than computer generated thing. Back then in the 70's, designers had to have the skills to draw as there were no computers till the mid 80's, Johnson spoke about this and how to compete with other designers he even took up a Calligraphy course to understand other letterforms and to stand out against the others. 

It was clear to see that Johnson loved working for musicians and creating record sleeves from a young age, however once his client list had grown his work became more commercial but still keeping the hand drawing skills intact. Recently he revamped the Manchester food & drink campaigns, which now feature lyrics from Manchester bands such as Oasis and Stone Roses. I loved the art direction of these becasue they were produced using bright colour but not too bright to look horrible. The colour scheme and the different types of type just looked perfect! The logo itself is a great piece as it has a 'double visual' as the knife and fork create a wine bottle. Nicely done!