About We Made This Ltd Logo Design company in London, United Kingdom
We Made This is the graphic design studio of Alistair Hall specialising in thoughtful simple beautiful communication.
Alistair studied at Central Saint Martins before setting up his studio in 2004. Based in Clerkenwell London the studios output includes print design books branding copywriting packaging design and various other bits and bobs.
Alistair is also co-founder and art director of childrens literacy charity Ministry of Stories and its fantastical shop Hoxton Street Monster Supplies. He also lectures in Graphic Design at The School of Art Architecture and Design; and Typography at Central Saint Martins as part of their summer school.
The following piece an edited extract from a profile about We Made This on grafik.net will give a bit more insight into Alistairs work:
In a quiet corner of We Made This Im rifling through a pile of beautiful print. Its a treat to see such a range of processes and finishes being put to good use – and placed at the fore through an economical approach to typography and layout that places each items object qualities on an equal footing to the design itself. The work on the table today is just a small portion of the plethora of print produced by Alistair Hall working under the banner of We Made This – the practice he founded back in 2004.
We Made This specialises in print design – a medium that has always held a special interest for Hall. His first client out of art college was Benwells the Bermondsey-based print finisher after they produced the catalogue for his graduation show: an ambitious screw-bound book with rub-off foil on the cover that revealed a lasting message as it wore down over time. ’It was a lot of work – we sort of threw everything at it’ he recalls ’but we didnt have much budget so about fifteen of us went into Benwells in the days before the show to bind them all up ourselves by hand.’ That hands-on enthusiasm made an impression and theyve maintained a working relationship ever since.
Hall is conscious of the need for print nowadays to justify its own existence. ’You get so much promotional stuff thats quite useless’ he says. ’It arrives and you think Thats lovely but then what do you do with it? And you just feel guilty for throwing it away – whoever sent it to you has given you guilt. Theres got to be a point to stuff like this. You have to ask why anything you design should be printed rather than emailed or turned into a pdf or put online which leads into the question of what print is great at. And its about being persuasive and tactile – all the things that we love.’
The drive to interrogate each eventual outcome in this way has led to the accumulation of a broad range of beautiful considered pieces of print in Halls portfolio. His keen typographic eye is evident throughout partnered with a characteristic visual and tactile economy that ensures each piece seems somehow more than the sum of its parts. His recent client base is characterised by a similar eye for quality but also a sense of established respectability – whether its John Lewis in the retail sector Penguin Random House in publishing or indeed Benwells in print and finishing.
The common thread running through Halls work aside from a self-professed love of print is the sense that graphic design and its objects can and do have a tangible impact on the world ephemeral as they might seem and that this might as well be put to positive use.
Profile by Anna Lisa Reynolds | Reproduced by kind permission of grafik.net | Read the full piece: Soul Trader
SHOWING OFF
Ive occasionally had work featured in books magazines and online articles. Here are links to just a few of those:
Ive also won a few awards:
*As part of the Great Ideas design team led by David Pearson with Phil Baines and Catherine Dixon
