Member in the Spotlight: Graham Sturt

Graham Sturt, our Member in the Spotlight of the week, is Creative Director and Partner at D8, a multidisciplinary strategic design and branding agency based in Amsterdam and Glasgow. Following his love of Dutch design, Graham moved to Amsterdam in 2007, where he took up the role of Creative Director at VBAT which he held until November 2020. As an active member of the design community and a passionate advocate of Dutch design, Graham’s work has been recognised by many national and international Awards, such as the Dutch Creativity Awards, Design Week, Cannes Lions, European Design Awards and One Show, and his work has been featured in many industry publications. We chat with Graham and learn more about his impressive collection of snow globes, his favourite Pop Artist, and what his top tips are to get creatively inspired.

As the Club for Creativity, we'd like to ask you to get creative and draw a self portrait.

PERSONAL

Do you own a collection and if so, what is it?

I’ve always been a bit like a magpie (Ekster in Dutch), collecting all sorts of design related ephemera – club flyers, books, 12 inch records, posters etc. My favourite collection, however, is of cheap plastic tourist souvenir snow globes. I started collecting them when I was based in London and used to travel a lot with work. I’d invariably pick up at least one from a souvenir shop on each trip. By the time I grew out of actively collecting them I’d amassed around 200. I’m only interested in the cheap plastic ones as I find them way more quirky than fancy glass ones. What I love most about them is the way they distil the greatest tourist highlights of any destination into a tiny stage set encapsulated inside a plastic dome. It’s also fun to see arid tourist destinations such as Las Vegas or Ayers Rock get a little dusting of fake snow every time you give the globe a shake.

What music could we find on your favourite playlist?

I’ve always loved the music of Belle & Sebastian. There’s a quirky optimism about their sound that brings a smile to my face and tapping to my toes. D8 has also designed all of their record covers since 2006

What was the last meal that truly impressed you?

When I eat out I’m usually looking more to the design of the restaurant interior than the menu. In this respect the environment around me is usually far more memorable than the food I eat there. Overall I was most impressed by a meal I had on my birthday a few years back at a New York restaurant called Lever House. All aspects of the restaurant design – interior, furniture, cutlery etc. – were designed by Marc Newson, a design hero of mine. It was also strangely memorable for the fact that our waiter looked and sounded exactly like Robin Williams. I’m sure the meal was very nice too.

What is the last thing you bought and loved?

I optimistically just booked a plane ticket to Budapest to celebrate a good friend’s 50th birthday in June. What I love about it most is it gives me something to look forward to in the Summer. After 10 months of Covid lockdown and working from home, we all need something positive to hang onto don’t we?

Who is your style icon?

Without a doubt it’s the British designer Peter Saville. Aside from being (another) design hero of mine, he projects this achingly sophisticated style which is a kind of streamlined take on the student looks coming out of France in the mid-to-late 1960s. I met him backstage at What Design Can Do in Amsterdam a few years ago and we had a lovely random chat about the colour and texture of the velvet stage curtains.

What object could you never part with?

I could never part permanently with our beloved 1970 Vespa 50 Special. Unfortunately these days, as an old timer, she seems to spend more time with a mechanic being repaired than she spends with us.

If you didn't live in the Netherlands, where would you live?

Tokyo specifically as I’ve always been fascinated with anything Japanese. I imagine it could be a bit bewildering living there due to the complexity of the culture and the language barrier but we’re only talking hypothetically right? Amsterdam forever!

Who is the one artist whose work you'd collect if you could?

As a movement I’ve always been drawn to Pop Art. I think it’s something to do with its graphic nature that I relate strongly to. Of all the Pop Artists my favourite is the British artist Patrick Caulfield. His work is usually characterised by its heavy black outlines and flat colour, with some objects being depicted more realistically. His work, predominantly produced in the 1960s – 1970s was long ago priced out of my reach but it’s really interesting to see how contemporary it still feels. One other thing I love about Patrick Caulfield is that he obviously had a great sense of humour. Before he died in 2005 he designed his own headstone which can be seen today at Highgate Cemetery in London. Cut out of solid granite in bold geometric shapes it simply reads ‘DEAD’

PROFESSIONAL

What makes a great or hero client?

A healthy dose of bravery is always welcome. Not being too prescriptive is also appreciated.

If you weren't working in the creative industry, what else would you be doing?

As a kid I always wanted to be a Marine Biologist. Blame Jacques Cousteau for that. I was mesmerised by his documentaries on TV. As an adult I’m not really a strong swimmer and have a deep-seated fear of sharks. I think I chose my career path well.

Who do you love/admire the most in the Dutch creative industry?

Around 2015 I came up with an idea to interview as many of the legendary Dutch designers whose work inspired me to follow my love for Dutch Design and relocate from London to Amsterdam in 2007. Over the course of the past few years, I was fortunate enough to interview Wim Crouwel, Ben Bos, Jan van Toorn, Gerard Hadders, Gert Dumbar, Irma Boom, Hans Bockting, Jacques Koeweiden and Paul Mijksenaar. They were all amazing in their own way and I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to capture their individual stories as a series of creative conversations called ‘Dutch Design Heroes’.

If you could pick one recent campaign/project that makes you think, ‘I wish I’d done that’, what would it be and why?

One thing I find worrying with brand identity today is that increasingly there tends to be a relatively short shelf-life for new identities served up as the face of a brand or organisation. When I first entered into this industry there was a certain pride in the durability of brand identities and visual solutions delivered for clients. Somewhere along the line it feels like that’s become a bit blurry. I’m not sure if this is a reflection of too many trends led designs or simply due to the speed of change we’ve come to accept in our everyday lives today. Either way it feels like brands are far more regularly changing their identities. In this respect I wish I’d been involved in some small way with the development of the current logo of KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), designed in 1961 by FHK Henrion in London. Apart from a colour change it remains untouched and is still in use today – a great achievement in today's climate.

Out of the campaigns/projects you’ve worked on, which makes you the most proud?

In November 2020 I left VBAT, an agency I proudly worked at for 13 years, to seek a new challenge. Ultimately, after all that time, there are many projects I’m really happy with. The one that makes me most proud, from a collective point of view, is one of the last, Amsteldok. The project involved the naming, brand strategy and visual identity for the new WPP campus in Amsterdam. What makes me particularly proud is the relative ease in which we were able to sell in the initial conceptual starting point and push the creativity across every touchpoint. For this I have to give credit to a brilliant (and brave) client in WPP Netherlands, to the long list of incredibly talented people in the VBAT project team and to the wider group of brilliant suppliers involved (Acrylicize, BDG, Fontsmith and Colliers). As an ambitious creative, I always aim to deliver the highest level of creativity in my work. The reality can sometimes mean a compromise somewhere along the line to final delivery of course. Fortunately with the Amsteldok project, the integrity of the big idea and the design delivery remained pure, with the end result being loved by those who continue to work and play at the Amsterdam campus.

What top tips do you have to help people get creatively inspired?

Use your smartphone to digitally capture anything that catches your eye. You never know when that combination of colours you saw in the street yesterday or that quirky typeface you saw on that old building will provide valuable inspiration for a new project. I’ve been doing this for years now and my iPhone photo library is more graphic archive than family photo album. That and take lots of long walks wherever you are to visually absorb the architecture, vernacular typography, colour, shape and form from the surrounding environment. We are constantly surrounded by creative inspiration, you just need to seek it out.

What’s the first thing you do when you start a project?

The first thing I do when I start a project is to totally immerse myself in the brand or organisation I’m working for. I particularly love this phase and find it essential to understand where they stand today and where we can take them tomorrow.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever received was early in my career. In 1996 I worked closely with an entrepreneur called Simon Woodroffe, to help him realise his dream to launch a conveyor belt sushi bar in Soho, London. It was called Yo! Sushi. I worked on all aspects of its branding whilst at a brilliant design agency called 4i. Simon was, and still is, a master of soundbites and a highly inspiring person. Towards the end of working together he told me the mantra he lives by, in life and business, is ‘follow your fear to find your destiny’. From that day on I pretty much adopted his mantra and find it really useful whenever I face a challenge.

Through our Members in the Spotlight feature, we aim to get to know both professionally and personally the unique qualities of our ADCN Members. If you would like to join ADCN, the Club for Creativity, you can find out more here.