Container Plus vs Mike Rigby

Over the last year we have had a variety of different guest speakers coming into College, providing us with a lecture on their experiences on entering the graphic design world. Not all of the lectures are of great interest, however the majority are interesting and provide me with answers to the questions i have been asking. Each lecture i felt was presented very differently, whether it was the way they talked about there own work; or the actual presenting skills. After experiencing these lectures i have decided to compare two different lectures that have stood out in my mind and their different ways of how they entered the design world.

The two different lectures i am going to compare are Luise Vormittag, from the design agency Container Plus, and Mike Rigby a graphic designer who has worked for many different well known design agencies such as The Chase and Pentagram. Both lectures were very well presented and interesting to me, however quite different. Container Plus's lecture was presenting in the lecture theatre so felt very formal and professional, whereas Mike Rigby presented his lecture in our graphics room upstairs. This meant we were all sat a lot close to him and it felt less formal, but was still presented in a professional manner.

To start my comparison i am going to talk about Luise Vormittag and her lecture for Container Plus. As i mentioned above Luise presented her lecture in the lecture theatre. The main thing that stood out from her lecture from the start was the fact Container Plus are a collaboration of different pathways and made up of only women. I was intrigued to see how illustration and graphic design worked well together in a company. Luise mainly concentrated on talking about the agency itself, however she did include how she and the company set up and her experience into the graphic design world. There were comments after the talk that students found this lecture boring and un-interesting, however i feel i was the complete opposite and something about this lecture really kept me interested. It may have been the fact that we very rarely have female designers come in to talk and i was intrigued to see if she had any different problems or successes as the previous male designers we've had in. Container Plus was set up by Luise and a fellow design student from the same university, Nicola Carter. They both collaborated work during their final year at university and new they both wanted to work together doing something with illustration/graphic design. So they set up Container Plus, they now have a 3rd full time designer called Patricia, however they say being only a small company if they need any extra help they are not afraid to ask for it. Luise had a few points that she made during the lecture that really stood out to me. one of these was that container plus keep work and home life separate. This means like most graphic designers, instead of going for a drink after work, Container Plus do not do this, once they leave work that rarely speak until they are next in work together.

Secondly i am going to talk about Mike Rigby and his lecture. Again as i mentioned earlier, Mike presented his lecture in our small graphics room. I feel this was better in a way as we all got to engage with him directly. Mike started off his talk by talking about his first ever placement he got once leaving university, which was at Imagination London. He expressed how huge this company was and explained they had lots of different offices for all the different pathways in design. He even made a point of mentioning the street that ran between two of the buildings, in relation to how big it really was. mike said he enjoyed his placement and it was a good experience however he felt that he had spent most of his time in the photocopying room. Mike also went on the stress how important placements really are, this is something that Luise didn't talk about! He mentioned that it not only gets you in contact with people from the real world but also makes you fully aware of the speed you are needed to work at, which is good piece of information to be told as its not something you do much of whilst at university. Another piece of advice given by Mike was not to be scared of your work being rejected. Mike's lecture was very different as he hardly mentioned any of the companies he's worked for, he mainly focused on placements and his design experience. Mike's way of presenting was a lot more casual, he was talking about his early experiences such as going travelling around the world. He went on to say if you've already been travelling when going for an interview the employer then knows there isn't a chance you could leave after a year to go travelling the world.

With both lectures being about the same work however in very different styles you can clearly see this in their work.

Below is an example of Container Plus's work.




























As you can see above Container Plus's work is very illustrative and pretty. Where as Mike Rigbys work (below)































You can see above that Mike's work is very clean and minimal, quite the opposite to Container Plus.


In comparison i think both lectures were extremely useful to me and have provided me with answers to many questions. Both lectures contained different information, for example Container Plus are a company that does everything from design work, photography and even making websites; whereas Mike Rigby works for a company, as a graphic designer and there will be other departments to deal with photography etc. I think both ways of presenting were useful and i enjoyed watching both of the lectures, as they both stood out in my mind and i will remember the basic points the guided me with.