Teacake Design: Reverting to type

Unfortunately it has come to our attention that the article "Reverting to Type" about Teacake Design, which was published in the June 2012 issue, contained a number of errors. We apologise for these errors and have worked with the founders of Teacake Design to correct these. The correct version is published below.

“We’ve never really looked to other designers for inspiration,” says Graham Sykes, who makes up Teacake Design with creative partner Rob Walmsley, of their traditional, heritage-led style. “We like classic, iconic design. At uni everyone else was into people like Neville Brody, and would base all their work on them. But we’d go on day trips to places like Blackpool and buy loads of old books from second-hand shops for inspiration.”

This nurturing in classic design has given the young studio a house style steeped in traditional craftsmanship but with a fresh, contemporary twist. As well as rummaging through those seaside bookstores, the pair have also undertaken several placements with an Amsterdam-based professor of typography, learning all aspects of the craft in detail.

Although the heritage style is suggestive of a long-established design studio, Teacake is still relatively new, with Walmsley running it full time from Manchester, while Sykes fits work around his full-time job at Creative Cherry in London.

Both consider the small size of the studio as a blessing rather than a failure. “What this has enabled us to do is keep Teacake as pure as it can be,” explains Sykes. “We don’t have to cover overheads or worry about money, so we just take on work we genuinely love.”

The two met while studying Design and Art Direction at the Manchester School of Art. “We found we had similar ambitions and wanted to do exciting work on big branding projects,” Sykes continues. They soon paired up and began taking on paid work whenever they could – and attempting to, in their words, “bridge the gap between being commercial and artisan”.

It was at the beginning of their second year that the pair chanced upon the encounter that would re-shape their approach to design. “We were on a university trip to Amsterdam when we came across a tiny canal-side building that looked like a typography gallery, so we knocked on the door,” remembers Sykes. The gallery-cum-studio space belonged to Ewald Spieker, a professor of typography who practises the traditional craft across different media. “He gave us a guided tour of his space, and it was more like a printer’s than a studio,” recalls Sykes. “It was stacked with die-cut letters from floor to ceiling.”

On their return to Manchester, their course tutors were advising students to start seeking out work placements, and it occurred to Walmsley and Sykes that some time spent in Spieker’s workshop could help them learn a different skill-set to a standard studio internship. “We ended up undertaking several placements with Ewald,” recalls Walmsley. “He taught us traditional typographic values centred around the notion of ‘word plus meaning equals magic.’” Spieker demonstrated to the pair how he would approach branding and logo design from a technical and creative point of view, rather than a commercial one. “It was a truly artisan experience that taught us a real tangible sense of craftsmanship,” adds Walmsley.

This experience has permeated the pair’s approach to design ever since, and injected them with a desire to bring a sense of craftsmanship to their projects. “It’s very different working with foot-high cut-out letters than working in Illustrator,” adds Sykes. “When we came home we were totally engrossed in traditional type. We decided that we wanted to work on branding for traditional businesses, such as pubs, tailors, butchers and bakers – like a traditional signwriter would.”

Teacake eventually managed to pick up the first of these dream projects through a client it had previously done a bit of unpaid work for. “We had done some branding for a local bar, so when the owners decided to open a traditional beer house, called Port Street, they asked us to take full creative control,” Sykes tells us. “We looked at traditional barrel marks and at the signs you get on beer glasses in order to come up with something that communicated a sense of quality. We also tried a few variations on the rope theme until we came up with something the client was happy with.”

With its unconventional working arrangements and lack of a clear business plan, Teacake Design’s approach to its work might strike some as strange. It’s partly due to the state of the economy, of course, but it also tells you a lot about Walmsley and Sykes’ no-compromise approach to the work they do and the clients they like to work for: “When we graduated in 2008 there were no jobs around, so we gave it a go and spent about a year working out of a bedroom, but in the end we just weren’t making enough money,” Sykes says. “But this means we get to concentrate on just the jobs we want to do. I work on some fantastic projects for the likes of the BBC in my day job, so I get the best of both worlds.”

This freedom allows the studio to choose its projects, and it only takes on work that allows it full creative control. “There’s nothing worse than creating a lovely logo, handing it over and seeing it used in ways it shouldn’t be,” says Sykes. “So we ask clients to come back to us when anything needs doing.” One project the pair have managed to gain this control over is their identity and branding work for tailors Charles Campbell – another client from the dream list.

“We did the full package for them including the website,” continues Sykes. Adhering to tradition, they commissioned illustrator Ilyanna Kerr to draw a picture of a master tailor’s most important tool – his scissors – and combined it with a traditional serif typeface. They even hand-pressed the business cards.

The pair are aware that their style is symptomatic of a trend amongst young designers to explore traditional craft digitally. “This sort of design is fashionable at the moment, but it’s also timeless as people have worked this way for a long time,” considers Walmsley. “Craft to us is a commitment to seeing a project through and caring about the outcome.”

As for the future, Sykes sums Teacake’s attitude best: “We’re happy with the rate it’s going at and seeing where it ends up. As long as we’ve got a laptop and an internet connection, that’s all we need.”

See more of Teacake Design's work below, or watch our exclusive Studio Life video interview.