Updates
Announcing our first speakers – four outstanding designers
We are very excited to announce some of the incredible speakers we’re bringing to Birmingham for the design festival this June, making good on our intent to showcase top industry professionals. Although Anthony Burrill, Marina Willer, Jim Sutherland and Jack Renwick hardly need an introduction, we’re delighted to give them one here…
Anthony Burrill
Graphic artist, print-maker and designer Anthony Burrill is known for his persuasive, up-beat style of communication. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York and has been exhibited in galleries around the world including the Barbican Art Gallery, the Walker Art Center and the Design Museum, London.
Words and language are an important part of Burrill’s output and he has developed a distinctive voice that is sought after not only by collectors of his posters and prints but also by clients including Apple, Google, Hermés, the British Council, London Underground and the Design Museum. Burrill is perhaps best known for his typographic, text-based compositions, including the now-famous “Work Hard and Be Nice to People”, which has become a mantra for the design community and beyond.
Burrill was born in Littleborough, Lancashire. After studying Graphic Design at Leeds Polytechnic he completed an MA in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, London. He now lives and works on the Isle of Oxney, Kent.
Marina Willer
Pentagram partner Marina Willer is a graphic designer and film-maker who has led the design of iconic brand identities, including the Tate, Serpentine, Southbank Centre, Amnesty, Oxfam and Macmillan, among many others.
Marina studied Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art, where she has subsequently served as an examiner. Prior to joining Pentagram, Marina was head creative director for Wolff Olins.
Her award-winning films have been shown at the Foundation Cartier, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Royal Academy and prestigious film festivals, including Clermont Ferrand and Rotterdam Film Festival. Her critically acclaimed film ‘Red Trees’ explores today’s refugee crisis through the lens of her own family’s story.
Marina is a member of AGI and has been foreman judge at D&AD on several occasions. She was recently named one of Design Week’s 10 people who made an impact on design in 2017.
Jim Sutherland
In 2001 Jim co-founded Hat-trick Design, consistently one of the top three most awarded design agencies in the UK (and number one in 2011). He left in 2014 to set up Studio Sutherl&. He has rebranded the Natural History Museum, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis, The Arts Society, Williams F1, Prostate Cancer UK, National Museums Scotland, Welsh National Opera, and Start-Rite shoes. He has designed over 50 stamps to date for Royal Mail including the Agatha Christie set in 2016. Awards include 82 projects in D&AD (the foremost design and advertising competition in the world), with eight nominations and four yellow pencils: and 37 nominations in the Design Week Awards – twice Best in Show. He has judged D&AD eight times (as Foreman of the Branding Jury in 2016), as well as the Design Week, Loeries (SA), Kinsale, Roses, ADNC and Fresh Award schemes.
He is a visiting Professor in Design at Norwich University of the Arts, and has given lectures at many UK universities. He was on the D&AD Executive board from 2009 to 2012 and a governor at Norwich School of Art between 2010 and 2014. He is on the board of The Typographic Circle.
He has published several books, including a children’s book Hide&Eek!, which won a yellow pencil at D&AD in 2014 and Eeormoo? published this year. Studio Sutherl& was the most awarded design studio at D&AD in 2017, and recently came number one in the Computer Arts UK studio rankings.
Jack Renwick
Jack Renwick is a multi-award winning designer with a strong passion for ideas. She works closely with clients, getting to the heart of their problem and showing how creative thinking can be the way forward.
Jack Renwick runs a creative branding agency in Whitechapel, London with 8 designers who are more talented than her. She has worked on a huge variety of projects over the past 19 years for clients including Amnesty International, British Heart Foundation, eBay, BBC, Royal Mail and Stella McCartney and received recognition from most of the world’s most prestigious awards.
Jack originates from Glasgow and is frequently sought out as an awards jury member for her ‘refreshingly frank’ views. She is a Fellow, a board member, an examiner, an advisor, a judge, a writer and a speaker. She has earned the title after her name of FISTD but she choses not to use it.
