About Zumo Juice & the Creative Past
Zumo Juice is the creative output of York-based graphic designer, Richard Gray.
Functioning as identity and a guise, Zumo Juice is the composite of my creative output, both professional and personal.
The site allows me to not only demostrate the projects I have worked on for both corporate and commercial clients, but also my series of personal projects exploring everything from typography to format, iconography to social interaction.
Creative Past:
I'd love to say I had a massively creative upbringing but I really didn't. I've always had some sort of creative outlet however, which started with drama. The graphics really came about through early experiments into the web and into the unknown.
At Pocklington School, I started to develop a visual style within image manipulation and digital imaging. Using Photoshop, this early work created new worlds or textures out of images. Eventually through I craved more that this and although I could have explored both a Art or Design path, I chose Design by going to Huddersfield and into Creative Imaging. With a grounding in visual culture and the ability 'learn how to learn', I moved on to agencies. Each made their own mark on me and my work.
Creative Passions
Creative Passions:
My passion for world creations in photoshop has moved towards typography and tactile design. Type has real appeal to me, in both its rich language and form. It's long been a passion to tamper with this balance, in both creating letterforms and destroying the forms themselves. I collect wooden type blocks, I can look at nice typefaces for hours. This study helps me to form opinions about type, about what it says to me and its voice. I feel it is however, important to balance my interest with practical knowledge of issues involved with type, such as RNIB guidelines and other accessibility guides.
Another side of my design passion is tactile design. The appearance, finish and packaging of an item as well as its design should go hand in hand with each other and not just be a final thought. With so much design saturating the market, it's the extra form and detail that will cut through the chaff. The essence of printed tactile design is simply appealing to more of the senses, be that sight, smell, taste or touch.
Creative Future
Creative Future:
I like to think this is unwritten. I have things i'd like to achieve creatively, but as yet I don't know how these will take shape. If I did, I'd have already done them right? I don't feel too pressured to set a plan just yet. I am happy to absorb all I can and evolve constantly.