Duncan Barton - Learning not to be 'The Best Designer in the World'

Graphic designer, Duncan Barton takes me through his design process, position on current trends and how he's developed a career around the things he loves.

"At university they taught you to be 'the best designer in the world' not a jobbing designer"

Probably my favourite quote from the episode. You're just not taught all the day to day nitty gritty of being a designer working with real clients, dealing with feedback and churning out more of the functional aspects of what design really is.

Duncan also uses a lovely analogy in the 'gradient of design' from the boring and mundane repetitive tasks to highly concept driven design. I'd never considered it as such an apt metaphor before.

Duncan mentions David Carson's TED talk from 2013 Design and Discovery https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_design_and_discovery

He talks about how we shouldn't confuse legibility with communication. Something we explore in the episode along with readability and tying that to some of the latest trends.

We round off by talking about Dundee and Duncan has a hugely positive view on the city and his time here. There seems to be some sort of weird synergy where things centred around his interests like music, design skating and plants all seem to be popping up around the city.

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