What’s Up #24: Tom Havell

A curious thing is happening down at Brighton University’s Graphic Design course [brighton.ac.uk]. For the past couple of years, they have not only been helping spawn a hi qual batch of intelligent, risk-taking illustrators and designers. The last year of so has seen them issuing forth fully fledged Art Directors, who are already rejecting a life of being tethered to a computer in favour of rigourously thought out concept based work and collaboration. This development of the role of ‘Junior Art Director’ is a curious trend as the position of ‘Art Director’ is something a designer usually evolves into (sort of like a Pokemon, I guess [bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net]). It’ll be interesting to see how the creative industry reacts to this development. Tom Havell [tomhavell.com] is one such Brighton grad who is happy to flit between the three disciplines of graphic design, illustration and art direction as exemplified in his recently launched foliosite.