Ten editions in, and Common Matters is still common mattersing: a room full of the creative community, talking about what actually matters to them.
This time we were back in Manchester, for an evening that gave us creative whiplash from the different talk subjects, styles and hot takes. Somehow it all hung together.
Here’s what went down.
OK COOL: I'm begging, be less mid
Annie, Head of Strategy at OK COOL, arrived with the energy of someone who has had enough. Of safe creative work.
Her diagnosis: most of what gets made today is mid, and mid isn’t a taste problem, it’s a courage problem. We’ve optimised our way into flatness because nobody wants to be the one who’s answerable when something goes wrong.
“People don't have short attentions, they have less patience. You just need to do something worthy of it.”
— Annie House
Head of Strategy, OK COOL
Her prescription is a fun list:
Be brave. Be original. Antagonise with intent. Get obsessed. Create selflessly. Keep people guessing.
She backed it all up with examples that ranged from a beer brand physically dragging a giant Trojan horse to a rival brewery, to a construction glue billboard inviting people to rip real objects off it and take them home, if they could. The thread connecting these incred examples: earn attention by doing something worth paying attention to.
Best line of the night, arguably: “If you can’t thrill at the pub, you can’t thrill anywhere.”
Wiedemann Lampe: Designing for intergenerational change
You were warned about the creative whiplash. From earning instant attention with Annie from OK COOL, we’re zooming right out. Co-founders Benji and Alex of Wiedemann Lampe took us all the way out to the opposite end of the timescale, starting their talk with a brief history of time, delivered as pixels and emojis.
Thus, we arrive in the Wiedemann Lampe world; lived in decades and generations, creating the kind of change that shapes cities, education systems and energy transitions long after any of us will be around to see the result.
“If you can solve it in a lifetime, you're probably not thinking big enough.”
— Alex Lampe
Co-founder, Wiedemann Lampe
Their case studies range from projects built to tackle the loneliness epidemic, through to cities being rebuilt for an audience that won’t arrive until 2050. Designers admittedly have a tiny amount of direct influence in the grand scheme of things, yes, but tiny influence applied at the right scale, over the right amount of time, adds up to new futures.
Wiedemann Lampe are comfortable – in fact they thrive – starting something they might never see finished.
Dalton Maag: Accessibility, easy peasy (it isn't)
Zeynep reflected on how we’re given so much confusing guidance and white noise around using type and accessibility. So much so, that it’s natural to feel unmoored and look for clear, easy answers.
“We must trust our sense of smell that we've trained on all other areas of our work to sniff out this unmistakable stench of "too good to be true."”
— Zeynep Akay
Creative Director, Dalton Maag
Her fix isn’t a checklist. It was the opposite of a checklist.
Read past the headlines.
Understand why a guideline exists before you follow it blindly.
Trust the same critical instincts you have developed as a designer.
So here you have it: a Zeynep-approved pass to stop treating accessibility as a straight-up pass or fail. It’s a sliding scale, and we’re all here to learn.
No Easy Answers
Our takeaway from all three talks? Skip the shortcut, do the harder thing instead. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
Big thanks to Zeynep, Annie, Benji and Alex for bringing the talks, and to our pals at GF Smith for backing the night.
Common Matters is heading to New York and London next, so if you’re in either city, come say hello.
