Experimental Jetset, D&AD President's Lecture

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11 Greenwich Centre Business Park,
53 Norman Road, Greenwich
London SE10 9QF

Cog is a Certified B Corporation

020 8269 1800 [email protected]

Experimental Jetset, D&AD President’s Lecture

Thu 5th June 2008

Michael Smith

Stars of tonight’s D&AD President’s Lecture, in Logan Hall, were the dogmatic Dutch design trio, Experimental Jetset.

The D&AD President’s Lectures are a chance for the current President to invite their heroes. Simon Waterfall is the current incumbent and he’s hosted lots of interesting events.

Tonight’s stars were the dogmatic Dutch trio, Experimental Jetset; heroes of us all.

I was fascinated to hear them speak.

Actually, their work speaks for itself. Their uncompromising use of Helvetica and their pared-down, system-led design solutions are both an inspiration and a frustration.

Their identity for the Whitney might be the best for any museum in the world.

But listening to three very earnest designers, talking earnestly about their earnest work didn’t make for the most engaging evening.

It would be unfair for me to write a damning review – their work is great and English isn’t their first language. So, instead, I’ll use their own words, lifted from their site:

“Thursday 5 June, 2008. That’s us three, giving a lecture at a sold-out Logan Hall (London), in front of over a thousand people. A terrifying experience, but we think we did okay; we were very nervous before we started, but afterwards we felt happy and relieved, and the reactions were fabulous. A couple of days later, someone pointed us to some sobering online reviews (“Nice work, but possibly the most boring people ever”), but hey, tell us something we don’t know.”