Mark Farrow



Mark Farrow’s career began in early 1980s Manchester designing experimental sleeves and posters for Factory Records, and The Haçienda, which placed him at the forefront of contemporary music graphic design. This has since continued with a longstanding creative partnership with Pet Shop Boys, and other bands such as Spiritualized.

His minimalist approach, and a rigorous, highly precise attention to detail defines his aesthetic, and appeals to a broad spectrum of clients, from museums and galleries to pop music and retail, product designers and architects, to restaurateurs and artists. In 2009 he was given the honour of Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) by the RSA.

Mark will be in conversation with Angus Montgomery of Design Week.

Colophon Foundry

Colophon is an independent type foundry set up by London-based design studio, The Entente 
(Anthony Sheret & Edd Harrington). As well as distributing and acting as a platform for fonts designed by The Entente, it selects fonts designed by other designers to distribute and create products for.

Professor David Crow

Professor David Crow is Pro-Vice- and Dean of Manchester School of Art. David’s industrial experience was gained in London where he worked on the design and production of various projects including books, brochures, packaging and promotional material. He was a member of the design group Assorted iMaGes before moving to a senior design position at Island Records where he was responsible for art direction and production and managed promotional and advertising campaigns for a variety of artists. Setting up his own studio as a freelance designer, his clients included Sony UK and USA, Virgin Records, Island Records and the Royal Shakespeare Company.



In 1993 he moved into HE as a Senior Lecturer in graphic design at University College Salford. In 1995 he was appointed as Head of Graphic Arts at Liverpool John Moores University before moving to Manchester in 2004 as Head of Design. In 2009 David became Dean of the Faculty of Art & Design and was responsible for its rebranding and a subsequent £34M rebuilding of the estate. In 2012 the School was awarded the prestigious Sir Misha Black Award for Design Innovation at the Royal College of Art, London.



His first book, Visible Signs, published in 2003 by AVA, is an introduction to semiotics which was very well received by both students and teachers of Design. This was updated with a second edition in 2010. David has also published Left to Right, an exploration of the shift from Text to Image in Visual Culture. His work can also be found in publications about graphic design that illustrate his interest and expertise in typography and visual language systems. His work is featured in the publications The Typographic Experiment by Teal Triggs and No More Rules - Graphic Design and Postmodernism by Rick Poynor. David has also written for design publications such as Eye magazine and Creative Review.

Andrew Shoben




Andrew Shoben is the founder of greyworld, a world renowned artists' collective who create art in public spaces. His work finds expression through the mediums of installation, sculpture and multiples. His primary objective is to create public art that involves the human in an urban context.

Greyworld has created works in some hugely coveted locations across the world, and they now have permanent installations in twelve countries. In 2004 he launched The Source, a permanent installation for the London Stock Exchange which was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and was watched by millions everyday on television around the world.



Malcolm Garrett
RDI, Hon DDes, FISTD

Malcolm Garrett is the Creative Director of IMAGES&Co, a communications design consultancy based in London, UK. Garrett has a global reputation for his influence on graphic design and popular culture, both through his landmark designs for clients including Buzzcocks, Duran Duran, Boy George, Simple Minds and Peter Gabriel, and through his pioneering role in championing interaction and digital communications since the early 1990s. In 1994 he established one of the first digital agencies in London's Shoreditch, and in 2000, he became the first “new media” designer appointed to the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry.

Both at Assorted Images, the graphic design company that he founded in 1977, and at his digital agency AMX, Garrett produced innovative work for clients in the arts, media and culture; and for leading corporates such as Barclays, Accenture, BT and Diageo. More recently he has designed identities and graphic interfaces for physical and online environments for the British and Canadian governments, for Dublin Bus network, Manchester City Council, and for public institutions such as museums and universities. At IMAGES&Co, Garrett heads a team which develops leading-edge communications in lifestyle, culture, manufacturing, healthcare and education.

In November 2013, Malcolm Garrett takes office as Master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. He is a Fellow of the International Society of Typographic Designers (FISTD) and holds honorary Doctorates of Design from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and University of the Arts London. Garrett is a member of the Science Museum Advisory Board, the Sir Misha Black Awards Committee and is founder member of the 5D world builders at 5D Institute at USC in California. He is noted for his collaborative approach to design and his commitment to design education. His work has been widely exhibited worldwide and his collection of futurist memorabilia was launched last year as a resource for PhD students by Manchester School of Art with an exhibition titled “The World of Tomorrow”.

Malcolm is an official ambassador for both the Manchester School of Art and the Design Manchester 13 festival.

Kate Moross

Kate Moross is a graphic artist, art director and filmmaker from London who has a fascination with three-sided shapes, illegible typography, and freeform lettering. She has worked prolifically within the music industry designing for artists and labels such as Tom Vek, Zomby, Hearts Revolution, EMI, Sony, Island and Warner. She also works as art director for Simian Mobile Disco, Jessie Ware and L-Vis 1990.

Her commercial clients include Nike, Kiehl’s, Glastonbury, Nokia, and Cadbury. At the start of 2012 Moross set up a new creative design practice, Studio Moross, expanding her team and working with some of the freshest new design talent.

Nat Hunter & Sophie Thomas



Nat Hunter is a user experience designer and a founding director of Airside, an award winning cross-platform design agency that worked in moving image, graphic design, illustration, and digital interaction until its closure in early 2012. She has recently become a Creative Director at Tokyo Digital, an ideas agency providing digital solutions.


Nat is the co-founder, together with Sophie, of the social enterprise Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest which they set up in 2008 to inspire the design industry to conceive and produce more sustainable creative work. She is a regular contributor to the design community - lecturing in design around the world, judging awards such as D&AD, Design Week & Creative Review, writing for Grafik and Varoom, and doing workshops and lecturing at universities. She has been on the Executive Committee of D&AD since 2011.

Sophie is the founding director of thomas.matthews, the award winning UK pioneers in sustainable communication design established in 1998. She has been working in the fields of communication, sustainable design and material process for over 15 years working with global businesses and UK government organisations to define the role of designers within the discussion around waste streams, resource efficiency and circular economies.

She co-founded a number of enterprises including greengaged, an organisation that aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond to environmental challenges through knowledge sharing. In addition to the RSA post she has recently become Director of Design for the Useful Simple Trust where her focus will be to work with designers and engineers to create trailblazing work.

Sophie plays a vocal part in promoting sustainable thinking in design through education, working with organisations like Cape Farewell and speaking internationally and throughout the UK. She writes regularly for the design press, is an associated member of the CIWM, included in Who’s Who and sits on a number of advisory panels for sustainable design. She is a past trustee for the Design Council until 2011 and is a trustee of the Useful Simple Trust.

Both Nat and Sophie are co-directors of Design at the RSA.