North of The Border: Stephen Farrell

After the success of last weeks Sites of Inspiration post I decided that maybe I should share more than just websites that inspire me. And so this has lead me to start a series of post showcasing Designers who I consider to be a massive influence on my work.

Admittedly I could have started this series off with any number of great and well known designers (Sagmeister is a all time favorite for me so I had to fight against that urge) but i thought instead I'd begin with a designer that not many people may know of...

Stephen Farrell is a relatively unknown designer, mainly due to his lack of an online presence. After being introduced to his work by my friend Leanne Swift during my last year of Uni we spent months trying to find samples of his work; only to land short with a few blog posts by fans (like this one) and a spread in the Design book 'Area 2'. Farrell is an acclaimed designer and has not only won several awards for his work but also teaches at 'the School of the Art Institute of Chicago'.

Sod it, I was going to attempt to go into his life story (from what I could find) but if you really want to know that you can find it at the select few sites that do host his work. Please just enjoy the collection of pieces I have posted here. Farrell was a massive influence to me during my final year and especially useful for my Flatland project (I only discovered this morning that he to designed a Flatland book. I'm now off to see if I can buy my own copy). Farrell's work showed me that you can still make large amounts of text playful and daring, and at the same time legible for the reader.