Imagination - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0714840858 ISBN 13: 9780714840857

Publisher: Phaidon Press, 2001

The communications and design agency Imagination was founded by Gary Withers in 1978. It now has almost 500 staff, based in London, Hong Kong and New York, who practise a wide range of disciplines, from architecture, interiors, lighting and acoustics to graphics, film and digital media. Often dealing with high-profile theatrical events, Imagination's projects are sophisticated and highly orchestrated.

This book features over 30 projects organized into thematic chapters reflecting their aims: to inform, entertain, inspire, persuade and amaze. Projects include the exhibition 'Dinosaurs' at the Natural History Museum, London (1992), the Talk and Journey zones at the Millennium Dome (1999), The Aurora Centre, Berlin (1998) and the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin (2000).

An introduction by design critic Stephen Bayley assesses the significance of Imagination's approach to communication, while perspectives from Mike Davies of the Richard Rogers Partnership, Sean Perkins of North, architect Lorenzo Apicella, Ian Liddell of Buro Happold and J Mays, Vice President, Design, Ford Motor Company, provide insights into the work and culture of Imagination. An extensive interview with Gary Withers, illustrated with over 350 projects from the course of Imagination's history, further explains the evolution of this unique company.

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Review:

The brainchild of art-school graduate Gary Withers, Imagination Monograph encapsulates the essence of a creative professional collective, Imagination, based on pooled skills, the vision to blend them and now an impressively conceived and packaged book to showcase them. Started in 1978, the company's role finally emerged in the early 1990s as "brand experience", whereby they enable clients to express corporate identity through innovative product presentation that bears Imagination's mark but the client's brand.

The book opens with a laudatory essay by design journalist Stephen Bayley, who accords Imagination the title of "Britain's, and by some measures the world's, biggest design agency". Major commercial players such as Ford and BT have shown repeated and justified faith in Imagination to conceive, construct and choreograph launch events and happenings. What Imagination does, and is, remains intentionally elusive, as the key to its success lies in its fluidity. Referred to by one ex-employee as "a little Bauhaus", it rejects pyramid management for a pancake non-hierarchy that thrives on "partnering", whereby it has an established, trusted network of professionals who can be relied on for whatever a project entails. Their stock-in-trade is the stuff of dreams--their presentations and designs consciously impel the jaw to drop and appeal to an audience ideally with an intelligent brain but little previous product knowledge. From the launch of the Tate Modern, exhibitions at the Natural History Museum, the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin (with a top-level bar lit like the head of a pint, naturally) to several pavilions at the Millennium Dome, they have embraced a sense of theatrical presentation rooted in precision and planning. As a result, a series of stills and designs inevitably can't quite do justice to the scale of their achievement, but the inclusion of preliminary sketches and outlines of the thought behind their work, provide tantalising insights into method and a working environment to be equally admired and envied. Perhaps this, Imagination's philosophy ("to get there quicker") and practices, is the most impressive aspect of a book that illuminates the way forward for corporate presentation, in the most holistic, dare one say, Imaginative, fashion. --David Vincent

Synopsis:

Imagination was founded by Gary Withers in 1976, and now has 400 staff, based in London, Hong Kong and New York, who practice a number of disciplines, from architecture to acoustics, lighting, graphics, multimedia and the Internet. Imagination is well known for designing structures that create a particular world - a unique environment in which the visitor/user can experience and become aware of a new product or brand. A truly interdisciplinary company, it has pioneered the way many designers are working today - architects, for instance, are interested in the way that graphics, multimedia or film can work in a 3-D environment; and graphic designers are developing ideas using the animated image. And, despite the fact that Imagination is often involved in high-profile, big-budget events, their design projects remain sophisticated and highly orchestrated.

Imagination's work includes the proposal for Millennium Central (1995), the original concept for the millennium exhibition, which included architecture, graphic design and film; a corporate identity launched for British Telecom (1991), which included graphics, architecture and lighting; a car launch for Ford (1983) as well as the Geneva and Detroit Motor Shows for Ford (1993 and 1999) which incorporated architecture/structural design, graphics, interiors, lighting and film; the Dinosaur Gallery at the Natural History Museum, London (1989), a permanent exhibition that includes architecture, multimedia, film and animatronics and the interior design of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. The leading principle in the work of Imagination is to communicate a message: selling, branding, persuading, encouraging, presenting a point of view. This book will feature more than 25 projects organized into chapters reflecting these themes. An introduction by design guru Stephen Bayley examines the evolution of Imagination over the last two decades, and interviews with people who have been connected with the company over the years are also included in this book, adding extra perspectives on the practice.

Interviews are with Lorenzo Apicella (architect and Pentagram partner, and employee of Imagination in the 1980s); Sean Perkins (graphic designer, founder of North and employee of Imagination in the 1990s); Mike Davies (architect and partner in the Richard Rogers Partnership, and collaborator); J. Mays (automotive designed, VP Design, Ford and client); and Ian Liddle (designer with engineers Buro Happold). An extensive interview with Gary Withers adds a further personal insight into the history and ethos of the practice.

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