RESEARCH_JONBLAND

Throughout 2013, designer Jon Bland has been posting seven posters by seven different creatives, all featuring the phrase “No Fly Posters,” onto an abandoned Manchester Pub. Submissions have ranged from friends and family to (most recently) high-profile creatives such as Anthony Burrill, James Joyce, and Pascal Anson. No Fly Posters is a project that adheres to the ‘Design for Art’s Sake’ model of Almeida and McCarthy (2002). The project has taken a form of advertising and turned it upside down, creating an open gallery in the public domain.

Flyposting is a guerrilla marketing tactic. Bland found the fly posters amusing during his daily commute, “the idea of replacing them quickly escalated in my head.” In January of this year, he did just that. Since then the project has grown, allowing Bland to swap the posters monthly.

Bland’s work is interesting due to his curational exploits outside of being a graphic designer. The outdoor gallery of No Fly Posters fit’s into the ‘Design for Art’s Sake’ model in Almeida and McCarthy. Bland completes the project as an exercise of his skills and creativity, and invites others to question an every day irony, through the use of design.

I asked Jon Bland some questions about his projects. I asked how the projects specifically affect his professional practice at the studio, and what he learns personally by conducting personal projects. 

While I am unsure if this particular research will be able to inform my essay, I will be able to use the research in the practical element. In the wider context of this research, speaking to Jon about the project has really increased my own understanding of what a self-set project can do for the individual, and for other people. Self-set projects do not always have to be ‘personal work’ but they can involve others, and be for others also. This is vital to understanding in my practice in future, and will definitely translate into my professional practice after I leave the course.