As I come to the end of my career as a designer, writing this feels like penning my own obituary!
I studied typography and graphic communications at Reading University 1975-9 and was employed for 15 years with the international design consultancies – Banks & Miles, Negus & Negus and Raymond Loewy. I had the luck and privilege of starting out at a time before computers dominated, when the design industry was in its relative infancy and we were called graphic designers rather than commercial artists. By the time I set up my studio in 1996, we had all become brand consultants. This was a way to get paid for not only the mark-making, but also the thinking that had always been part of the design process.
My studio has my name above the door which meant I was involved in every project and to preserve the intimacy of the client-designer relationship, we deliberately never grew larger than a team of five. I firmly rejected the large studio/consultancy model.
I designed my own business model based on one third of our time earning fees, one third doing pro bono work and our own R&D and one third running events. More about those in a moment. The breakthrough for me was understanding that to do my best (what’s the point of not?) depended on working with people who are as committed to what they do as I am to what I do, whether they are the chairman of a major bank or a pop-up food champion. That way, over 20+ years we built long term relationships, agreed annual consultancy fee structures which gave financial stability to my studio and created an environment where the focus and expectation was on thinking, challenging, experimenting, learning and making.
In 2005 I established Designer Breakfasts with Amanda Tatham, a monthly forum for owners and principals of small design businesses focusing on the themes of entrepreneurship, working with SMEs and new business models which were based in the British Library and the Design Museum. I also co-curated atabrahams with Claire Curtice – a series of events bringing people from business, the arts and science together which were hosted with the likes of Arup, Nokia and the V&A. Since 2000, the studio made and published our own artist’s books which are in a number of private collections as well Tate and the V&A.
In 2016, I decided to wind down the design projects and wind up other creative avenues (I don’t think designers ever retire, so I’m still available ‘for hire’). At the same time as leading the community development of Liberty Hall, I had started making art outside of the design business – assemblages from found objects and had a sculpture shown in the Royal Academy summer exhibition – so making art – in its widest sense with community/public involvement is now what I am doing. If you are interested visit Mike Abrahams Artist. So when I look back and reflect, I guess I’ve always been just a commercial artist and that’s pretty good by me.