SM—Group Chat: Colin Doerffler (CD HQ)
On Design, Research and Ideas
Welcome to the SM—Group Chat. A new interview series where we sit down with friends, collaborators, and people we admire to talk process, ideas and collaboration. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for more content and consider becoming a paid subscriber to support Social Medium and to receive full access to our platforms.
Colin Doerffler (CD HQ)
Colin Doerffler is a London-based Creative Director and a good friend of SM. We met a few years back while working in London and have remained close friends and admirers of his work since. Working across contemporary culture and design he’s worked with the likes of ALASKA ALASKA, Real Review, Andre 3000, JOOPITER, Peggy Gou, and many many more… Operating as CD HQ, he sees the HQ as a evolving and adaptive studio structure with a physical presence in London.
He’s a talented motherf*cker and an incredibly kind person. A constant source of inspiration to our own work so we’re delighted to have him as our first guest for our inaugural episode. So without further adieu Colin Welcome to the Group Chat…
Social Medium: Hey @Colin Doerffler welcome to the groupchat — how is everything going?
Colin Doerffler: Thanks for the invite! I am good, starting my eve. How about u?
SM: All is good here – just popping out to the store for a bottle of wine
CD: Romantic
SM: Haha we try our best. There’s a really good natural wine shop near our place. Anyways, what’s been keeping you busy as of late?
CD: I have my daily WhatsApp reply session. Slowly wrapping up some projects.. getting ready for a calmer phase
SM: We’re the same here, wrapping up some work and looking forward to some other stuff. We saw you’ve been working with Christopher Morency for Dot Dot Dot… The creative looked really fun!
CD: Yes we just launched in Jan and just getting started. The nature of the project is multidimensional, so we are trying to challenge ourselves with every week. One week we do a full video shoot, the other week just photoshop magic
SM: That’s really fun.. Not often that you get to flex all your skills on a single project. How hands on have you been with creating the artwork itself? Mainly from your hands or involving external practitioners too?
CD: I try to invite as many people as possible to the project! I love the energy of discussing ideas around an output with other creatives, it adds so much to the project to invite other pov’s. Right now i am very much involved in all outputs as we are defining DDD on the run, but i am curious how this evolves.
But we are already inviting people to join and contribute, my job in that case is only to direct and support the creative.
CD: Like this one.. this is so Baptiste. And that’s what I love about it. We tweaked it together but still, it’s in his world
SM: Yeah one thing I really love about that project and your work in general is just the breadth of disciplines and styles you work with. Is that something you look for in projects? Being able to work with different people to facilitate ideas or opportunities to learn new disciplines
CD: My practice is no longer about design, it’s about ideas.. that is almost a natural transition to me, not by design. My education in book design and typography focussed projects feels too safe, I’m chasing the uncertainty. 50% certain, 50% uncertain.. that feels good to me right now
SM: Have you felt this for some time? Or was DDD the catalyst the the change? Like, sometimes we need to experience something new in order to realise that the old wasn’t working?
CD: Already noticed that a while ago but you need the right projects and clients to get the opportunity to apply. Some years ago ALASKA ALASKA and Virgil opened the gates for me.. now, someone like Chris gives me the opportunity to push. But yeah it’s a feeling that reminds you of how everything started… It often feels like going back rather than moving forward.. which is interesting
SM: It reminds me of the Picasso quote “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child." The more experienced you get as a designer the more you become conditioned by process or reference and no longer are driven by expression or ideas
CD: 100% And finding true new inspiration requires a lot of effort and energy.. it’s not a given that comes just like that
“It’s a feeling that reminds you of how everything started… It often feels like going back rather than moving forward…”
SM: What is something you’ve seen recently that inspired you?
CD: This… Very interested in understanding more about the parallels and differences between US, European and Japanese design history
CD: That’s very much how i started thinking about design.. and how i have experienced my education in Germany. All stars are aligning here.. it’s this general interest in understanding the greyzone between culture and commerce. I am inspired by how someone like Saul Bass navigated this
CD: And this… Please pitch this to your next client haha.. we need more mascots!
SM: Curious - what is your first memory of design?
CD: Tough question… a particular example is that I was obsessed with football club logos. I practiced to draw them from memory. I always wondered if the design made a logo look good or what i associated with it… By redrawing them I have noticed the design details if something was well done or not.. if lines were aligned, if there were certain spacing rules etc
SM: Yeah that’s an interesting thing to thing about – the relationship between “good design” and technique/rules. Walking around Madrid I am always blown away by the shop signs that we’re produced +50 years ago. They would never pass a “design studio standard” but they are so full of character
CD: Nice! How is it in Toronto?
SM: Shop signs or the design scene?
CD: Lets start with signs haha
SM: Hmmm, for the most part is solely functional advertising that feel very void of character like Spain. This feels very accurate. But there are some really good examples as well like younger brands doing more interesting things.
SM: I’ve always liked the design system of Canada too – the dual language locks ups. There’s something nice about that in every country where you see dual language typography. I find the Middle East really interesting.. English/Arabic
SM: So what else is inspiring you at the moment?
CD: Instrumental music, movies I’ve never heard anything about and Tracey Emin
SM: Talk to us about Tracey Emin…
CD: Campbell Addy had a talk a few months ago here in East London and mentioned the book in his presentation and it made somehow very curious. I almost bought it right away and just a few days ago I’ve started to read it. Do you know the book?
SM: No never heard of it - but how is the book?
CD: Cruel, direct, fast paced… i read it in the morning before I start my day
SM: She makes me feel like everything I’ve ever done is too apologetic. I feel pain in her work and I like that. How does Tracey Emin make you feel about the artist side of yourself?
CD: I cant tell at this point.. at the moment she still speaks about her childhood, which makes me think about mine. I guess it will evolve into something more grown up, so I’m curious about my reflection when I’ve reached that point
SM: So what’s in your Criterion Closet?
CD: Adaptation by Spike Jonze, 2002 with 2x Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. Very twisted movie – loved it
SM: I love Spike Jonze… Do you know Harmony Korrine?
CD: Yes. Ahh that reminds me of this movie with Travis Scott.. didn’t see it yet. you? With the bold colours. Aggro Dr1ft
SM: I don’t think that it lived up to the hype. But I do like both EDGLRD and Travis Scott
SM: I know you’ve said your work is more about ideas than design these days but how has your relationship with research changed? Knowing you for as long as I have - you are constantly researching and finding things + started WHY WORKSHOP LTD. I’m curious how your individual research practice shows up in client projects?
CD: That’s a good question.. for me, the research and initial inspiration process is by far the most important element. And honestly, also the most challenging. Working in design for some time, it makes it easy to make a “nice” book, a nice artwork, a nice logo.. but I want to challenge myself with each project and develop something absolutely bespoke to the project and the client. Therefore you need fresh eyes, cleanse yourself of what you think you know. Research for me starts with pushing the reset button
And well, it’s not easy to reset for some time I believed it’s just intellectually, but recently I’ve learned to appreciate and use the physical side of things more. As creatives we tend to forget our body.. but I’m learning how to use all together.
Why Workshop is part of that.. in a way it’s a cheap magic trick to let instagram work for me instead of against me. Why Workshop is a blueprint, my safe zone. I’d say 3% of Why Workshop reaches the public eye. Most of it is personal
And back to the question: it is definitely part of my process that I share with clients, but what I share is already very filtered and organized.. I’m very careful with references
SM: What do you mean by the physical side? Like referencing outside of Pinterest ? Or doing dance?
CD: Hahah it’s about the dance. Not so much about finding the right references, we are constantly surrounded by amazing references… But imo the challenge is to see the really relevant references, to see through the smoke. Your mind needs to be ready to seek, not to just look around and gather nice stuff.
“You need fresh eyes, cleanse yourself of what you think you know. Research for me starts with pushing the reset button.”
I have no morning routine, everyday i wake up at different times. Everyday I choose another route to the studio, I change seats in the studio, listen to other music.. this makes me personally more conscious
SM: I feel like culturally we are so focused on optimisation that we lose the magic. I heard an interview today talking about where ideas come from and it said something similar.. basically that we don’t know where they come from but we need to allow ourselves to let those moments happen
CD: Absolutely! for my graduation at uni I did a book and on the back of it it said: “When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking., because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal.” Herman Hesse, Siddhartha.. I have to go back to that book. Changed my perspective back then
SM: The discussion about references here is really interesting to me. In very commercial design, it’s such an overlooked part of the process.. Perhaps you never show a client. Thousands of images squirrelled away on hard drives that no one ever sees…
CD: I know, often there is no time for real inspiration.. that’s why it is so convenient to open Pinterest, Are.na or IG but I think we all should be more confident not to look at such platforms and to look at our own library, talk to a friend, go to an exhibition, read a book..
SM: I completely agree. Perhaps we only go to our computers to execute or present..
CD: That would be an interesting challenge
SM: Are you conscious about your “approach to design”? A lot of your work blends styles, different mediums, different styles, hyper physical/hyper digital etc. Knowing you can design a “good logo” how are you pushing yourself beyond your capabilities?
CD: I see myself as a moving element in the stream of culture.. the world changes, my immediate surrounding changes and so do I. And that’s exciting. I work with Jack Self on Real Review and he always puts it like: “what does it mean to live today?” he attempts to grasp the mood of the now, the zeitgeist, and reacts to it with his magazine and its commissions.
In that sense I also constantly evaluate what interests me, what do I find exciting and what do i find boring.. what does it mean if I like the latest Yung Lean album? I can use that to change my view on design
SM: Do you feel like these need to be conscious feelings or actions?
CD: Emotion first, rational second. Sometimes just emotion on its own (when the project allows it) And everybody is different here! I am a designer, I have to rationalize and explain my work in front of clients. An artist doesn’t have to
SM: Well Colin we won’t take up anymore of your time but we appreciate you chatting with us! Is there anything you want to leave with?
CD: Going to Japan in 2 weeks 🥰 meet there?
SM: Sounds like a plan ✈️ Bring back Green Tea KitKats 👍
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