CD sleeves, web sites, company identities…
Okay, tell me more.
All about Shark Attack: what it is, what it does, and who started it.
What is Shark Attack?
Shark Attack is a small, UK graphic design studio with clients around the world It is run by Rick Lecoat, who started it in 1999 after several years designing in the music industry. The studio specialises in record sleeves (of which it has designed over one hundred), corporate identities, books and book jackets and web design.
Shark Attack’s work combines striking imagery with clean, no fuss typography to find the strongest graphical solution to a client’s brief.
Recent projects have been wildly diverse: intranet design for the London Metropolitan Police, an identity for a firm of building contractors specialising in energy-efficiency construction, album sleeves for jazz artist Tim Lapthorn and indie band Pony Club, and consulting work for the online branding of a new BBC TV show. The studio works one-on-one with the client to ensure that they get exactly the design they’re after.
The studio has never had an unsatisfied customer.
Design approach
The way that a designer approaches a brief can be crucial to the success of the final design. No two projects are ever alike and so there can never be a “one-size-fits-all” solution, but sticking to certain principles and methodologies goes a long way to maintaining the high standards that clients have the right to expect.
Shark Attack does not have a house style; instead, the goal here at Shark Attack is simply to create work that not only looks great, but which also performs its job in a smart, stylish, and intelligent way without compromising functionality.
The design cliché is ‘Form Follows Function’. In other words, if something looks wonderful but doesn’t do what it's supposed to, then the designer has messed up. This normally means that the styling has been allowed to get in the way of the project’s underlying purpose. Good design employs a clear visual language, easily understood by the user, to solve the problems presented in the brief — and combines it with appropriate styling to make those solutions easy on the eye.
The 19th century designer William Morris proclaimed that one should “have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”
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Shark Attack’s starting point for any design project is that the solution should aspire to being both useful and beautiful. I mean, really, is that so much to ask?
The process
Not every project will adhere strictly to the sequence outlined below, but the majority will at least follow it in a loose sense. Generally, the process work like this:
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Consultation
Often called a ‘Discovery Meeting’. Meet with the client and talk to them about the project and, more generally, themselves. Design being about communication, it is important to take the time to understand the client’s business before anything else.
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Identify objectives
Delineate the specifics of the project at hand. It is essential to be clear about a project’s goals, and it is often true that clients have only a sketchy idea about what they want to say at the start of commissioning process. Helping them to decide upon a clear set of objectives at this point will make for a better brief; better design will result and everyone will benefit. Furthermore, such a discussion often leads to the identification of further objectives and options that the client had never previously considered.
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Concept
With design objectives clearly identified a costing is drawn up for the project (or, if an earlier costing had been given based on less information, the client will be informed about any changes to that quote). Upon acceptance, the next stage is to develop a strategy for the project — setting out in loose terms the stated aims, how they are to be achieved, and in what time frame. This concept is submitted for client approval.
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Design
The actual design process, progressing from preliminary sketches through to final artwork, with client approval at appropriate points along the way. The precise details of this design work and the time frame will of course vary from project to project, as must all stages in the design process.
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Production
Depending upon what was earlier agreed, the production stage may simply involve supplying final artwork to a printer of the client’s choosing, or it might require Shark Attack to source and brief production companies. ‘Production companies’ can be taken to include such agencies as printers, CD/DVD duplication services, web hosting companies, and/or any other third party appropriate to the nature of the design project.
What’s with the silly name?
Before he became professional designer, Rick grew up surfing in the channel islands, and anyone who spends a lot of time in the water knows one thing:
Sharks are cool.
Oh, and it seems that people do remember the name — which, it turns out, is no bad thing in a highly competitive market place.
About Rick Lecoat
Rick Lecoat trained in typography and graphic design at Saint Martin’s School of Art and the London College of Printing. In the early 90s he worked in New York at Tibor Kalman’s renowned design firm M&Co., before returning to London to take up the post of head designer at Mercury Records.
Here he created sleeve designs for a wide spectrum of artists and bands — from old-school giants like Dire Straits, Elton John and Marc Almond to cutting-edge dance acts that only underground club-goers ever heard of.
In 1999 he formed Shark Attack in order to be able to work more closely with his clients on a greater diversity of projects. In addition to his design work Rick has written articles for magazines such as Computer Arts, Carve, ThreeSixty and Surfers Path.
