Barry Adamson, graphic designer

Hi, I’m Barry Adamson, Owner/Designer of Adamson Design. I have been a full-time graphic designer ever since I left Edinburgh College of Art in the 1970s and went straight into book-publishing.

In the first half of my career I, like all the other designers at that time, used traditional artists media to create our visuals and artwork – that means we drew things by hand on drawing-boards as there were no computers, no internet, no e-mail and no Photoshop – it was very creative and great fun.

During the second half on my career, I have used Apple computers and, largely, Adobe programs to create graphic and web design. Computers have brought great advantages, particularly regarding typesetting, artwork storage and file transfer. But they don’t come up with ideas for brand identity or ad campaigns – I do that, using the same sort of creative thinking that I used when my main equipment was a pen. The core of graphic design is not drawing ability but thinking up a fresh idea that presents my client’s product/service in a favourable and eye-catching way. And that’s still what I love doing.