Neil Cutler

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Even for the tourist, it won’t be necessary to walk much around the hub of Barcelona to come upon Neil Cutter. He is around everywhere, in every corner and shop-window of Paseo de Gracia, Plaza Cataluña and whereabouts, where his style is very present in some of the brand names of restaurants of the city.
He was born in the North of England in '61 and came to Barcelona when he was 26 to conquer the demanding local market. The thing didn't go wrong at all.
Of his main works, recently compiled in the monographic book «designer leaves England, goes to Barcelona», the logos and corporate identity for clients such as Txapela, Fresh & Realy ba-ba-reeba, Citrus, Repsol, the City Hall of Castelldefels stand out, as well as the packaging of great firms of the food sector as Royal or Consumer.
Settled down in Bcn for 15 years Neil advises patience and perseverance to the youths who come here to do Art.
I met him at his studio, in an attic of Exaimple and went together over two blocks to the El Trobador, another of the many locals who have hired this graphic designer for their corporate image

You came from England, where there is a great tradition on design. What major differences did you see between what’s being done it here and in your country?
That's a difficult question. I think that definitely in England, design is more human. Here, design is a little bit more serious. Over there designers like to put little jokes, try to communicate something. Here I think there’s less of that. Here there’s much more industrial design, architecture… And there, especially in graphic design, there's more the tendency to add some elements of humour, which I try to put in my work as well. I like to tell a story. Besides that, big differences I think there aren’t. Now the standard of design in Barcelona has grown in the last five years, especially.

You note some evolution, since you arrived, in '87?
There’s been a change definitely. When I came here, 15 years ago, there weren't that many designers. There was Rolando, Eskanazi, and a lot of small design groups of three or four people doing a quality work. I think a lot of people have seen what was going on in other countries, and there's much more the urge to look out to what’s going on outside, so the quality has improved immensely. I work in the packaging area, which has improved a lot, but still there is a lot to be done, in terms of badly printed, bad illustrators, bad typography, there is still quite lot of that, but on the other hand, that improved a lot, as well. Changes in the city itself, not just in design. All Barcelona is completely changed.

And why Barcelona?
I lived in Andorra for six months, skiing for a season, and I met a Spanish girl. Then I went to Australia for a year, working and travelling around. After that, we came to Barcelona, which was more her decision than mine, actually.

Women…
I've to admit that I’m really here initially because of the change of climate, I came from the North of England where it is grey, and when I came back from Australia, where there's sunshine, freedom and a warm climate. That's something that Barcelona offers, and lots of other things as well: close to the mountain, skiing, beaches, also it is reasonably close to Paris, Amsterdam, London, which are only one or two hours away. In fact it is a city I like a lot. Going out until very late, a lot of things going on. That's a great place to live. Now, more than ever.

Based on your knowledge and experience, what would you advise the thousands of foreign young people, who come here and try their luck in these areas of design, architecture, new technologies?
When I came here I didn’t start working on my own. I worked for a designer as a freelancer, a sort of working for a design group, which was a big help for me. It is very difficult to just come here and say "I'm here!", especially for those who come here and are foreigners. The Spanish-Catalan thing, which also makes things doubly difficult to somebody coming from abroad. My advice: be very patient, be very persistent, stick it out, which is acceptable. Just like Philip Stanton, who arrived at the same time, and we did some stuff together. That’s what has happened to a lot of people as well. I think that’s the only way. It's difficult just to come here and think we gonna walk in and conquer the city…

Isn´t it not an easy city to start?
I don’t think so, no. People are not that receptive. In Australia, in the first night you’re there having a drink, somebody will invite you, "come on, let's have a drink, after the work...". In England it is exactly the same, and here it is very difficult to initially get people to socialise, I mean, in the professional point of view.

You have studied in Manchester, which you thank all the freedom they gave to your future career. Tell us about that experience.

When I went to Manchester, I wasn't really sure what graphic design was gonna be. I always wanted to do something related to this. I always painted and draw and stuff like that when I was a kid, but I wasn't quite sure if design was gonna be my thing. I try to communicate, make funny things, try to tell a story behind my works, and that I discovered while I was in Manchester, where we were more or less self-taught. We didn’t have teachers all the time telling "you must do this, you must do that"… I also learned the idea is very important. A good idea, doesn’t matter how you print it, is still a good idea. A bad idea won't be good, if you print well. May be that's the best way to teach, don't know… discover things by yourself…

You have specialised in corporate identity…
Specialised sounds like some kind of expert. I just fell into the area of packaging, just because I started to work with some clients, and continued. In terms of the corporate identity, you do one restaurant, or one local, bar, and somebody else contacts you afterwards, and then you become specialised.

How you would define your works?
I suppose, quite colourful, generally they are really easy to understand, quite down to earth. I tend to you use traditional typefaces. I don't use fashionable typefaces. Now the fashion is Jordi Labanda, Ibiza, sixties. You’ll never see that in my work. I overlooked these fashions. I rather prefer to do in what I believe in, and that’s enough.

About your book, tell us in what it consists.
It is very difficult to decide, especially when you’re doing a book for yourself. What size, how many pages, what you gonna put in there, what it´s gonna be called, everything. «Designer leaves England, goes to Barcelona», because I wanted to give this the idea of a designer from abroad, coming to Barcelona and who starts working in packaging. That's why I decided to call «Designer leaves England, goes to Barcelona». It's easy to understand. It was a long time idea to publish my work. Index Books became interested in it, so they did all distribution and I did all the design for it. I wanted to do a short story in the beginning, and then just show images, without explanations of what corporate identity is all about. It tends to be a visual, easy, with a little bit of humour.

Have you any other plans to publish a new book?
I would like to, of course, but the thing is I'm doing other stuff. Of course there will be another book, later, with new pages, new jobs. The problem is that doing a book requires an awful long time. It took six months to pull out all that together. I write a lot outside of work. Anecdotes about trips, etc... In Australia I made three big diary books that may be I'll publish someday.

In Spanish or in English?
It depends where you are going to sell the book… (laughs). Definitely in English, I will never do it without some English. We are selling this last book in Japan, in the United States, England, Italy.

The standard question of the year: Gaudí?
An excellent way to promote Barcelona and tourism. Incredible works, amazing stuff. An incredible work. That's Gaudí. He inspired me for the logo of Ciudad Condal!

Since you know the city quite well, from the Olympic Games, what do you think about the 2004 Forum?
I would say the idea is something to explore. Giving the people something to work for. Just like with the Olympics. For four or five years people were aiming for that day. '93 was a really strange year. The thing is the Forum 2004 doesn’t have the same interest of the Olympic Games, in the international point of view, I imagine it won’t be anything like the Olympics, but it will be very interesting for tourism.

I think everybody is very pessimistic about that, just as in the 1992 Olympic Games, and at the end it was a big success. Spain is always like that. It is very much "last minute", everything comes together, and that’s fantastic.

You move on bicycle in town, that’s true?
Moving in Barcelona with a car is really difficult. Sometimes I move with motorbike, some others with bicycle. I thing drivers are not respectful of bikers at all. They are not very used to them; they don’t mind cutting you out, shouting out of the window... That amazes me! But I have to admit, once you’re on a bike, generally you go down one way streets, cross the red traffic lights, I do that all the time, of course with a little bit of care. But, for example, the cycle path, is a joke. I mean… Enric Granadós, for example is a complete joke. The going up stripe goes against the traffic! But it is a good city to cycle, besides these problems. The city is nice and flat.


Ricardo Nuno ::
Tuesday October 16, '02