Hudson-Powell: Luke / Jody / Sketches

Brothers Jody and Luke Hudson-Powell have been on my to-see list after their excellent Responsive Type project last year. Their Shoreditch studio is a modest space shared with friends, constituting a miniature creative community. Like many small design studios they are expert collaborators, teaming up where necessary.

Hudson-Powell’s portfolio is quite varied, featuring print work, graphic identities, motion graphics and interactive work. While at home in digital media, they also use drawing and found objects in their work, giving it a playful lo-tech feeling. They often use a system-based approach, following a British tradition of conceptual graphic design. Their cover for SHIFT is an excellent example. Here they used found objects to spell out the word SHIFT for a webcam, changing the image gradually over the scope of a month.

Hudson-Powell: Shift Cover / Responsive Type / Barbican

Luke and Jody are not hardcore coders themselves, although Jody did attend the MSc Virtual Environments course at Bartlett, learning VRML and C++. Following the Responsive Type project, they have recently continued their code-based exploration in a set of illustrations for the Barbican classical music programme. Working with V3ga and Michael Zancan (both of whom were involved in Responsive Type), they developed a tree-like system which grows in real-time based on audio input. The project was based on V3ga’s Vision Factory platform. The final output is a series of illustrations based on classical music, for use in the Barbican’s printed material, banners etc.

Hudson-Powell links

• Hudson-Powell (make sure to look at their portfolio PDF and showreel)
• SHIFT Interview
• Responsive Type