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In the early 1980s Neville Brody, 42, was in the vanguard of modish graphic design. As art director of The Face and London's City Limits magazines, his distinctive typography was widely emulated. Two years after opening his own studio with Fwa Richards in 1986, Brody published a monograph called The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, and was given a retrospective by the same name at the Victoria & Albert Museum. His need to push the limits of design and type prompted him to found (with Jon Wozencroft) Fuse, a digital typography magazine dedicated to experimentation, and the subsequent Fuse conference, where he leads debate on experimental type and typography. In 1994, following a period of burnout, Brody changed the name of his design firm to Research Studios and created Research Arts & Research Publishing. Research Studios works in all media; its clients include Nike, British Airways, Macromedia, Deutsche Bank, Armani, BMW and NBC Research Publishing specializes in publishing CD-ROMs and designing typefaces and Web sites for the Internet. Over the years, Brody's method and philosophy have shifted from that of the rebel to someone who institutionalizes rebellion. This interview probes his development.
Heller: How did the name Research Studios come about?
Brody: We were originally going to call ourselves Research & Development. I enjoyed the idea of putting "Design by Research & Development" as a credit on pieces of work, but it became a bit long, and the more appropriate approach was to describe the studio as "Research."
Heller: What does "research" suggest in this context?
Brody: Something that is based less on a gestural or fashionable approach than on an analysis of structure, of meaning; on building a framework before you start responding intuitively. Like jazz music, you have to build a solid structure before you can improvise.
Heller: How do you balance structure and intuition?
Brody: "Intuition" has become an easy excuse used by a number of names to justify anything they do. We felt there was a need to re-focus people on the reason and meaning behind what we work on. During the research phase, we'll work with a client looking at what it is they are, what it is they'd like to be, how they want to be seen, and what...