In part, that does a fairly solid job of describing our own North African Ectothermic Amniotes Vertebrate, but it’s only a small part of David Birch’s story – itself, a complex mix of survival, tough human spirit, fierce individuality, love of music and movies, but most importantly from Idealogy’s point of view, a passion for contemporary design as a compelling vehicle for successful communication.
Dave shudders at the ‘pink puff’ that seems to attach itself to design - railing at how easily the business falls into media generated traps – he recently cited “design is the froth on top of the cappuccino of commercialism” as an example of how our industry does itself a constant disservice by creating ‘café society’ symbolism to try to ‘up the ante’. But he also accepts that we live in cynical times – he believes clients still don’t really understand the value of good design – unless, of course, their market offer is truly design based.
Even then, Dave feels that market/brand design is hugely undervalued and fast becoming commoditised. And he really hates that! So he focuses on doing his distinctive design work to increasingly tight deadlines – “Whatever happened to time? Luckily, ideas are sharper when they are more spontaneous” - and making sure he’s in the frame when the unchartered projects hit the floors, like creating the visual and functional frameworks for a new technical sales and consulting platform, a recent Digital project from a world-leading Paper company.
And what of his influences? Why Not Associates, fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman, designers and graphic artists like Eric Gill, Alex Ross, Dave McKean and Peter Dribden. An impressive and heavily graphic design biased list, but it’s nothing when compared to his love, knowledge and expertise of modern filmmaking. Want an argument about a modern movie? Dave’s your man! He spends hour upon hour of his free time reading about them, downloading them (ssh!), reviewing them and even training in editing and special effects. Look closely and you can even see him in several small budget horror flicks. Ah! (or should that be aaaaaargh?) Horror films! A shared passion with Idealogy’s FD, and many is the evening they’ve spent sitting in the dark, screaming out loud and teaching pop corn to jump in local cinemas.
But perhaps more importantly for those of us who really know him, Dave is a genuine fighter. A childhood cancer survivor, (not that you’d know it!) he’s never short of a strong opinion or a powerful debate when it comes to the stuff that most of us treat as background noise. Don’t mention Peanut Butter, the Shell Suit fraternity, Katie Price or those in our industry who think it’s funny to use illegible fonts for body copy when Dave’s in earshot. Trust us, it will end badly!
So, in the meantime, lets celebrate having our powerful little pocket battleship around and relish the unequivocal opinions that come back at you. Then place your bets on a racing snake, fast becoming an Idealogy winner!
Posted by Simon D
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