Craig Oldham’s Democratic Lecture delivers advice for aspiring designers

Despite a brash, rhetoric-driven style and shouty design to match, there’s lots of sound advice in Craig Oldham’s The Democratic Lecture. The book offers a range of thoughtful guidance to aspiring graphic designers – think about the presentation of your portfolio, heed the benefits of collaboration, tea-making is important, work out what you’re good at and learn to look.

The book is part of The Democratic Lecture initiative, created by Craig in response to a perceived deterioration in design education standards and a desire to produce something his audience could have a say in. The aim is to hand over decisions about the content of a lecture to those who would be hearing it, so subjects are voted on and delivered accordingly. It’s an interesting idea, and so too is the book that accompanies it.