The Stone Twins in flesh and bones

by Carolina dos Santos Reis

The Stone Twins sounds more like the title of a Victorian novel than a duo of trendy graphic designers. But there is a storytelling feeling to their name that perfectly describes these Irish twin brothers and their creative process. They presented their work in a lecture at the Designhuis on the evening of 11 February, 2009. The atmosphere was relaxed and casual. The audience, made up of a group of designers and students, attended the presentation on the cushioned staircase of the entrance hall.
Declan and Garech Stone both graduated in Visual Communication at the University of Dublin. Soon after, they moved to Amsterdam, not only because of the lack of opportunity in Ireland, but for a genuine fascination for Dutch culture in design and arts. They set up their own studio and from their first days consistently created with inventiveness and humour while remaining profoundly rigorous in the study of typography and visual communication.
They characterise their approach as graphic designers more in branding and identity than in the development of graphics. When commissioned for a project, they start by questioning the brief itself before going forward. This produces work that transcends common graphic communications, work that has made them stand out since the beginning of their practice. Their clients are very diverse, ranging from event and marketing agencies to the Zeews Museum and Adidas. Even with the most corporate of clients, they don’t hesitate to take things literally. This is maybe what inspired them to shoot the ADCN yearbook with a gun rather than a camera. Another interesting projects is the Logo R.I.P. publication, a funerary journey through logos that have become part of a whole cultural heritage, but have since been slowly disappearing through the massive re-branding of the 80s and 90s.
On the whole, they shed light on the importance of thinking both formally and theoretically in negative spaces. For the Stone Twins, graphic design is all about storytelling and creating content. Still, as designers we make choices and therefore have the ability to influence. We not only have the responsibility of making ethical choices through our process, but also to question the system of the design world. The Stone Twins, for example, mentioned the boycott of a specific pitch - a practice that has become very common, but sometimes having negative effects, especially for young startups.
Despite their inspirational words on the design world, there was a somewhat sterile feel to the presentation whose cause I am still unable to grasp. Maybe they were just tired. But my impression is that they might have restrained themselves in order not to contradict each other, which might have made them less dynamic. Indeed, it was amusing to see that they were not giving the same answers during the Q&A period. But then didn’t they say that hopefully their work was schizophrenic?

Links:
http://www.stonetwins.com/
http://www.usualsuspects.nl/
http://www.soundcircus.nl/
http://www.zeeuwsmuseum.nl/