You may be wondering why graphic design concerns me, but in architecture the stream of graphic design meanders through. My mom studied Graphic Design at Wolverhampton University many moons ago when the only resource they had was scissors, glue and photocopiers (to name a few) – she was part of the traditional generation, before the internet and computer software existed. In a lot of ways this applies to my work too. I hate using computer software to design concepts or buildings and much prefer the traditional approach of mapping things with paper and crayons, something that has been engrained in me since I was a child. Whilst I am quite experienced with programs such as Adobe, the polar opposite to me is my 14 year old brother, who is far more advanced than me on programs such as CAD, purely because he was brought up in the generation of “Digital Youth”.

I have looked at the movements of Deconstructionism and Russian Constructivism for a lot of my architecture and fine art work purely because of their drive to present something different in an analog age. And, this is exactly what the RCA are presenting in their new exhibition. When the Graphic Design course at the Royal College of Art opened in 1948, it signalled the beginning of a new era in the education of designers. Out went the old ideas of the ‘Commercial Artist’ and the ‘Poster Artist’, to be replaced by a new concept – the professional graphic designer. They will feature work by the likes of John Pasche who, unknowingly, designed the lips logo for the Rolling Stones as a student in 1971.

This exhibition, which opens on 5 November and runs until 22 December, follows on from last year’s retrospective, which marked fifty years of the RCA’s School of Visual Communication.