COP 03 / Primary Research / Phil Bains

I recently came about Phil Bains' feature in Eye Magazine, which is an informative read regarding Phil's career. He began studying for Catholic Priesthood but abandoned his studies at the start of his fourth year in order to pursue Art and Design at Cumbria College of Art and Design. The next year he moved to London to study Graphic Design at Central St Martins 

"Baines’s work of this period was heavily biased toward experimental typography that took inspiration from medieval manuscripts and the writings of Marshall McLuhan and George Steiner – he has often noted that his influences came from written rather than visual sources. Letterpress exerted a particular attraction due to its do-it-yourself aspect: the entire process could be handled from concept to production without outside involvement." (source)

He now works as a professor at St Martins. 

Due to the nature of my dissertation theme, I imagined Phil Bains would be a good individual to interview as he has both an insight into religion and graphic design.

I have sent him an email with the following questions:

1. Do you think religion is becoming a brand? 

2. If yes, what factors do you think have effected religion adapting to become a commodity in our society?

3. Do you think this has effected secularisation in any way?