John
Himbury interview- technician
Interviewer:
What’s your
name and age?
John
Himbury:
My names
John Himbury and I’m 58.
Interviewer:
During the
year 2000, were you already here back then?
John
Himbury:
Yeah I was
already here, I’ve now been here for 15 year so I’ve now been here for 2 years
in 2000.
Interviewer:
What was
the technology like around here in year 2000?
John
Himbury:
Not as good
as it is now.
Interviewer:
Were the
rooms still like this back then?
John
Himbury:
No, we used
to be based on the second floor of the design block and it was just about the
time when Macs first came into being.
John
Himbury:
Have you
ever been to letterpress? (Yes) When you had your induction about the 2 hours
for letterpress, I did a 6-year apprenticeship.
So I’m…I think I’m the last of the actual compositor; cause that’s what
setting type by hand is called. I think I’m the last of the compositors in the
university.
Interviewer:
After that
how was the change in technology, like when did LCC start to get better technology?
John
Himbury:
LCC gets
better technology every year.
Interviewer:
And then
most of the computers would be windows instead right, at that time?
John
Himbury:
I’ve always worked with Macs, I started with
macs when the first came out so..
Interviewer:
So LCC
already had Macs when they first came out?
John
Himbury:
Yes.
Interviewer:
Why did you
choose to come here, to LCC?
John
Himbury:
I used to
work for a design company, many years ago and I came to LCC because the company
where I worked used to do lots of work for Polygram records and PolyGram
records decided to do all their work themselves so we were out of work. And
then consequently I came here, and to be honest it’s really nice working with
students because you think you’re actually giving something back to them.
Interviewer:
So the
style of art I guess, that’s something we’re interested in, since right now I
guess the style is very modern at LCC- what were the designs back then like for
the school.
What were
their promotional materials like?
John
Himbury:
Umm…at the
time they were modern but when you look back, obviously they now look old
fashioned but at the time it was modern, it was cutting-edge. (so it was always
top trends) yeah.
Interviewer:
Did they
still use a lot of San Serif back then?
John
Himbury:
yeah they
just used… what generally happens is typefaces generally go through a trend so
when I first came here there were some horrible typefaces and people were using
them because it was fashionable. And that’s what design is like; if you’re
wearing certain kinds of clothes it’s the fashion. If you’re designing certain
kinds of magazines or booklets it’s the fashion.
Interviewer:
Yeah, and
how big was the student body back then?
John
Himbury:
Not as big
as it is now. (Because we have 200 people in our first year for GMD and that’s
like a lot of people) Well I think there’s 5 and a half thousand students on
campus now. When I first came here there was about half that amount.
Interviewer:
Where there
any designers that were here or just artists that were around the time period
of the year 2000 and went out to become kind of famous? Do you recall any?
John
Himbury:
no to be
honest with you. One of the biggest designers that was here was a guy called Tom
Eckersley. Who’d at his time was a really leading designer, if you go Google
Tom Eckersley.
Interviewer:
Do you have
any events in the year 2000 that you recall that you know mark your memory?
It doesn’t
have to be LCC related just like in general.
John
Himbury?
No not
really.
Interviewer:
That was
when you entered LCC?
John
Himbury:
Yes.
