Visiting Professional - Dan Saul Pilgrim

Saul Studio was set up in 2014 by Dan Saul Pilgrim and is based in Leeds. Dan studied at The University of Leeds where he met Matthew Logan. They both wanted to work with each other and having given a scholarship by the university, they set up a studio called Logan and Saul. They spent the scholarship money on a website and business cards for their studio. Shortly afterwards, Matthew and Dan parted ways as Matthew had his own reasons for quitting design however, Saul Studios is still running.

Dan did an internship with Joe Gilmore at Qubik as he said that he likes Joe's minimal, laid back lead typography. He then went on to work with film production company Left Eye Blind with artists such as the Kaiser Chiefs and Haim.

Dan collaborated with illustrator Elliot Kruszynski on the Yorkshire Boast which celebrates things about Yorkshire that people may/may not know.

Dan is well known mostly for his book 'Coffee Shop North', this came from the idea that he is passionate about coffee as well as Graphic Design. On doing this, he collaborated with a photographer called Justin Slee after seeing his work for the Northern Ballet and liked his style of photography. Dan had an idea to create a visual publication to showcase independent coffee shops in the North therefore he contacted Justin who agreed to collaborate with him.

To back the project, they needed funds so they set up a kickstarter page where it was active in August 2015 and was funded by October 2015.

After the they had enough funding, they started designing in December 2015 and had a launch event at Colours May Vary in May 2016.

They applied for an ISBN for some of the books and in 2016, Dan reached out to stockists where he wanted the book to be seen and sold such as independent coffee shops and book shops.

In November 2016, they were runners up of Architecture Photobook Award of the British Book Awards.

Dan also has other clients such as:

• The Hubbards where he created a record sleeve design and tour posters.
• Salvation which was a self initiated project of a photoessay of a fashion digital spread with the models dress as 1 of the 4 Evangelicals. 
• Colours May Vary where he created flyers and loyalty cards using primary colours and fundamental shapes.
• The Helpworth Wakefield Gallery which he didn't win but it was to celebrate UK sculptors.
• The Bear which is a coffee shop in Sheffield where he created an infograph of the drinks menu.
• King St. Social which is a members only dining experience using Cheltenham Bold type.

Dan focuses mainly on typeface, colour and materials when it comes to branding. He specialises in typography, print-based designs, art direction, identity, book design and film projects.

His advice:

• 'Your attitude is important to make it work'
• 'Get yourself in the right position'
• 'Find people that understand you'
• 'Collect Graphic Design'
• 'Find your niche'
• 'It's not as pretty as it looks'
• 'Do/don't move to London'

He expressed that you should connect with people on social media, especially Instagram because you can find people to collaborate as you can see their posts.