Andrew Edwards

About Andrew Edwards

Andy Edwards studied Fine Art at the University of Leeds in the early 1980s. He is a practicing graphic designer, artist and academic. Lecturing in Graphic Arts & Design at Leeds Beckitt University, he regards design education and professional practice as symbiotic, each feeding and benefitting the other.

After working in commercial design, Edwards started an independent consultancy in 1989. Based in Leeds, the priority is to provide non-retail sectors with inventive conceptual thinking with effective design. Andy Edwards Design specialise in working with cultural and educational bodies, across most areas of graphics including identity, print, digital, architectural schemes, exhibitions and public spaces.

Research Interests

Edwards has extensive experience of cross-disciplinary partnerships with artists, architects, writers, public bodies and community organisations. His practice attempts to converge the positive disciplines inherent in graphic design with the creative reach of artistic enquiry.

Personal research converges on an interest in vernacular graphics, ephemera, type and nationalism. He is working on ‘Nothing Worth Saving’, a book / exhibition / generative online resource celebrating ignored and quotidian graphic design: a kind of visual and expansive update of Roland Barthe’s ‘Mythologies’ for salt sachets.

Past Projects: AED has produced the identity for Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Yorkshire Dance, Crescent Arts, Irish Arts Foundation, Unlimited Theatre and many other arts organisations. We also work closely with third sector organisations on a range of issues, from drug and alcohol misuse to sexual exploitation (with Genesis/Space2). The integrated wayfinding and design solutions for elderly care provision in Bradford hospitals has now been recognised as good practice nationally, and adopted by other hospital trusts; the scheme has reduced pharmaceutical use and stress as well as positively contributing to patient experience and behaviours.