1 5 0 DES IGN LEGEND “By the time we did Norwegian Star, SMC was responsible for half of the design of the public spaces, the signage and the artwork. It’s a delight for a designer to take full responsibility. It enables you to ensure a connectivity through everything, so that nothing looks out of place. And it really lifted our work too, as you could see on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jewel, Jade, Pearl and Gem.” In his formative years as a designer, Yuill witnessed the creativity of the golden generation of cruise ship designers, including Robert Tillberg, Joe Farcus, Njal Eide, Bjorn Storbraaten, John McNeece, Vittorio Garroni and Giacomo Mortola. Despite his youth, he was at the crest of the second wave that continues to elevate design standards today. Alongside these iconic designers, Yuill also lived through some of the biggest changes to the interior design industry, including the introduction of the computer. “It was the industrial revolution for designers,” he says. “Previously we would only have been able to handle four or five public areas, and it would have been impossible to work on a complete vessel, purely because of how the information was being produced. “In the early 1990s, the introduction of the computer changed all that. We had the ability to control much larger sections of work. It was faster and easier to produce. The advent of the computer was a huge move forward for designers within the cruise industry.” The 1990s also birthed a new era of cruise ship brands, each with different identities. “When SuperStar Leo came out, it looked completely different to anything else that was in the market,” says Yuill. “It followed a different set of design rules for the new Asian market. “There are new markets opening up all the time and they will reflect new and individual brand requirements. That’s why cruising will continue to grow and become even more interesting, because there’s such an endless offering.” For Yuill, the millennium represented a whole new set of design influences, from architecture, fashion, music, media, hospitality, industry and more, all of which encouraged a never-ending spiral “ The advent of the computer was a huge move forward for designers within the cruise industry” Andy Yuill’s star-studded career began in London in 1989 at BPW, which then became SMC Design in 1994
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