New Designers 2016

Yesterday evening, I went to the New Designers exhibition and awards at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

New Designers is the exhibition for emerging design, full of innovation and fresh thinking, covering all aspects from textiles and fashion to product design, visual comms etc. It takes place over two weeks, with each part focusing on a different set of design disciplines and featuring its own Awards Programme. The show sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK's leading universities come together to exhibit.

I saw many of the tutors and part time lecturers that I know from the various universities and colleges who have stands at the exhibition. Particular mention shall go to University of Portsmouth (UOP) who kindly invited me along.

I found the UOP stand and was invited to do a bit of ad hoc silk-screen printing, which as you can see, I was happy to do.... 

...only to realise that I was on the UOP Illustration course stand and not the graphic design course! - but I got a nice print out of it.

...eventually I found the BA Hons graphic design for UOP on a nearby stand:

...together with their superbly produced yearbook, printed on StarFine  - but I'll write about that another time....

In particular. thanks to Dan McCabe and all the staff and students at UOP.

www.portsmouthgraphicdesign.co.uk
www.newdesigners.com
http://www.port.ac.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.07.2015

UOP Showcase 2014

You may remember that back in the summer I went to New Designers exhibition, where I wrote about one of the students from Portsmouth University (Eric Downer) who was awarded the coveted "New Designer of the Year" title. http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/new-designers-2014.html  I also mentioned that the course showcase publication at the show was printed on our paper and that I would write about it at a later date ...well, here it is!

 

Size is 225x160mm, portrait and is perfect bound. It has a 4pp cover with a 64pp text and has a superb quality and feel about it ...and there a really clever little twist as well!

The covers, which are all printed just one colour - magenta- have been printed on five different colours of our Colorset, 100% Recycled. This is a wonderful 'print design' solution as maximises the impact and the processes used. It looks and feel like you are getting so much more out of a project, but a no extra cost!

All that is required to make this effective, is a design that will work printed in one colour, that can be applied successfully on a range of colours ...and this does just that, beautifully.

The text is printed on our Redeem 100% Recycled 130gsm which is printed beautifully and does great justice to the wide and varied work of the students. Being a neutral white it gives the publication a 'booky' feel which works really well with the imagery.

The catalogue design team is Andy Lethbridge, Ellie Taylor, Ali Bird and Eric Downer and they have done a superb job. The academic team is Sarah Houghton, Andrew Denham, Mike Harkins, Dan McCabe, Estelle Taylor, Alex Tibus.

...and below you can see the striking result of how the different colour covers look, all stacked up at the New Designers show:

Catalogue production and coordination was handled by Sarah Houghton, Course Leader at the University of Portsmouth. Printing is by PPG Print in Portsmouth.

www.port.ac.uk
http://www.ppgprint.co.uk/

Posted by Justin Hobson 28.11.2014

ISTD Student Awards 2014

Last Friday, I was invited to  the ISTD Student awards ceremony, hosted by Pentagram at their studio in Notting Hill with Pentagram partner, Angus Hyland, presenting the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

It was a beautiful summer evening, and as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly occasion with beer, wine and nibbles all laid on.

This presentation evening was for the main Student Assessment scheme held in the UK and Ireland. Students from Universities and Institutions around the UK and Ireland answered a number of briefs written by the ISTD's Education team. This is an international education scheme and the assessments for other regions of the globe are on-going and in fact on Friday, there were two awards made to students from Sri Lanka.

ISTD organisers and board members, David Coates, Freda Sack and John Paul Dowling (new education director) talked through the judging process and gave their thanks to the tutors, without whom the scheme would surely flounder.

Before the presentation, Angus gave a short inspiring talk about his experiences in graphic design. Each certificate was awarded by Angus Hyland, of which there were over 100 and the students were each given 'goody bags' kindly provided by Cass Art. Fenner Paper also supplied some bags for the tutors (made from our Colorset Lemon 270gsm) which you can see hiding under the table...

Above is Eric Downer being presented with his certificate. Eric is the graduate from University of Portsmouth who won the top award at 'New Designers 2014' that I wrote about on this blog last week - he's had a busy week! (www.eric-downer.co.uk)

My thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and as I have said many times on this blog before, it's very important to support organisations such as the ISTD and events such as this. A big thank you to all those members of the ISTD who freely give their time for the benefit of others, in particular, Freda Sack, who has been such an important figure in the society for so many years.

www.istd.org.uk
www.pentagram.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 08.07.2014

New Designers 2014

Yesterday evening, I went to the New Designers exhibition and awards at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

New Designers is an exhibition for emerging design, full of innovation and fresh thinking, covering all aspects from textiles and fashion to product design, visual comms etc. It takes place over two weeks, with each Part focusing on a different set of design disciplines and featuring its own Awards Programme. The show sees over 3,000 of the most talented, newly graduated designers from the UK's leading universities come together to exhibit.

It was a lovely evening and the queue for entry was a mile long!

I saw many of the tutors and part time lecturers that I know who were from the universities and colleges who had stands at the exhibition. Particular mention shall go to Portsmouth University, who not only sent me an invitation, but also used our Colorset and Redeem 100% Recycled for their show catalogue! ...but more about that another time when I have more space to write about it.

Above is the University of Portsmouth stand and you can see all the books stacked up.

...and because I love to associate myself with success (!),  I must congratulate Eric Downer from the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course at University of Portsmouth, who won the overall "New Designer of the Year". Fantastic news for him personally and for the course and very well deserved.

Photo of Eric Downer winning his award. Photo courtesy of Dan McCabe

Eric Downer has also won an ISTD award for his piece on Electricity Pylons. I've seen it and it is a lovely piece of work. Here are his words " I don't feel pylons are particularly aesthetically pleasing (a lot of people agreed) but there was always something that made me wonder there is more to them just just pure functionality. My curiosities were rewarded when I discovered the main men behind the pylons past and the role the pylons themselves went on to play in our history. Your have to read the book to find out what and who they were".
So any of you studios out there looking for some fresh young talent ...look no further!

In particular. thanks to Sarah Houghton, Dan McCabe and Michael Harkins at the University of Portsmouth

http://www.eric-downer.co.uk/new-page-1/
www.newdesigners.com
www.port.ac.uk/graphic

Posted by Justin Hobson 04.07.2014