ISTD Student Awards

On Friday evening I was invited to the ISTD Student awards ceremony, held at the Design Museum in London. Erik Spiekermann (past president of the ISTD) presented the certificates to the successful students and tutors.

A wet June evening on the embankment

Although it was an extremely wet summer evening, as with all ISTD events it was a very warm and friendly event with drinks and food provided. The surroundings of the museum are impressive and entry to the Wim Crouwel exhibition was also included!

Erik Spiekermann presenting the awards

This awards ceremony is the culmination of the Student Assesment Scheme which is now in it's 36th year. This is both a tribute to the organisation and more importantly the people that run the scheme. The awards were introduced by Professor John McMillan who is the education officer and handed over to Erik, who talked and joked about being a German without a sense of humour in a very humourous way! He emphasised to the students his mantra of learn, learn, learn which is surely what makes this 60 something man such a dynamic individual.

ISTD Education Team

The speakers also emphasised that this is not a competition, it is an assesment scheme and that only a third of entrants are successful in gaining an award. It is a high bar but one that the education team are keen to maintain.

There are three levels of awards: Pass, Merit and Commendation. Universities and colleges from all over the country were well represented with the most number of awards going to Bristol.

I met Philippa Wood from Uni of Lincoln and Mike Harkins and Maaike Van Neck from Uni of Portsmouth who were all there with their students. Thanks in particular to Tom Nurse (Uni of Portsmouth) who took the above pics.

Crouwelclock app

Before the awards I went round the Wim Crouwel exhibition...

Wim Crouwel is a living legend of Dutch Modernism and this exhibition could not have been more appropriate at the time of these awards. There was a fantastic body of work on display from 1960's onwards and all displayed in a digestible and well layed out format. When you see all the work together it's easy to see what an undeniable influence on designers and design this one person has been and continues to be. (Pictures are courtesy of Michael Johnson's 'Thought for the Week' blog as I saw and took notice of the NO PHOTOGRAPHY signs, so I didn't take any myself!)

Intersesting to note that although the posters on display use colour, not one of them was a "four (process) colour" printed poster - that makes you think, doesn't it? Exhibition ends on 3rd July.

Thanks to the ISTD board for inviting me and congratulations to all the students who were awarded certificates.

www.istd.org.uk
www.designmuseum.org
http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek/index.php?thoughtid=650
www.tomnurse.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 21.06.2011